The Association of Volunteer Managers, the support organisation for volunteers, has recruited its first full-time employee to help meet growing demand for its services, it said today.
Events manager Abigail Cooper began her post earlier this month. Her appointment coincides with a review of the organisation’s membership model, to include organisations as well as individuals, to create a sustainable platform for growth.
AVM director, Rachel Bayley, said the organisation has been working on expansion plans for “over a year”. She said the appointment of an events manager was a “huge asset” to the organisation’s work – allowing it to run more events, “in more places and on more topics”.
“We know there is the demand for growth in volunteer management and leadership expertise from both large and small organisations and we aim to fill the gap in the market and support volunteer managers,” she said.
AVM was founded in 2007 as an independent membership body to “support, represent and champion people in volunteer management in England”. It aims to “facilitate and support effective peer-to-peer networking of those involved in volunteer management locally, regionally and nationally”. It also aims to “campaign on issues key to people who manage volunteers” and “develop information and good practice resources on volunteer management”, according to its website.
The voluntary organisation is currently supported by charity think-tank nfpSynergy, which provides it with free office space and administrative support.
Fiona Wallace from nfpSynergy who also sits on AVM’s board said: "We know how difficult and how risky it is for small organisations to take on hiring their first employee. We want to make that easier for AVM.
"We will be doing their monthly payroll and we have underwritten the costs of hiring somebody for the first year. We will also be offering support in event organisation, through our own staff volunteer scheme. Having already given substantial support to CharityComms over the last decade we are really excited to now support AVM."
