With Trustees' Week round the corner, Tesse Akpeki reflects on how last year she encouraged the PM to promote trusteeship.
Comedian, actor, some-time womaniser and now guest editor of the New Statesman, Russell Brand, divided opinion recently when he proudly announced he did not vote, and encouraged others to follow suit.
I understand that it is easy sometimes to feel disengaged by politics, but Russell Brand, who considers the current political system as “nothing more than a bureaucratic means for furthering the augmentation and advantages of economic elites”, is wrong to suggest that the great British public can have no effect whatsoever on how our country is shaped.
Last year my colleague at Bates Wells Braithwaite London, Christine Rigby, and I wrote to David Cameron to ask him to make his own contribution by highlighting the work of trustees on the “Take Part - Giving” section of the No 10 website.
We reminded the Prime Minister that over 834,000 people serve as trustees. We felt that by raising the profile of trusteeship, more people would realise the important contribution they can make in the decision-making aspect of civil society engagement.
Within two weeks of sending our letter, to our great delight, we received a response from Number 10!
With Trustees' Week coming up, there are lots of opportunities to celebrate the great contribution of the voluntary services and talent of men and women who contribute their time, talent and treasure in support of civil society engagement.
There are diverse platforms to explore ways to continually enhance trusteeship. There is nothing too little or too big to celebrate. And guess what? You can never tell what the results will be. Our result? No 10 has now included a trustee category section which applauds the impactful contribution of trustees and encourages potential trustees to participate in civil society.
This section includes useful information on becoming a trustee and useful web resources for anyone seeking information.
It does work sometimes (Russell). We did it, and so can you. Together, we can fly the trustee banner and great things can happen!
