“A waterfall begins from only one drop of water, sir. Look what comes from that…”

(The Power of One, 1992)

Can a single person change the world? It’s a thought that has been on my mind for some time and the recent success of the Space X heavy illustrates just how one person can make a difference. When people ask me why I do what I do, I keep coming back to this idea. When I say it aloud, it sounds conceited and ridiculous. I struggle to apply context to my wish to change the world, and that makes my ambition appear grandiose and self-righteous.  

So I have decided to change my approach to this question, and rather than making “crazy” proclamations about what I do at TeamKinetic, I have started to look at what it is we are actually doing to change our world.

The first thing to note is I have changed the pronoun from “I” to “we”. Each of us can change our own behaviour but the real magic starts when you move from “lone nut” and look to bring others with you, to start a movement! That is our ambition here at TeamKinetic. To build a volunteer management system that allows people to change the world around them; their sports club, their community group or whatever their passion might be.

TeamKinetic intends to put our money where our mouth is, as we try and be the change we want to see in the world. We believe that business should be and can be a driver of positive change for equality, for the environment and people’s lives.

One of the first ideas we had was to share the wonderful work our customers are involved in. How can we promote your successes and shout about your achievements that through TeamKinetic we have played a small part in making possible?

We want to share your stories with our other customers, system administrators, volunteer managers and sector leaders. We want to share how you have actually achieved the change you wanted in the hope that some of the best practice can be replicated, that we can all learn from each other’s failures and successes.   

So here is my first call to action. Each and every one of you, please look at your volunteers, your providers and if you have a great story to tell, something worth sharing. However small, we want to know. Volunteering is powered by stories, great stories of how people worked together to create the community they want.

We don’t need a lot, just a few paragraphs telling your story, and we will take it from there.

Submit your stories and ideas directly to me at chris@teamkinetic.co.uk and for each story, we use we will send out one of our TeamKinetic t-shirts to the people involved with a letter saying thank you for their wonderful work.

This will form the basis of our new resource area for volunteer managers, where eventually we will have a shared document repository for admin users to share and swap documents, a question and answer forum and all the updates and videos from our Kinetic Academy sessions.

Let’s start a movement.

Have you ever wondered how wonder woman would be as a marketer?

Well, that’s me. The newest addition to TeamKinetic’s team. Here is my story and the reasons I chose Marketing as my “day” job.

Finding the job you want to do, is not always the easiest scenario. In many cases, students attend university and realise that what they had chosen is no longer what they really like. ‘Like’, seems to be the MAGIC WORD! Let me explain what I mean.

When I finished my studies in political science I realised that I gained a valuable set of skills, but no longer favoured the area of knowledge I had acquired. I had learnt to research, report, critique and build balanced arguments. I had gained valuable insight into the political world, understanding its systems, institutions and behaviours, but none of this left me feeling fulfilled. I was hungry for more energy, creativity and a bigger challenge in my everyday life. For this reason, I began exploring new career pathways.

I decided to attend several career guidance days. I learned things about different sectors and industries where I could apply my skills and passion too.  I then visited several companies to meet executives in various sectors and job positions. I had many discussions on the nature of their work and how their skills, knowledge and experience helped them in each role. This was the time when I learned about Marketing.

Marketing is about communication and psychology. You learn how companies target their consumers and build relationships. It’s about presenting services or goods using different tools. It’s about building brand awareness and increasing sales. I realise this is what gets me excited; business development through digital and social media marketing.

Just as Wonder Woman had journeyed from her exotic home, Themyscira, I left my exotic homeland Greece to begin a new adventure.  Arriving in the UK little over a year ago, I began studying for a Marketing Msc at the University of Salford. It was during my time studying, I noticed the number of third sector organisations including the non-profit’s, charities and NGOs.

It was during my time studying that I began volunteering for the “Green Impact Project”.  I took responsibility for the creation of marketing material designed to improve the environmental performance of the University. Volunteering was a great opportunity for me to make friends, practices my skills and help make my university more “green”.

Later in the year, keen to continue building my experience, I volunteered in a marketing role for a hotel in Southport.  I created a new website and increased brand awareness. The participation in volunteering has been greatly beneficial and has provided me with a great sense of satisfaction and achievement. For me, it was a unique opportunity to help other people, something I will certainly do again.

Upon graduating from my Masters, I was eager to search for a role where I could apply my previous working experience, my volunteer involvement and also developed the skills I had gained.

When the opportunity to join TeamKinetic arose, I was interested in how I could help them. I was attracted by the values of the company, the idea of helping to build communities and volunteers, and the opportunity to put my Masters into practice. I believe that I can bring my skills in communication, digital skills, research, analytical skills, initiative and creativity to TeamKinetic.

Learning about Volunteer Management will be a new challenge and opportunity, but gaining an understanding of the sector’s needs will be mutually beneficial as I develop my skills and help the team to develop their understanding of the voluntary sector.

I am excited to begin working with the best team I could have hoped for.

Feel free to get in touch elena@teamkinetic.co.uk

National obesity awareness week

We are well into January and already my new year’s resolutions are being tested beyond my willpower limit already, this year’s ambition, to do more and eat less, is already looking shaky.  That’s why National Obesity Awareness Week could not come at a better time.

Here at TeamKinetic, we work with a wide range of organisations that provide sport, wellbeing, health and fitness opportunities, so I wanted to take a few minutes to discuss the importance of volunteers and voluntary organisations when we talk about weight management.

Behaviour change is difficult; we as human beings, are not good at making daily decisions that are good for our long-term health with the many temptations that provide short-term satisfaction so easily available.  When we think about it, it’s easy not to go to the gym or to eat that cake as often that is in the short term the easiest or most pleasurable path forward.

When we think about getting more active, its difficult to remain motivated by the thought that in 12 months I may be slightly lighter and fitter. With this in mind, we need to think about other forms of motivation, how we can make the road to the goal more “sticky” and easier to stay on.

What the research seems to suggest is that developing friends and having a strong social setting around your physical activity makes you much more likely to stick with it.  Having people who understand what you are going through and are there to offer support and a friendly face mean your motivations are not just based on fitness, but on a desire to spend time with your friends and peers.

Whether you’re a participant, a volunteer, a coach or just someone who supports the group and helps out at the start and end of sessions, you are part of that team or group; you provide that peer network and you play an essential role in making that group “sticky”.

As we recognise national obesity awareness week, I say thank you to all of you who make all these activities take place, whether you’re a helper, a coach or just making sure people feel welcome when they decide to come along.

Keep up your essential work people.

By Chris Martin, Founding Director

As the festive celebrations are in full swing, it seems fitting to take a moment to reflect on the last year and consider what the next twelve months might hold.

With political affairs, scandals and a host of natural disasters, 2017 will certainly be one for the history books. On a personal level I will remember the year for quite different reasons and as one of the most challenging and rewarding years, I wanted to self-indulgently share my experience of the year.

I kicked the year of with a New Year’s Day swim in the Irish Sea, supporting the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. I was rather excited to be taking part in it all, but it did include some slight moments of embarrassment, as I was in a wetsuit and the 88-year-old lady next to me was only sporting a bikini!  This really struck me in a metaphorical sense; the year ahead may be hard and challenging, but it was important to just go for it and get it done.

We settled into new offices early in 2017, located in Manchester and it was around this time Sport England announced their first allocated funding for volunteering. This was an exciting proposition for the sector, finally, the hard work and development had become recognised at a national level.

For me, the start of the year had a different kind of excitement and anticipation. My second child, George was born on the 6^th of February and as much a bundle of happiness he is, I have not managed a solid 8 hours sleep since. The following months seemed to flash by and before I realised, we were in May.

TeamKinetic joined Altius Sports and British Cycling in launching the HSBC City Ride, a fantastic series of participation events. The same month also saw our first major update to TeamKinetic’s volunteer management software which introduced a host of new features and updates.

This all happened just in time for our annual Volunteering Conference which TeamKinetic runs in partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University. Amongst the guests, we welcomed industry leaders, our beloved clients and our first international delegates from Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme.

With Yvonne Harrison, CEO of Greater Sport, as compère the stage first welcomed Carwyn Young of Sport Wales, Jenny Betteridge of Sport England and Emma Boggis from the Sport Recreational Alliance. Discussing the differences between borders, acknowledging the similarities and noting the importance of a national volunteer strategy created an insightful talk. Chris Jones, CEO of England Athletics closed the event in the most entertaining fashion, sharing his family’s experience volunteering, and how that has influenced his perspective and the strategic direction of England Athletics.

The event was a big success and was a brilliant platform to share how organisations are developing volunteering. This video by Sport Wales is a brilliant example of how to motivate volunteers.

A week after the conference was my wedding – I clearly forgot to check my diary when planning both events. June became an extremely busy and stressful month, but my fiance was not accepting my excuse of being too busy to get my suit fitted. Thankfully both events went without a hitch and I didn’t look too shabby on the big day.

More good news arrived in the form of a pilot project with England Athletics, naming us as its selected partner to better manage officials, events and volunteers. We will be sharing more on this in the New Year.

TeamKinetic went international in 2017. Our first overseas customer was Africa Pearl, who we collaborated with to deliver a fantastic project in the Gauteng Province. This ambitious project took mentors into schools, with the aim of addressing the behavioural and social drivers of HIV/AIDS and TB. The programme is designed to constructively engage out-of-school youth in supporting learners in schools and consequently offering these young people a living and long-term future. The programme will also up skill and provide practical experience resulting in a recognised qualification, thereby empowering all those involved.

Our second international customer was from the USA. Humanity Road use innovative technology and social listening platforms to connect people, animals and emergency officials with help and resources when disaster strikes. It provides impacted areas, often overwhelmed in confusion, with a lifeline to services that otherwise can be impossible to access. Using TeamKinetic’s volunteer management software, Humanity Road manages a voluntary workforce that supports the work of local officials and emergency response teams.

Closer to home TeamKinetic welcomed many new organisations that were keen to manage volunteers in a better way. TeamKinetic began working alongside Energize CSP, Cannock Inspiring Healthy Lifestyles, Monmouthshire County Council and an expanded the work at Glasglow Life to include all aspects of their work

We continue our mission to be the best volunteer management software and community platform in the world, resulting in some big developments this year. This included the iOS and Android Apps for the mobiles; a newly developed interface to Salesforce; Integration into Do-it.org; and a new functional API allowing our customers to access their data and integrate with their existing software.

What I have learnt from 2017 is that even in a world challenged by austerity, Brexit and Trump (to name a few), there is still a huge amount of positivity, created by the good will and positive nature of us all. This is evident in the time, effort and support individuals continue to provide to the causes they care for.

As I look towards 2018, I feel energised knowing that we can continue to make a difference in our communities and in the causes we care. We need to continue reminding ourselves and others of the importance to help others and realise the larger social responsibility we each have.

The next year already has promised to bring just as much excitement and nervousness as the last. TeamKinetic has some big projects already planned, that we look forward to officially announcing in the New Year. On a personal level, I am not planning as many life milestones but hope to enjoy those days of significance with my family, with a few Birthdays and my first anniversary to add to the list.

The political climate might look to be more challenging than last year, which I did not think possible, but I believe the balance will return. I am regularly reassured by the regular act of selflessness that I am frequently reminded of through my work.

On that note, I would like to thank you for joining TeamKinetic through 2017 and the team here would like to extended a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Warm Regards,

Chris