Author: Rolf Herbert Page 5 of 18

Parklife… More Like Quarantined Life!

By

On 14th April 2020

In COVID-19

Hundreds of festivals across the UK cancel due to the current pandemic. But how can festival suppliers utilise their resources to benefit the many organisations battling against COVID-19?

Festival season is over

Festival season this year is more than likely to be completely off, with few festivals still scheduled for late August and September. However, the likelihood of these events going ahead still remains slim. Festivals such as Glastonbury, Parklife, Radio 1’s Big Weekend and many more have been faced cancellation.

These events as you can imagine take months of planning and preparation, with venues, equipment and people to be organised. However, all that seems to have gone to waste, or has it?

Resources are not to be wasted

There is more to a festival than stage lighting and huge stands, but what equipment can actually be utilised from festival suppliers to help charities and local authorities during these unprecedented times? I’m not quite sure we can fight off COVID-19 with strobe lighting alone – although it would be quite a sight.

So what equipment can the NHS and charities make good use of?

You will be pleasantly surprised to hear that there is quite an extensive list: generators, furniture, comms equipment, tents and marquees, outdoor and indoor audio equipment, vehicles, medical equipment, heating equipment and the list goes on. Many festival suppliers even have access to services including security, medical services, traffic management, project management and much more.

What’s happening now?

Organisations which supply such equipment are now re-focusing their efforts. Their efforts are now refocussed on providing available equipment to local councils, charities and helping government initiatives. This supply of equipment to these organisations is desperately required and any organisation that can help should. Not to profit from, which many organisations have fell victim into doing, but to be forthcoming in their ability to help and improve the UK’s current situation.

How TeamKinetic can help

Joining the many organisations aiming to provide a service in which that supports charities, councils and the goverment battling COVID-19. We have further developed our services, incorporating new features purposley build for COVID-19. 

Introducing TeamKinetic Advanced – built for COVID-19 designed for you, all free of charge for three months. 

New Community Task Dashboard 

Our new fast implementing Community Task Dashboard, allows users to create COVID-19 related tasks quicker and easier.

It couldn’t get any more simple.

CREATE: COVID-19 related tasks 

ASSIGN: Volunteers to your created tasks or wait for your volunteers to assign themselves

APPROVE: Volunteer need approval before they have access to tasks details
COMPLETE: Wait for the completion of the task 

All New COVID-19 Volunteer Application

Volunteers simply sign in to your site on either desktop or smartphone, open the application and apply to the most recent COVID-19 related tasks. With lots of the same safety and safeguarding features that TeamKinetic has always had.

Volunteers can then keep track of their applied tasks in the ‘Tabs’ in the application. 

NEW: These are new tasks available for volunteers to help with

APPLIED: Volunteer can see their applied tasks waiting for approval from Admin/Provider

ASSIGNED: Volunteer has been approved, the volunteer can now see more details on the COVID-19 related task. Such as more sensitive information i.e. exact address. 

COMPLETED: Once completed tasks appear here for the volunteer’s personal record 

Gain access to all this for FREE

TeamKinetic Advanced – built for COVID-19

Overcoming COVID-19 as a Community

By

On 7th April 2020

In COVID-19

Volunteers are cementing their value in society. After the call for NHS volunteer responders was made by the government, five people per second enlisted to volunteer.

Volunteers from across local councils and community groups have not been shying away from COVID-19. In fact, they have more than risen to the occasion, by offering their support to those most vulnerable and keyworkers – despite the increased risk of being exposed to COVID-19 themselves.

The community at the heart

Communities and councils have been working together throughout COVID-19 in order to provide help to those most at risk. Since the start of the virus 2,700 grassroots groups have formed with a total of 2.5 million group members – these figures are increasing daily. Volunteers in the community have signed up to these groups to help deliver food and amenities. Figures like this really show the power of human resilience and determination to make the world a better place even in the darkest of times, which we find ourselves in now.

Find volunteering groups near you

For prospective volunteers who are seeking roles in their local community, it would be well worth your while looking at Covid-19 Mutual Aid UK.  This organisation has been responsible for coordinating the many volunteering groups which have risen all across the UK. Their website displays a map which contains various known local volunteering groups. The site also allows you to add your own volunteering group by connecting your own group’s social media channels and website. 

Clap for our NHS workers

#ClapForOurCarers was a brilliant community effort from all across the UK. With people showing they’re appreciation for those working non-stop during this pandemic, with masses of applause from balconies, gardens, front doors and windows.

Common uncertainties facing communities

Despite many communities having many enthusiastic volunteers, some uncertainties still lie when volunteering during this pandemic.

Firstly, you can leave your house to volunteer to provide help to those vulnerable, providing volunteering can not be done from home. But if you fall into the high-risk category, being over 70 or having health conditions please try to find volunteering opportunities from home via the computer or telephone.

You haven’t got to be a superhero to help out so don’t be afraid of not knowing what to do at first. But at the same time don’t feel pressured to volunteer, it is optional and you should only volunteer if you want to.

You don’t even have to sign up to anything to be a good person, you could easily keep an eye out in your neighbourhood. Perhaps you know of an elderly person who lives around the corner, it wouldn’t hurt for you to check if they’re ok. Or maybe an NHS worker lives nearby and doesn’t have time to get food in for themselves after work, perhaps you could grab something for them while your shopping yourself? These little things may not seem like traditional volunteering but you are making a difference and having a positive impact on someone else’s life with nothing in return, so maybe you can volunteer without even knowing.

Stay safe, stay positive we can overcome this together

How to effectively promote COVID-19 volunteering

By

On 19th March 2020

In Application Features and Tutorials, News & Views, Policy and Operations, Press Releases

TeamKinetic have added an entirely new set of roles and functions we call COMMUNITY TASKS to help our customers get volunteers to those people that need it most in the community. There is also an associated app for mobile!

https://teamkinetic.co.uk/blog/2020/04/08/faq-new-covid-features/

Communities across the country are already starting to rally in support of each other during this pandemic.

We’ve put together a video and step-by-step instructions below showing how to promote your COVID-19 related opportunities.

1 – Add tags and descriptions to your COVID-19 related opportunities.

In order for volunteers to find COVID-19 related opportunities you will need to have a way of identifying those opportunities in the system. You can do this by either making sure the opportunity title includes a key words like; covid, virus, corona, or pandemic, or add the words as TAGS to the opportunity. 

Either of these solutions will allow the system and volunteers to be able to search and find the related opportunities via the normal search bar.

When you login you’ll find your custom search link in the COVID-19 notification bar. You can distribute this link via email and on your social media posts and when clicked will go straight to the COVID-19 search results.

2 – Add An Event Called COVID-19

An event is just a group of opportunities which have something in common.  By adding a specific event name, that event will show at the top of the volunteers search results.

To use this method you will need to create an event called ‘COVID-19’ and EDIT your opportunities and mark them as PART OF A LARGER EVENT

3 – Email all volunteers about COVID-19 related opportunities

We have added a button at the top the dashboard when you login as admin:

This button will automatically email your volunteers a list of all virus related opportunities (email shown below).

If you would like to only email specific volunteers then you can email the special link shown when you login as administrator.

When clicked this link will go to the COVID-19 search results.

Further help

If you have trouble setting any of this up, please open a support ticket and we’ll try to help.

Stay safe.

Managing Volunteers During The COVID-19 Pandemic

By

On 16th March 2020

In COVID-19, Volunteer Management

Even if you haven’t seen the lastest news or attempted to buy hand sanitiser recently, you may have noticed a decline in volunteer participation, and that pasta and toilet roll are now worth more than GOLD!

Keeping your volunteers volunteering and coming to sessions can often be challenging. During a virus pandemic, it’s sure to make that job even harder. In this blog Teaminetic aims to give some practical advice to keep your volunteers volunteering.

Reassure

Reassurance will be key. The message to volunteers should be to not panic, that volunteering should be proceeded as normal unless specific advice is received. During this time you may need a higher level of communication between yourself and your volunteers. Clear communication will help to remove the anxiety that volunteers may be feeling, and help you restore confidence through reassurance that you are doing everything possible to reduce risk.

Prepare

Preparation is key, and following a few simple rules will help.

  • Assuring hand sanitizing stations are filled and available
  • Surfaces that are regularly used have been cleaned, countertops, doorknobs etc.
  • Asking politely that anyone who isn’t feeling well to not attend sessions.
  • Provide disposable wipes so that commonly used surfaces like keyboards, remote controls, desks etc can be wiped down by volunteers before each use.
  • Enable micro-volunteering or volunteering from home.

Notifications

Keep volunteers up to date with the latest news from your organisation, via newsletters, emails, texts and social media channels. A lot can happen in 24 hours as we’ve previously seen. The fluid situation could mean that sessions or events might need to be cancelled at short notice, so try to keep your volunteers informed.

Volunteering from home

There is a high probability that people could be asked to work from home. If, or when, the government issues these measures, perhaps your organisation could adopt virtual or micro-volunteering in order to maintain volunteer involvement.

Micro volunteering involves low commitment action towards a cause. Micro-volunteers can choose how and when they volunteer, providing they have access to the internet via a laptop, tablet smartphone etc.

Micro-volunteering opportunities could involve.

  • Signing online petitions
  • Writing blogs
  • Re-tweeting and posting relevant content on Facebook and Twitter.
  • Providing feedback on marketing materials.
  • Creating Facebook Live meetings or Google Hangouts meetings.
  • Getting creative by generating material for upcoming events.

Micro-volunteering and virtual volunteering will not replace traditional volunteering. However, during COVID-19 it maybe your best option in order to maintain engagement and stay tuned with your volunteers.

In the meantime

What can we all do to help prevent the spread of COVID-19?

  • Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve (not your hands) when you cough or sneeze.
  • Put used tissues in the bin.
  • Wash your hands with soap and water often – use hand sanitiser gel if soap and water are not available. Remember to wash your hands for 20 seconds, whilst singing God save the Queen (Other songs are available).
  • Try to avoid close contact with people who are unwell.
  • Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces.
  • Refrain from touching your eyes, nose or mouth if your hands are not clean.

Stay positive, remain calm and don’t worry, there’s enough toilet roll for everyone…

Further reading sources

TeamKinetic Volunteer Management

Volunteer Management Trends of 2020

By

On 9th March 2020

In Volunteer Management

What positive changes should volunteer managers be anticipating throughout the upcoming year? TeamKinetic aims to explore the changing avenues in which you may find yourself turning down at any given point.

Embracing Technology

This year alone there are predicted to be 51 million smartphone users, who will have access to various apps on their phones. For the volunteer manager, this is brilliant as many volunteer management systems – including our own can operate through an app. Creating more ways in which you can manage and communicate with your volunteers. Which will help your volunteer management run a lot smoother, not just for you but your volunteers as well.

Training

Phone calls and face to face meeting could be starting to become a thing of the past. Many organisations including ourselves are now adopting the use of ‘virtual help’. This being online support which is readily available for all volunteers. Virtual help makes good use of platforms like YouTube, instant messaging and help forms. Which in short saves the volunteer manager time.

Ageing Population

People are living longer and healthier lives, which isn’t a surprise. People are starting to take a lot better care of themselves by feeling more inclined than ever to live healthier active lifestyles.

Therefore volunteer managers should expect a rise in the number of older volunteers with time and energy to volunteer. Perhaps its time volunteer managers shifted perceptions of the ‘old’ volunteer, and started removing aged based limits on volunteering opportunities. Although people aged 65 and over are 45% more likely to volunteer than any other age group, only 6% of those over 65 actually feel old. Meaning older volunteers are more than happy to take part in more physical volunteering opportunities – if given the opportunities to do so.

A common theme that our customer relations team has found here at TeamKinetic is that. The wording of opportunities can often make volunteers not want to join an opportunity. Volunteer managers should try to be mindful when writing volunteering opportunities, as certain words can make opportunities sound more physically tiring, boring or even more complex than they actually are.

Younger Volunteers

There are small indications that the younger generations are starting to volunteer a lot more than they used to. 70% of 18 – 24-year-olds have reported having volunteered at some point in the last year. Recent interviews held by TeamKinetic and student volunteers help support this statistic, as many students did volunteer in some shape or form. Either to improve their academic profile or just because they wanted to give back to their community and have fun. This increase in younger people volunteering only gives volunteer managers more options and opportunities to attract younger volunteers, who are enthusiastic to help and be apart of a volunteering programme. 

Volunteer Led Opportunities

Volunteer-led opportunities involve listening and understanding what your volunteers want to do. It’s a growing trend that organisations are listening more to their staff and their customers. It would only be right to suggest that volunteer managers could do the same. A volunteers feedback could pose to be very useful as they are the ones taking part in the opportunities on a regular basis (on the front line as you may say). Suggesting it might be worth allowing volunteers to take lead on some opportunities, as this could be more impactful or at the very least, given the time to suggest new ideas.

A Question of Flexibility

How much flexibility volunteers have is always going to be a changing factor. Pictured above are some of the many reasons why the average person is soo busy. Considering these in modern volunteer management could mean thinking about running more “one-off opportunities”. which are opportunities that don’t happen on a regular basis (perhaps monthly), allowing time for volunteers to adjust their schedules, making it so they don’t have to commit to a specific time frame every week.

For more information on TeamKinetic volunteer management, visit our website or call us on 0161 914 5757.

World Book Day 2020

By

On 5th March 2020

In Community

Happy World Book Day, not just to the children but to all the volunteers across the UK helping to support our Libraries.

Across the last decade, over 500 libraries have been handed to volunteers. More and more libraries are still becoming staffed only by volunteers, instead of paid staff, provided by the council. This is due to the council making budget cuts. However, this is still better than the alternative of closing down local libraries, inhibiting children of what still is an exciting adventure out the house to somewhere new where their imagination can run wild!

Libraries create opportunities for children to:

  • Learn
  • Develop and grow
  • Interact with other children
  • Get help with homework
  • Give mum and dad a break
  • And generally, have fun through the power of imagination!

Libraries are being revived

Despite some towns being deprived of their local library services. Many libraries still continue to run each day through the commitment of local community volunteer groups. Where members of the groups will rotate working shifts allowing the library duties to be split equally amongst the volunteers. Many community-run libraries have been revived by volunteers. This is because the previously paid staff before weren’t local, therefore naturally they didn’t have the incentive to be as engaged with the community as current local volunteers are now.

Volunteers helping communities

Community volunteers are performing amazing tasks in order to keep libraries fresh and welcoming to all local communities. Our current client MCRVIP in Manchester have been advertising volunteering opportunities for libraries across the whole of Manchester, opportunities at Manchester libraries can include:

  • Lego Club volunteers
  • Once a month Film and craft volunteers
  • General Community library volunteers
  • IT volunteers
  • Homework club volunteers
  • Saturday club volunteers

More roles than you would have realised, it shows that it’s not all stacking and scanning books, but actually helping the community and interacting with the children and adults that go.

So thank you to all the volunteers for helping our community libraries.

Press Release: 12/02/2020 The Student Room

By

On 24th February 2020

In Press Releases

TeamKinetic and The Student Room work to make student life better

TeamKinetic becomes the new supplier to The Student Room

The Student Room (TSR) is the UK’s largest online student community.  It exists to provide every student from GCSE to the world of work with peer-led online support. The Student Room community allows students to support each other,  as they fully believe that the people best placed to offer support are those who are going through or have recently come out the other side of the student experience. 

Mhairi Underwood, Head of Community at The Student Room, has been working with TeamKinetic over the last year. Testing the TeamKinetic volunteer management application, to see if a digital platform would improve the support of volunteers in the organisation, and improve workflows for staff.

Since February 2019, TeamKinetic has been supplying its volunteer management application to TSR as part of a pilot, to explore how a digital volunteer management application might provide added value to TSR’s volunteers and staff. TSR has a dedicated team of volunteers across the UK and around the world, providing peer-based support via its online forums.  We are proud to announce that based on the success of this pilot project, TeamKinetic will be continuing to work with TSR, developing their volunteer workforce and supporting their development as a student-first organisation.

Mhairi said ​“We’ve found that by adopting TeamKinetic as our in-house volunteer management platform, we’re able to completely streamline our volunteer administration in a way that provides both us and the volunteers with control and trust. Once it was embedded, we were able to focus much more fully on the things that really made a difference for our volunteers and our community, knowing the administration was taken care of.”

Chris Martin, Director of TeamKinetic, said “​The​ ​Student Room​ is a unique organisation, which provides a wealth of services to young people, they know their audience and the importance of digital in engaging that audience and we love that! Working with them during the initial pilot stage to enhance their volunteer program and support the amazing work they do has been a real pleasure. I look forward to seeing how the offer develops over the next 12 months.​” 

TeamKinetic hopes to continue to build better volunteering communities throughout many different organisations, no matter how big or small.  

Ends

Contact details: 

For more information, please contact TeamKinetic on 0161 914 5757. Or email chris@teamkinetic.co.uk

Cause of Death: Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets

By

On 17th February 2020

In News & Views, Volunteer Management

Phil and his co-workers wanted to manage their volunteers, however, things took a turn for the worst & now Phil and his co-workers are here…

Probably the most annoying platform to manage anything – never mind volunteers. My deepest sympathies are with those who have fallen down the bottomless rabbit hole of endless Excel Spreadsheets, which are over-occupied with volunteers.  

Does anyone truly understand Excel?

Few people truly understand all the functionalities of spreadsheets – because there are way too many! Therefore the job is left to one person, who quickly becomes very demotivated and almost consumed by the spreadsheet itself. 

Just keep scrolling…  

Scroll, after scroll. This is often associated with your current method of managing your volunteers. Finding the volunteer Jack Jones who wants to volunteer at the annual 10K run, couldn’t get any more complicated. However, by having a volunteer management system in place, your job could be a lot easier. Volunteer profiles can be easily searched for across the whole system. 

Worry less 

When it comes to your volunteers there are a few things that they are guaranteed to ask. Where, when and what. Volunteer management systems worry about all this for you, by giving your volunteers their own profile and portal where they can access all this information and even more. 

The nightmare of event planning 

You may have noticed Excel isn’t exactly the best for building your events, making the process highly laborious. No template on Excel can simplify all of that! But it doesn’t have to be this way. Volunteer management systems provide a simplified solution to what once seemed a strenuous task. Save your own time and leave your explicit language along with Excel. 

Manage volunteers with more confidence 

You may be able to encrypt and password-protect the data stored on your Excel Spreadsheets. However, what happens when someone cracks your spreadsheet’s ‘safe password’? Every piece of data is then stolen, this won’t be just your budgets and accounts, this will be the personal data of your volunteers. But you don’t need to take this kind of risk with your volunteer’s data. Volunteer management systems are fully protected and encrypted with the most up-to-date security encryptions and they follow all new GDPR data regulations.  

What a volunteer management system should look like:

  • Simplistic layout  
  • Safe and secure 
  • Easy to navigate around
  • Reliable
  • Time-saving, not time-wasting!
  • An open-ended platform for everyone to access easily.

Consider the simple life and save on the sheets, one personalised and customisable system is all you need. Consider TeamKinetic, we might just be able to help.

You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:

Twitter       Facebook       LinkedIn       YouTube       Instagram       Podcast

 

Have you enjoyed using TeamKinetic? If you could leave us a review on Capterra, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

Student Volunteering Over The Years

By

On 13th February 2020

In Education

Student volunteering week aims to celebrate the positive impact of student volunteers and engage with the students who do not currently volunteer, to actively encourage them to give volunteering a try.

Student volunteering in the UK has come from a long history line. Previously, there was a lack of formal citizenship education in colleges and universities. This led to students forming a range of voluntary groups to serve the local communities and help the students learn about social issues.

Today the contributions that student volunteers give to local communities is greater than it ever has been before.

A popular part in student culture, particularly in England and Scotland, was to raise money for local hospitals through what they used to call Rag Collections. University Rag societies were student-run charitable fundraising organisations. Early Rag Collectors were said to have ragged passers-by until they made a charitable donation; we advise you don’t do this now… While in the Victorian era students would take time out of there studies to clothe those in need. 

The 1930s 

Students tackled the problems of high unemployment head-on, by setting up camps for men and women who were unemployed. These camps were aimed towards getting people back in employment. Assuring that those who were unemployed were fit and had the correct mindset for a working environment. 

The 1940s 

At the very height of the Blitz, students volunteered in the air raid and rest centres. Students believed it was crucial to play a part in their societies and provide help by all means possible. 

The 1950s 

Students began campaigning and fundraising for nuclear disarmament, Oxfam and the anti-apartheid movement. With a real sense of pride and direction to make a difference to the world, they were living in! 

The 1960s 

Students and graduates seized the opportunity to serve in developing countries. A few years later volunteering groups began to drift from traditional fundraising to more effective involvement with community issues, by getting more hands-on in communities and political issues affecting communities. 

One other very important development of post-war was the formation of student social service groups and associations in many universities. Including London, Manchester and Birmingham to name a few. These social groups involved a small number of volunteers which would undergo activities such as. Gardening, decorating, hospital visiting, working with older people and children, the mentally ill. As well as, supporting charities like Shelter and Amnesty International. 

The 1970s-1990s 

By the 1970s there was a gradual shift from service to community action groups, which swept across many universities and colleges across the UK. Many student action groups transformed into registered charities with employed workers. What these groups did ranged from volunteering to service orientated work, like decorating, teaching immigrants and mental health projects. 

In Short 

The history of student volunteering is very much relevant to the student volunteers of today. Campaigning and fundraising have been essential to the student experience over the last century. And still, thousands of peoples lives have been and are being transformed by the campaigning and fundraising conducted by student volunteers.

Only students of today can decide how the movement will continue to grow over the next century.

Ensure you follow us on our social media pages to receive regular updates about the voluntary sector and learn more about the TeamKinetic system. You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:

Twitter       Facebook       LinkedIn       YouTube       Instagram       Podcast

TeamKinetic: 5 Reasons Why Students Should Volunteer

By

On 11th February 2020

In Education

Student volunteering is increasing with popularity, with more and more students across the UK beginning to volunteer. 57% of students indicated they have volunteered to some extent – and rightly so. Students who volunteered described themselves as being driven, reliable and easy-going, which are all positive attributes to have. However, the other 43% of the students who didn’t volunteer would be more inclined if they didn’t have barriers in their way. Barriers included paid work commitments, the pressure to studying or other curriculum activities. 

But could you set these barriers aside by knowing what volunteering could do for you?

Make a change

The reason for any volunteering is to make an improvement to something or give someone else or a group of people additional support. So why not make a small change to your university schedule to make an even bigger change to someone else?

Broaden your horizon

Are you new to the city and the local surrounding areas? Well, volunteering provides the opportunity for you to explore your local area and get out and see places you will have never seen before. When settled in at university, it can become quite easy to get wrapped up in your own smaller surrounding. The local tavern, the students union, and your living accommodation. Making it very easy for you to forget that other people and places exist outside of your university bubble.

Make use of your spare time

Everyone needs downtime but how productive are your downtimes? Most of us have more than enough free time, we just spend it badly! On average a student has about six hours free time a day, depending on your course, which is an awful lot of time. The problem is we’re not thoughtful enough of what we do in our free time. Making more active and intentional use of our hours would make them count for more. Perhaps volunteering could help you fill one or two hours, out of the six you have free.

Boost your mental well-bing

The giant leap from college to university can prove mentally challenging for the many. The anxieties of being in a new city or country with not knowing anyone or knowing what to expect can be very daunting. Volunteering can help with these anxieties and place you in a better headspace.

The feeling of knowing you’re doing something valuable to release the burden from others doesn’t only show that you care. But should also make you feel pretty good about yourself too! Positive actions make a sound mind.

Raise your online presence

If you’re a student you should be very aware of how important online presence is. Online is now everything in these modern times. Volunteering can help develop your online presence hugely, I would highly recommend building your online presence as soon as possible! LinkedIn is the perfect platform to do this and by volunteering your connections online will only grow.

Remember don’t be shy to share your experiences with the outside world. Transparency is the key to employability, by showing off how amazing you are. You don’t always need to be modest.

TeamKinetic Volunteer Management System

Read more student and university-related blogs below.

If you want more information about how TeamKinetic’s volunteer management software can help you and your organistaion, feel free to visit our website.

Find us on social media: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Call us on 0161 914 5757, we’re always happy to chat!

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