Join us to celebrate Trustees' Week 2024!

Trustees' Week runs from 4 to 8 November this year and we're encouraging VCSE groups & organisations across Gloucestershire to join us and get involved!

This year's theme is celebrating, supporting and inspiring trustees and we've got a few suggestions below that may help to get your creative juices flowing.

Celebrate your trustees 

There are many ways that you could celebrate your trustees. You could do this by:

  • Hosting a board 'thank you' event - from a coffee and cake morning to a formal (but friendly) lunch. There are many ways that you can get your board together to say thank you. You also don't have to meet up in person to do this, you could organise a virtual coffee and cake morning or a fun online quiz.
  • Send personalised 'thank you' cards - it's very rare to get something in the post nowadays, so why not send a card to each of your trustees thanking them for their contribution? If you're on a budget, or would prefer an eco-friendly version, you could send a virtual card or an email expressing your thanks.
  • Thank your trustees on social media - the Trustees' Week website has a free graphic that you can download and use to publicly thank your trustees on social media. You could add a story about the positive contribution your trustees have made to your organisation or just say thanks!

Support your trustees 

Support for trustees can depend on many variables. You may want to:

  • Conduct a skills audit and highlight any development opportunities that you could provide to your trustees - this may help your organisation to identify skills gaps and plan appropriate learning & development opportunities for your trustees.
  • Encourage your trustees to participate in learning & development opportunities – this could help your trustees in a range of ways, such as diversifying their skills, developing connections via networking opportunities and more!
  • Create a space to reflect on the governance of your organisation - this may help you and your board to collectively ensure that your organisation is operating legally and is complying with your governing document. It's also a good opportunity to reflect on who you are as an organisation, your journey so far and how you can continue to work together to achieve your mission and aims.

Inspiring trustees 

Recruitment and retention of trustees is a challenge across the VCSE sector, nationally and locally. We've therefore focused the below on how you could inspire new trustees to join your board. You could:

  • Share inspirational stories about your current trustees' background and motivation to join your board. This may help potential trustees to understand who your current trustees are and why they joined your board. 
  • Share stories about your organisations' impact and the role of your trustees – this may help potential trustees to understand the difference their time and commitment could make (and can be extremely motivating for those that want to 'give back' in some way).
  • Attend the NCVO Trustees' Week event on 5 November. During this free event, NCVO will launch their trustee recruitment and retention report. This may help your organisation to understand the wider recruitment and retention environment, gain insight from others attending and reflect on what changes you may be able to make to improve your recruitment and retention practices.

Additional support and resources

We've got a range of information and resources on our website that may help you to recruit, retain and manage trustees. We've also got useful links to governance toolkits and guidelines. You can find out more on our resources page.

If you'd like to find out more about Trustees' Week 2024, you can visit the Trustees' Week website.

During Trustees' Week, we'll be sharing links to resources, trustee stories and more on our X and Facebook feeds. Please follow us to keep updated.

Advertise your trustee vacancies for free

VCSE groups & organisations in Gloucestershire can advertise their trustee vacancies for free on Go Volunteer Glos and in our VCSE sector News Bulletin. 

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We share weekly updates about news that matters to VCSE groups & organisations in Gloucestershire via our weekly News Bulletin. We also send out a free monthly Funding Bulletin. You can find out more and sign up on our newsletters page.

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