It’s that time of the year again and as part of national Trustees’ Week celebrations, Community Links Bromley is showcasing the work and achievements of some of the borough’s many charity trustees.

We spoke to Ian Dawson - Chair of the trustee board for BVST, who told us about his role and why he volunteered as a trustee?

“I’m retired, so there’s a lot of time and there’s only so much daytime TV you can watch. So you still want to do something productive and you’ve got so much skills and experience.” “I’ve worked in financial services for forty something years, so I understand numbers and figures and projections and budgets and how important they are. And it’s actually great to be able to put that all into practice in the real world and make a real difference.”

Q: So, what does a trustee do?

“A trustee is a director of a company and we are a limited company and we also are a registered charity. So every trustee we have is a director and is responsible for and can provide input to our long term plans. We have a 5 year plan and we set a budget every year. “

“In a charity you can see the real big picture because you’re dealing with real issues, where spending three or four hundred pounds is important as opposed to in a big company sometimes where things are spent, thousands of pounds but you never actually see what they’re doing, you never actually see the end result. In a charity you actually get to spend real money, make real decisions that have a real effect and a real impact on people’s lives. So it’s actually more important I would suggest and a lot more satisfying than perhaps working for a large company.”

Q: Is the role of trustee open to different skill sets?

“Charities always need new people, we’ve got people who’ve got a marketing background or HR background. We’ve got a couple of solicitors on the board, someone who was a teacher. So yes, any skills in life.” “It’s a proper team, all different skills coming together. If everybody is financially based then all you get is attention to detail or numbers and you don’t get enough about raising money or marketing yourselves. So different skills are vital.”

Q: What does a typical day look like for you?

“There isn’t a typical day. It is very different. You’re basically a member of the board of directors. You’re responsible for big picture decisions. Not interfering in day to day management of the charity but you’re responsible for steering the charity towards key objectives and particular objectives whether it’s to raise money to buy something or to survive, or to keep more money in the bank.”

Q: What are the main challenges that you face as a trustee in achieving your objectives for the charity?

“Just the uncontrollable elements really such as COVID and the financial situation in the big wide world which has massive effects on us as you’d expect. Energy costs now are a huge part of where we spend our money.” “Most other things you can control or predict with a degree of certainty but it’s the uncontrollable that are problems and you just have to be aware that they will happen and therefore have either money in the bank or a plan that’s flexible enough to be able to adapt.”

Q What would you say to anyone thinking of volunteering as a trustee?

“You’ve got to be switched on by the aims of the charity initially and then go and talk to someone to find out what they’re looking for? I’m sure they’d be looking for skills that people have got and time obviously. The skills that you pick up from work will be used in your charity work and vice versa and you’ll come out of it as a much better employee and manager and a better person.”

Q: Does it take up a lot of your time?

“Volunteering is a wonderful thing, it can take up as much time as you want it to.”

“Some people have got very very busy jobs. Perhaps they could only give up a couple of hours a week but a couple of hours a week every week is a lot. There are different volunteering roles on trustee boards. We’ve got some of our trustees that give up a lot of time because they’ve got it, some that haven’t; they can’t give up much time but they’ve got a lot of experience and skills because of the particular jobs that they do, so they’re just as valuable.”     

If this article has inspired you to want to find out more about becoming a trustee, why not check out Community Links Bromley's On-line volunteering portal (Simply Connect Bromley).  We have a number of trustee roles available across Bromley.