So I was online, reading posts in a fundraising group... which is rarely a good place to begin…

Someone had posted a question asking for guidance on to how to encourage all their Trustees to donate money. They also wanted to know how to ensure the charity has access to all their Trustees’ networks. The responses to this and what other people were saying got me thinking. I got quite cross. The general attitude seemed to be that the Trustees were only there as a means of opening wallets; theirs, their friends’, and their contacts’ and if they weren’t doing that, then they had no right to be a Trustee. I think that's deeply disrespectful.

However, it did give me some insight into why Trustees may not always receive the right level of support.

We know that when people agree to become a Trustee often it's because of the work that they're doing in another space, or another sector or because of experience and expertise that they have. Yet all too often, the emphasis seems to be purely about fundraising. For too many charities and non-profit organisations the problem is that Trustees, (or Directors or committee members, whatever title the role has for that organisation) are not given the appropriate support to settle into their new role. This leads to gaps, lack of progress, disillusion and ultimately, bitterness. This wastage is something that inspires my work – imagine what our fabulous sector could do if even some of that wastage was reduced. It was interesting to see these assumptions and expectations in action in an online group.

I began to think about what I could do – how could I utilise my experience and expertise to make a difference? I’m always thinking about building community and a big purpose of my work is about bringing people together so that they can network and support one another. We can create a supportive community where people not only learn from one another but also cheerlead for one another. The idea of having a salon conversation emerged. Now I've looked online at the concept of salons and I'm not sure it's exactly what we need, but then I also looked at circles and it came up a lots of links about primary school circle time, and I don't think it's that either! So I’ve settled for ‘A Conversation’.

What I'd like to do is to create a space where a bunch of random Trustees can come together and just chat for an hour. I'll be there to help tickle the conversation along and to ask questions, such as:

• What are Trustees in early 2022 thinking and feeling?
• What is frustrating?
• What are you aspirations for 2022, and how might you make these things happen?

Let’s keep it simple – a free get together on Zoom. Just turn up, bring a favourite drink and we'll just have a warm discussion for an hour. We can all meet some people and let’s see what happens from there.

I have a Facebook group which you can join as well, but I am looking at the Circle platform as a place to have to build a community of peers where you can share, but the data is not being harvested, shared and sold by Facebook. It'll be a private space for us to use as we see fit.

My ultimate aim is to create a space where we can support one another and help great things to happen. But first, let's simply create a space where you can talk to other Trustees. It'll be open and supportive but also private, so what gets shared in the space stays in the space.

So that's it that's what I was thinking, thanks to some crass comments... Sign up for your free place on the next free discussion session. You'll also be joining my email list so we can stay in touch. I look forward to meeting you soon!