We are holding monthly hot-pot parties, to make the work a social occasion, and so all the presenters can meet each other. After all, volunteering is as much a social activity as a work thing.

Apart from that, there are other schemes run by the govt and job centres, about getting people into the workplace. Also there are numerous charities which help discriminated against people get back into the workplace, or those for one reason or another, (eg lack of confidence) don’t apply for jobs but want to… you can try contacting them.

Hope that’s a help!

Another tired manager …

terry ellis.

This frequency is busy after dark with several continental stations sharing the frequency so mornings through lunchtime are the best times to tune in.

Thanks.

David
Transmitters ‘R’ Us

Have you considered factoring in admin requirements when you allocate programme slots to DJs?

E.g. you could suggest that programme slots are in demand, so if you are given the opportunity to present we would require 1-2 hours of admin support as part of the volunteer agreement.

When we interview new volunteers we have a section on the application form which asks what other areas volunteers are willing to help out in (e.g. admin, publicity) – potential DJs should be encouraged to offer additional support, and if new applicants aren’t willing to offer help in these areas perhaps they should not be given preference against other people who will.

Tom

Sheffield Live! has made an Urdu version of the DEC appeal that is available here:
http://www.sheffieldlive.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/dec-pakistan-urdu.wav

Please feel free to re-use.

Steve

Dear Phil and all

I want to share a few thoughts with you and CMA Council regarding the CR Fund and following the response from the government to the petition that I initiated last year.

First, in reading the government statement, while I am sceptical of DCMS commitment or ability to progress in raising funds from other departments, it does seem to me there are some significant positives:

(1) that, despite the change of government, it is consistent with previous (Labour) government statements recognising the value of the sector and accepting that there is merit in finding additional funding from other government departments to support CR social benefit;
(2) it also reinforces the DCMS policy of funding the CMA.

On the other hand it is clear that in the present climate even the existing meagre level of the Fund is not guaranteed to continue after the completion of the Comprehensive Spending Review. In this context it seems to me there should be three broad lines of response:

1. We (the sector itself, the CMA and our allies) need to vigorously not only defend the Fund’s existence but to continue to call for its increase from 2005 levels to a level commensurate with the Everitt Report and the present and future scale of the sector.

2. The campaign needs to build significant grassroots mobilisation, that articulates with the CMA’s efforts but is not dependent on the CMA’s core resources. Its should be in parallel to and reinforce the policy dialogue with DCMS. This might take the form of a CR Fund action group/network that involves people from both within and outside CMA staff and Council.

3. There is a need also to inject some fresh thinking into the development of the Fund. In the long term of course it should be extended to other community media. In the medium term it could be better taken out of Ofcom and established as a ‘co-regulatory’ entity with an objective to lead in raising funds from other sources in addition to the DCMS support. The Canadian experience is instructive in this respect – where the fund was set up by a group of CR sector activists. Initial funding came from the private sector with CRTC cash later.

I’d welcome feedback from the CMA Council and others on these suggestions.

Best wishes

Steve Buckley
Sheffield Live! 93.2 FM
http://www.sheffieldlive.org

Shame as it was in excellent order.

Whether this charities or CM orgs…

What’s your experience?

bests

Phil

Little evidence of support for charities

You may have seen my Guardian news story on Saturday about how grant cuts to many local charities threatened to undermine the “Big society”. A few reflections on my researches:

1./ I’ve seen little evidence that councils (or Whitehall) have done much so far to assess the strategic value of local charities and community groups, either in providing services, enhancing statutory services, or creating social capital.
2./ As as consequence quite a few charities that have demonstrated impact and value (and been lauded by ministers for doing so) still face serious cuts.
3./ The Compact seems to be dead in the water. If Capita or Serco had been treated in the same way as some charities have over funding, councils and the government would be facing a fair few law suits.
4./ Many charities feel powerless to complain about the cuts and are reluctant to speak out in case they are singled out for more pain.
5./ The way in which the cuts have been carried out has hugely dented trust in the government Big society idea.

There’s a sense that if some on the right get the important support role of small charities and state funding in Big society Nick Hurd, for example many do not. Karl Wilding of NCVO tweeted this piece on the Conservative Home blog, which gives you a flavour of some of the contradictory and muddled mainstream right-of-centre thinking. This holds that (a) charities should not be providing public services anyway, so if their grant is cut, so what? (b) ok, maybe charities are better at public services than the “monolithic” state, but the taxpayer shouldn’t properly fund them because they will become corrupted; and (c) if the charities are really good at what they do, they won’t be cut … er, will they?

Last week a senior manager in a national charity told me that he’d realised the Tories “didn’t actually see charities as partners”. What he meant was that for all the rhetoric, they instinctively really didn’t like or trust charities. They may not be part of the state, but they’d been living off the state, which made them suspect, and were most likely full of Guardian-reading lefties. As you can see from the Conservative Home blog post comments, the debate about broader societal role of charities and community groups quickly gets lost in a welter of pet hates and loathing for human rights charities and community arts projects.

None of this bodes well for Big society.

• Is your charity of small community group in danger of losing its grant funding? Tell us (confidentially) at Guardian.co.uk/cutswatch