BTCV Handbooks Online

Book:	Local Action
Chapter:	Running a group
Section:	General administration
Metadata:	Details	Buy this book

For groups where there is a frequent change of co-ordinator, or where individuals are reluctant to advertise their home addresses, the use of a PO Box could be considered. However, you must ensure that your advertised group contact is on the phone, at least in the evening if not during the day.

The costs of distributing your newsletter or programme can be kept to a minimum by asking volunteers to deliver them by hand in their neighbourhood and using noticeboards and meetings. The internet is a great communication tool for many groups nowadays, sending newsletters and minutes out by email can save a lot of time and money, but remember not everyone has access, so you still need to keep producing a paper version. You may be able to reduce the cost of postage by sharing mailings with similar organisations and weighing post in excess of 60g so that you do not pay more postage than necessary. If you want to contact all the schools in your area, your local education authority might circulate your information to them free of charge.

Always use recycled paper. Save money and resources by re-using old envelopes. Sticky labels are available from BTCV Enterprises.

Photocopying

It has been said many times that the most important person in any group is the one who has free access to a reliable photocopier. This is not a recommendation that group members steal from their employers, but finding cheap copying is always a great benefit. If any group members have sympathetic employers, find out whether they will donate a certain number of free photocopies each month. Remember to acknowledge their help in your annual report and let them have a copy. Other sources of cheap copying include local resource or community centres.

Southampton Environment Centre is one of a growing number of such community projects. As part of its work, it provides photocopying for groups who are members of BTCV at prices below commercial rates.

There have been massive improvements in cheap printing technology and these have superseded old-style duplicators. Try to avoid using such obsolete technology - smudgy newsletters do nothing for a group's public image. One of the group members may be able to print newsletters on their home PC for the cost of paper and ink; this might save you time. It is now very easy to produce one off or short print runs of posters on home PCs, using photographs group members have taken. You can get things encapsulated too which makes them last much longer. If you are going to need this sort of thing frequently it may be economical for your group to invest in the equipment for yourselves.

Think about how many copies you will need and ask around for a number of quotes from printers to find the best price. Go in and talk to the printer and, if you know you will need printing done regularly, try to build up a relationship so that you know you can trust the person to do a good job. Ask if they will use recycled paper; many printers still don't use it regularly but you might be able to change their mind. Remember you could use coloured paper or more than one colour ink. Printing is sometimes more economical than photocopying if you need a large number of something printed, and you may have enough money to use more than one colour.

Record keeping

A good record of what your group has done is important for fundraising, for publicity purposes and to give you a sense of identity. Time spent keeping records is time well spent, but many groups don't do it. Records are also an important reference for site management; they will help you to know if you have completed the work you said you needed in your management plan.

A good reason for keeping records is to improve the work of your group. If something goes well, it would be good to know so that it can be repeated. If something goes wrong, it would also be useful to know so that it can be avoided in future.

A record can also be very useful for giving new volunteers an idea of what you have achieved in the past.

Many grant awarding bodies require you to keep records and fill in a report when you have completed the project the grant has paid for.

There are four important sets of records:

A list of all the projects carried out

This should record where the projects were on a large site, when they were done, what work was done, who received training, what it all cost and everyone who took part. Take photographs of each project and get before, during and after pictures to show how your work has made a difference. Colour slides are useful for talks, or why not get one of your members to make a video record.

Minutes of group meetings

These need not be point-by-point minutes but you should keep a record of all decisions made at each meeting, who attended and who is to take follow-up action. A 'minutes book' can provide a valuable record of the group as it develops.

Financial records

(See Money and fundraising for more details.)

Volunteer records

If you want your group to flourish, you need information about your volunteers - their addresses and telephone numbers, when they joined, their skills and training received, such as in First Aid, and any resources they are willing to share, eg computers or vehicles. Your members should be made aware of what personal information you are collecting about them and what use you are going to make of that information. If you need to collect sensitive personal information such as health details, you must have clear consent in writing from anyone who provides such details and you must not disclose those details to outside bodies without further clear consent. Whether you keep manual or computer records, you must use this information only for the purposes for which it was given to you. You must also take reasonable steps to ensure that others cannot easily access this information. If you keep manual records, lock them away when they are not in use, and use passwords for entry into computer databases. You should keep information up-to-date and make regular checks. Securely destroy unwanted details.