Volunteer information meeting

Around 40 of our volunteers got an update on progress towards our new base at the Monks Cross Leisure Complex in a meeting at The Principal Hotel, York.

Volunteers got a close look at the plans for the shop, store and offices and asked questions about our move.

Our chairman Ian Yeowart explained that the charity’s board felt the current Huntington Road base was too small and needed expensive work to make it fit for purpose.

Ian outlined the shop scheme as follows:

We need somewhere with a good frontage and plenty of parking. Monks Cross will attract a wide age range of people to us and get our message out to them. We’re a well-loved charity but many people still don’t know about us. The move will let us spread the word.

We’ll be opposite M&S and should be able to start preparing to move at the end of January before opening at the end of March/beginning of April. When the shop’s ready, volunteers will be invited to see it and chat about how it’ll operate.

We want to make it the best shop at Vangarde, a smaller John Lewis, open seven days a week with an increased volunteer base. A new till system will use scanners – much simpler than inputting prices and we’ll see instantly what’s in stock and what’s selling well. Everyone will be fully trained until they’re happy and confident to use it.

There’s no pressure for anyone to come and work at the new shop – people will support us in many ways.

The business case for the new shop is based on additional sales to support our extra square footage. 

Key questions answered included:

Neighbours: We’ll be close to shops and restaurants including stores for the football and rugby clubs. The cinema is close as is the gym, Explore library and the NHS.

Parking:  Four-hour parking’s available every day except match days and that fits with current shift patterns. Alternative parking could be arranged on match days; whenever necessary there’s space at the next-door karting centre which Ian owns.

Shifts: We’ll probably open 10-5 and possibly 6 hours on Sunday and we’ll play this by ear according to need.

Public transport: Park and Ride is next door, other buses also visit Monks Cross and it depends where volunteers live whether they might need to change buses. Buses will travel around the complex with stops along their route. It will be possible to get off next to Vangarde.

The hospital shop: There are no plans to close the hospital shop. If volunteers there want to transfer they can, and if they want to do an extra shift as well as working the hospital that’ll be fantastic. We’ve been campaigning to attract volunteers and have already attracted quite a few new people. The lower age for working in the shop will be 16 but it would be better if people were at least 18.

Staffing: Two more staff are being recruited to ensure that at the weekend when the office is unmanned there will always be a staff member on site. This was necessary for insurance purposes.

Assessment of abilities: A volunteer recruitment policy is being developed to assess what volunteers can do, especially as far as physical work is concerned, so that they can be best matched up for shop shifts and other duties. Partnerships with Halifax College at York University and with schools throughout the area will give us the opportunity to recruit younger volunteers.

Future projects

Ian also outlined how as the charity grows, it’s looking for more projects. It’s setting up sub-groups to look at areas like care, education and research.  If anyone has ideas for future projects they would be very welcome.

The charity’s also growing as it does more in areas towards the coast, East Yorkshire and down to Selby, but it doesn’t yet have a high profile in these areas.  If people know others in those areas who would like to get involved that would be brilliant.

We plan to have volunteer information meetings twice a year, to keep people involved.  Ian encouraged people to bring others along to find out more about our work and see if they too would like to become involved.

He invited people to send in suggestions for discussion ahead of each of the meetings.