Baby helps too……

There is no bigger change in life than the transition from full time work to becoming a new mum. Of course you love your bundle of joy and you wouldn’t be without them for the world. But for many women there is a shock in the transition from their productivity at work, to barely managing to get dressed, fold the laundry and empty the dishwasher. Plus the combination of the crying and the sleep deprivation can start to drive you nuts.

The events and activities that we set up within the NCT seek to provide social networks to help new parents explore their new roles together, sharing information and providing support. Volunteering to help the NCT reach out to other parents can provide you with further opportunity:

- To feel that you are still contributing in some way

- To have a sense of purpose

- To broaden your social circle

- To do something that is completely baby friendly

– every meeting is between mums and babies can always come.

This quarter we are looking for a new cohort of volunteers to ‘help out’. This may be simply:

- To come to the next baby welcome event and help introduce people

- To make a cake for an event

- To come along to our new ‘pudding club’ to share your experience and knowledge with expectant mums

- To commit between a few friends to be in a certain place at a certain time to enable a new coffee group to start (this doesn’t have to be every week).

- To write an article for our newsletter, or format a page or two.

- To go along to Bumps and Babes to share NCT branch information

- To go for a pram walk and invite others to join you via our facebook/twitter pages

- To suggest what would suit you and your group of friends.

- To help pack away all the unsold items at the Nearly New Sale

Experience tells us we need twice the number of volunteers than you would have thought due to inevitable last minute illnesses, feeding needs etc. For the previous Baby Welcome, Jo had 6 volunteers lined up, but only had 1 on the day.

Please please let us know what you would be prepared to do BrentwoodNCT@yahoo.co.uk If we can free up some of the existing committee members time on these little things, we can spend that time reaching out to more local parents, campaigning to improve local services and extending our support services.

- We are looking to step up our involvement in the maternity services at the 3 local hospitals

- We hope to run a questionnaire to all course attendees to benchmark their hospital experience and monitor the progress over time

- We hope to produce a leaflet about Brentwood NCT that gets handed out by all doctors surgeries

- We hope to revise and publish our ‘breast feeding in Brentwood’ guide that was first pulled together 2 years ago.

- We hope to extend our new ‘Pudding Club’ – think what you would have liked a few months ago

These plans all need our time, but we don’t have enough volunteer hours to get beyond the current commitments. You do not have to be a member to be a volunteer. Many thanks for your consideration.

Joanne Dewar Branch Co-ordinator. Newsletter editor, Advertising Co-ordinator, Events Co-ordinator, Facebook editor, Email General enquiries contact; Mum to Kirsty, Charlotte and Robert.

Roles currently available

Many of the roles can be shared between 2 people, as demonstrated by Jo and Kim, our Parent Services Co-ordiantors, so rope in a friend and it will be more fun.

Newsletter team

We have a newsletter editor in place, but would love to get a newsletter team together to share ideas and source articles. We also need to secure the advertising revenue required to be able to produce the newsletter at no cost to the member or branch. We are reviewing newsletters produced by other branches and would love to ‘modernise’ ours, moving to A5, bringing in colour and ensuring the articles and information contained is up to date and relevant. The newsletter team meets once every 2 weeks alternating day time and evening – it doesn’t matter if you can’t meet every get together. Please help share the load – with 4/5 people on board this could be really fun.

Advertising Co-ordinator

The adverts in the newsletter pay the printing costs, but now that we post out the newsletters, we need to cover the postage costs too. Many businesses contact us to seek ways to advertise with our members. We also consider ways we can distribute flyers at our events, or working with our social media co-ordinator and Webmaster for on-line advertising. Cold calling not part of the job description.

Secretary

An excuse to come to our monthly branch meetings and be on top of what is going on. The primary role of the branch secretary is to take minutes at the monthly team meetings, take apologies, prepare the agenda. Beyond that, the role is up to you. There is plenty of scope for the role to encompass other areas.

Pudding Club co-ordinator

Our newest regular activity is our pudding club, for expectant mums to make friends, share information and experiences, from whatever stage of pregnancy they choose. The group meets every 2 weeks on a Wednesday evening, locations vary, but the group needs a ‘host’ to send invites, respond to queries and maybe in the future, to organise talks if the mums are interested. The co-ordinator doesn’t have to themselves make every gathering.

General enquiries co-ordinator

Our inbox is alive with messages from enquiries from all sorts of sources and these need either responding to or farming out to the appropriate contact point on the team. A simple role, but very effective.

Events team

We have 2 new events co-ordinators, but they need the support of a couple of mums that can represent the people that they are aiming to invite. Ideally a mum of a baby and a mum of a toddler would help understand the needs of the 2 age groups, appropriate timings, entertainment requirements, pricing etc. Events are suspended until we get this events team in place.

Unfortunately we are currently having to cut back on some of the events that we organise due to a shortage of volunteers. We have just pulled out of repeating our contribution to the Strawberry Fair in June and have no plans for an Easter party. We have no quiz this quarter and no mums nights out. We are reducing the frequency of the newsletter and have stopped the hand delivery. Can you help us? Please see over for ways you may be able to help.

Contact us on brentwoodnct@yahoo.co.uk
Or phone Jo Dewar on 07710 485629