Some of the key committee members will be resigning at the Annual Meeting in November 2010 and therefore a new team of members needs to be formed to ensure that the West Wickham & Hayes branch can continue to offer support and friendship to parents-to-be and new parents in the local area. The larger the team, the lighter the workload – volunteering is fun, allows you to use your experience and gain new skills, and you have the satisfaction of knowing that you’re helping the NCT make a difference for parents.

For the immediate future, we think the branch needs to focus on what is essential and then add the “nice to haves”. We are a branch with approx. 70 member households, so we should be able to find:

· Branch Coordinator/Chair: who coordinates the work of the branch committee or team, leads and develops the committee or team as a group, and is the principal link between the branch and other parts of NCT

· Minute Taker: who helps the chair/co-ordinator with the administration of team meetings and takes a note of actions

· Fundraising Coordinator: who puts together a fundraising team, works with the team to devise a fundraising plan and organises the events

· Newsletter Editor: who gathers interesting articles and edits them into our local newsletter for members

· Newsletter Advertising Coordinator: who works with the editor to sell advertising to companies/individuals offering services of interest to our readership and help cover the newsletter’s costs

· Publicity Officer: who develops relationships with the local media, writes and places press releases and helps publicise the local NCT

So, are you interested in meeting people, working in a team, helping new parents get established in their new role? Do you have a background in administration, customer services, finance or accounting, information technology or databases, copywriting, marketing, the media or the web? Or would you like to develop some of these skills? If so, there is definitely a role for you! And a friend - all the roles can be organised as job-shares.

Support and guidance to help you build a new team for West Wickham & Hayes will be available from the London Regional Coordinator, the Regional Area Link as well as the remaining members of the current team.

In addition, London Region holds training days twice a year for volunteers from all over the region, so you’ll be able to attend training workshops and network with other branches to share ideas and good practice

If you would like to join our volunteer team then do come along to our next team meeting and find out what we do alternatively contact our secretary Jo at jo9colby@yahoo.co.uk.