VolResource Newsletter 351

11. Accounting basics
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The Community Accountancy National Network web site has a new range of basic resources to help smaller third sector organisations with their accounting. Topics covered include financial controls, cash-flow, budgets and bank reconciliations. See under 'Guidance' at http://www.communityaccounting.org for these pdf format documents.

12. Revised volunteer management standards published
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The revised and updated national occupational standards for managing volunteers are available for download, as a whole or as individual units covering the whole spectrum of activities involved in the "Management of Volunteers", from http://www.ukworkforcehub.org.uk/mvnos08.

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31. Encouraging Muslim groups to register as charities
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The Charity Commission is using Ramadan to encourage mosques and community organisations which benefit from the generosity of Muslim people to look at registering as a charity. See their news item for further information, at http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/news/prramadhan.asp.

32. Changes to financial thresholds for charities
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The government published its response to the consultation 'Financial Thresholds in the Charities Acts - Proposals for Change' as this newsletter was being compiled. The recommendations will be introduced in secondary legislation by the end of the 2008/09 financial year. Basic details in the news release - we'll cover further in due course.

33.Absence levels rise
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Staff absence levels have risen in the non-profit sector over the past year, according to a survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, as reported by Plaza Publishing news alert. Employee absence had risen from 3.6 per cent to 4.2 per cent of working time lost. As we've noted before, CIPD member organisations in the survey are likely to be at the larger end of the scale so this may not be typical across the sector. http://www.charityfinance.co.uk/home/content.php?id=2128&pg=15&cat=58.

34. Sports volunteers not put off by child protection demands
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A Scottish survey of current, past and potential sports volunteers has found that they are not being put off by the growing legislative demands around child protection. This is in contrast to a recent report by Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People which found that almost half of the population would be put off from volunteering by the threat of false accusations. See Children 1st news item at http://www.children1st.org.uk/news/index.html?action=view&id=345. The survey documents are on sportscotland, but note that you may need to change the file extension to be able to open them. (Source: Volunteering England news aggregator)

35. Group aims to protect volunteer rights
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Third Sector magazine has reported that a Volunteer Rights Group, to protect volunteer rights, has been set up by twelve former volunteers who walked out from York CAB in protest over the treatment of a colleague. See http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/News/839804/.

36. Community radio in east and south east England
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Ofcom is inviting applications for licences to provide community radio services within east and southeast England, excluding Greater London and other areas within the M25. Community Media Association, with Ofcom, has organised two workshops in September. Closing date is 18th November - further details (pdf, 1.28MB) at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radio/ifi/rbl/commun_radio/tlproc/invites/.

37. Developments for social enterprise
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-- The nine English Regional Development Agencies are to measure and report levels of satisfaction among social enterprise using Business Link services. Office of the Third Sector announcement at http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/third_sector/news/news_stories/080820_rda.aspx.

-- The government's Office of the Third Sector is being encouraged to develop a stronger focus on gender and race issues in its social enterprise strategy. A report from the Government Equalities Office identifies new ways to encourage black, Asian and minority ethnic women to start social enterprise. News release at http://nds.coi.gov.uk/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=377180&NewsAreaID=2 or download 'Social Enterprise: Making it work for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Women' (pdf, 1.11MB).

38. Scholarships for Cranfield MBA
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Once again, Cranfield School of Management and The Cranfield Trust are offering two scholarships on the Cranfield Executive MBA (either Part-time or Modular) - candidates must be working for a European charitable, voluntary organisation which is involved in issues of poverty, disability or social exclusion. Applications should be submitted between 1st September and 31st October. Scholarship information at http://www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/mba/applications/financing.asp#Vol, application details at http://www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/mba/applications/.

39. Wessex Charity Awards
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The Wessex Charity Awards are open to any charity or not-for-profit organisation operating in Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Dorset, Wiltshire, West Sussex and West Surrey. Nominations by 31st October, http://www.wessexcharityawards.co.uk.

PDF note: to be able to read pdf files, download Adobe Reader from http://www.adobe.co.uk/products/acrobat/readstep2.html, for accessibility matters see http://access.adobe.com. Or for an alternative, try Foxit Reader.

51. How To on youth participation
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Participation Works, a collaboration of agencies committed to children and young people's participation, has a range of How To resources including a new one, 'How to work successfully with children and young people from different faiths and cultures'.

52. Disability Information Portal
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Leonard Cheshire Disability is trialling a one-stop-shop for disability related information and advice on the web, the Disability Information Portal. Interested parties can help shape the final site at http://www.dip-online.org. (Source: e-access bulletin)

53. Finding related ways to take action
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A web 'widget' that automatically recommends "related ways to take action" to readers of your blog or web site has been created by Social Actions. Working in similar ways to Google Ads, but taking a bit longer to load, it identifies keywords on a page and lists related social change campaigns drawn from twenty social action platforms such as Kiva, Idealist.org and PledgeBank. These have a strong American slant, but you can see how effective (or not) this is currently on a UK site by looking bottom left on VoluntaryNews, http://www.voluntarynews.org.uk. (Source: Nonprofit Online News)

54. Processing credit cards
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Idealware, the American nonprofit software site, has a new article giving some tips and tools to process credit card transactions both online and off. Very little of this is specific to their side of the Atlantic. http://www.idealware.org/articles/fgt_process_credit_cards.php.

55. Popular participation, local democracy and grassroots organisation
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Nonprofit Online News has spotted that 'Community Power and Grassroots Democracy: The Transformation of Social Life', published in 1997 but out-of-print, can be read online at http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-9378-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html. An examination of popular participation, local democracy and grassroots organisation, its case studies look at the role of community organisations as guarantors of meaningful participation, action and development.

56. How to Build a Good Small NGO
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This resource from Networklearning is based on experiences mainly with NGOs in Africa, the Indian sub-continent and countries previously in the USSR. Scroll down the page for versions in French, Arabic and Vietnamese as well as English, Word (922KB) or pdf (1MB) format - http://www.networklearning.org/library/task,cat_view/gid,41/. (Source: Charity Village, Canada)

57. Facts on Canada's voluntary sector workforce
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Two Surveys of Employers and Employees have made a first attempt to obtain hard data regarding workforce issues in Canada's voluntary sector. Key findings were published in July - see some quick facts in the Charity Village cover story (link is to archive) http://www.charityvillage.com/cv/archive/acov/acov08/acov0828.html, or download 'Findings from Canada-wide Surveys of Employers and Employees' (pdf, 1.63MB) http://hrcouncil.ca/about/documents/LFS_R2_web_000.pdf.

58. Competencies for sector techies
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Version 1.0 of an ICT standards and skills guide 'Improving Circuit Rider Service To Voluntary And Community Organisations - Tools To Build Circuit Rider Competencies' has been published by Lasa. It should also be of relevance to "accidental techies" and other ICT workers. (Circuit Rider = someone who helps voluntary organisations implement and manage technology). Download the pdf, 498KB, from http://www.ukriders.info/system/files/improving_circuit_rider_service_to+_vcs.pdf.

We accept limited 'paid for' job ads: a guaranteed web site spot and trailing, plus basic details here. See http://www.volresource.org.uk/jobs/1.htm for opportunities/details.

** Newly listed: Jigsaw Support Scheme, Befriending Scheme Coordinator.