Volunteer Centre News Update – week beginning 1 May 2023
Volunteer Achievement Awards 2023
Since 2008, Lancaster District CVS has hosted the Lancaster District Volunteer Achievement Awards. Originally an annual event, we moved to a biennial ceremony in 2016 but missed 2020 due to COVID. In fact, the first lockdown came along just days after we launched our 2020 nominations process!
Our last event was online in 2021, and our last in-person event was in 2018. This year we are returning to an in-person event and we should be delighted if you will join us in celebrating the achievements of some of Lancaster District’s amazing volunteers. Everything that you need to know about the 2023 ceremony is contained in this update.
When and Where
We are excited to tell you that the Lancaster District Volunteer Achievement Awards 2023 will be held on Wednesday 7th June at 5pm at The Midland Hotel in Morecambe.
Our friends at The Midland have very kindly offered the venue free of charge to help us celebrate volunteers and volunteering and we are pleased to be able to invite you to join us at the end of National Volunteers’ Week to recognize the people who make our district the special place that it is.
As this is our first in-person Awards ceremony since 2019, we can’t think of a grander venue than the Midland, gazing out over Morecambe Bay as we hand out awards and certificates to deserving volunteers.
Booking
Tickets should be booked here, via TryBooking.
Tickets are £5 plus booking fee and restricted to no more than four tickets per organisation
This is to ensure as many people from as many organisations as possible have the opportunity to attend.
You’ll need to give the name of each attendee, and information about any dietary needs.
In past years we have been over-booked, so please do book your tickets as soon as you can to avoid disappointment. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.
Nominations
The nomination process is now open and you can nominate your chosen volunteers online here.
All nominations must be put through the form on this page. If you have questions or would like to discuss anything, or if you need support completing the form, please contact Mark – [email protected].
We have tried to streamline the nominations process this year to make it as simple as possible. There is a single form and you can use this to nominate people for one or more awards. We have a guidance document that we encourage you to spend a few moments reading through before you start.
The Event
We will begin at 5pm on Wednesday 7th June. The ceremony will last approximately 2 hours. There are six awards, and there are also Certificates of Recognition that will be presented to individuals and groups of volunteers. You can request these through the single nomination form.
We hope to be joined, as always, by the Right Worshipful Mayor of Lancaster, but we won’t know who that is until after the local elections.
The Award categories are:
- Volunteer of the Year (ages 25 and over)
- Young Volunteer of the Year (ages 24 and under)
- Fundraiser of the Year
- Trustee of the Year
- Lifetime Achievement Award
- The Roger Sherlock Memorial Award for Community Inspiration
At the conclusion of the ceremony, food will be available, and you do not want to miss food at The Midland!
We need a compere!
This year we are giving Mark and Yak a rest from compering duties and we are offering the chance to someone from our community to take up the microphone and guide us through this year’s event.
Perhaps you love being in front of a crowd, maybe you don’t but want to do it anyway!
This could also be an opportunity for a double act, perhaps a couple of young people wanting to make a mark.
All enquiries welcome! Contact Mark to discuss – [email protected].
Independent Decision Making Panel
Every time we run our Awards, we have a panel of people drawn from our partner organisations making the decisions on which nominees win in each category. Membership means that you will not be making any nominations yourself and are, in turn, unlikely to be nominated in any of the categories.
The panel will meet on Thursday 1st June and it will take approximately 3 hours (or less). You will be provided with all of the information that you will need to make appropriate decisions. This year nobody from Lancaster District CVS will be on the panel, but Mark will be attending to facilitate and answer questions/give support.
If you would like to be on this panel, let Mark know via email – [email protected]
2021 Retrospective
Our 2021 event was held online via Zoom and because of the unique nature of that year, coming in the middle of a global pandemic and everything that came with that, we decided that it would be virtually impossible to ask people to nominate individual people for our award categories when so many people through 2020 had either stopped volunteering because they were vulnerable, or because their projects had needed to close, or as was the case for many more people, had begun volunteering and doing so in such high volume as to make the task of separating them out, distinguishing one volunteer from another in terms of their input, effort, and hard work, unfair.
To that end we agreed that for 2021 we would use the opportunity to thank and recognise as many people as possible, and that only one award would be given that year – the Roger Sherlock Community Inspiration of the Year trophy – which was dedicated to the people of Lancaster, for all that they did in supporting friends, family, and each other through a very difficult 18 months.
We had hoped to display the Roger Sherlock trophy at the Town Hall, but the Town Hall remained closed to the public for quite some time. It will be especially joyful this year to see these awards go home with people and we look forward to seeing you all on 7th June.
Volunteer Opportunity Promotion and Recruitment
Have you registered on our website to promote your volunteer roles? By adding your opportunities to our website you will be making them available to the hundreds of people per month who check our site looking for something to do. You will also enable our team to easily and quickly signpost people to your roles, to give them the information that they need to decide whether they would like to apply.
Registering is quick and easy and you can do it HERE.
Once registered you will be able to add your roles. If you need any help, or have any questions, you can contact Mark by email at [email protected].
In addition to the website, the Volunteer Centre can promote your roles via our bulletins and newsletters; through attendance at in-person events such as volunteer fairs; in 121 meetings with potential volunteers; through visits to various support organisations; drop-in events at local Job Centres; by posting to our social media platforms (#LDCVSVolunteerTuesday); and through our bi-weekly column in the Lancaster Guardian.
If you would like to discuss any of this, including having space in our Lancaster Guardian column, please contact Mark.
