Trustee for Bracknell Shopmobility

Do you want to support the running of a charity that helps disabled people in Bracknell?
You could be a trustee for Bracknell Shopmobility.
What difference will you make?

What do we get?

• Your strategic skills, knowledge, understanding or experience
• Your abilities to influence plans for our charity's future
• Enhancement to our overall governance and the Board of trustees; growth in our charity governance and operations
• Your participation in our collective decision-making, contributing to all areas of our charity work
• Your enthusiasm

What do our beneficiaries get?

• The ability to continue our support to disabled people and communities in Bracknell
• A well-governed charity, sustainable for the future
• A forward-looking and agile organisation, with a well-informed Board

What do YOU get as a volunteer trustee with our organisation?

• An opportunity to exercise your strategic planning skills, probably in a different environment or context
• New skills and expansion of your experience of charities
• An opportunity to influence and collectively-govern an organisation supporting disabled people and our communities
• The personal reward of giving back to the community
• Boost to your career or CV, if needed
• Induction, training, support from our organisation and from charity-support organisations

What are we looking for?

Here is some of what we would expect from our trustees; we appreciate you may want to develop more in some of these areas. We know that you may also need training and support from us and from external organisations, and that that will be forthcoming, as necessary, to build on any area.

• Understanding of the needs of our beneficiaries is desirable; an empathy with them is essential
• Clear commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, valuing differences to make better decisions and deliver better services for our beneficiaries
• Strategic vision; good, independent judgement; ability to think creatively, tempered by pragmatism and reality
• Ability to cooperatively work with the team of trustees, bringing impartiality and objectivity to decision-making
• Giving support and assistance to other trustees and advisors with the charity's drafting of funding and grant applications, would be highly welcome if you have such experience and interest
• Skills and ability to listen, even to dissenting views
• Willingness to speak your mind and to challenge other trustees with good intent; able to make unpopular recommendations to the Board, if necessary
• Skills to analyse proposals, examine their strategic consequences and make concise recommendations
• Secure personal access to digital communication and able to competently use those resources
• Commitment to the organisation; willingness and ability to devote the necessary time & effort
• Having appropriate personal and professional contacts & networks, with willingness to draw on those as needed
• Willingness to be available to employees for advice and enquiries on a scheduled or ad-hoc basis
• While experience and understanding of charity law and governance can be useful, we strongly welcome people without prior charity trustee experience in order to increase the diversity of our Board; training in those areas is provided

What will you be doing?

Bracknell Shopmobility are the independent charity helping local people's disability needs, from hire of mobility scooters to advice on disability aids and assistance, and also much more

From our shop in central Bracknell we run regular social activities in our community café, hold fundraising activities, plus host regular visits from health and other advisors about a range of issues, not just focused on disabled people.

Our annual income has risen to £70k, and we have a new Treasurer joining us; we now need trustees to build our strategy for the future, so we can continue our 20+ year journey in helping Bracknell communities.

The role and what we are looking for in a new trustee
Trustees are the people who make the top-level decisions for our charity. Our Board includes people with experience in understanding the needs of disabled people's mobility, and we'd expect new trustees to have empathy with our cause and our beneficiaries.

You don't need prior experience of charity trusteeship, as support from others is always available.  Full induction to our organisation will be provided, plus specialist support as a new trustee including access to external training.

If you can think strategically and plan longer-term, you have the primary skills needed by our trustees; you'll also need to be able to work collectively with other Board members. Our small team of employees and volunteers are those dealing with the day-to-day running of the organisation.

We are a charity not a business, but we apply business principles to governing our organisation. We are looking for people from a wide variety of backgrounds to join our charity.

The focus of a trustee role is strategic, and trustees will not be expected to get involved in the organisation's day-to-day operations; however, contact and liaison with other trustees and employees is expected.

We ask for about six hours per month, which includes all meetings, discussions, etc.  You will need access to digital communications, as much of our charity's business is run that way.