New volunteering opportunites

2 November 2017

Network, gain new skills and enhance your veterinary career by volunteering for the BSAVA

We are currently recruiting for nine volunteer posts covering all aspects of the Association: Junior Vice President, Honorary Treasurer, Congress Committee Vice Chair, Congress Programme Committee Vice Chair, Membership Development Vice Chair, Publications Chair, Scientific Committee Vice Chair, Regions Coordinator and Regional Representatives.

Volunteers are the life-blood of the BSAVA helping in all areas and at all levels with some taking on Trustee/Director roles as they progress. Individual vet, vet nurse and student volunteers give their time to help us for a wide range of reasons.

Kate O’Sullivan, Secretary of Cymru / Wales region, finds volunteering “really gratifying when you help bring CPD to your area”.

Sheldon Middleton, current Honorary Treasurer, started his BSAVA volunteering life on the East Anglia regional committee, working his way up from Treasurer, to Secretary before becoming Chair of the region. He then chaired the Membership Development Committee before taking up his current role as Honorary Treasurer. He describes his experience as: “Gaining a sense of community where you can bounce ideas off each other”.

Helen Harrison became a volunteer whilst studying at the University of Bristol: Volunteering helped her to manage finances and build a support network. “You have the opportunity to get to know people with a huge array of expertise and you can ask them anything on a professional and personal matter”. She explains.

Dan Makin, Treasurer of Southern region, simply describes what he likes about being a volunteer: “It’s a distraction from the ups and downs of veterinary life”.

The roles

Junior Vice President 
This role is part of the Presidential team and would lead onto Vice President, President and then Senior Vice President, it is therefore a four-year commitment.  Full training is offered, for example Trustee training, media training and leadership training.  Applicants need to have experience of the Association, preferably having chaired a standing committee and possibly held another trustee role within the Association.

Honorary Treasurer
As part of the Officer team, the Honorary Treasurer works closely with the Finance Manager, based at Woodrow House.  This is a three-year commitment and applicants should ideally have an interest in finance and a desire to receive training in general finance. There is an opportunity to learn about investments and the post-holder should be confident, once training has been undertaken, to deliver financial information to groups of people.

Regions Coordinator
This post is a position on the Advisory and Management Committee (A&M) where the post holder represents the twelve regions. It is therefore desirable for the applicant to have been involved within the regional structure of the Association.  Training is available; this may take the form of working with groups, finance or project management.  This is a three-year commitment and would involve chairing two Regional Forum weekends each year, in February and September.  The person appointed also sits on the Education Committee, which meets three times a year.

Congress Committee Vice Chair 
This role is vital in continuing the provision of a world leading Congress. The Vice Chair role is a four-year commitment overall including time spent as Chair after being Vice Chair.  The post-holder would need to be available to attend the annual BSAVA Congress and four Congress committee meetings per year.  The current Chair will finish their term in April 2019 and you would take up the Vice Chair role in April 2018, moving into the Chair role the following April.

Congress Programme Vice Chair
Congress Programme Committee is a sub-committee of the main Congress Committee. It is responsible for the design and delivery of the scientific programme for Congress.  The Chair of Congress Committee is a three-year role. The current post holder will finish their term in April 2020, however it is considered useful for the Vice Chair to be in place for a two-year term before taking on the Chair role, so the commitment is for five years.

Membership Development Vice Chair
The Membership Development Committee (MDC) is responsible for recruitment and retention of members.  The post-holder would need to attend three MDC meetings per year and would commence their role in April 2018, moving into the Chair role the following April for three years.

Publication Chair 
The Publications committee contributes to the array of manuals produced by the Association. The current post-holder is stepping down in April 2018, therefore the new Chair will need to hit the ground running (with the support of the Publications team). The Chair would need to attend three Publications Committee meetings per year.

Scientific Committee Vice Chair
This committee contributes to the Association’s scientific documents and resources.  The current post-holder term finishes in April 2019 and the Vice Chair post would start in April 2018, moving into the Chair post the following April. They would need to attend three committee meetings per year.

Regional Representative
Three of the current Regional Representatives will come to the end of their three-year term in April 2018 and there is an additional Regional Representative role available – so four in total.  The people appointed would join a Regional Support Team, which consists of five Regional Representatives, the Regions Coordinator and two permanent members of staff.  The team provides additional support for the twelve BSAVA regions and the Regional Representatives each hold a Trustee/Director role on the BSAVA Council.

All post-holders will receive full training and support by relevant teams at Woodrow House.

Current volunteers can access the full role descriptions, along with details of the application process, by logging into MyBSAVA and going to ‘Volunteer area’.

If you are not a current volunteer and are interested in helping, please visit the volunteer section of the website.  Alternatively you can email our Volunteer Manager, Carole Haile on volunteer@bsava.com to have an informal chat about joining your local regional committee or if you are interested in any of the roles outlined above.

The application deadline for all roles is Friday 15th December 2017.