Behind the Scenes at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust...

Our YWT headquarters sit in an unassuming yet calmly impressive building not far from the Tyburn in York, where Dick Turpin was hanged when his career as a highwayman came to an abrupt end. Whilst nothing quite so dramatic takes place there these days, it is the hub for our organisation, for fundraising, strategy, and of course volunteer management.

There are doors in the office with things like “Finance” written on them. By the time I've been through security (well, OK, maybe I was just told about what to do in case of a fire) and have met Jane Balderson, our Volunteer Support Team Administrative Volunteer, I feel I am with Moneypenny herself.

In our world the Hollywood style glamour isn't so much about tackling spies, it’s more about  fighting invasive species (Star wars), Managing great herds of livestock (Most cowboy films), building dry stone walls (The Lego movie) and Task days (The Jungle book). But, every time we do any such volunteering  we have to fill in some kind of timesheet. These all come to the Volunteering Team office.

Jane Balderson and YWT - a good fit

The main difference between the Fictional Moneypenny and the very real Jane Balderson is that Jane does not have to handle James Bond’s expense claims with his worldwide travel and Aston Martin write-offs. Otherwise their roles are very similar, supporting a large semi-formal network of individuals working against the odds to defeat an ever changing enemy.

Jane is a semi-retired nurse, working one day per work in NHS admin, having stopped working full time in 2019. After retiring, Jane, as a keen gardener, started volunteering for the Rowntree trust in their parks, but a combination of lockdown and a bad back put a stop to that. So once the world was ready for people to meet again, Jane started looking for another role, this time harnessing her skills with data and organisation - something in an office or a shop maybe.

Luckily for Jane, and for all of us in YWT, she came across an ad for her current role as  “Volunteer Support Team Administrative Volunteer”. She puts in around 3 hours once a week and registers new Secret agents for the trust and records their activities in a database called “ThankQ”. 2 points here, firstly, we have volunteers rather than secret agents, secondly the database really is called ThankQ - a great name that means that every time our volunteering is recorded, we are being thanked for our time and effort.Incidentally, ”Q” does not indicate any individual in the YWT!

Jane was drawn to this role as it was local in 2 ways, firstly close to her home and secondly, because it’s all about Yorkshire. She already had a connection with nature and this was a way of contributing. Jane is very clear when she says “Humans are not the only species” and she feels we are too dominant on earth in general. Besides that, Jane points out some of the other advantages of volunteering in general, such as giving her week a fixed point and a regular commitment. There is also the added advantage that she can say “I can’t make it this week”. It’s important to her that her volunteering is about something that is meaningful for her. Alongside this is the social side, working with the rest of the team. Jane is not the only one updating the timesheets. Another Volunteer, James Carpenter, who I didn’t meet, also does this. Marie, Jen and Tom, the staff on the volunteer team also do a bit, but having Jane and James frees up their time to deal with the less routine stuff. Whilst I was at the office, people were popping in and out, saying hello and being generally friendly, some of them were staff and others were volunteers in other departments.

Since Jane has been with YWT, she has realised how big and varied the organisation is with 100 reserves and the many other operations that take place outside of the reserves. She says it has opened her eyes. On the one hand, It’s Yorkshire so it’s local, but on the other hand, the wildlife trusts all work together nationally. There is also the realisation that nature isn’t in a state to just look after itself - somebody has to do it.

Volunteering Timesheets and their importance to YWT

So, what does Jane do with all those timesheets? Well, here she needs to use some Moneypenny-like decoding skills to decipher all of our handwriting - most of us sign our task day sheets up against a tree in the rain with our gloves between our teeth. I asked Jane if this is a problem and she told me that it’s no issue as ThankQ knows who normally attends which task days, so it’s enjoyable and easy to match up the details. She also says that she feels like she almost knows the people she enters the details for.

The tracking of volunteers and hours is important for many reasons including health and safety, keeping contact and details and so on. But, there is more. This is the source for volunteer numbers and donated time. It is important for the trust to monitor and manage this, to ensure that the volunteers' valuable time is used in the best way. This information is also used to calculate the volunteering value as an equivalent number of full time employees - This is more than 40. Such numbers are useful when applying for grants and other funding that is outside of normal donations. The message we can deliver is that we have a capable and dedicated team that delivers results for any money invested.

So, it is important that we all submit timesheets for our volunteering as it adds to our message. Jane doesn’t worry if the timesheets sometimes come in a little late - better late than never - every hour counts and should be counted.

ThankQ

Finally, Jane has a message for all our volunteers. She is constantly amazed at the number of people who regularly give up their time for the YWT. The commitment is obvious and it means that the hours she volunteers herself don’t feel like it's time she’s given up. So to all of you volunteers out there, Jane would like to say “ThankQ”.