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Hello, my name is Matt Quinlan and I’ve been a member of SVP since 2001. In the last year I have been a member of and currently chair the National Member Training Development and Recruitment Committee (NMTDR). This committee was established by National President, Kieran Stafford in 2017 to continue developing the Society’s ability to recruit, train and develop its members. The committee has seven members, Ben Doyle (SE), Marita Moore (NE & Mid), Ger Mawn (NW), Rose McGowan (E) and Celine Martin and Mary Davis from National Office. Additionally, Regional Representatives from each Region (Frankie McClure (N), Hannah Clarke (NE & Mid), Mary Kiely (E), Mary Quigley (SE), Rose Adair (SW), Paddy Carroll (MW), and Bernie Carroll (W) meet with the NMTDR every 3 months to discuss training matters in each Region, problems arising and identifying possible solutions. Bernie Carroll has written a short piece for this edition of the Bulletin, to share an insight into her role as Regional Representative in West Region.
In the spirit of the Rule of the Society, consultation has been a major concern of the NMTDR Committee and we have tried to reach out to as many trainers as possible for their views on the challenges facing training and development in the Society and how best these challenges might be addressed. Two Trainer Consultation Days have been held in National Office so far (in November 2017 and May 2018) with another planned for October/November 2018. These days have been open to all trainers and offer each trainer an opportunity to shape the direction of training and member development within the Society. We have opened up an email address through which the Committee can be directly contacted by any member about any training or development matters (volunteertraining@svp.ie) and through which suggestions about improvement can be made.
We will be running a “Train the Trainer” course in September and October of this year to increase trainer numbers throughout the Society. We also plan to conduct another such course in 2019. Work is ongoing at the moment to develop an online training option which means that new members can complete training online in the areas of History, Poverty and Structure. A face to face option for these modules will also be retained to ensure maximum coverage of new volunteers. Visitation training will be conducted in person only. This will ensure that new members have the appropriate practical and interpersonal skills for their volunteer role. While we cannot go into detail here on all the ongoing work, in the coming weeks we hope to reopen a dedicated Training and Development webpage on the SVP website where trainers and members alike can view updates on training, development and recruitment matters. Additionally we hope to keep you informed through regular articles in SVP Bulletin. Please feel free to get in touch via volunteertraining@svp.ie if you have any suggestions or comments. Thank you!
