TWINE – FREE bundle of digital tools offered by Power to Change to Community Managed Libraries

ABOUT TWINE

Twine is a bundle of digital tools being offered by Power to Change. Twine allows you to log volunteer hours and visitor footfall quickly and digitally and then use this digital data to create efficient reports. It is designed overall to make reporting on volunteer and visitor stats faster and easier. It’s been designed with simplicity in mind and overall is very easy to use.

Power to Change, the independent charitable trust that supports and develops community businesses in England, is building a community of Twine users around the country. When people ask “Why should I use Twine?” the answer usually is that if you are currently logging volunteer hours on paper, or have a similar paper system for logging visitors/service users, Twine could save you the time and effort.

Volunteer Co-ordinators and Service Managers have a lot on their plate, Twine saves them the time spent typing up paper forms into excel.  Twine is completely FREE courtesy of Power to Change. You can call or email their team 5 days a week for support. Training is conducted by web video chat and is free of charge, and can be repeated in the event of staff changes. The only cost associated with Twine is if you would like training to be conducted at your premises but due to the simplicity of the platform, this is uncommon.

FREE Twine Webinar Sessions

31 May 2019. To register, visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/twine-webinar-a-free-digital-tool-for-community-businesses-from-power-to-change-tickets-61688614306

Another session is planned for 13th of June 2019.

The Twine webinar sessions will be delivered by Power to Change’s Digital Transformation Officer, Edward Walden, who is also the Training Co-Ordinator for Twine. This session will cover everything you need to know to decide if Twine is a good fit for you or not. You’ll see it in action and have plenty of time for questions and answers. If you like what you see, you will have all the knowledge to start using it by the end of the session and Edward can create an account for you immediately afterward.

SHORT TWINE VIDEO

Find out more about Twine by watching this short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CunZEoTF0PY

Thank you.

 

 

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Learning Events – webinars and workshops

Today’s piece shares some of the learning and resources from the recent community engagement, volunteering and networking session in Sheffield plus links to free webinars and a face to face session in Northamptonshire.

• Twine Webinar – a free digital tool from Power to Change (31 May and 13 June). Click to watch a short video about Twine and how it can support your library. 
• Good financial management Webinar (26 June with a second one in September)
• Fundraising and business plan session (face to face) at Rushden Hall in Northamptonshire (5 June).

Learning from the Community engagement, volunteering and networking session in Sheffield

On 30th April, two colleagues from the CML Peer Network (Peter Ranken from Archibald Corbett and Margaret Adjaye, Upper Norwood Library Hub) set off from London to Sheffield to meet Darrell Porter, Sheffield Libraries, Sean Kelly, Libraries Taskforce and other CML colleagues for the community engagement, volunteering and networking session.

Peter led a session covering the

• types of community managed libraries
• remarkable range of skills and contributions made by volunteers
• volunteer types, from trustees to librarians, activity volunteers, management etc
• how to engage (from our communities), recruit, manage, develop and retain volunteers

You can find slides from Peter’s session here – sheffield volunteers workshop 30 April 2019.

Peter also shared a copy of his library’s Volunteer Handbook and Sean took colleagues through some of the resources and toolkits on the Libraries Taskforce site.

Margaret then led a brief discussion on how to embed diversity and inclusion into volunteering and community engagement practices.

We then spent some time discussing and sharing our experiences on cyber security, books supply, safeguarding and DBS, code of conduct for volunteers and much more. 

We agreed to host at least 4 – 5 networking events each year in various places and not just in London and Sheffield marked the beginning of a very informative and extremely useful learning and networking event.

If you would like to connect with us, or if you have any queries or want to know more about the Network and how we can support you, please contact us at communitylibs@unlt.org

Jobs, Trustee and Volunteering Opportunities

via Jobs, Trustee and Volunteering Opportunities

Community Business Market 2019 Survey

FE Research has been commissioned by Power to Change to undertake research which aims to assess the community business market, measure the confidence levels of business leaders and review the future outlook for different sectors. The resulting data will inform a public report of the wider sector’s views of the strengths and opportunities facing community businesses like yours as well as the challenges that lie ahead.

We hope you wish to help Power to Change improve its understanding of community businesses’ needs and ways of best supporting and advocating for them by completing an online survey. To view Power to Change’s privacy policy for applicants and grantees please click here. This survey is entirely voluntary and you are under no obligation to complete it.

The survey should take approximately 15 minutes to complete.  Please click on the link below, or copy and paste it into your internet browser, and complete the survey by Friday 31st May 2019.

https://survey.euro.confirmit.com/wix/9/p1873827999.aspx?a=13

If you have any further queries about the survey or the research in general, please do not hesitate to contact either Amelia Hicklin, Research Executive at CFE Research at amelia.hicklin@cfe.org.uk or on 0116 2293300 or Suzanne Perry, Research Officer at Power to Change at suzannep@powertochange.org.uk.

Thank you.