Chair-designate Home-Start Spelthorne - Volunteer in Surrey

Do you want to help improve the lives of parents and young children by taking the lead in our charity? You could be the next Chair of Home‑Start Spelthorne, a local charity in NW Surrey that gives every child the best possible start in life.

What difference will you make?

• Your strategic skills, knowledge, understanding and experience.
• Your abilities to influence plans for our charity’s future.
• Your navigational help through exciting changes, both internally and externally to our organisation.
• Enhancement to our overall governance and the Board of trustees and in our operational growth.
• 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 for parents with young children.
• A forward‑looking and agile organisation, with a well‑informed and well‑led Board of trustees.

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

• An opportunity to exercise your strategic leadership skills, probably in a different environment or context.
• An opportunity to influence and collectively‑lead an organisation supporting young children.
• A chance to expand and implement your understanding of our work, especially in this period of major changes.
• A chance to augment your experience of charities.
• A boost to your career and CV, if needed.
• Satisfaction of helping an organisation that supports parents and children, thus giving something back to your community.

What are we looking for?

• Clear commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, valuing differences to make better decisions and deliver better outcomes.
• Understanding of the needs of our beneficiaries is desirable, an empathy with them is essential; experience as a parent is obviously useful, but not required.
• Ability to cooperatively lead the team of trustees, bringing impartiality and objectivity to decision‑making, with the ability to bring people together to build consensus.
• Strategic vision; good, independent judgement; ability to think creatively, tempered by pragmatism and reality.
• Experience and abilities to navigate and steer organisational change, both internally and in the external environment.
• Grasp of local political changes and the ability to navigate those for the benefit of the organisation.
• Ability and skills to effectively manage meetings, including the ability to listen, even to dissenting views.
• Willingness to speak your mind and to challenge other trustees and employees 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; willingness to be available to meet other employees to provide advice and support, as needed.
• Having appropriate personal and professional contacts during that time she will continue to be available for support.

Chair responsibilities and time commitment

During those six months as ‘designate’, we ask for about ten hours per month, which will rise to fifteen hours per month as Chair. These include all meetings, discussions, etc., and will slightly increase at Year‑End and AGM times. Many of your duties may be carried out online and by phone/video, as well as face‑to‑face.