The John Griff Column: When doing ‘your bit’ means a lot more…

The experience was a very simple one. For a number of decades, I’ve acted as a voluntary trustee on a variety of boards for a variety of locally based community groups and charities. It started in the 80s when I was first approached to support the voluntary management board of the then Roadmender, before it went through its lottery-supported rebuild and reopening. Then, I was working in banking and only dabbling in any kind of broadcasting. A friend from theatre thought I might make a useful addition to the team that he was already part of. I tried it, liked it and continued until, eventually, Roadmender was taken over by a corporate owner and the board was disbanded.

That early taste for being involved in something wider than my own, personal interests had sown a seed. Some years later I was invited to become a school governor and have since been co-opted onto a number of different boards of trustees. The brief is always the same – to support by keeping an advisory eye on what management teams are doing for local groups and charities, offering an alternative view or encouraging discussion on a topic which might otherwise have been causing difficulties for the paid members of staff. There is a responsibility to the groups of course, but there is also a real sense of potentially being able to help by bringing external experiences into their meeting rooms. At no stage have I ever had a managerial involvement though. Instead, I learned about the lighter touch that trustees can bring as volunteers, supporting rather than directing. It was not for me or any of my other trustee colleagues to say that a proposal might be inherently ‘wrong’ – merely that it might perhaps be more successful if it was approached in a different way or from a different direction.

Some years ago, we ran a story on my afternoon show at Radio Northampton about the number of organisations which were then struggling to attract trustees to their boards. This then expanded to the number of schools which were seemingly having the same difficulties in engaging new governors – almost to the point where they couldn’t properly function. I was brought up to offer help if I was able to. After the story had run I began to wonder if I should be doing more myself and offered my services to a charity which had been established for some time, but which wasn’t particularly well known. Accepted as a new trustee, I found a circle of like-minded colleagues from whom I learned a vast amount – learnings I could use internally as a trustee but also outside the organisation itself. I learned about compassion, tolerance, and more. At the time I was limited to serving two consecutive terms of three years. Then, I was obliged to step away. I did my six years and departed as required. But I missed the involvement, so offered myself to other groups elsewhere.

Now, my latest trustee engagement has come to an end, albeit that this time I chose to step away. I agree with the concept that organisations sometimes do better through boards of trustees which are replenished regularly, bringing fresh opinions, solutions and perspectives. The process of being a trustee – or any similar role – has, I think, become part of my DNA now. I recommend it to anyone looking to find a more engaged role in life. It is a fulfilling thing and is certainly needed as increasingly, local society has to find local solutions to local challenges. Leaving the charity I was part of this week did make me feel a little guilty – but I’m sure it was the right thing to do, and I look forward to hearing that it has prospered, as it surely will.

Doing ‘your bit’ delivers something towards the common good – but there is no doubt that it delivers a lot more in the opposite direction. Why not try it?