Volunteer Stories: Maureen Porter
"I've been a trustee of Emmaus Coventry and Warwickshire for less than a year although I had previous involvement. When they aquired this property, I advised Emmaus on the valuation and when they were looking for premises for the first workshop, again, I did the negotiation on the lease. So I had a knowledge of Emmaus and some peripheral involvement. Then last year they approached me about new premises to replace the old workshop, and my involvement began then, by looking at the premises, doing a valuation, negotiating the lease and then seeing that through to completion and getting the planning permission for change of use. During that lengthy process, because I'm sure as you know, any property takes forever, Ken asked me if I would be interested in becoming a trustee. I came and had an interview, looked at all the documents and agreed to become a trustee.
In my working life I was a chartered surveyor working in property, so that perfectly equipped me to do all the things that needed to be done here. I had to retire prematurely through illness some years ago. When I started to feel better I was looking for voluntary opportunities anyway, and this just came up. I knew quite a bit about Emmaus and its foundation and development and the whole ethos of Emmaus appealed to me. I have a personal interest in homelessness anyway......first through a family connection because I did have an uncle who was a homeless person and secondly through my work because I did professional valuation work for the City¹s Housing Department, so I had got a general interest in housing and had a post graduate diploma in Housing Policy through that I developed an interest in homelessness.
Because Emmaus operates very much as a community and has a family atmosphere and environment within its community, I think it has a much more caring attitude. Also the fact that homeless people are given back their dignity through the training and employment which Emmaus provides. I think that is very essential, if we are going to encourage people to get back into the community and stand on their own two feet.
You need a lot of time to be able to be a good trustee. You need to be available not just for one's particular area of expertise. I have found over the last few months that far from my trustee duties becoming less in terms of what I was doing for the new workshop premises and seeing all of that through, I¹m now spending a great deal of time, more than I anticipated, just coming up here and talking to the companions, going down to the workshop.....its really making time available for the companions, rather than just coming to committee meetings. I really enjoy doing it and consider that aspect of the role more important than sitting in meetings. I have noticed that the amount of paper work that my membership of the board is generating is increasing alarmingly and I don't think that is the most important part of being a trustee; it is having time available and making time available to deal with people, to mentor people, to encourage and support them.....that applies to companions and staff as well.
Dealing with people has been the most valuable experience that I've had. Since my illness and retirement I've taken up voluntary tasks which have involved dealing with people on a face to face basis and I've found that I do seem to have some sort of skill for that. I'm involved with the National Trust and I take school groups round a historical property and adult groups as well and I've got various voluntary involvements which actually involve contact with people, whereas my work expereince has been in a very technical sphere. I get great satisfaction out of coming up here and talking to the companions and helping them in whatever way that I can and that has been for me, very fulfilling and enjoyable. I know that it is meant to be a two way process, but I feel that I am getting a lot back from them. They can give to me, as much, if not more, as I am able to give as a trustee in terms of any expertise I am able to provide.
You do have to have time. I suppose I have contact with the community in one way or another about three times a week. That might be just popping in here for half an hour and having a cup of coffee or popping into the workshop - just checking that there are no problems. I might walk out with list full of little tasks that need attention or problems that need to be dealt with on the property side, for instance. It can be time consuming. It is hard to put it into hours, because there might be one week when there are no particular problems. There might be another week when it is full on. I have been dealing with a personnel issue recently that took two whole days out of one week plus all the preparatory time I had to spend at home. You need people with energy and who are enthusiastic about it. You have to have people with good communication skills both with companions and staff. you also need to be flexible because you are never sure what will come up next. There might be people out there with paricular skills that we are desperately short of who wouldn¹t have the flexibility that some of us do have, so it is not essential, but it is certainly very helpful.
You need people in a voluntary capacity and you need people to push the organisation forward. You also need good staff and enthusiastic people to be trustees. I think enthusiasm is the key."
