Dianne

I work as an Administrator and Customer Services Assistant for Appletree based in Compton.  When my boss Chantal gave me the opportunity to go out and help Garry Poulson, Director of the Newbury Volunteer Centre, to organise a charity event, I was really keen to get involved, giving 20 hours (my working week) of my time to help launch a project. 

This would be a worthwhile thing to do and would involve me giving something back to the community.  It was good also to have a specific project with a beginning, middle and an end.  I could almost picture myself celebrating success.  Perhaps there would be a write-up in the local paper, my name would be mentioned and the name of my company.  I was very excited and proud to be linked to a company who felt so strongly about CSR and the benefits for all involved.

My task was to recruit local shops and banking halls to host a local charity event for the day in order to raise awareness of local charitable work and to recruit more volunteers. I would need to speak to managers face to face and win them over to the concept, getting as many as possible on board for the event taking place on 5 June 2010. 

I am used to sitting behind my desk writing emails or phoning customers who approach me for my help. I felt nervous and unsure about the task and how I would manage going out onto the High Street in Newbury and using my powers of persuasion to convince managers to participate in this event.  I armed myself with lots of information about the Volunteer Centre and the work that they do.  Garry gave me a letter of introduction to leave if I could not speak directly to individual managers. On my first contact my aim was to come away with a firm ?Yes? plus an email address or telephone number.

I had decided that I would need a positive attitude and approach if this was going to work.  It was not just about imparting information, it was the way the information was delivered that would win through.  I was acting as a representative of the Volunteer Centre; managers would make a judgement on my appearance and voice and then content of the information given to them.

So it was with a positive attitude that I stepped out onto the High Street of Newbury town centre.  How did I fair?  I will update you next week.