To join the national team, please fill out the signup form.
By joining a team you are applying to become a member of our "unincorporated association" and therefore agree to abide by the rules of our constitution. (Don't worry - this is just a formality that helps us become a registered charity. There are no membership fees)
This guide aims to provide comprehensive guidance for the national SCA team.
Given the nature of the national initiative, being ran and entirely led by dynamic teams of volunteers, we are using a non-hierarchical co-leadership model. This way, the national team may share tasks more effectively based on workload and availability. Applications to join the National team, must be approved by all team members through consensus.
Dismissal of any team member of the national organisation, must also be done through consensus of all other national team members. The national team reserves the right to dismiss anyone from any regional team or volunteer team at any time, so long as there is full consensus from a simple majority in the national team.
Cooperation and good communication is essential to the success of this model. We use an online project collaboration tool called Trello in the national team to collectively manage projects, but WhatApps and Telegram also come in handy. Always ask for consensus before making an important decision or sending any important emails to anyone. Keeping the team updated about what you are working on is really important, and so is letting them know when you are done working on a task, and how far you've gotten with it. Voice chat is a useful way to foster good long distance working relationships, so long as it doesn't become a distraction.
Many thousands of vibrant Mutual-Aid networks have sprung up across the country. This is a very good resource for recruiting volunteers.
Other methods of recruiting volunteers may be more or less successful. Try different approaches if you get disappointing results. These may include contacting local councils, church groups, community centers, student unions etc, via telephone or email (remember to include the important site links, so they can pass them on to their wider community contacts). Always maintain a spreadsheet of places you have already contacted to avoid duplicating work.
When contacting local authorities, social services, community groups, institutions, established NGO's and potential partners, it is important that you show confidence and enthusiasm in the initiative. It's also important that you understand exactly where we stand legally as an organisation, and the safeguarding protocols we have in place to prevent data misuse and the potential spread of contamination by our volunteer teams. Always maintain a spreadsheet of places you have already contacted to avoid duplicating work.
The kinds of partnerships we desire at the national level (so that regions feel more supported in their endeavor) are as follows:
Central government - for potential funding, and volunteers.
Health and social care service providers - to make ourselves known to potential benefactors in self isolation, so we can distribute food to their front doors.
Organisations whose closed buildings we may be able to use as temporary community hubs to store and sort food donations.
Already established NGO's and voluntary groups who may be interested in supporting our strategy and initiative, with funding, advice, volunteers, help, etc.
National food suppliers such as, supermarkets, conglomerate farms, fruit and veg wholesalers, etc.
Surplus food redistribution charities.
Having a vibrant social media presence will also improve our chances of forging partnerships. Placing links to volunteer sign up forms, paypal donations, and our home page, under pictures of what we actually accomplish each day is an good model for an effective outreach strategy. Social media is an important part of our national outreach. Through effective use of social media we aim to reach:
Potential benefactors in self isolation or at risk of food poverty, who can submit their details through our form and be given food.
Volunteers to join one of our many exciting teams.
Potential new partners or sponsors.
Other aid organisations willing to collaborate and provide mutual support.
Another outreach strategy our national team could potentially employ is the use of mass emailing to relevant parties, with a generic outreach email that the regional teams can also use.
Applying to HMRC for a charity tax code.
Registering as a charity
Maintaining up to date spreadsheets.
Admin support for regional coordination teams.
Reply to emails and calls.
Raise funds to support our initiative through social media, just giving, PayPal link etc.
Distribute funds among teams according to need and availability.
Publish accounts every three months for full transparency.