Current volunteering opportunities

 
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This page lists and discusses the current volunteering opportunities within our U3A. Click any of the words in the table below to take you to that section.

Being on the Committee
Becoming a tutor
Course management: Course coordination Venues
Marketing and events: Marketing Event organisation Assist at an event
Office administration: Reception Office Kitchen

On the Committee

We are always on the lookout for new Committee members.

The Committee is formally elected at each AGM for the following year. Any of our members can stand for election and the elections are effectively uncontested. Committee members then participate in our monthly meetings plus, hopefully over time, take on areas of responsibility that suit their inclinations (see the rest of this page).

In addition, the Committee can, and does, co-opt new members at any time during the year. Such members then join the Committee for the rest of the year, until the next AGM.

If being on the Committee is of potential interest to you, contact Dianne by email (president@nillumbiku3a.org.au)

Becoming a tutor

If you have an interest, expertise or passion that you want to share with others and are willing to lead a class, you can propose a short course of one or more sessions, a year-long course or something in between.

Some classes just require coordination, such as book groups and tennis. Others require more input and can be shared with two or more tutors to lighten the load.

Some classes, such as our art classes, have waiting lists so more tutors in these areas are always welcome.

Have a look at our website for the list of our current classes.

Things to consider when planning a course include: name of course/topic; one-off, ongoing or fixed length (no of terms/sessions); length of each class (between 1 and 3 hours); face-to-face or zoom; maximum (and minimum) number of participants; desired location/suburb; desired day of the week and time; desired starting terms/date; size and type of room (sunny / blockout / floor surface / storage requirements); furniture or equipment required (size/shape of tables, AV, IT); and need or otherwise for participants to purchase anything.

If you are potentially interested in becoming a tutor and/or would like to chat about your ideas, contact Dianne by email (coordinator@nillumbiku3a.org.au) or phone (0434 986 424).

Course management

Course coordination

We are developing a small subcommittee assists our Course Coordinator in a variety of roles:

  • Venues – locating and assessing possible new venues; assisting with problems at venues.
  • Tutors – Locate and follow up prospective new tutors; assisting tutors with problems; assist with tutor meetings and training sessions; contacting tutors at end of year to assist with planning for following year.
  • Zoom account – managing classes on 3 accounts; help tutors and members with problems; updating calendar for website.
  • Assist with development of timetable managing 70+ classes over 20+ venues.

If you would potentially like to help, contact Dianne by email (coordinator@nillumbiku3a.org.au) or phone (0434 986 424).

Venue management

We currently use around 20 venues across Nillumbik Shire, in various Council buildings, sporting facilities and private homes. Because different classes require different size rooms and different facilities, we are always on the lookout for more rooms.

To help with assessing a possible new venue for our classes, here is a list of questions to consider: name and address of building; contact details (name, email and phone); the different rooms available; size and capacity (for each room); cost (e.g. per hour); availability (e.g. use by other organisations, booking methods); access (e.g. keys, keysafe); type of flooring; no. and shape of tables; no of chairs; AV and IT facilities (e.g. screen, data projector, wifi, Internet access); blackout (for using data projector); parking (including disabled); toilets (including disabled); approach to building (e.g. steepness); tea / coffee / hot water; heating / cooling; and storage (for our equipment).

If you would potentially like to help us locate and coordinate some of our venues, contact Dianne by email (coordinator@nillumbiku3a.org.au) or phone (0434 986 424).

Marketing and events

Marketing

Marketing (and publicity) is one of those areas where the more that you do, the better, ranging from being part of the local, annual festivals, through activities in our local town centres and displays in our local libraries, to writing articles for various local publications. We have a little marketing group but it needs more people and it needs more leadership.

If helping with our marketing (or publicity) is something of potential interest to you, contact Dianne by email (president@nillumbiku3a.org.au)

Event organisation

Within reason, the more events that we organise, the better. Putting this another way, the number of events that we currently organise is limited by the relatively few volunteers that we currently have who have volunteered to help organise events.

The potential events in question are many and varied, depending on what types of event the volunteer is interested in organising. For example: small-scale socials (e.g. morning teas), largescale socials (e.g. Christmas dinner or trivia nights), visits or guided tours (e.g. local cemeteries, murals, places of interest), talks, etc. If you are willing to organise any sort of event, then we want to work with you!

Note that you would not be working alone, there are others who you could bounce ideas off, who could help organise venues, who could organise publicity, etc.

If helping to organise some events is of potential interest to you, contact Dianne by email (president@nillumbiku3a.org.au)

Assist at an event

When we organise events, it is often helpful to have some of our members assist at that event. For example, if we have an information marquee at a festival, we have a roster of people to be on that marque throughout the day. Or if we have a Christmas event, then we need to have people to do the ushering, be in the kitchen, tidy up afterwards, etc.

We have a list of our members who have shown a willingness to help out at events and, as and when we organise an event, the organiser might contact some of the people on the list to ask them if they are willing to help with that particular event.

If you are willing to be on our list of people to potentially assist at events, send Dianne an email (president@nillumbiku3a.org.au).

Office administration

Our Office is located at the Eltham Central Pavilion in Panther Place and provides admin support to tutors and members throughout the year. Our regular office hours are on a Monday afternoon (1-3pm) and a Thursday morning (10am-midday) and most of our volunteers are rostered on for one session per fortnight. The office usually closes during school holidays.

We have several complementary roles within our Office administration.

Reception

Our Reception volunteers are the first point of contact for members or enquiries. To flourish in the Reception role, a friendly manner and a passing knowledge of our classes (or a willingness to acquire that knowledge) is all that you need. Reception staff respond to enquiries both in person and via our office telephone. They assist new members with subscription processes and collect and receipt payments. This is a relaxed and friendly role that suits someone wishing to help out and welcome members to our growing club.

If you are potentially interested in working on Reception, contact Karen by email at email (office@nillumbiku3a.org.au) or phone (0425 243 815).

Office

Our Office volunteers maintain our spreadsheet-based online membership database, thus keeping track of our members, enrolments and class lists. You will receive training in how to use the system but you do need to have some pre-existing experience with computers. If you know your way around a PC, and would potentially be willing to assist us in this vital role, please consider offering us a small portion of your time.

If you are potentially interested in working in our Office, contact Karen by email at email (office@nillumbiku3a.org.au) or phone (0425 243 815).

Kitchen

Kitchen volunteers are perhaps the unsung heroes of our little team. Have you ever wondered how the tea and coffee (and biscuits!) appear each week in the U3A kitchen cupboards? Well, the kitchen elves are actually real people who offer to check stock levels, monitor hygiene (yes the tea towels get washed and returned) and use our petty cash to replenish all those goodies that members can share at our classes.

We currently require kitchen helpers for four of our venues: Eltham Central Pavilion, Eltham Guide Hall, Old Eltham Courthouse and the Diamond Creek Senior Citizens Centre. If you have a class at any of these venues and would potentially like to assist with maintaining the kitchen, contact us and we will let you know what that entails. At each venue, we have a roster so that duties are shared and a contact list is available to cover absences.

If you are potentially interested in becoming one of our kitchen helpers, contact Karen by email at email (office@nillumbiku3a.org.au) or phone (0425 243 815).