Issue 9 - 22 March 2007

NGOs expressed a great deal of interest in the OCVS's recent Good Practice in Action (GPIA) seminar, which featured Mark Lyons (Adjunct Professor of Social Economy in the School of Managment at the University of Technology in Sydney). The GPIA event focused on preparing government agencies for a joint forum between representatives of the community and voluntary sector (the sector) and government on 20-21 June 2007.

The joint forum (during Volunteer Awareness Week in June) will explore new ways for the government and community sectors to work together, and will provide an opportunity for both sectors to discuss common issues, and work towards putting in place a lasting mechanism for engaging with each other.

As part of the community sector's preparation, the Community Sector Taskforce is running a series of regional meetings between now and early May to look at regional sector representation at the forum. Specific features of the relationship will be discussed at the regional meetings, for example, government funding processes and government's engagement with the sector.

A list of dates and venues for the regional meetings is at www.nzfvwo.org.nz. The OCVS encourages all interested NGOs to contact the Taskforce about participating in the regional meetings.

NGOs can contact the Taskforce at communitysectortaskforce@paradise.net.nz.

Next week, OCVS Senior Policy Analyst Joyce Anne Raihania will be presenting at the Philanthropy Matters conference at Te Papa. Then in April, OCVS Senior Policy Analyst Hugh Lawrence and Policy Analyst Ann Walker will present a paper entitled Investing in Communities of Interest at the Social Policy, Research and Evaluation (SPRE) Conference 2007. Policy practitioners, non-government organisations, researchers, evaluators, and the wider community will come together at the conference to discuss and debate the landscape of social policy in New Zealand. A limited number of subsidised places (at $170 incl. gst) are available for postgraduate students, delegates from non-government organisations and community workers. See the SPRE website for application details.

Late next week, philanthropists and grantmakers who provide funds to the Canterbury, West Coast, Nelson, Tasman and Marlborough areas will gather to share ideas and experiences at a regional funders forum in Christchurch. The event is being organised by the OCVS, Philanthropy NZ and the Department of Internal Affairs and builds on the experiences of last year's Wellington forum.

Further Regional Funders Forums will be held in various locations around the country in May and July.
Watch the Philanthropy NZ website for more details as plans develop.

Do you understand the differences between volunteers, employees and independent contractors, and your organisation’s obligations and potential liability in relation to these people? What about your obligations in relation to ACC cover for work-related personal injury to employees and volunteers, or the system of certification and registration of people and organisations that provide health and disability services, including hospitals and rest homes?

Check out Fact Sheet #9 People - Volunteers, employees and contractors on the Keeping it Legal website to learn more.

To what extent can community, voluntary, iwi and Maori organisations influence government decisions? When can decision-making be devolved to communities? This depends on what you're trying to achieve. The Good Practice Participate website explains the continuum of relationship options - from simply providing information through to the most devolved end of the spectrum: community-based decision-making.

Visit www.goodpracticeparticipate.govt.nz to explore the various options further and identify techniques to enhance your working relationships.

If you have an event, conference or meeting related to community or voluntary issues, you are welcome to send a brief description of the event to us for inclusion in our email updates.

The following upcoming releases will be of interest to the non-profit sector:

• the release of 'Counting Non-Profit Organisations in New Zealand 2005', which describes how many non-profit institutions exist in New Zealand and their level of paid employment (due 16 April 2007)
• the first release of the Non-Profit Institutions Satellite Account describing the contribution of non-profits to the economy and the value of their volunteer labour (due 28 August 2007).

For more on the Study of the NZ Non-Profit Sector project see the OCVS website, or visit the Statistics NZ website

for information on development of the NPI Satellite Account.

Volunteer Awareness Week will be celebrated around New Zealand from 17-23 June.The week is also St John’s annual awareness and appeal week. The overall theme for Volunteer Awareness Week 2007 will be the diversity of volunteering – both the diversity in the range of volunteering opportunities and the diversity of those who volunteer.

Volunteering NZ is compiling information on activities planned to celebrate the week, so send your news to office@volunteeringnz.org.nz.

Auckland University of Technology (AUT) has produced a publication entitled The Business Case for Employee Volunteering: a manager’s brief. The publication gives an overview of the benefits of employee volunteering for community organisations, employees and employers. Using research, case studies and quotes from managers, this publication is designed to help people build the business case within their organisations for employee volunteering programmes. ‘Employee volunteering’ refers to the many and varied programmes that are being set up by employers to assist employees to volunteer, whether during work hours or in their own time. It has been a rapidly growing form of community involvement throughout the world.

Contact ian.leader@aut.ac.nz for further information on the publication.

To get involved in community projects or recruit a spare pair of hands, go to www.skills-exchange.org.nz.

Registration of charities under the new Charities Act began on 1 February, and a number of charitable groups have already completed the process. Members of the public will be able to search the Charities Register later this year. In the meantime approved charities are listed at www.charities.govt.nz/search_register.htm.

While registration with the Charities Commission is voluntary, charities that want to retain their income tax and gift duty exemptions will need to register before the tax laws change on 1 July 2008. The Charities Register will help build and maintain public trust and confidence in the charitable sector by making more information about charities publicly available. It will also provide better information to government, from which it can make effective policy decisions.

In November 2006, a free workshop was held in Wellington for people involved or interested in planning, starting or running online groups for community or government work. Around 50 people attended the workshop at the Betty Campbell Centre and attendees expressed interest in continuing to share information about running online groups in New Zealand, and collaborating to share learnings and experiences.

There was also a strong desire to share this information with a wider audience. In response to this, a Beyond E-mail online group has been established on Google groups so people can start sharing information and plan for further face-to-face gatherings.

If you are interested in sharing ideas with others involved in running online groups, go to http://groups.google.com/group/beyondemail/web/about-beyond-email?hl=en and request an invitation to join.

The Ministry of Transport has established www.safeas.govt.nz to provide ongoing opportunities for people in the community to express their views about road safety. The forum is designed so people can share their experiences of road safety. To do this you will need to register as a user. Over time, it is expected that the site will develop into a mechanism for improving pre-policy dialogue between policy makers, stakeholders and the broader community.

A recent UK report includes some practical tips on community engagement.

Matters to consider when setting up mechanisms to engage local communities in community safety activities include:

• Be realistic about the time and resources required to achieve effective community engagement.
• Provide resources that will assist those attempting to engage members of the community.
• Be realistic about what can be achieved through community engagement and be prepared to deal with the unexpected.
• Effective organisation of community engagement processes is essential to its success.

The Department of Corrections has appointed five Regional Co-ordinators and a National Advisor - Volunteers as part of its ongoing commitment to support the nearly 3,000 registered volunteers in prisons.

Volunteers play an important role in helping to meet the rehabilitative and re-integrative needs of prisoners, and ultimately, reducing re-offending. The Regional Co-ordinators will be the first point of contact for all volunteer enquiries and volunteer-related business locally. The regions are North, Midland, Waikato, Wellington and South.

The National Advisor will be responsible for reviewing the Department's Policy on Volunteering, providing advice and strategic direction on volunteering in prisons and for strengthening relationships with volunteer and community organisations on a national level.

A generic e-mail address for contact at national level, including volunteer feedback, enquiries, etc has also been established at volunteering@corrections.govt.nz. To find out more about volunteer work in prisons.

The NFP Network Executive Update conference is in Christchurch on 28-29 May 2007. Three concurrent streams will provide specialised professional development opportunities for executives, board members and other strategic focussed individuals from across the Australian and New Zealand non-profit sectors to exchange ideas, solutions and information.

The annual conference of ESOL Home Tutors is being held in Wellington, 18-20 May 2007 at the Brentwood Hotel. Keynote speakers include Ruth de Souza on language proficiency and integration, Janet Holmes on workplace English and Mervin Singham, from the Office of Ethnic Affairs, on the future of multicultural New Zealand.

This historic event for the Hindu community in New Zealand will be held at the Hindu Heritage Centre, Mangere East, Auckland on 12-13 May 2007.

The conference theme is /The contribution of Hindu community to the national life of New Zealand /and/ /will cover economic, health, environmental, social and cultural aspects. Read more about the conference.

200 organisations from more than 65 countries have registered activities for this year's Global Youth Service Day celebrations on
20-22 April. Global Youth Service Day is an annual global event that celebrates, recognises, and mobilises the year-round contributions of young people to build their communities and their world through voluntary service. It also recognises the contributions made by the community (public, private, and nonprofit sectors) for empowering young people, especially through mentoring.

The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation and affiliated asthma societies are hunting for helpers to promote Balloon Day on 5 May 2007.The purpose of the day is to raise money for child asthma research – 1 in 4 Kiwi kids now has asthma. Duties range from hanging up posters and balloons in your office or community during the build up, to selling balloons, or being a Balloon Day co-ordinator.

The Foundation has FREE asthma Balloon Day resources for you if you can help spread the word. Whether you have time to change the world, or just tell your friends and whanau, the Foundation would love you to be involved.

Click here to view a list of activities you can help with, or for more information email Rachel@asthmanz.co.nz.

Which site do you think should win the 'best Government or Community site' category in the 2007 Peoples Choice NetGuide Web Awards? This category recognises the best, most helpful NZ-based site providing information and services pertaining to matters of government, local government, government agencies or a community organisation site.

Vote before 15 April 2007.

The changing boundaries of responsibilities between the community, public and market sectors link this field of scholarship to the Waikato Management School's leadership in the focus on 'sustainability in a connected world'. The issues of good governance for social justice and peace are paramount within the social enterprise studies programme.

A number of papers make up the core of the Social Enterprise qualifications, and all Social Enterprise papers are taught wholly on-line, so are appropriate for students wishing to study off-campus. To find out more visit http://wms-soros.mngt.waikato.ac.nz or contact Maria Humphries.

If you wish to be added to (or removed from) the Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector distribution list for this e-newsletter and other regular communications, send an email to: ocvs@msd.govt.nz with your name and postal address.

The Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector exists to inspire co-operation and superb relationships between the government and the community and voluntary sector. You can find out more about the OCVS on our website: www.ocvs.govt.nz, by email at: ocvs@msd.govt.nz, phone: 04 918 9555, or by fax: 04 913 3080.