9 in a million!

As Trustees Week comes to a close and I prepare for my board meeting on Monday morning, the help and support of COCO's board are front and centre of my mind. There are just over 1 million trustees giving their time, expertise and sometimes their sanity to incredible causes all over the UK. The photo above shows 8 of our trustees, (the ninth is new and yet to be dragged into a group photo). The photo also needs an update because, after nine long years, the ever-supportive, always ready to listen, Fiona O'Connor, is stepping down. Fiona has been a huge asset to COCO, particularly in her support of staff wellbeing coaching and mentoring. Her COCO achievements include running the Great North Run, leading our treks on Hadrians Wall and finding me a coach when I really needed some external support. Thank you Fiona, you have left some very big shoes to fill, we are all looking forward to giving you a great send of at the COCO Ball later this month.

As for the rest of the board, Christine uses her expertise in finance to keep us in the black but she also helps me to expand my network by inviting me to events. Peter has taught me to be calm in a crisis and his wisdom and level headed approach is something I aspire to every day. Lisa has supported COCO for years and her loyalty is commendable, she influences our communications strategy and pushes us towards better marketing. Katherine gives us space for our meetings as well as rallying others to pound the pavement and run a whole variety of distances to support COCO through our running club Team COCO. Carsten is bold and brash on the outside but truly generous and kind, he does wonders for my confidence and knows when to tell me to get my s*@t together! Matt is not in the photo but he is hugely supportive of our overseas programmes strategy and with his academic and practical experience I am excited to see where this takes us.

And then there were two, Jim and Steve, cofounders and long term mentors. I've worked under their guidance for almost 16 years. They still teach me new things, they still push me to do better and they are still the first people I would call in a crisis.

Trustees are the lifeblood of the charity sector and as the demands on UK charities increase, we need trustees more than ever before. You don't have to be rich, you don't have to be of a certain age and you don't have to be from a certain background. You just need to be passionate about the cause and have a skill set the charity can use to be the best they can be.

For those of you in the North East and interested in becoming a trustee, check this out... https://www.communityfoundation.org.uk/post/is-your-charity-looking-for-new-trustees/

And to the other 991,000 trustees out there, thank you!