The Times, They Are A-Changin'....

A blog for Trustees Week 2022 by Andrew Clark, Chair of Trustees, Buckinghamshire Disability Service, BuDS.

Disclaimer: this is a personal blog by a BuDS member. The views expressed are personal and don’t necessarily represent those of BuDS or our Trustees.

The times they are a-changing, sang Bob Dylan nearly 60 years ago, and he’s still right.?One verse of his famous song reads:

If your time to you is worth saving, then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone, for the times, they are a-changin’ - Bob Dylan

As a user-led disability charity, BuDS has been swimming hard for 13 years. But the last three years have perhaps seen more change than ever. When Covid arrived and lockdowns started, BuDS Trustees refused to let the charity ‘sink like a stone’. With charities closing all around us, unanimously we decided to go instead for rapid growth to meet the surging needs of disabled people who were most affected by Covid.

Over the last two years, we have started new services and expanded others. We have successfully more than quadrupled our income, and grown in only 12 months from a charity of two paid staff and 40 regular volunteers to a charity (at our peak) with 14 paid staff and over 200 active volunteers. We have had to retrench as Covid funding has dipped, but we are now successfully sustaining our growth for the future.

Along with these organisational changes, we are also refreshing our Trustee Board.?Partly, this is to bring on board people with skills and experience appropriate for a bigger charity. But a number of long-standing Trustees are also coming to the natural end of their terms of office, and we are seeking to replicate their experience and knowledge too.

If you’d like to play a part in BuDS’ exciting future, please e-mail?[email protected]. We actively welcome all disabled people as Trustees and, in 2021, 86% of our Trustees were disabled people.