Perhaps you’d have thought that 12 months of being unable to physically meet together would’ve significantly disrupted the work of our trustees. Totally the opposite. In the Simpsons, Springfield’s Adult Education Centre promises to “teach old dogs new tricks”, and that’s really what’s happened here too, as some of us technophobes have been mentored and supported to use Zoom and other digital aids by other Committee members. As a result, we haven’t missed a meeting and barely had an apology for absence from anyone!
Interestingly, our two newest trustees bring with them a range of digital skills and experience that’ll be incredibly useful to us going forward. However, it’s the values they share with long-serving trustees which are most important.
In that regard, one of the most constant figures with STAA at St Ann’s Allotments over the years has been Glenys Rozkalns who, earlier this month, resigned as a trustee to cope with the impact of Covid-19 on her family life. We hope that Glenys will return in the future, but her decision led me to think about the sorts of qualities that make a successful trustee.
You might think that it’d be important to have a set of specific skills; accounting, marketing or business management, etc. And, indeed, if there’s anyone out there who’s got such skills and is interested in joining, don’t hesitate to put yourself forward!
But Glenys didn’t bring those sorts of skills. She worked her allotment until she’d had enough, then went on to become a mainstay of our volunteer group that has done so much to transform what is popularly known as ‘Oliver’s plot’. What Glenys brought was a common-sense approach to decision making that reflected the values of decency and ordinariness in the best sense of the word. She brought with her an understanding of what tenants, volunteers, and visitors might want from us.
Glenys helped imbue STAA with a set of values and beliefs about how we should work with others and which ideas and causes we should properly espouse. Without those values which Glenys and others have brought, STAA would be a lesser organisation.
Perhaps this shared sense of purpose is why staff and trustees have weathered the Covid-19 storm relatively well – even if we have to Zoom for a bit longer yet.
