Assemble is used by lots of organisations who have volunteers and it’s going to become central to how we support you in your role(s).
It’s where we record who volunteers for the Ramblers, but it offers much more than that too.
Ultimately, Assemble will have everything you need for your volunteering role. There is a Document Hub, where we’ll have lots of tips and guidance for your specific role(s). There’s a News section so you can make sure you’re always up to date with what’s happening across the Ramblers. And we’ll soon have an online learning section that will give everyone the opportunity to brush up their skills and knowledge at their own pace.
If you would like to, you’ll soon be able use Assemble to connect with other volunteers across England, Scotland and Wales so you can share ideas and expertise. We hope it will create a great sense of community.
We’ll keep you posted about how you can use it to get the most out of volunteering with the Ramblers. For now, have a look around and get in touch if you need anything.
We need to make sure we are always sticking to Charity Commission guidance and other regulatory legislation. One of the ways we need to do this is by knowing who volunteers for the organisation.
Also, as a volunteer, you carry out important tasks on behalf of the Ramblers, which help the organisation meet its mission of protecting the ability of people to enjoy the freedom and benefits that come from being outdoors on foot. As such, we have a duty of care to you all.
If we don’t know you’re a volunteer, we can’t provide that care – be it sharing guidance that will help you in your role, providing legal information on things such as insurance or running online training to help you feel confident when representing the Ramblers.
We’ve not always had a complete picture of who volunteers with the Ramblers and for the reasons mentioned above – including our duty of care to you – we knew this needed to be sorted out.
Our first step was finding the right system to do this, and we chose Assemble. Once Assemble was in place, we wanted to make sure we had the correct details for the volunteers we already had recorded.
We then planned to gradually add those who were volunteering but not yet recorded on our system, but COVID-19 forced us to speed up this work.
This needed to be sorted out as quickly as possible, partly because of the increased complexity brought about by the pandemic. But primarily, we simply need to catch up with the standard practice across all charities.
We’re tried to make the process as simple as possible. All that’s required is an email to volunteersupport@ramblers.zendesk.com with the volunteer’s name, role, email and membership number (if they have them) and the Ramblers group for which they volunteer.
We know the distinction between members and volunteers has often been blurred at the Ramblers, but yes, if someone has responsibilities within your group or area, they’re a volunteer!
Whether they’re leading walks, doing path maintenance, helping with the day-to-day running of the group or area, or doing anything else on behalf of your group or area, they must be recorded with us as a volunteer because they are representing the Ramblers and we have a duty and responsibility for them.
As a recorded volunteer, they will also covered be our liability and accident insurance when they’re carrying out tasks required by their volunteer role, which is really important.
Assemble is a system that is used by many charities to record who volunteers for them, and to share information, guidance and news. We chose to use it because it’s secure and allows our volunteers to view their own information and update their own contact details, without having to email or phone us.
A lot of volunteers have asked how they can get in touch with others beyond their own group or how they can support volunteers who are new to their role. Assemble will allow this to happen safely and securely.
No, we don’t want that at all. Instead, we hope Assemble will help make sure you get more relevant information at the right time.
As well as offices providing information through Assemble, there will be lots of ways for volunteers to share information with us and with each other. It will take a little bit of time to introduce all the different things Assemble has to offer, but you will be able to get in touch with other volunteers doing the same role as you to share ideas, advice and stories.
Yes, there is an app called ‘Ramblers Volunteering’ which you can download from the App Store for Apple devices and Google Play for Android.
Yes, absolutely. Assemble is here to improve the way volunteers and staff work together, not replace what’s working already.
You can always email us using volunteersupport@ramblers.zendesk.com or call 020 3961 3180.