Council undertook consultation on the Volunteer Recruitment and Retention Plan from March to April 2022 to guide the volunteering priorities for Bayside over the next four years.

As part of this process, members of the community were invited to submit their ideas on what Council can do to build and strengthen volunteering for all ages and abilities in Bayside.

Using this feedback, we have developed a plan that will focus on the following priority areas:

• Increasing promotion of volunteering opportunities
• Developing a recognition program
• Provide networking and training opportunities for volunteers such as involving volunteer organisations.

The Plan aims to strengthen Council’s role in volunteering. The plan focuses on promoting best practice volunteer recruitment and retention, as well as continuous improvement across the municipality including education and advocacy work, recognition programs and improving partnership opportunities with local Bayside volunteer involving organisations. A key outcome of this Plan is to boost engagement levels across all volunteering programs and increase the number of volunteers throughout Bayside.

The Plan will be utilised by Council, Council-run volunteer programs, Open Space service provider Citywide and local volunteer involving organisations to develop partnership priorities and volunteer engagement opportunities throughout the municipality.

We will be seeking Council endorsement for the Volunteer Recruitment and Retention Plan at its meeting on 19 July 2022.

The Council Meeting details are as follows:

Date: Tuesday 19 July 2022
Where: Council Chamber, Civic Centre at Boxshall Street, Brighton
When: Meeting commences at 6.30pm

A copy of the Agenda will be available no later than Wednesday 13 July 2022 at Council’s Corporate Centre or on Council’s website. The meeting will be live-streamed.

Whilst there is no opportunity to be heard to this item, access to the public gallery will be open to all community members. If you do wish to attend the meeting to listen to the debate, please be aware that a maximum of 25 members of the public is possible in the Chamber at any one time. As per guidance from the Department of Health on COVIDSafe plans for workplaces, physical distancing of 1.5m must be observed.

All enquiries relating to Council meeting procedures should be directed to Council’s Governance Department by telephone (03) 9599 4444.