October 26, 2009 by oxfambooksglasgow
Working with volunteers, main positives: getting to meet and work with a rich cross section of the population, seeing people happy to be in work, watching skills and confidence develop, learning a wide range of management skills because your volunteers are so diverse, to pick a few.
Working with volunteers, main negatives: when they move on.
In the seven years I’ve worked for Oxfam, hundreds of volunteers have come and given of their time to help us in our work to alleviate poverty. Some work a few hours a week, some more, some stay a week, a month, a year, in some cases several years and longer. We are fortunate for get any contribution of time, happy for anyone to come over the door and ask to join the team. But inevitably people move on and your team changes and adapts.
This post is because a highly-valued member of our Saturday team is leaving to begin her Phd. We seriously considered trying to clone her before she left as she has a particular facility for sorting through donation at a speed that would make a manager dizzy. Hopefully she will find time to bring her personality and skill-set to a new charity in her new home.
So sad as we are to see volunteers go, we wish them the best. It’s the nature of the work, and that one, if farily considerable negative, is always far outweighed by the positives.












Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged oxfam, oxfam books glasgow, oxfam glasgow, volunteering | Leave a Comment »
October 20, 2009 by oxfambooksglasgow
I spent two very relaxing days in Manchester this weekend past and I made time to visit some Oxfam shops there, namely Oxfam Emporium and Oxfam Originals on Oldham Street. The emporium was unfortunately shutting by the time I got out of the clothes shop so I had to content myself with window browsing. Had I not spent an agonising half-hour in Originals vacillating over two excellent pairs of shoes which, however much I wanted them to, just didn’t fit, I may have found time to foot-browse both. Anyway I found the clothes store trendy and accessible, with superb stock-lines. It’s the first ‘Originals’ shop I’ve seen. Gets my thumbs up.
At the bookshop we’re in the little calm before the Christmas run-in. One thing we are really trying to punt is gift aid as it applies to donated stock. A lot of customers are already familiar with this idea as it pertains to donations of money, but we (and a number of other charities) are now able to collect gift aid on books, music, bric-a-brac, whatever we sell. It’s a great scheme and it enables the shop to get 28p in the pound back. It’s extra money which goes straight into the kitty which means more to hand for our international work. So please be sure to fill out a gift aid form when you next donate to an Oxfam store. It’s very much worth the minute or two extra that it takes.
News from Oxfam:
The climate change page has been updated at the oxfam site. This is to recognise that December and Copenhagen are looming and it’s really, really crucial that information gets out about what’s at stake and that as many people as possible get mobilised to become involved. Ideas for contributing and getting motivated, including the excellent new pound-a-week idea, are laid out in an easily understood way. Please visit folks.
Also, Jamie Hewlett, the artist behind Tank girl and Gorillaz, has painted a series of watercolours reflecting his experience of Bangladesh where he travelled recently with Oxfam.












Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged books, climate change, oxfam, oxfam books glasgow | Leave a Comment »
October 2, 2009 by oxfambooksglasgow
You have all most likely seen the news of the earthquake in Sumatra, hit by a 7.6-magnitude quake two days ago. Oxfam have launched an emergency appeal today to raise funds for this and contingent work in the regi0n, including the aftermath of typhoon Ketsana (known in the Philippines as Ondoy), which has caused severe humanitarian, infrastructure and crop damage in the central Philippines, Central Vietnam and Kampong Thom province in Central Cambodia. This is replacing the East AFrica food appeal in Oxfam shops, at least for the time being. You can donate online or in any store. Thank you all kindly.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged donation appeal, east asia, oxfam international, sumatra | Leave a Comment »