Become a volunteer ! The neighbourhood association needs you!
Your voluntary contribution at activities, especially at large events, is necessary for the successful outcome of the events.
You don't have to be a member, your enthusiasm and interest are much more important.
Volunteers can organize, or help, or come up with activities. As a volunteer you actually have no heavy responsibilities or powers other than the rules of common sense indicate. You will not receive any financial compensation for your work, but your incurred costs (kilometre, telephone and home meeting costs) will be reimbursed.
You are insured via the neighbourhood association. District Association Blixembosch has the following insurance policies:
- Volunteer insurance (via O&O / LoketW), to cover damage caused by the volunteer to persons and / or property.
- Collective Accident Insurance; covers accidents, of volunteers and participants, resulting from a sudden and direct impact of an external force, causing physical injury.
- Contents insurance; covers the inventory and goods of the community association and third parties, as housed in various inhabited houses in the Blixembosch district, against fire, storm, burglary, vandalism, leakage, damage to the rented building.
- Event insurance; is always closed specifically for the family spectacle weekend and covers the cancellation of the event and the material damage to the tent and the inventory present therein (as a result of storm, burglary, vandalism, not fire!).
It must always be determined per activity whether it must be reported as high-risk to the insurance intermediary for the purposes of the Collective Accident Insurance. This registration consists of the activity name and date + a list of participants and a list of volunteers for the activity in question. In general, it can be said that the neighborhood association and the activity organizers have and also fulfill the duty to do everything possible to prevent dangerous situations. For example, by providing sufficient guidance and by estimating in advance whether risks are acceptable and possibly reducing them, so that (culpable) damage does not occur. Of course, the activity participants also assume a normal deductible, inherent to the specific activity; just plain unhappy when skating, for example, neither the organizer nor the neighborhood association can be blamed. Accident insurance may then apply. Developed in 2003 and started with widespread implementation in 2004 is the Risk Inventory & Evaluation (RI&E). A structured approach based on a standard list helps to check for each activity whether all relevant risks are covered (see appendix 3 with an example and summary of components). This list will be kept after completion in order to be able to demonstrate afterwards, if necessary, that the necessary care has been taken. In the event of damage caused, insurance companies will first try to recover the damage from the personal liability insurance of the perpetrator. The Volunteer Insurance is only discussed in the second instance.
Good working conditions, also for volunteers!
Paying attention to the working conditions of volunteers is an important matter. Certainly in our neighbourhood, where many volunteers take care of activities. Whether or not people are paid for the work they do makes no difference; everyone has an interest in a safe and healthy workplace.
At the end of 2004, the board cautiously began to put health and safety on the agenda for our neighbourhood activities, while taking care not to become too bureaucratic. As a voluntary organisation, which is what we actually are, we are obliged to ensure a systematic approach to working conditions policy.
We therefore use a RI&E (risk inventory and evaluation). This RI&E consists of two parts: a risk inventory and a plan of approach. In the risk inventory, we use checklists to ask questions about the safety of the volunteers and participants in the activities.
Not new though, the various activity groups in the neighborhood all use a scenario in which safety also plays a prominent role. Based on the risk checklist, we draw up a plan of action and describe how we will remove or limit the most important risks. We are now a year and a half later and the ARBO check has been included in the routine at all activity groups. Because as a volunteer, and also as a participant, you feel taken seriously if you can count on care for good working conditions.
Want to know more? All our working groups and board members are happy to explain the approach with practical examples.