Becoming a 'Young Trustee': expanding your leadership & developing your career
By Paul Rutten, 4th year DPhil student, Oxford Interdisciplinary BioSciences Doctoral Training Partnership - with editorial and ‘next steps’ input from Rachel Bray, Oxford University Careers Service; Sara Fernandez, Oxford Hub; and Frances Meegan, Cambridge University Careers Service
In the third year of my DPhil, I took on a role that has boosted me personally and professionally far more than I could have expected. It all began with a question: could I find a project where I would simultaneously help others and build my leadership skills? The answer led me to the Oxford Hub’s Young Trustees Programme (YTP), which trains young professionals in Oxford to be trustees and places them on local charity boards. In January 2019, I joined a team of five trustees at the Rose Hill Junior Youth Club (RHJYC), which serves a neighbourhood with some of the highest rates of child poverty in the UK. Their activities include weekly supervised play sessions for young children at the local community centre.
Right from the start, being a trustee meant adapting to a situation that was very different to anything I had experienced through other projects. My fellow trustees were significantly older than me, with many years of professional experience. Many of them had been on the board for years. Everybody was welcoming, but it was hard to shake the feeling that I would be seen as an observer rather than a contributor. Our discussions often assumed a deep familiarity with the charity’s situation and history, and it took me months to develop the necessary contextual insight.
Yet these and other challenges were exactly what I wanted from trusteeship: a chance to learn things I wouldn’t have in other ‘student’ projects. There was real weight behind the discussions we were having, with an impact on people who genuinely needed our help. I learned to work with people outside my age group who I rarely interact with. When I was president of a student society at Oxford, long-term ‘strategy’ usually meant thinking about events we could run in the next term or after summer. At RHJYC our focus is almost entirely on the bigger picture and longer-term future; we often talk about where funding will come from in two or three years, or how we will find successors for key staff members looking to move on. RHJYC is a relatively small charity with a yearly turnover of around £70K, so some of our meetings cover day-to-day issues too.
There can be misconceptions about being a trustee: that it’s a big (scary) legal responsibility, making you liable for a mistake or if your charity folds. In reality, the Charity Commission, the UK’s regulatory body for charities, knows that most trustees do not have decades of CEO-level experience and makes allowance for honest mistakes. Their official guidance states that trustees should do their best to act with reasonable care and skill. Financial liabilities usually only come into play if trustees have deliberately violated laws and regulations. Like many UK charities, RHJYC is a charitable incorporated organization (CIO), meaning any financial liabilities the charity can’t cover would not be passed on to trustees. Another common misconception is that trustees are expected to commit large amounts of time. At RHJYC, we meet for one to two hours every three months, with some work happening between meetings. Speaking to other young trustees, the most time-intensive roles are monthly meetings for large, busy charities. Most trustees have less frequent commitments.
Before becoming a trustee I thought it would be a big jump from the DPhil and was surprised to find that it felt like a progression. I could readily turn my hand to writing reports, analysing competing requirements to find the best compromise, and organising and running good meetings. As I consider my post-PhD career, spotting these transferable skills has boosted my confidence to explore options outside my comfort zone (even outside academia!).
To sum up, being a trustee has let me develop certain core skills in a position I would not normally occupy at my age. The role is something of a shortcut to a strategic management role, which in a company would take years to reach. It’s also given me something I was missing in my DPhil and other side projects: work that I know is helping people who genuinely need it. Worth noting is that a trustee role may not be right for everybody. We deal mostly with strategy, so I’ve only attended one RHJYC youth session and have no contact with the kids. Volunteering in other roles closer to the action will suit those who prefer to have more immediate impact with smaller groups of people. I recommend trusteeship if you are up for challenging yourself and happy to contribute in ways that are not always visible. Charities all over the UK are continuously on the lookout for trustees, and here’s how you can take the first steps:
Oxford Hub are currently recruiting young people in Oxfordshire for training with a view to becoming trustees of local charities, and you can apply through their Young Trustees Programme (YTP) if you are aged 21-35 and resident in Oxfordshire for a few years at least. For further information, contact rosanna@oxfordhub.org.
Across the UK, the national database for volunteering can be used to find Trustee opportunities. Go to www.do-it.org.uk; put Cambridge, Oxford etc into “location”; select “advanced search” option and use “Trustee” as keyword. A recent search resulted in eight diverse openings in Cambridge.
Reach Volunteering can also be searched geographically, has a Trustee search category including “remote” (online) options enabling you to get involved from further afield. School governor opportunities are also listed as these are type of trusteeship https://reachvolunteering.org.uk/opportunity-search
Further useful resources
To find out what is involved in becoming a trustee, and related responsibilities https://knowhow.ncvo.org.uk/governance/getting-started-in-governance/trustees
For opportunities to support or join the movement to diversify boards see https://youngtrusteesmovement.org/young-ambassadors/
More general insights via the annual Trustees Week http://trusteesweek.org/.
In the third year of my DPhil, I took on a role that has boosted me personally and professionally far more than I could have expected. It all began with a question: could I find a project where I would simultaneously help others and build my leadership skills? The answer led me to the Oxford Hub’s Young Trustees Programme (YTP), which trains young professionals in Oxford to be trustees and places them on local charity boards. In January 2019, I joined a team of five trustees at the Rose Hill Junior Youth Club (RHJYC), which serves a neighbourhood with some of the highest rates of child poverty in the UK. Their activities include weekly supervised play sessions for young children at the local community centre.
Right from the start, being a trustee meant adapting to a situation that was very different to anything I had experienced through other projects. My fellow trustees were significantly older than me, with many years of professional experience. Many of them had been on the board for years. Everybody was welcoming, but it was hard to shake the feeling that I would be seen as an observer rather than a contributor. Our discussions often assumed a deep familiarity with the charity’s situation and history, and it took me months to develop the necessary contextual insight.
Yet these and other challenges were exactly what I wanted from trusteeship: a chance to learn things I wouldn’t have in other ‘student’ projects. There was real weight behind the discussions we were having, with an impact on people who genuinely needed our help. I learned to work with people outside my age group who I rarely interact with. When I was president of a student society at Oxford, long-term ‘strategy’ usually meant thinking about events we could run in the next term or after summer. At RHJYC our focus is almost entirely on the bigger picture and longer-term future; we often talk about where funding will come from in two or three years, or how we will find successors for key staff members looking to move on. RHJYC is a relatively small charity with a yearly turnover of around £70K, so some of our meetings cover day-to-day issues too.
There can be misconceptions about being a trustee: that it’s a big (scary) legal responsibility, making you liable for a mistake or if your charity folds. In reality, the Charity Commission, the UK’s regulatory body for charities, knows that most trustees do not have decades of CEO-level experience and makes allowance for honest mistakes. Their official guidance states that trustees should do their best to act with reasonable care and skill. Financial liabilities usually only come into play if trustees have deliberately violated laws and regulations. Like many UK charities, RHJYC is a charitable incorporated organization (CIO), meaning any financial liabilities the charity can’t cover would not be passed on to trustees. Another common misconception is that trustees are expected to commit large amounts of time. At RHJYC, we meet for one to two hours every three months, with some work happening between meetings. Speaking to other young trustees, the most time-intensive roles are monthly meetings for large, busy charities. Most trustees have less frequent commitments.
Before becoming a trustee I thought it would be a big jump from the DPhil and was surprised to find that it felt like a progression. I could readily turn my hand to writing reports, analysing competing requirements to find the best compromise, and organising and running good meetings. As I consider my post-PhD career, spotting these transferable skills has boosted my confidence to explore options outside my comfort zone (even outside academia!).
To sum up, being a trustee has let me develop certain core skills in a position I would not normally occupy at my age. The role is something of a shortcut to a strategic management role, which in a company would take years to reach. It’s also given me something I was missing in my DPhil and other side projects: work that I know is helping people who genuinely need it. Worth noting is that a trustee role may not be right for everybody. We deal mostly with strategy, so I’ve only attended one RHJYC youth session and have no contact with the kids. Volunteering in other roles closer to the action will suit those who prefer to have more immediate impact with smaller groups of people. I recommend trusteeship if you are up for challenging yourself and happy to contribute in ways that are not always visible. Charities all over the UK are continuously on the lookout for trustees, and here’s how you can take the first steps:
Oxford Hub are currently recruiting young people in Oxfordshire for training with a view to becoming trustees of local charities, and you can apply through their Young Trustees Programme (YTP) if you are aged 21-35 and resident in Oxfordshire for a few years at least. For further information, contact rosanna@oxfordhub.org.
Across the UK, the national database for volunteering can be used to find Trustee opportunities. Go to www.do-it.org.uk; put Cambridge, Oxford etc into “location”; select “advanced search” option and use “Trustee” as keyword. A recent search resulted in eight diverse openings in Cambridge.
Reach Volunteering can also be searched geographically, has a Trustee search category including “remote” (online) options enabling you to get involved from further afield. School governor opportunities are also listed as these are type of trusteeship https://reachvolunteering.org.uk/opportunity-search
Further useful resources
To find out what is involved in becoming a trustee, and related responsibilities https://knowhow.ncvo.org.uk/governance/getting-started-in-governance/trustees
For opportunities to support or join the movement to diversify boards see https://youngtrusteesmovement.org/young-ambassadors/
More general insights via the annual Trustees Week http://trusteesweek.org/.
