The seeds of Geoff’s volunteering journey began with his former employer, Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK), when he would take part in the company’s employee volunteering programme called Orange Days.
Having started volunteering whilst working for a large corporation, Geoff tells us about entering the world of volunteering after retiring.
The seeds of Geoff’s volunteering journey began with his former employer, Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK), when he would take part in the company’s employee volunteering programme called Orange Days.
I chose to do it as a way of contributing and also to learn.
“I chose to do it as a way of contributing and also to learn,” says Geoff. “Because you see different things, different sides of things if you go and work with people for a day. You see something that you don’t see working in an office or a lab.”
Then, after 31 years, on leaving, Geoff took the GSK Active Retirement course and discovered Reach Volunteering, “I remember looking at it and thinking there seem to be quite a lot of opportunities out there and it was relatively easy to register.” He posted a profile, “It was all quite easy and straightforward”. One of the things he highlighted was his experience chairing departmental and project management meetings at GSK.
It was a step into the unknown.
Home-Start Essex, a charity that supports disadvantaged families with young children, contacted him. They were in the midst of merging various groups and would he be interested in taking over the role of the chair of trustees? “Chairing an organisation? No I hadn’t really had any experience”, he says today, but he liked that it was a good fit for some of his professional experience at GSK and he knew of a Home-Start group via the company’s health awards in Weybridge. Still, “It was a step into the unknown. The role is really about strategy and governance and not being too involved in the operational running of the charity.” Since those first tentative steps as a volunteer he has thrived.
The best thing about being the chair? “When you are trying to achieve something with a group of employees or trustees and it goes well and you achieve what you set out to do,” says Geoff.
The hardest thing? There’s a long pause. “Sometimes controlling a meeting and stopping people, who have the best of intentions, but at the time are not helping. Controlling meetings like that can have its own challenges,” he says diplomatically. Probably one of the characteristics of being a good chairperson.
So, a couple of years on, his volunteering experience now embraces two roles. Is one using his professional skills and the other (conservation in Epping Forest) more physical? “Absolutely,” He affirms, “That was the idea!”
How would I describe it? I feel I am contributing to society. I continue to contribute in a different way. I am not just sat at home doing nothing.
“Do I feel differently about myself? No. How would I describe it? I feel I am contributing to society. I continue to contribute in a different way. I am not just sat at home doing nothing.”
Geoff’s advice on volunteering is emphatic, “Do it. Do it. What have you got to lose?”
Where does his altruistic outlook come from? “I don’t know,” he says, but “it feels worth doing”. Though with further prodding, a clue emerges. His wife. “She’s my role model!” he proudly exclaims. She is a volunteer who could tell a similar story – she took early retirement from GSK before Geoff did. Her husband’s pathfinder, if you will. But that’s another volunteer’s story, for another day.
