As our Volunteer Statement affirms – volunteers are valued members of the CBF team. As such, we are committed to investing in their skills development, ensuring their work is purposeful and valued, and providing meaningful opportunities to contribute to our organisation and the wider community media sector.
The CBF Strategic Plan states that valuing, nurturing and investing in the skills, knowledge and experience of our volunteers contributes directly to building the strong foundations that help us deliver on our strategic commitments.
In order for our volunteers to develop and maintain an engaged awareness of the evolving media landscape, the CBF is committed to providing relevant professional development opportunities for volunteers. The CBF aims to support volunteers to continuously develop their understanding and experience of the structures, practices and values of community broadcasting stations and sector organisations, as well as other professional development opportunities that will enhance their volunteer roles at our organisation.
Policy
This Volunteer Professional Development Policy is intended to provide a framework to describe the different professional development opportunities available to CBF volunteers.
Practice
Volunteers will be offered training and development opportunities, as available. These opportunities will be presented as a means of assisting volunteers in better performing their roles and developing their skills. If there is a different volunteer role within the CBF that a volunteer is interested in, reasonable accommodation will be made to give the volunteer opportunity to nominate to that position and to upskill/train the volunteer for that role. As we will not necessarily be aware of all training opportunities, volunteers are both encouraged and supported to independently seek out training, educational, and development opportunities for themselves.
In order to maintain a record of current skills and abilities available within the volunteer cohort, all training should be reported to the Volunteer Manager upon completion.
Training opportunities
As per the CBF Diversity, Access & Equity Policy – all CBF volunteers are provided with the opportunity to complete cultural competency training unless exempted due to cultural background, prior experience or learning.
Every assessment round two training tutorial videos are produced for the Assessor Team and Grants Advisory Committees – one for those assessing for the first time and one as an update for previous assessors that steps assessors through the assessment and application. The update for previous assessors explains the reasons behind changes made and aims to bring the team along with the broader CBF values around what we are seeking from applicants.
Assessor Team members are also invited to attend online Assessor skills training workshops for groups of up to seven assessors in between rounds in July/August. These provide an opportunity for a mix of experienced and new assessors to get together and assess as a group, ask questions of each other and build their confidence and consistency of practice in assessing.
A suite of shorter training videos for Assessor Team members who may not be able to attend the workshops as well as Grants Advisory Committee members are also made available all year-round, including Assessor Do’s & Don’ts, How to read Financial Statements, Key assessment criteria overviews and more.
Specific and Tailored training for Grants Advisory Committee members is currently being developed and will be rolled out over the next 12 months.
Professional development
In addition to the training offered above, the CBF also encourages professional development for volunteers in the form of attendance and active participation at sector-based conferences, workshops, training sessions and contribution to relevant workshops or plenary sessions.
Where Professional Development activities fall outside of the above, the CBF may approve specific professional development opportunities relevant to Board, Grants Advisory Committee and Assessor roles and may approve financial assistance to the maximum amount of $1,000 per annum.
CBF volunteers are expected to demonstrate qualities including a commitment to fair, ethical and transparent processes, hard-worker, ability to make difficult decisions, collaborator, ability to contribute insight, creative ideas and devise innovative solutions to problems, analytical skills, attention to detail, and/or a commitment to the values of community broadcasting.
In order to develop and maintain these skills, CBF volunteers may seek support for professional development in areas such as:
- Leadership and governance
- Financial literacy
- Strategic thinking
- Outcomes-based grant-making
- Broadcasting and transmission technology
- Content production and consumption trends
First approved by the Board on 23 November 2022. Download the CBF Volunteer Professional Development Policy (PDF, 99KB). Please contact us if you require a Microsoft Word version of this document.