CITRA (Charity IT Resource Alliance) is conducting a survey to see if there is support for developing a professional association for IT staff in the voluntary sector, whether technology is just part of their job or the main focus. While there would be subscription fee,

CITRA does not intend to form another large umbrella body but would hope to collaborate with some or all that are already in existence and use existing infrastructure to manage the process.

A short questionnaire is at http://www.ctt.org/citra.asp - responses wanted by 10th July.

Vol-Info, the network for sector information workers, would like such people to complete its short online survey, at http://tinyurl.com/mcffy. This will help it plans for future events, services etc and maybe assist with applying for some funding for the network.

Please contribute by 14th July.

According to NetSquared, “Social bookmarking, or using tags to organize web pages into a publicly viewable archive online, is becoming increasingly common among nonprofit organizations and supporting technologists.”

We’re yet to be convinced such efforts are useful outside team projects but perhaps the newer tools reviewed in this useful introductory article will have the extra features to make the difference. http://netsquared.org/choosingsocialbookmarking.

The government-backed GoldStar programme to promote good practice for volunteering from socially excluded groups has launched its web site, at http://www.goldstar.org.uk.

There’s still material to come, though, on Exemplar projects, guidelines for recruiting and retaining volunteers, mentors and befrienders and the good practice toolkit.

The ‘Social Entrepreneurship Monitor, United Kingdom 2005′ report focuses on the social entrepreneurs who may grow the social enterprises of the future. Freelance UK picked up that “Creative talents in their early twenties who live in rural communities are more likely than any other age or regional group in the UK to launch a company dedicated to social enterprise” (http://www.freelanceuk.com/news/1742.shtml).

Produced by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor/London Business School, download the report from http://www.gemconsortium.org/document.asp?id=501.

(Source: Senscot)

Volunteer Centres Northern Ireland have a new web site enabling potential volunteers to find opportunities across Northern Ireland.

Organisations should register their volunteering opportunities with the local Volunteer Centre, which will post them on the site. http://www.volunteernow.co.uk.

(Source: NICVA eNews)

Scotland’s Voluntary Sector Manifesto was launched at The Gathering in Glasgow last week. Drawing together many voices from across the sector, it is designed to encourage debate, new thinking and real change, and will be promoted in the run up to next year’s Scottish elections.

The Manifesto can be downloaded (pdf, 1.2Mb) from http://www.scvo.org.uk/scvocms/images/manifesto%202007.pdf.

The Scotsman’s news item on this led with “Taxpayers should be allowed to donate a proportion of their taxes directly to charity” - http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=901242006.

Further input is requested on the development of a National Training Strategy for Volunteer Managers. See Volunteering England/Hub page.

They expect training providers to be ready to roll out the training strategy by the autumn.

Consultation on a strategy for the social enterprise business model that could bring social, economic and environmental benefits to Scotland is being run by Communities Scotland, for the Scottish Executive. As well as looking at where the model is today, it examines support for social enterprises and how their growth and development can be encouraged.

Comments by 8th September. See Introduction or go direct to the document, pdf format, 370kb.

The Performance Hub wants small to medium size frontline organisations to take part in its online survey on strategic thinking and planning in the sector. They want to find out what you actually do on creating strategy, as opposed to what you’d like to do, to help them improve advice and guidance.

There’s a chance win a book token. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=418912104200.

Quality standards to strengthen the existing Compact between government and the sector (in England) to create a ‘Compact Plus’ scheme are out for initial consultation. The document gives 4 possible ‘visions’: a “badge” scheme, a “certification” scheme, an “award” scheme or a “trading standard”. Probably more for the sector professional at this stage as there will be formal consultation once a detailed scheme has been worked up.

Responses by 21st July, http://www.thecompact.org.uk/C2B/PressOffice/display.asp?ID=181&Type=2.

(Source: ourpartnership newsletter)

VAT Notice 706 on Partial Exemption has been updated with changes of relevance to some charities - your finance people or accountant should know if this applies.

There is a new requirement that in future all special methods must be approved or directed in writing, plus rules on how to deal with any ‘gaps’ in these.