This week is Trustees' Week (1-5 November), an annual event which highlights the wonderful work Trustees do and encourages others to get involved and make a difference. 

Here at Aspens we have ten fantastic Trustees who volunteer their time for us and benefit our charity enormously by providing invaluable support and guidance through their wide breadth of skills and expertise in a variety of fields such as law, marketing, technology and finance. 

We'd like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to our Trustees Gill Marcus, Peter Green, Steph Upton, Kirsty Sadler, Eileen Jackman, Adrian Batchelor, Ian Arnold, Ian Colbridge, Tim Sadka and Carmen Di Cara for all their support.

We will be hearing from some of our Trustees throughout the week and learning what their role involves, what they enjoy about it and why others should consider becoming a Trustee.

We start the week with this account from Gill Marcus, Aspens' Chair of Trustees:

"I chair the charity and in that role I ensure that each Trustee is able to contribute to discussions at board meetings, that I listen to all Trustees’ views and that I come to a balanced and fair conclusion on matters debated at board meetings.  I use each Trustee’s experience and skills to the greatest effect for the benefit of the charity. I am also a sounding board for the chief executive and other members of the executive team.

I have spent nearly 40 years working in governance roles in both the commercial and not-for-profit sectors and I thought that my skills could be put to good use for the benefit of a charity. It’s that old cliché about giving something back – which I’m afraid to say is true!

I am a lawyer by background but I have spent most of my working life as a company secretary – the main bulk of my career was spent at Camelot, the operator of the National Lottery. I have attended some very tricky board meetings over the years and have learnt from the best!

It is very rewarding to offer your skills and expertise to a charity, working together with fellow Trustees to help deliver a charity’s charitable objects. If you join the right board there is a great deal of camaraderie and the feeling of all being in it together to achieve a common goal. Being a Trustee need not to take up huge amounts of time and it is time well spent.

I have been a Trustee of Aspens for over five years and in that time I have seen it transform – that has been extremely rewarding and although there have been times of stress and sleepless nights, I believe that we now have a strong charity with a focused and cohesive board and executive team. The future for Aspens is exciting and I hope I can remain part of it for some time to come. " 

Gill Marcus

Find out more about #TrusteesWeek and ways you can get involved here.