Managing Expectations

What you can expect from us

The Association staff team is here to support you, and the Volunteering and Representation team is especially here for support throughout your volunteering journey.

We are also committed to ensuring the student voice is heard and to fostering a sense of community for all OU students.

We do this by making sure you have training that will ensure you may carry out your role effectively and with confidence. We also offer a listening ear and wider training in a variety of relevant and interesting areas, such as wellbeing.

We also pledge to:

Reimburse you for reasonable travel and subsistence expenditure that you incur whilst carrying out your volunteering role. Please check with the budget holder of your event, meeting, or project before you spend your money.

(Please refer to our A ssociation Travel & Subsistence Policy for information, and any questions please reach out to the Volunteering and Representation team or directly to Resources who manage expense claims at oustudents-resources@open.ac.uk)

Ensure you learn about the Association and what we do.
Give you a clear outline of what your role entails, usually in the form of a written role description.
Give you the appropriate training and guidance relevant to your role.
Ensure you are covered by our insurance during your time as a volunteer. However, if you are travelling by car on Association business or to meetings, please make sure your motor insurance covers you for this.
Maintain our Investing in Volunteers accreditation, so you can be assured of a positive experience volunteering with us.

Map all our roles to the OU’s Careers and Employability Service’s employability skills to develop and promote the value and importance of transferable skills.
Ensure our volunteer policies and supplementary documents are fit for purpose and reflect our shared values and behaviour and promote a safe, positive, and nurturing culture.
Recognise your commitment and contribution to the Students Association through recognition and thank you events and promotions.
To make sure you feel valued by the organisation and feel able to contribute to its development.

You can find more information on these points and other question in our FAQ section of the website.

Furthermore, our volunteers have told us that through their time volunteering with the Association they have:

increased their confidence.
gained and improved on many skills, including presentation, public speaking, and writing for publication.
had opportunities to do things they had never expected they’d be able to do, such as presenting at conferences, going to the Houses of Parliament, hosting a radio show, writing for the online student magazine The Hoot, and sitting on committees at the highest level of the OU.
ensured that students’ voices are heard by the University and that policy has been influenced directly by their taking part.

taken opportunities to travel across the UK.
felt they had made a difference.
had fun and made new friends!

What we expect from you as a volunteer

As a representative of the Association, you must conduct all OU Students Association business to the highest standard, as you are an ambassador for our student community and our cause.

There may be expectations and requirements for some roles, such as Peer Supporters and our Student Leadership Team members, but generally, it is anticipated that you will:

Abide by the core values set out in the Volunteer Policy and our Values and Behaviours policy.
Act in the interests of the wider community of OU Students Association members.
Act with respect and consideration when communicating with fellow volunteers, students, staff, and others always.

Act with moral integrity and honesty, and in an ethical and honourable manner.
Act openly and responsibly and be prepared to be accountable to your peers for your actions.
Conduct yourself with objectivity, and calmly and professionally, not allowing yourself to be influenced by personal prejudices.
Respect confidentiality, however if this information relates to a safeguarding matter, you must not keep it to yourself. Please speak to the Head of Volunteering and Representation or the Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Student Welfare, should you have concerns.

Engage with students whenever possible and wherever they are in a positive and supportive manner, including on social media, in student forums and face-to-face.
Share our commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion.

And please be aware that discriminatory behaviour, harassment, or abuse – on and off-line - directed towards others will not be tolerated.

Furthermore, if you are unexpectedly unable to attend a meeting to which you have been invited, you are expected to inform the Chair of that meeting or committee as soon as possible.

If this is not possible, please do let the Volunteering and Representation team know and we can pass on the message.

All volunteers are expected to follow the Volunteer Agreement shared with them on taking up their role. Alongside this, the Student Leadership Team and Board of Trustees have their own working agreements, terms of reference and codes of conduct.

All our policies, training and guidance for your volunteering journey can be found in the Volunteer Zone, to help make it easy to find everything you need when you are volunteering with the Association.

Taking a break

We understand that life may get in the way of your volunteering, and that you have priorities competing for your valuable time. You may also have holidays and need to take some time off. If this is the case and you would benefit from taking a proper break from your volunteering, please do let us know.

We will be able to support you with this, keep you in the loop as much or as little as you want for a length of time and help with stepping back from your role if necessary.

Take a step back from volunteering

See our volunteering Policies & Procedures

Please reach out to the Volunteering & Representation team at oustudents-volunteer@open.ac.uk to let us know and to have a chat if that will help.

Data protection and your privacy

We take data protection and our obligation to GDPR very seriously. You will find training and more information regarding your responsibility as a volunteer in the next section; here we will look at how we protect your data and privacy.

Data Protection Policy

This lays out the Association’s obligation as a ‘Data Controller’ – that is, we collect, use and hold personal data for specific purposes that we will explain to you at the time:

Data Protection Policy

Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Policy explains our commitment to protecting your privacy, how we look after your personal data and how we ensure we comply with UK data protection laws:

Data Records Retention Policy

We will look after your personal data securely and retain it only for as long as necessary or as required by law. Our Data Records Retention policy sets out what records we hold and for what reason, how long we will keep them and who is responsible for them:

Data Records Retention Policy

We need to keep up to date with any legislative changes, and that is why we work closely with a Data Protection Officer (DPO). You can find more about this and also the Association’s Data Sharing Agreement with The Open University on our website.

Keeping us in the loop

If you change your details, please let us know. This is important as we need to abide by the regulations discussed here regarding the retention of accurate and necessary data and because this is how we contact you throughout the duration of your volunteering journey.

You can do this by signing into your volunteering profile and selecting Contact Details from the drop-down menu when you click on your name in the top right of the webpage, and then editing your contact details.

Update your details

Congratulations!

You have now completed the first part of your onboarding training.

Next step: Core and mandatory Training