Volunteer group coordinator and assistant coordinator training

Training 4: Reporting to Re-engage and responding to issues (3 minute read)

Your primary goal as a group coordinator is to keep your tea party group running as smoothly as possible. A key aspect of this is to make sure that Re-engage knows how your group is getting on through the completion of an online monthly report. Sometimes this role might be completed by the assistant coordinator.

The knowledge team will email you once a month with a link to the report, along with instructions on how to fill it in.

Once you have submitted your monthly report, the knowledge team will review it and get in touch with you if you have requested support.

Responding to issues

We hope every tea party group will run as smoothly and harmoniously as possible. However, we do understand that issues can sometimes arise.

The following are examples of issues you might encounter in the course of running your tea party group:

• An older guest or volunteer keeps dropping out of tea parties at the last minute 
• An older guest is experiencing hearing loss and is struggling to understand what people are saying 
• Some of the people in the group do not get on well with each other 
• A volunteer habitually ‘talks over’ and patronises the older guests 
• An older guest’s health has deteriorated to the extent that it’s becoming difficult to support them to attend the tea parties

What should you do?

Whenever you are faced with an issue like this and you are not sure how to proceed, your first step should be to check the FAQs on the Re-engage website. These frequently asked questions cover a range of scenarios that might come up in the course of volunteering with us and you can use the search function to find the FAQs that are relevant to your situation. If you can’t find a solution for your issue in the FAQs, you can get in touch with the team at Re-engage by emailing knowledge@reengage.org.uk and we will help you resolve the situation.

Difficult conversations

As you respond to issues within your group, you may need to have challenging discussions with an older guest, a volunteer or both. You may find it helpful to have a look through our training module for call companion volunteers, 'addressing difficulties'. Although it focuses primarily on navigating the relationship with an older person who wants more support and advice from their call companion volunteer, it does also provide helpful strategies for approaching difficult subjects in a positive and constructive way.

Here are some additional pointers on how to handle difficult conversations:

• Be clear about why you’re having the conversation and what you want to get out of it before you start.
• Try to approach the conversation calmly and with a clear head.
• Try to recognise and manage your emotions.
• Aim to keep an open mind and be prepared to challenge your own assumptions and beliefs.
• Give yourself time to plan what you would like to say.
• Listen to the other person’s side of the story.
• Try to find the middle ground so that you can reach a solution that works for everyone.