Volunteers' Week

This week the contributions volunteers make to communities across the UK is being celebrated during Volunteers Week.

I've been volunteering with the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) as Regional Adviser for Ireland for almost 18 months.

I've made good friends in SCBWI over the years as a member so it's been good to be able to give something back to this supportive community.

Volunteering is a two way street  - it's a chance to give back and support communities and organisations by giving up some of your free time and using your skills and experience to benefit an organisation.

I'm able to bring my planning and organisation skills, budgeting, people management and presentation skills to name but a few to help grow and support our region and lead its volunteer team.

Yes it means I'm spending my time organising 'stuff' for SCBWI when I could otherwise be writing. But I see it as time well spent as I'm helping other writers in developing our local writing community. Writing can be a lonely occupation, so this makes it all the more important to try to build up supportive communities.

A typical week can see me spending a few hours of my spare time doing 'admin' work for SCBWI, planning our next events, developing and issuing our monthly newsletter, getting to grips with how the back end of the website works and developing Web pages to advertise our events, answering members' email queries, updating our social media feeds or interviewing the Managing Director of a publishing house as one of our sessions for members.

I'm really fortunate to lead a willing and supportive volunteer team who are based across the island of Ireland. They also give up their time in supporting Illustrators' queries, keeping our social media presence current, running critique groups and in organising and hosting our in - person meet ups across Ireland. They all have busy lives too - some working full-time as well as having caring responsibilities.

Thank you team - you are all amazing!