1. Sounding out your users

A neighbourhood community centre is used twice a week as a base for advice sessions on welfare benefits. The sessions are attended mostly by older people from the local area and a few young mums who bring their toddlers to meet for a chat and a coffee. The staff are trained and experienced in welfare rights.

They have noticed that the same people are returning to their sessions regularly and that they are dealing with very few new cases. They are also aware that the surrounding area has high unemployment and there are people locally who have recently moved out of a psychiatric hospital.

The project's funding from the local authority is up for renewal and a local councillor has told a member of the management committee that there could be cuts for projects that cannot show they are responding to local needs.

Discussion questions

• How could getting users' views improve any aspect of this situation?
• Who should the workers be asking for their views? Current users? Potential users?
• What should the workers be trying to find out?
• What methods would be the best way of getting the information? Will they be different for current users and potential users?
• How should the centre use the information?

2. Self-evaluation

The exercise can be started in different places, and you can track back from later stages to earlier ones.

Values

What are the core values which underpin the organisation? Among those commonly identified are:

• Beneficence, caring for others.
• Reciprocity, mutuality.
• Solidarity, empowerment.
• Promoting independence.
• Consumerism.

Keep your organisation's core values in mind as you answer the questions in this exercise.

Purposes

How does the organisation see itself in terms of current debates about the future of the voluntary sector. Are its roles in self-help? Service provision? Campaigning? Advocacy?

Does it want to grow through more and larger contracts, and in partnership with public and private sectors? Or does it want to stay separate? Does it think it is more important to work for social change? Or to provide high quality and much-needed services now?

Ownership

Who actually owns the organisation? This is not a legal question, but it may be provocative and help shape thinking. Answers could include:

• Trustees.
• Members or donors.
• Users or beneficiaries.
• Funders.
• The 'guardians' - the people who care sufficiently about the organisation to fight for its survival, usually a mixture of members, donors and users.
• Other stakeholders.

This discussion may involve questions like:

• Who feels it is their organisation?
• Who has rights in this organisation?
• Ultimately, who has power over the constitution or the assets?

Governance

How do the structures of decision-making carry through the values and purposes of the organisation? How do these structures reflect or manifest its ownership? There may be questions about:

• The role of trustees, their responsibilities and support needs.
• Representation of members, users and other stakeholders.
• Membership structures and user bodies.
• Relationship of other decision-making processes to the governing body. What it says in the constitution and what happens in practice.

Control

Who is in control of what in the organisation? The issues are complex: control is about much more than constitutions and governing bodies. Who is involved in, and has the ability to act on, issues such as the following:

• Decisions about purpose and activities?
• Decisions about allocation of resources?
• Decisions about the organisation's image?
• Information about performance and achievement?
• Calling individuals and groups to account?
• Where the organisation expects user involvement to lead in terms of control?