Experts Online
net:gain membership offers you free access to Experts Online, a service run by the sector for the sector, consisting of a special set of online forums you can visit whenever you need help or guidance in any aspect of running your organisation. Experts Online is not an automated help menu, but a panel of real people with specialist expertise who will interpret and understand your question, and reply usually within 48 hours. Experts Online is part of the Networks Online group of VCS services, and has been running since 2002.
Users can post any number of questions; all questions and answers are can be found in the appropriate areas and are visible to all users. Questions which require a confidential reply are made anonymous.
The Experts Online service also includes a Useful Resources area containing downloadable resources including sample policies, templates, tools and guidelines. Why develop a policy document from scratch when you can adapt something that is already being used by other voluntary sector organisations?
The current fields of expertise are:
- Board Recruitment
- Business Planning
- Community Engagement
- Computers and Communications
- Employment issues - including Health and Safety
- Finance Management - including Accountancy
- Grant Funding
- Legal Issues
- Project Planning
- Rural Services
Business Planning
The role of this forum is to help organisations (in the voluntary and community sector, and those considering Social Enterprise) to plan their future development.
As well as helping with ideas, vision and processes, the forum will signpost to the other Experts for specific advice, for example on Legal Structures, personnel issues, or on ICT Communications policy.
One key service in this forum is to provide organisations with templates to help their planning, specimen documents which they may use to inform their own policies and procedures, and development and administrative tools.
Community Engagement
This expert area deals with any issues relating to community engagement such as empowering local communities, tackling social exclusion, delivering training to hard-to-reach learners, or promoting and fostering involvement in community projects
Computers and Communication
All your ICT questions are answered here. Questions asked have ranged from: Use of Firewalls through Client Tracking Systems to Disappearing Desktop Icons. The forum also includes alerts about viruses, anti-virus measures and operating system 'loopholes'. Both PC and Mac users are catered for.
Employment Issues
This expert area deals with any issue relating to recruiting and managing staff and volunteers within a voluntary and community sector organisation or SME. Topics covered include Equal Opportunities, contracts of employment, job sharing, working from home, entitlements of part-time staff and pay
Grant Funding
The Grant Funding forum highlights sources of funding to support ICT-enabled Learning, Inclusion and Regeneration as well as funding sources for more general projects. Users can also request detailed reports from the GRANTfinder funding database as a follow up to funding searches that they have run themselves via the GRANTnet portal.
Finance Management
This expert area deals with issues relating to both personal and corporate finance, such as employee benefit schemes (pensions and personal insurance), ethical banking and investment, and pension and retirement planning. The forum also covers accounting and bookkeeping issues and advice on budgeting and Full Cost Recovery.
Legal Issues
This expert area deals with Charity Law and the legal aspects of running a Community or Voluntary Sector organisation. Questions asked have included: Charging for a public screening of a DVD film in a Community Centre; Disability Law; AGM Papers; the implications of becoming a charity.
Project Planning
The role of this forum is to help organisations (in the voluntary and community sector, and those considering Social Enterprise) to understand and analyse the practical detail of projects and to manage one or more projects effectively. Projects may be anything from daily service delivery to fundraising events to one-off activities.
Rural Services
The purpose of this forum is to help rural communities and those who support them to maintain and re-shape the delivery of services in rural areas. It was set up initially to support communities through the Post Office's Network Change programme and beyond. However, its remit covers all services (not just Postal Services) and all aspects of rural service delivery.
