Are you about to become a member of the Big Society?

I confess to an interest. As a semi-active member of society, I am a “volunteer” in my own time. In other words I work for the odd NGO and charity in what used to be known as the ‘third sector’. Indeed I suspect I may be a candidate for membership of the “Big Society“.

So, as a trustee, a board member, a committee member, a chair, and an occasional functionary, how is my life about to change? Apparently you and I are about to be asked to do more. In the bits and pieces of my “voluntary sector life” I do not run a school, hospital or library, and, oh dear, I have no desire to. I don’t run my local police, probation office, or prison, and, oh dear, I don’t want to.

Worse, like millions of others in the ‘third sector’, I don’t actually have any time to. I intersect with very, very many people in the ‘third sector’, and they don’t have any time or seem to have any interest in taking on any of the above.

So who else is in the pipeline to become fully unpaid up members of the Big Society?

I am confused. Is the Big Society to be regulated? Will the “community opportunities” have to become registered charities? If so this is not a cheap, nor stress-free, undertaking. You have to find a chair, treasurer, committee members, bank account, secretary. Or do they have to become registered companies…no less daunting than becoming a charity. If they don’t will they be able to borrow from the Big Society Bank which was announced yesterday?

What will happen to the multi-billion pound voluntary sector that already exists and banks with the Co-Op and the rest? Are we to be ‘incorporated’ into the Big Society or closed down for lack of our traditional funding streams.

Must get back to the “day job”. It seems to have more predictable outcomes. I’m certainly a fully paid up member of the “day job” society.