Trustees Week – What does it involve?
For Trustees Week 2025, we spoke with Liana Steven, one of our board members, about her role and the time commitment required to be a trustee.
“Before becoming a Trustee with Dundee Carers Centre, I had several voluntary mentoring positions, including start-ups through Women in Business and MCR Pathways. This scheme provided mentoring to bright secondary pupils who were in care with the aim to support them into higher education. These roles had very scheduled and defined time requirements.
As a Trustee at Dundee Carers Centre, we have quarterly board meetings, and the dates are well known in advance. Meetings are currently held day time around lunch time, and trustees can attend on Zoom if unable to attend in person. It’s good if Trustees can attend in person at least some of the time. This allows for better connection and sometimes a post-meeting meal.
Meeting times can occasionally be varied to better suit Trustees or any non-board member attending. There are other subgroups covering specific issues that Trustees may have experience or interest in. These subgroups include wellbeing, finance, fundraising and HR.
Where possible, these sub-group meetings are held either before or after Board meetings to reduce travel and help juggle your own work or family commitments.
There may be an occasional extra meeting to deal with a specific topic which can’t wait until the next quarterly meeting.
The papers relating to meetings are usually sent a week before and will require a couple of hours to read over and become familiar with. There will be topics you have no previous experience with, which is why the Board welcomes a variety of skills and life experiences.
On a personal level, you will learn new skills and have an opportunity to share your knowledge to help the Centre provide much needed support for unpaid carers.”
If you would like to find out more about being a trustee for Dundee Carers Centre please click here.