Volunteer bash flop

The South Ayrshire Volunteer Awards ceremony was organised by VASA (Voluntary Action South Ayrshire) , was held on March 30.

The awards are to recognise work done by volunteers. VASA receives funding from South Ayrshire Council, who in turn are bankrolled with a block grant from Westminster. Peter Henderson took centre stage at the ceremony.

The evening, at the Gaiety, was a great opportunity to have a memorable celebration to showcase the work that volunteers do in our community, but instead it was a shambles.

In the Gaiety foyer on arrival, to collect my award, I joined a scrum of people queuing to be allocated seats and waited 15 minutes before being able to do so. This could have been avoided by sending out tickets with seat allocations before the event, in a way similar to that used by the Gaiety to issue tickets for normal shows. There was a surprise to learn that guests were to be separated from the person they had come to support. It would have been helpful to warn people that this was the case, especially when either the award recipient or guest had mobility or other health problems.

Everyone had a bag of sweets waiting for them on their seat in the theatre. This was not a children’s event and it just trivialised all those attending.

The evening started with two hosts trying to “Jolly us along”, they encouraged a pantomime . While some of it was humorous, it was just inappropriate for an event to honour those attending. The opportunity was missed to have a speaker or speakers talk about the voluntary work they did, an issue close to the heart of all those attending.

The award of certificates was a shambles. Half-hearted directions were given by the hosts, but people went to collect their awards from all directions, criss-crossing on the stage. There was mayhem. Some got there from a side wing of the stage. Some climbed the steep steps at the front of the stage on either side. This was an accident waiting to happen, which should have been identified beforehand in a risk assessment. Was any risk assessment done? A scout leader fell backwards from the top of the steps and was hurt, he needed medical attention. The whole event was brought to an abrupt end. A simple one-way system using stairs with handrails would have made all this unsafe and undignified spectacle unnecessary.

The certificates awarded in the chaos were not real, just sheets of blank paper rolled up and tied with a ribbon. We were asked to collect the real award certificates later. Surely the whole purpose was to be presented with and collect the real thing the first time. Not difficult to organise and in the long run saving time. No one was allocated to take a photo of each person as they received their award.

What an opportunity missed. I do hope that lessons are learnt from this debacle and if another ceremony is arranged in the future it is run with efficiency and respect for those receiving the awards and their guests.

Kevin Firth