Over the coming weeks we will announce our new MemberWise Ambassadors who will champion their particular area of expertise. Introducing Annette Woolman (Director of Membership, Services and Volunteering). She is the network’s new Ambassador (People and Volunteering).

Annette manages a team of 9 membership/volunteer focused roles at Coeliac UK, a membership charity helping over 68,000 people manage their condition and diet.

She has worked within the Membership and Association Sector for 15 years and has worked for organisations including the National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) and Three Rivers CVS as a Trustee.

We asked Annette about her role at Coeliac UK:

“I am responsible for the strategic development, delivery and monitoring of services, adding value to the membership and volunteering experience and encouraging new members and supporters to join Coeliac UK. I also head up an internal working group that reviews working practices and policies to improve the working environment for the charity as well as act as a user group for new initiatives in the work place.”

We all know that many fellow membership and association professionals don’t set-out for a career ‘In Membership’ in mind, so we asked Annette how she ‘fell into Membership’:

“When I got my degree I walked around the corner to my part time job in car finance and handed in my notice- it just wasn’t for me. I temped in a recruitment agency while applying for everything and found a membership officer role and loved the sound of it. Thankfully I was given the job and have stayed in the charity membership sector ever since. I find the membership sector rewarding, fulfilling and (most of the time) a lot of fun!”

Annette has long been an advocate of the MemberWise Network and since working at Coeliac UK she cannot remember not being a part of the network as it has guided so much of her work. Back in 2018 she co-hosted a keynote presentation (MEMX 2018) about developing a Member App and explained Coeliac UK’s approach relating to a member engagement review.

During challenging times we asked Annette about her current goals and challenges:

“We launched our new 5 year strategy this year. In terms of membership and volunteering our key goals focus on increasing our reach and improving the member/patient experience. Despite the events of this year, thankfully our strategic aims are still relevant we just need to be more fluid in our approach to achieving them. The Summer School webinars have already been invaluable in shaping plans for the next year.”

Volunteers can be our most powerful advocates, at times harshest critics, and no one needs me to tell them how membership communities benefit so much from the passion and commitment of volunteers. There is such crossover in acquisition, retention and engagement initiatives, that a positive volunteer experience can only have a positive impact on membership. I look forward to future discussions with the network and sharing ideas on how we can continue to improve the volunteer experience across our organisations.

Finally, we asked Annette about something unique/unusual that we might not yet know about her, she responded:

“I’m of Polish heritage and have been able to get by conversationally reasonably ok (my Polish family would probably disagree!) I’ve taken the opportunity during lockdown to ‘properly learn’ Polish. I have to admit now learning the grammar, sentence structure and just reading the simplest of story books it’s like learning a new language from scratch! Wish me luck!”

We welcome Annette on board as MemberWise Ambassador (Volunteering) and we look forward to championing the critical task of onboarding, engaging and retaining volunteers/advocates.