Introducing the Volunteer Supporters Network Hub Pilot Advisory Group!

In December 2025, the VSN reached a major milestone in our Hub Pilot – the recruitment and formation of our Advisory Group!  

The VSN Hub is delighted to welcome Lucy Iwuala, Raimund Liebert, Justice Okai-Allotey, Bile Rene, Tania Solá, Aldéric Stähli, and Natalia Szafran-Kozakowska to the Advisory Group, who will help us in supporting the governance of the Hub.  You can find out more about them all over on our Meta pages.  We’d like to extend our gratitude to them for donating their time to the VSN, and we’re really looking forward to working with them.  

A reflection on the process of building the Advisory Group…

One of our stated goals in our Theory of Change for the Hub Pilot at the Volunteer Supporters Network is: 

To build on the current light-touch governance structure to provide sustainability and global reach for the Hub. 

And one of the strategies that we’re employing in order to achieve this is: 

Formation and recruitment of representatives to the Advisory Group

The first step in creating the Advisory Group was to set out terms for the group, which can be seen here.  We then built a call for applications and a short application form, which we advertised on our Meta pages, through our Telegram and email lists to network members and liaisons, and also through direct outreach.  Following this we made a shortlist, and held informal interviews with shortlisted candidates before making a decision.

As with many of the activities involved in building the Hub, this was a time-consuming process, and needed to be coordinated over multiple time zones – but this is all part of our learning in how to build this global structure.  We have also made the decision to add a translator to our Advisory Group meetings to ensure more equitable access.  

Our Advisory Group will meet every two months – we’ve held meetings in December 2025 and February 2026 so far – and we’re posting minutes of those meetings on our meta pages, so that the Network, and the movement more widely, can see what we’ve been doing. 

We’re really excited about this development, and are confident that it will help us work together to build sustainability for the Hub as we move forward!