My first visit to the Online Centres Foundation
Almost a month ago, I did a posting about my appointment as a non-executive director at the Online Centres Foundation. At my interview for the position, I explained that, if appointed, i would be keen to meet the staff and visit an online centre as soon as possible and, in the last two days, I have done both, while attending my first meeting of the OCF Board.
There are still some 8.3 million people in the UK who are not online and the OCF does fantastic work supporting a network of some 3,800 online centres throughout England that provide free or low-cost training for those who are taking the first steps to learning how to use a computer and the Net.
OCF is located in Sheffield so I travelled up there from London yesterday. Legally the organisation is a company limited by guarantee and run as a mutual, so that the staff ultimately own and run it. The organisation has 32 staff and I was able to meet many of them and talk particularly to some of the senior management team.
All the OCF staff work in an open plan office on one floor, so that everyone can see and hear everyone else. The staff are very able and really committed so that there is a real buzz about the place. The organisation is headed by an inspirational Chief Executive Helen Milner who has a real passion for the subject and the Foundation.
The Board meeting itself was ably chaired by former Labour MP and Minister Jim Knight. He is one of six non-executive directors and then there are four executive directors, three of whom are elected by the staff. I am the oldest Board member by at least a decade but, since over 60s are a major component of the digitally excluded, it is good to have one oldie on the governing body!
After the Board meeting, there was a meeting of the Remuneration Committee which consists solely of the non-executive directors. Somehow and without any notice, I found myself Chair of RemCom, so I will be back in Sheffield in a fortnight’s time to consult staff on RemCom’s ideas around the remuneration package for the coming year.
This morning, before leaving Sheffield, i visited an online centre accompanied by affable staff member Vic Sterling. She took me to the home of the Sheffield United Football Club – a strange experience for someone like me who, atypically for a man, has no interest in football – because they run an online centre as part of the Senior Blades Club (the football team is known as ‘The Blades’).
There were eight students, all in their 60s and 70s, and they were supported by three tutors who showed great patience in explaining how to do e-mail and surf the web. I spoke particularly to one woman who had had a tumour on her spine and, after the operation to remove it, had been told that she would never walk again. Five years later, she is walking with a stick and she assured me: “If I can learn to walk again, i can learn to use a computer”.
It is stories like this that remind us how the use of the Net can literally transform lives and empower individuals.