My Volunteer Experience Edward Windsor

Photo: Edward Windsor volunteering remotely, working on SAcommunity email updates

SAcommunity wanted to highlight our affection for 'the old guard', our experienced and established SAcommunity veterans. People who make up our core team, and return each week to volunteer and keep the service running. They assist us in decision-making, idea development and implementation, check and create processes, and critically, help our new volunteers and interns find their feet at our organisation and in a new office environment. We felt we were more than overdue to introduce, acknowledge and thank some of our team members. 

Edward joined our Customer Service Team as a volunteer on 20 September 2019.
He attends for 4 hours remotely across the week to answer and respond to SAcommunity emails and is an essential part of our service.

Total Hours 858 This Year 60 Joined 20 September 2019 Last Check-in 3 May 2024 

Personal Biography
Edward came to Connecting Up, a service of Infoxchange on 20 September 2019 from an extensive background in IT-based Retail and Customer Service. He has a keen interest in IT and related technologies, and has studied and completed a Certificate III in Information and Technology and Media from TAFE.

Edward regularly provides SAcommunity updates each week, volunteering initially onsite, he now works remotely to assist the service. He consistently and thoroughly attends to the large number of emails and updates received each week through SAcommunity channels, checking information provided, adding to the database and making calls as needed, enabling him to maintain his previous customer service experience as a key part of our SAcommunity Customer Service Team. 

In particular, Edward displays great information seeking skills in searching for and unravelling data on some of our mystery organisations. Using search engines to find their service's digital footprints across the web through various websites, ACNC, ABN lookup, parent bodies, local news articles, to checking their locations on Google maps to identify updates, merges or service closures, 'for sale' signs are good indications the service may have moved on.




SAcommunity - Customer Service Team
Edward's works in the Customer Service Team involves responding to the many emails received by SAcommunity and checking any services updates against online sources and verifying by phone with community services themselves. He has continued volunteering with us remotely each week, aiming to complete 4 hours a week taking place over multiple sessions of half-an hour or 1 hour, since starting with us in 2019, completing more than 745 hours in total at last count by September 2023, 145 hours over 2023 this year.

It's great to catch up with Edward online and as possible, hear his news in the SAcommunity Team meetings through Microsoft Teams. It gives us an opportunity to listen to his reports on the volunteer tasks he is undertaking, examples of some of the tactics of his information seeking journeys, particularly useful for new volunteers, and his work to update community information across the sector.

It's not just our organisation that appreciates Edward's work, with feedback from some of the many services he assists:

"Good Morning Edward, I have looked at the work you have done and am very pleased with the outcome. Thanks very much" ~Plympton Glenelg RSL  

Photo (Left to Right): Volunteers Rex Porter and Edward Windsor at the Volunteer End of Year Lunch December 2021

Work experience - Internal and External Events, Connections and Networks

 

Image: Eric Jenkins, Accounts Manager, Connecting Up and Volunteer Mentor

Mentor Program
Connecting Up's mentor program provides an opportunity for volunteers to connect with staff and understand more about their role, how they started, what they studied, where they applied and worked, in order to improve volunteers' own role and work-readiness.

Edward continues to develop and refine his skills at Connecting Up, building on his meeting with volunteer mentor, James Newport, Senior Web Developer and their discussions on the state of the IT Tech industry, where it is headed and the training and development he can look into for preparation for this field. He has worked in casual roles most recently with the Electoral Commission and hopes to find a career in IT or a related field, such as computer assembly and repair in the future and is currently applying for further studies at TAFE, Certificate 2 in Electronics. 

Edward also met with mentor Eric Jenkins to discuss his pathway into technology services. Eric a former volunteer, transitioned firstly into customer service and is now the Accounts Manager at Connecting Up, a service of Infoxchange. Eric's initial customer support role involved answering customer queries on a wide range of technology topics across multiple support channels, and demonstrating good product knowledge across vendors. 

Eric now provides in-depth licensing advice and technology consulting services to Connecting Up's not-for-profit members, working with the Business Development Team managing vendor relationships and new partner launches. Edward has found many aspects in common from their shared volunteer and customer service experiences, as well as an interest in, understanding and knowledge of IT products.