{"id":3989,"date":"2014-05-20T12:21:29","date_gmt":"2014-05-20T12:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsletter.alt.ac.uk\/?p=3989"},"modified":"2014-05-20T12:21:29","modified_gmt":"2014-05-20T12:21:29","slug":"becoming-an-alt-trustee-doug-gowan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2014\/05\/becoming-an-alt-trustee-doug-gowan\/","title":{"rendered":"Becoming an ALT Trustee \u2013 Doug Gowan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Doug Gowan is a trustee and current vice chair of ALT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The procedure for filling vacancies on ALT\u2019s board of trustees is getting underway so now is the time to think about whether you should stand.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some thoughts that may help you make up your mind.<\/p>\n<p>ALT is a charity that is run by its members, for its members and for the benefit of the public. It depends on a huge amount of voluntary effort by members who ask and answer questions on the forums, support and assess members going through CMALT, take part in special interest groups and regional groups, and do much else besides. Taking part in an ALT committee or becoming a trustee is just another way of becoming involved and making a contribution.<\/p>\n<p>ALT is a democracy where everyone has an equal say. Everyone can vote for trustees of their choice, and any member can stand. Trustees come from many different sectors and have many different specialisms. This diversity is one of ALT\u2019s great strengths and one that we intend to build on.<\/p>\n<p>What skills and qualities does an ALT trustee need to have? The answer is: those that you have already. Common sense, a desire to work with others to solve problems and make improvements, a willingness to listen and to make your voice heard. You don\u2019t need to have great experience of working with committees although you will likely have had some.<\/p>\n<p>What does being a trustee involve? It will take up some of your time \u2013 there is a small number of face to face trustee meetings each year. Much of the detailed business however is done by email, phone and online conference and ALT is continually looking at ways of working smarter through intelligent use of technology.<\/p>\n<p>What do I get out of being an ALT trustee?. In an era of quangos, agencies and competitive targeting ALT stands out as a charity which is built on the collective wisdom of its membership. I am proud to support ALT through my work as a trustee \u2013 and by encouraging others to take part. ALT is not even remotely bureaucratic and trustee business is done in a cooperative, constructive as well as businesslike manner. ALT is a respected organisation and being a trustee will certainly do your CV no harm.<\/p>\n<p>Over to you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>To hear Shirley Evans &amp; Doug Gowan talk about why they became<span class=\"apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>a Trustee, what the role involves, and how you can become an ALT Trustee\u00a0attend the free webinar on Thursday 22 May at 12.30 BST.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.alt.ac.uk\/civicrm\/event\/info?reset=1&amp;id=105\">Click here<\/a><span class=\"apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>for full details and to register.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"info\">Doug Gowan, vice chair of ALT<\/p>\n<p class=\"note\">If you enjoyed reading this article we invite you to join the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) as an individual member, and to encourage your own organisation to join ALT as an organisational or sponsoring member<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doug Gowan is a trustee and current vice chair of ALT The procedure for filling vacancies on ALT\u2019s board of trustees is getting underway so now is the time to think about whether you should stand. Here are some thoughts that may help you make up your mind. ALT is a charity that is run [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[725,801,1024,1043],"class_list":["post-3989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alt-news","tag-altc","tag-douggowan","tag-trustee","tag-webinar"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2013\/06\/ALTC12_0464.jpg?fit=3843%2C2562&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3916,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2014\/05\/call-for-nominations-for-a-new-vice-chair-and-two-new-trustees-for-alt\/","url_meta":{"origin":3989,"position":0},"title":"Call for nominations for a new Vice-Chair and two new Trustees for ALT","author":"ALT","date":"8 May 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"If you are a member of ALT and would like to take a more active role in the governance of the Association, then you should consider standing for election either as Vice-Chair or Trustee. Trustees work together on the\u00a0Central Executive Committee\u00a0to ensure that the vision and aims set out in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;ALT news&quot;","block_context":{"text":"ALT news","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/alt-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5537,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2016\/03\/chief-executives-report-march-2016\/","url_meta":{"origin":3989,"position":1},"title":"Chief Executive&#8217;s Report, March 2016","author":"","date":"22 March 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear Members of ALT, This is my first report to you in 2016 and I hope that you will find it helpful to catch up with some of the key developments across our community in recent months: 2015 Online Winter Conference Many members participated in our first wholly online Winter\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Chief Executive's Reports&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Chief Executive's Reports","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/reports\/chief-executives-reports\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2014\/11\/67220830%40N02_h.jpg?fit=1200%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2014\/11\/67220830%40N02_h.jpg?fit=1200%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2014\/11\/67220830%40N02_h.jpg?fit=1200%2C450&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2014\/11\/67220830%40N02_h.jpg?fit=1200%2C450&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2014\/11\/67220830%40N02_h.jpg?fit=1200%2C450&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3987,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2014\/05\/becoming-an-alt-trustee-shirley-evans\/","url_meta":{"origin":3989,"position":2},"title":"Becoming an ALT Trustee &#8211; Shirley Evans","author":"ALT","date":"20 May 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Shirley Evans is a Trustee of ALT, Chair of the Membership Development Committee and a member of the CMALT Development Group I first became involved with ALT some 15 years ago back in 1999. I was working in a college and was tasked with looking into virtual learning environments and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;ALT news&quot;","block_context":{"text":"ALT news","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/alt-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2013\/06\/ALTC12_0464.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2013\/06\/ALTC12_0464.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2013\/06\/ALTC12_0464.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2013\/06\/ALTC12_0464.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2013\/06\/ALTC12_0464.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5704,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2016\/05\/what-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-being-a-trustee-of-alt\/","url_meta":{"origin":3989,"position":3},"title":"What you always wanted to know about being a Trustee of ALT\u2026","author":"","date":"9 May 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"As a member of ALT you hear about our Trustees and you probably know who a few of them are and what they do - but if you are thinking about standing for election as a Trustee you'd probably like to find out more. In this post we share the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;ALT news&quot;","block_context":{"text":"ALT news","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/alt-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2016\/05\/21130755348_76a86e30c0_z.jpg?fit=640%2C427&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2016\/05\/21130755348_76a86e30c0_z.jpg?fit=640%2C427&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2016\/05\/21130755348_76a86e30c0_z.jpg?fit=640%2C427&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13430,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2025\/11\/from-engaging-on-the-periphery-to-coming-to-play-a-part-reflecting-on-becoming-a-trustee-of-alt-for-trustees-week-2025\/","url_meta":{"origin":3989,"position":4},"title":"From engaging on the periphery to coming to play a part: Reflecting on becoming a Trustee of ALT for Trustees\u2019 Week 2025","author":"ALT","date":"7 November 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"This week, 3-7 November 2025, marks this year\u2019s annual Trustees\u2019 Week which acknowledges the work of the close to one million trustees who support and help govern charities across the UK. As part of Trustees\u2019 Week, I\u2019ve been invited by the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) to reflect on being\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Events&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/11\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-20.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/11\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-20.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/11\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-20.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/11\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-20.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11685,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2023\/11\/celebrating-alts-trustees-for-trusteesweek\/","url_meta":{"origin":3989,"position":5},"title":"Celebrating ALT&#8217;s Trustees for #TrusteesWeek","author":"ALT","date":"10 November 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"It is Trustee's Week, 6-10 November, and here at ALT, we are celebrating the invaluable work of our Trustees, past and present. ALT's Trustees set ALT's direction and are responsible for ALT's strategy and the overall performance of the Association. Trustees are an integral part of ALT's governance and we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Trustees&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Trustees","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/trustees\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2023\/11\/TrusteesWeek.png?fit=980%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2023\/11\/TrusteesWeek.png?fit=980%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2023\/11\/TrusteesWeek.png?fit=980%2C360&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2023\/11\/TrusteesWeek.png?fit=980%2C360&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6CxU9-12l","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}