Corporate volunteering: pointless fad or way of the future?

Brisbane’s Corporate Community Network (BCCN) is on a mission to link up communities with the corporate world.

I see in the 6 March ProBono e-newsletter, that BCCN is a new informal network of people who work in community engagement, representing companies, community organisations and government agencies.

Formed less than a year ago, BCCN has begun organising casual lunch and breakfast gatherings to discuss issues that affect both the corporates and the communities they operate in.

Elizabeth Hollis is in Community and Corporate Affairs with engineering giant Thiess and a member of the BCCN steering committee. She says the community groups are keen to get involved in BCCN and more and more corporates are seeing the value in it as well. She says the role of BCCN is to learn from existing business-community partnerships, share information, find new ways to develop partnerships and meet like -minded people.

The steering committee meets monthly to organise network gatherings. The latest luncheon date is set for April 6th and has the controversial title of “Corporate volunteering: pointless fad or way of the future?”

The gathering will hear from Brisbane corporate and community service organisations about how they have made corporate volunteering work.

Other members of the BCCN committee are:

Sara Parrot , Ernst and Young Foundation
Robert Law, Enterprise & Partnership Development Officer, Brisbane City Council
Roley Cook, Smith Family
Tarryn McMullen, Community Relations Manager, Bank of Queensland
Melissa Hartman, Ipac Securities Limited
Amy Roache, Community Manager for Lifeline Australia

For more information about the BCCN you can email corporatecommunitynetwork@hotmail.com.