Volunteers’ Week. A time to say thanks

1-7 June is set aside each year to celebrate the valuable contribution that volunteers make to organisations and local communities across the UK. The contribution of volunteers is often unseen and unrecognised by many, visible only through the incredible impact of their volunteering.

Volunteers’ Week is a chance for The OR Society to celebrate our volunteers and say thank you for the fantastic contribution they make. We would like to use this time to acknowledge all those who give their time to The OR Society, the membership and the wider OR community.

The OR Society relies on its volunteers all year round and although we employ a small number of staff to manage operational aspects, none of their work would be sufficient without our hundreds of volunteers. Almost every aspect of The OR Society relies on volunteers to fulfil its aims, reach its strategic goals and serve the OR community.

Here we highlight the many ways in which volunteers support The OR Society:

• The Board and General Council are an integral part of deciding our strategic focuses, organising our events, serving our members, creating our journals and even keeping an eye on our finances.
• Regional Society committees plan and run programmes of regional OR events and meetings to keep those working in OR connected to their local OR community.
• Special Interest Group committees offer members with a common OR interest the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas and experiences.
• The editorial teams create the Society’s journals and are supported by an even larger pool of volunteer reviewers who assess submitted papers. Even Inside OR and Impact, the Society’s magazines, would not exist without our volunteer editors or all the members of the OR community who submit articles to them.
• Volunteers put in countless hours organising and executing our larger, annual events such as the Simulation Workshop, Analytics Summit and of course, the annual conference.
• OR in Education volunteers introduce a new generation of analysts, scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs to OR by engaging in school visits and supporting education outreach events.
• Pro Bono OR volunteers use their skills to help good causes. Over 150 pro bono projects have been supported by volunteers from the OR community since the scheme started over 10 years ago. Not only have the charitable organisations benefitted, but also their thousands of service users.

Volunteers have an undeniable impact on The OR Society, the OR community and all those they interact with through their volunteering. We are grateful for the dedication shown by our volunteers year-round, and we want to acknowledge how thankful and appreciative we are of our volunteers. Thank you!

To find out more about volunteering see our volunteering opportunities.