Pro Bono O.R. Summer newsletter #ORblog

The OR Society: Pro Bono O.R. (Summer newsletter - Issue 3)

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Promoting Pro Bono O.R.

IFOS (International Federation of Operational Research Societies) has been promoting Pro Bono O.R.

in its quarterly newsletters.

In March it published a case study carried out with Crimestoppers: ‘Pro Bono O.R. delivers quick response to call centre problem’ which can be found on page 12 http://ifors.org/newsletter/ifors-march2015.pdf

In the latest edition it published a case study with HARCVS: ‘Pro Bono O.R. addressing loneliness in rural North Yorkshire' which can be found on page 11 http://ifors.org/web/june-2015-newsletter/

Career Volunteer’s sister company Charity People helped to increase the profile of Pro Bono O.R. by publishing a blog explaining how Pro Bono O.R. can help third sector organisations in the UK. 

 

Pro Bono O.R. offers free consultancy services to third sector organisations across the UK. The OR Society wants more organisations to benefit from operational research and recognises that third sector organisations have an even greater need to be more efficient. Organisations may seek a wide range of operational improvements:

• Strategic planning/review
• Impact measurement
• Process improvement
• Data analysis
• Business planning
• Efficiency improvement
• Options appraisal
• Decision making

Whatever the aim, O.R. can offer the flexibility and adaptability to provide objective help.
Visit: Pro Bono O.R.  for more information or send an email to Felicity McLeister to request Pro Bono O.R. support.

Volunteer Experience

Are you considering skilled volunteering? Wonder what it might be like? This guest blog from Sarah Culkin tells you about her experience of Pro Bono O.R. with Harrogate and Rippon CVS.
http://probonoor.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/addressing-loneliness-in-rural-north.html

                                    

The findings will help inform forward planning for this service and also help to support funding bids’ CEO

 Have you got a story to tell?  If so I’d love to hear from you and would happily publish the article as a guest blog and promote via my social media channels.

With the initiative growing we are always on the lookout for new volunteers.  If you know of any individuals or organisations that would like to get involved with skilled volunteering please ask them to contact Felicity McLeister or complete the online volunteer details form.

Third sector SIG

The OR Society has a Third Sector special interest group that puts on events three to four times a year.  This year the Spring Seminar looked at ‘Services to Young People’ that included talks from four Pro Bono O.R. volunteers who had carried out projects with Joseph Rowntree Foundation, The Childhood trust, Elfrida Rathbone and AYME.  The latest event hosted a talk by Tom Cherrett - O.R. & Oxfam: optimising donation bank collections using remote monitoring sensors.  Both writes ups and video (OR & Oxfam) can be found here

Skilled volunteering really makes a difference

Thank you for the feedback from Noise Solution.  It’s always great to get such positive feedback about the work our volunteers are doing: 

'The commitment shown to the idea of the project was excellent. The volunteer did a really good job of understanding what was required. He produced some excellent work, which looked visually great and has been instrumental in me being able to demonstrate clearly the impacts that we are achieving with Noise Solution.'

Project updates

Since the start of the year we have completed 9 projects including Noise Solution, Parentskool and CALM (keep an eye on the webpage for the case study slides).  We have had 26 new enquires and have started 12 new projects which includes The Care Forum, Extra Care and St Michael’s Fellowship.

Thank you for all your support.

Felicity McLeister

Pro Bono O.R. case study published in IFORS news #ORblog

Many thanks to IFORS News who are supporting the Pro Bono O.R. scheme by publishing case studies of projects the scheme has worked on over the last 12 months.

This is the third case study to be published (previous examples can be found in the December 2014 and March 2015 editions).

Thank you to Sarah Culkin who carried out this Pro Bono O.R. project for HARCVS (Harrogate and Rippon Centre for Voluntary Services) which was looking how to provide as much benefit as possible from a new service they had just taken over.  Sarah was able to leave the organisation with a clear strategic view of its roles and activities, something it had never done before.

Click here for the full article which starts on page 11.

Click here for further information on Pro Bono O.R.

IFORS news: Pro bono O.R. Delivers Quick Response to Call Center Problem

Check out the latest edition of IFORS news that contains lots of great articles including a Pro Bono O.R. case study.

For the full edition click here

Pro Bono O.R. is here to help you!

Do any of these statements sound familiar:

• We have lots of different options for the future but it’s impossible to decide which to choose in such uncertain times.
• 
  
• We’re under huge pressure to do more with less, and we don’t know how we’re going to do it.
• 
  
• It’s hard to stay objective when we’re faced with such emotionally charged decisions.
• 
  
• We know we’re doing a good job – but how can we prove it?

If your answer was yes and you are a UK based, third sector organisation then get in touch to find out Pro Bono O.R. (a free consultancy service) could address these issues.

The OR Society launched its Pro Bono O.R. initiative for UK based third sector organisations in September 2013. The society wants more organisations to benefit from operational research and recognises that third sector organisations have an even greater need to reduce costs and increase efficiency and effectiveness.

No matter what size or at what stage your organisation is, no matter what kind of decision, problem, or opportunity you face, there’s probably a way for Pro Bono O.R. to help.

O.R. is about finding ways to apply analytical methods to make better decisions. Third Sector organisations face extremely complex decisions about the direction they should take and how to allocate scarce resources.  

To find out more and to request Pro Bono O.R. support please Pro Bono O.R. or email felicity.mcleister@theorsociety.com

Additionally if you would like to volunteer you time to work on projects then please do get in touch.

IFORS (International Federation of OR Societies) promotes Pro Bono O.R. who are leading the way with skilled O.R. volunteering

The UK O.R. Society are the first to launch such a scheme (Pro Bono O.R.) and as such want to share their experience and good practice to encourage other Societies to set up similar schemes.

This month IFORS have promoted the scheme in their newsletter (page 18):  http://ifors.org/newsletter/ifors-dec-2014.pdf and plan to publish summaries of several volunteer projects in the next few issues to show the benefit of such schemes.  IFORS also have a section on their website as well as on-line resources where further information about Pro Bono O.R. can be found.

The article covers how the scheme works, benefits for the organisations and the volunteers, spreading the word and a summary of a recent project with the Dachshunds Breed Council: Developing a tool to help dog breeders predict genetic risks.

For further information please either contact me directly on felicity.mcleister@theorsociety.com or visit the webpage.

Pro Bono O.R. in the UK & Internationally (Conference talk by Graham Rand) at IFORS (Barcelona 2014)

A member of the Pro Bono steering group (Graham Rand) was invited to give a talk at the IFORS (International Federation of Operational Research Societies) conference in Barcelona (July 2014).  The talk looks at how Pro Bono O.R. is operated and looks at some case studies both in the UK and abroad.  Conference slides

On the back of this, Graham has been invited to the INFORMS (The Institute fr Operations Research and the Management Sciences) conference in San Francisco to deliver a similar talk.  INFORMS is the largest society in the world for professionals in the field of Operational Research, management science and analytics.