National volunteer week - The serial volunteer Profile 5 Janet Inman

Although she didn’t know it Janet has volunteering in her DNA, she started her volunteering journey at school when she used to coach her junior house sports teams. She knew from being very young that she wanted to be a PE teacher and following her training started work in a local secondary school. It was then she was encouraged to join her local volleyball club. After joining she soon qualified as a coach and was appointed club chair. From there she went on to be the Lincolnshire County Association chair for 21 years and the East Midlands Regional chair.

During her time in volleyball I don’t think there is a role she hasn’t done, She not only was her county and regional chair she took on the role of Commission President for both the Region and Youth and Schools Commission. It was during this period that she became the Lead Office for Safeguarding, most NGBs had a paid officer but Janet did this role for 14 years as a volunteer, taking volleyball through their safeguarding standards and ensuring volleyball was seen as a model of good practice and an exemplar to other NGBs.

Following her time in the commissions (now called working groups) Janet moved onto the Volleyball England Board as Development Director, supported the first iteration of the Volley Cards and the courses that brought 100s of young people into the games. She left after 14 years when her term in office came to an end.

During all this time Janet was still coaching at her local club, refereeing at local and regional matches, arranging competitions for local clubs and schools, acting as a Volley Sport tutor and team manager for one of our Cadet programmes.

Today her focus is on the Volleyball England Foundation, acting as a Trustee and Company Secretary, supporting others to enjoy the sport that gave her so many years of joy and friendship.

She is an example of how you can be a lifelong volunteer in your sport and even though her playing days are well behind her she can still feel part of and supports the volleyball family she is part of.

You might not know this but in addition to the role on the Foundation Board Janet is also a Non Executive Director /Trustee for Activity Alliance ( a charity that supports disabled people to be more active) the Asian Sports Foundation (a charity that supports the Asian population access sport) and Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) that manages all the health care across the county.