It's simple to nominate a deserving volunteer

Editor,

Every time an honours list is published many of us wonder why people we know aren’t recognised.

There are many fantastic volunteers and school governors in our community who could be nominated.

School governors are the largest volunteer group both locally and nationally and none from Oldham have been recognised in 25 years.

I started to encourage more people to nominate others for national recognition after I made the mistake of leaving it too late.

I nominated a governor who I had known for many years. He had volunteered at a local school for nearly 30 years and given his time to various local groups, a fantastic person.

The application was a true reflection of him and the nomination was supported by politicians, colleagues and parents.

Sadly he died before he could be honoured. If you know a great local volunteer nominate them. The days of a civil servant trawling through lists of people to be honoured are gone; chances are if we don’t nominate them no one will.

I wrote a “how to” nominate people guide because I couldn’t find one. It’s now the most widely used and downloaded free guide and has had social media support from many celebrities and politicians including all our local MPs. Find it on Facebook.

It’s so simple to nominate someone today. There are no deadlines, you can submit all the forms online and there is generally goodwill from many to write supporting letters.

My guide explains the whole process, gives easy to follow examples and even the words expected by the committee. You can find a text only, PDF and word version here.

Good luck nominating people and if you want help find me on Twitter @mm684.

Martin Matthews

The views expressed are those of the author of the letter and not those of Oldham Chronicle.