East Midlands Business Champions – Terms & Conditions

Definition: The Business Champions programme is a group of senior business volunteers who give their time and expertise to help organisations in the third sector and education.

Code of Practice

The East Midlands Development Agency - emda:

emda is one of nine regional development agencies, with a brief that includes job creation, skills improvement, increasing competitiveness and tackling social exclusion. emda’s vision is for the East Midlands to become a flourishing region with a growing and innovative economy.

Business Champions

The East Midlands Business Champions programme was created and funded by the East Midlands Development Agency (emda) in 2000. Business Champions are experienced business people who voluntarily share their knowledge and experience with third sector and educational organisations. They support projects in a variety of ways where a commercial perspective is needed.

The Role of the Business Champions Support Team

  • The support team based at Business in the Community, exists to broker requests for support from organisations with Business Champions and to evaluate the outcome of the engagement.
  • The team will help interested organisations to define their objectives for using Business Champions and market this opportunity to the Business Champion pool, but cannot guarantee an offer of support in every case.

The Role of Partner Organisations

  • The organisation requesting help should have a clear idea of the nature of assistance they require from a Business Champion.
  • Once a request for help has been matched with a suitable Business Champion, it is the responsibility of the organisation and the Business Champion to manage the relationship and agree appropriate ways of working together.
  • After an organisation has received help from a Business Champion, they must assist the support team in evaluating this engagement through completing an evaluation covering the impact of the Business Champions input and levels of client satisfaction. This will occur shortly after the engagement if it is a one off event, or every six months if ongoing. Without this feedback, future assistance from Business Champions cannot be assured.
  • Partner organisations are invited to undertake interviewing and reference-taking as necessary to satisfy themselves of the competency of the Business Champion in relation to the support required. This is not the responsibility of the Support Team.
  • Indemnity insurance is not provided through the Business Champions initiative and both Business Champions and the organisations seeking support should satisfy themselves as to such requirements, making provision where necessary. Advice given by a Business Champion is done so on an individual, personal basis and the Business Champions team, emda or its contractors cannot be held liable for any such advice.

The Role of the Business Champion

  • Activity as a Business Champion is undertaken on an altruistic basis for the benefit of the region and no monetary gain or payment is made directly or indirectly for such activity. Any out of pocket expenditure paid will be at the discretion of the organisation.
  • From time to time, Business Champions may be asked to assist the support team with publicity surrounding their work with partner organisations.
  • The Business Champion should agree the objectives and commitment required with the organisation concerned and should endeavour to fulfill these commitments to the best of their ability.
  • Where necessary and appropriate, the Business Champion should abide by any codes of conduct or behaviour required by the organisation with whom they are working.
  • Business Champions should not exploit the use of any logos, product names or accreditations of the initiative, emda or partners to support their own business interests.

Criteria for Membership as a Business Champion

  • Individuals are invited to become Business Champions as representatives of the business community and such invitation is made in pursuit of a balanced regional representation of skills, interests, sector, geography, gender and ethnicity. Business Champions will be located in the East Midlands or have a vested business interest in the region.
  • Individuals interested in becoming a Business Champion should firstly submit a completed application via www.embrokerage.co.uk to the support team. The team will then enter into a dialogue with the applicant to increase mutual understanding of the initiative, benefit to the individual, time commitment, availability, and the suitability of the applicant. Following this, proposed applicants will be submitted to the Business in the Community Regional Director who will accept or reject the application. Finally, the applicant will be invited to attend a meeting with the support team where they will learn more about the programme and be presented with current opportunities.
  • Successful Business Champions are likely to have the following characteristics:
    • A minimum of 5 years business experience at management level or above
    • Be able to demonstrate an enterprising attitude and capability through their experience both in and out of work
    • Be a positive enthusiast and advocate for the East Midlands region, economy and way of life
  • emda respects the opinions of Business Champions as business experts and individuals and does not expect them to hold or promote any particular views. However, designation as a Business Champion may not be granted to, or may be withdrawn from, anyone who acts in a manner contravening employment law, or considered to be inconsistent with the policies and values of the initiative, emda or its partners. Such decisions shall be at the discretion of Business in the Community.
  • Business Champions should be able to commit to a reasonable amount of activity (3-4 days) during a given year. In order to manage the database and provide accurate records for this important publicly funded project, we ask that Business Champions inform the support team if they are likely to be unavailable for a significant period of time due to professional or personal commitments, in which case their status will become 'On Hold'.

Data Protection Statement

I agree to the information provided within this Application being used for the purposes outlined below.

Organisations delivering the Business Champions service will use the register to identify sources of expertise that can deliver the help that organizations have requested from the programme. In addition, the information will be used for following up on the support given by Business Champions for evaluation purposes (including by phone, email, post or fax) and for helping to manage the ongoing relationship between individual Business Champions and the organisations that they assist.

The Business Champions programme team will use the information to communicate with Business Champions about programme developments, relevant events or initiatives and new opportunities, as well as for market research and marketing purposes. The register may also be used by regional development agencies in other English regions and other partner organisations to EMDA.

Anonymised information may be used along with other customer information by the wider business support network, both regionally and nationally, as a way of understanding customers and the business support services that they use. This information will also be used in performance management of the Business Champions service.

The information held within the register will be made available to registered providers and other users as specified above through password enabled web access.

Declaration

I/ we certify that the information given in this application including ‘Areas of Expertise’ and ‘Industry Sector’ experience is correct.

I/ we accept and undertake to comply with the requirements for approval to the register as described in the application process.

I/ we understand that any expertise or advice offered to an organisation and subsequently used by the organisation shall not incur Business Champions as an organisation or as individuals, in any liability or legal responsibility, whether such expertise or advice is accepted, implemented or rejected by the organisation.

I/ we understand that whilst the Business Champions programme will endeavour to source service providers for customers, no guarantees can be given in this respect. The programme cannot guarantee either that individual Champions will volunteer for an opportunity or that if they do volunteer, an effective match will be found with the organisation requesting help.

I/ we authorise the Business Champions programme to copy the information in this document for potential customers, as and when necessary.

I/ we accept that the Business Champions programme team will have the right to make the final decision about approval of individuals to the register.

I/ we understand that should I/ we be approved onto the register, I/ we will disclose to East Midlands Brokerage Service and to the customer any personal or financial interest or other significant circumstances which might in any way influence an assignment accepted through the programme.

“I/ we understand that acceptance onto the Business Champions register does not imply quality assurance by emda, and that I/ we understand that we may not use the emda logo on letterheads, marketing materials, web sites etc or imply that emda has quality assured me/ us.”

Please consider this application for approval to the East Midlands Business Champions service.