Maritime Volunteer Service

The Maritime Volunteer Service (MVS) is a United Kingdom wide charity which has as its motto, "We change lives through training and serving local communities".

To achieve this objective it recruits volunteers from all walks of life, provides afloat experience to youth organisations and supports port and river authorities around the country.

HRH Prince Michael of Kent is the charity's royal patron.

At a National level the MVS Headquarters (MVS HQ) are based in Warrington at the International Business Centre.

All decisions on policy or national regulation are formulated by the directors and trustees.

Under the stewardship of chairman Captain Antony Minns MN MNI, they also oversee the governance of the charitable aspects of the MVS.

The MVS is headed operationally by the Chief Volunteer Officer (CVO) who is also the chair of the Committee of Management (CoM).

CoM also takes the reports of the national managers and coordinators, including:

• MVS Training Manager: Responsible for all training matters.

• MVS Resilience Manager: Responsible for liaison nationally and regionally to develop and implement resilience strategies and co-ordinate efforts in community support.

• MVS Communications Manager: oversees the national communications, including web content and social media.

• MVS National Health & Safety Advisor oversees all aspects of matters health & safety.

• MVS National Fleet Manager: Responsible for craft management group.

• MVS National Registrar: Responsible for maintaining membership records and subscriptions and matters relating to data protection.

The country is divided into four areas which are:

• Northern England

• Southern England

• Central England (incorporating Wales and Northern Ireland)

• Scotland

Each area has an Area Volunteer Officer (AVO).

In addition to the AVO each area may have:

• A Deputy Area Officer (D/AVO) who assists the Area Volunteer Officer.

• Area Specialist Officers (ASO) who offers advice and guidance on matters such as operations, seamanship or engineering.

Each area is subdivided into distinct regions.

Each region has a Regional Volunteer Officer (RVO).

The RVO is elected every three years by the units within their region.

Each region may also have a Deputy Regional Volunteer Officer (D\RVO).

Some regions have Regional Specialist Officers (RSO) responsible for overseeing various specialisations at the regional level.

Each unit is led by a Head of Unit (HoU), who is elected annually by their peers.

The HoU is assisted by a Deputy Head of Unit (DHoU) who serves as the unit's second in command.

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