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What does your job actually entail? What do you see as your main responsibilities?
Supporting the Education and Welfare officer, working together and helping to organise various union campaigns such as Healthy week and ShAg week. Also working and atteding meetings together on initiatives such as increasing awareness of Student Support services, bursery schemes and student safety.
To help organise successful campaigns, to attend meetings and events that are sometimes on behalf of the Education and Welfare officer. To aim to work to achieve, or work towards goals and aims set out in your manifesto. To be a visible, active and approachable member of the executive. This includes responsibilities that apply to the whole team but without which none of the roles would work, for example, attending student council for democracy and descision making processes.
What do you think the job demands in terms of personal attributes or skills?
Personal attributes:
To be approchable, friendly, patient, having a sense of humour, flexibility, imagination, enthusiasm and willingness to get stuck in!
Skills:
Time management, organisation, ability to work as part of a team
What do you enjoy most about the job?
Being part of a team, getting to know other members of the executive, the staff and other students.
Coming up with ideas for different campaigns, flexibility - some weeks are busy preparing for campaigns with many different meetings and things to organise, other weeks that are quieter allow you to catch up with study.
The sense of achievement when you have organised or help achieve something, no matter how small. Knowing that you have a priveleged opportunity to make a difference to the union and the student experience.
What are the challenges/obstacles you face?
Juggling the job and university work is by far the most difficult. Also, having a limited time scale in which to get to grips with the role, organise campaigns and make progress with manifesto points.
What have you achieved since coming into your position?
I have helped organise ShAg awareness week, this involved raising awareness of the university chylamdia testing service that was my key aim in my manifesto. I have helped out in Healthy week, this has included raising the profile of student support services.
What's next?
I am helping to organise the Racism, Safety and Bullying campaign; we are planning to go about this by learning from the other campaigns in - making it a short but effective campaign, aiming to finish preparation from it early and to ensure good publicity for it. I am also planning to help change the content of the Student Support Services webpages. I would like to push further for awareness of chylamdia testing.
Would you recommend your role? If so, why?
Absolutely, it is a fantastic, and rare opportunity to get involved with the union on such a level and to gain an insight of what goes on on a day to day basis with what is essentially the management of the union. It is invaluable in gaining experience of how an organisation works and is a great way to meet many new people.
Developing new skills and looking back and seeing what you have achieved.
