Awarding Your Hard Work

"Cheers" from the Sabb Team  

Greetings my lovelies! We are now coming to the end of what has been the season of awards ceremonies with the Kent Union awards; K.S.C.V. Medway and Canterbury, The first ever K.I.C. media awards as well as the Employability points awards night. Phew!  

Its a time of year that I thoroughly enjoy, being able to congratulate volunteers on the dedication and time that they have given as well as give special thanks to some of the high achievers this year. My society being a previous winner, I know how much these accolades can mean.  As well as the trophies, certificates and prizes that were given, there was food and drink laid on for all attendees.   

Jess has recieved so many awards this year it's lost its appeal 

The K.I.C. media awards were a massive success in this, their first year with many of the categories being judged by industry professionals adding real kudos to the prizes. I was so glad to have been involved in student media over the last two years which has gone from strength to strength. If you weren't already aware the space previously known as the Attic will sadly serve its last pint this exam term but joyfully burst from its summer break cocoon to emerge as a beautiful new media centre of which our volunteers are much deserving. I am so excited I nearly wee-d myself and I'm so glad this part of the  project has come to fruition in my time.      

Hand's Up if You Volunteer? KSCV Medway

Unfortunately, this was my last opportunity to give our volunteers a pat on the back as at the end of this month the current team will depart and you will have an nice new shiny team with less grey hair than me! Guaranteed! If you weren't able to make the Kent Union awards missed my self indulgent speech. Here it is in the frame below!     

Firsts and Lasts, a thank you to our welcome helpers

“Firsts and Lasts”

A Thank You To Our Volunteers

As anticipated these past two weeks have been absolutely insane. Welcome week and the orientation of new students is a massive operation and is an integral part of the integration process into University for new and returning students.

The sabbatical officers’ role during this period is multi-faceted and diverse from aiding in the writing of the strategy and priorities for the week and approving the entertainments to meeting new students and physically carrying ‘that tiny Thai girl’s’ 36 kilo suitcase up 4 flights of stairs. Oh and did I mention helping to support and orchestrate five-hundred student volunteers moving in thousands of fresh-faced student recruits?    

In practice this means spending up to 18 hours a day on campus, not finding time for lunch, forfeiting a couple of weekends, running around from one end of campus to the other, dealing with upset parents, overworked staff and sometimes lost and confused or lonely or drunk students. Sounds awful doesn’t it?

It isn’t.

There is a reason why so many students return to University two weeks early in order to volunteer their time and energy. In part, it is students’ and young people’s desire to give something back and be part of a community, share knowledge, hospitality and welcome weary travellers from far and near to their new home. It is also one of the most rewarding experiences we and our volunteers have enjoyed. Sadly, this year will be the last time I can personally be involved as the end of my term is this summer.

Every year I am so impressed with the sheer physical and mental effort that our student volunteers put in, supported by our dedicated staff who also give up their own time to ensure that our welcome stands are staffed by a friendly face to answer questions. Kent Union volunteers always do it with a smile on their face. Sadly, the effort that these volunteers put in is not universally recognised across campus and attitudes are not what one might expect.  I hope that in the future we will be able to educate this minority to appreciate the collective effort of these volunteers.

A cynic might say that welcome week (freshers’ week) is just a disorganised piss-up, that if Kent Union didn’t train and recruit welcome helpers, students would settle in just fine but I beg to differ. On Monday I received an e-mail from a rather distressed student who was finding the experience a bit daunting to say the least. Campus was noisy, housemates hadn’t introduced themselves, there hadn’t been a friendly welcome volunteer to carry their bags and reassure them and somehow their door had been missed during the door knocking for the evening events. Somehow they had found my e-mail address to put a message in a bottle. I introduced them to some of the bubbliest and outgoing volunteers I could think of that evening. What struck me hardest was that with all the effort that student had put in to get as far as the University, they may have ended up calling it a day and going home had there not been some friendly faces to welcome them.  As well as welcome the 17 year old student from the Canary Islands who’s class back home had been 3 students now in a year-group of 4,000+, or the student returning to study after 10 years and feeling a bit odd being back on campus.  Thanks guys.

Another major challenge during this period is the Welcome fayre where we put up some big tents and invite all our student groups to attack the new students with sign-up sheets, flyers, free sweets and amazing opportunities. In addition this year the training of the society and volunteering groups committees had undergone a massive redesign as well as seeing the launch of a new 30 Page handbook for societies I had written. (Link to training blog)

To cut a long blog short, the fayre, the training and the handbook were all a massive success. I continued my ongoing campaign of saying “yes” wherever possible and in this case this meant over 250 groups, 5 stage performances, a naked picnic and a tank on campus... in the interest of decency I decided to upload footage of the tank which the Military history society were kind enough to let me ride to Parkwood in! FUN!

To end on a serious note, apart from inspiring Military history society and helping them to recruit new members and helping naturist society to sign up new potential members and me losing some hair over the whole thing, saying yes to things opens minds to possibilities. If a small group of volunteers can get a tank on campus... what else can they achieve?

Say yes to something that makes you feel a bit edgy.

And a special hello and welcome to My Cousin Lauren, the second Budd at University, and at Kent.

Moving Beyond Steam 'Train-ing'

Just a quick one here to share the excitement I have about the new Societies and Volunteering group (SLVG) Training which will be delivered on Monday the 17th of September which is the Monday of welcome week.

Having attended this training day for several years whilst a society committee members and delivering it myself last year, I really felt it was in need of a spruce-up. The old system meant that students sat through a lecture-type session which would last the best part of an afternoon. The room was not always fit for purpose and it was all pretty dry administrative stuff. Last year the attendance was higher than anyone can remember... in forever.

However, a few weeks later I was invited to help out at the course-rep conference as one of the trainers and the format felt so much more engaging and inovative. There were short plenary sessions which were a bit like lectures but there were exciting guest speakers who came along to deliver these. The rest of the day was broken into skill-based group training sessions where the volunteers shared their own best practice and the differences in the different departments and shared knowledge of how best to get results. Students were free to select which sessions they attended and the sessions were much more interesting and big-picture. This was something that I really wanted to replicate and develop.

So here is what I have come up with... there will be a new societies handbook which is currently being drafted. It is designed to be comprehensive and answer as many questions as I could remember societies ever asking and from my own experience of bieng involved with societies for the last 5 years. It will cover all of the administrative stuff such as how to claim back cash, book transport, apply for additional funding, run a complex event, complete a risk assessment, become an admin on your page, access further training through the union and much more besides.

 

This means that the amount which needs to be covered in a 27 hour long lecture can be cut down (I hope) to about 90 minutes of introduction, health and safety and finance training. The afternoon is going to be made up from these break-out sessions where groups will work together sharing best practice with an experienced trainer and will be able to choose which sessions they attend. This also means that you can spread the load across your committee and wont reply just on your president to remember everything. I am hoping that this will enable societies to become more effective and efficient. The sessions will be much more strategic than operational thereby inspiring groups to think about the bigger picture and how they can improve the quality of their own experience.

With the new employability and volunteering toolkit getting ready to launch as well as a new handbook for societies, this could be one of the best-informed years at least! The morning plenary will be in RLT1 with afternoon 'break-out' sessions being in Keynes seminar rooms.        

Please bear in mind that the training on the day may differ from the sessions below. Please contact me at union-activities@kent.ac.uk if you have any questions or suggestions.  

Session	Trainer	Objectives
K.S.C.V and Community Volunteering	Steph Hughes and Natalie Tiu	Introduction to the K.S.C.V scheme including platinum and new Gold+ as well as introducing some of our other volunteering opportunities in the community
Planning Events Safely	Helen Close	A session which helps volunteers to plan their events strategically, safely and for ultimate success
Successful Fundraising	Nick and the RAG Team	This session will help groups to think about creative ways to fundraise for their activities and charity as well as understanding their relationship with RAG
Getting to Grips with Budgeting (SLVGS)	Steph Hughes	This session is aimed at helping volunteers to plan their expenditure and use their funding to best effect.
Getting to Grips with Budgeting (Societies)	Amy Van-Poppel	This session is aimed at helping volunteers to plan their expenditure and use their funding to best effect.
Effective Teamwork	Suzanne Payne	A session working on effective leadership as well as dealing with pressures when working in a team with volunteers.
Using Media Effectively	Mel Lewis	A session which helps volunteers to use social media as well as student media to its greatest potential.
Developing Your Group (SLVGS)	Steph Hughes and Natalie Tiu	A session aimed at moving each group onto ‘the next stage’ from new group to established group, then leading group. Helping groups define their own success
Developing Your Group (Societies)	Caroline Demetriou	A session aimed at moving each group onto ‘the next stage’ from new group to established group, then leading group. Helping groups define their own success