If you think students spend all their spare time avoiding studying, going out with their mates and having a good time then you'd be right. Well our student bloggers do anyway. While they assure us they don't slack on the study, they've got a lot to answer for when it comes to enjoying themselves while volunteering.

All | Emma | Oli | Daniel | Carrie | Olivia | Fiona | Sammy | Ashley | Rochelle | Natalie | Tom | TomG | Harry

Monday Aug 01, 2011

And it's all over.

Well, my run at University appears to be over. With a degree under my belt and a smile on my face, I've willingly attempted to enter the world of work - and you guessed it, I've not exactly succeeded.

 I have however secured a summer internship as a campaigns assistant with a national charity based in West Yorkshire, and I am absolutely loving the experience.

But enough of that, one of the sad parts about leaving uni (other than leaving student discounts and nights out) has definitely been saying goodbye to the Bookends team. I have to admit, I miss the shop already! And I definitely miss dreaming up ways to market the shop around campus, and chilling out on a shift. Bookends has given me great experience of working in a not for profit environment which I know I will find useful in future years. More than that though, it's given me a chance to develop some leadership skills, test out my creativity, and of course make friends I'll never forget.

So is this the end for me and Bookends? Well, I doubt it. I'm a bit of a book nerd to my core, so I'm sure I will be back meddling in the shop whenever I visit Aberdeen. Nevertheless, I can't help but feel a little strange when I realise that a whole host of new volunteers will be in charge come September. Hopefully they can expand upon everything that's been done so far and make the shop a prominent fundraising force for Aberdeen Students' Charities Campaign. I'm pretty sure that Bookends is going to survive just fine without me anyway.

For anyone who reads the nonsense I spurt out, I hope you try to change the world too - one little bit at a time. Fi.

Posted by Fiona ( 8:15 PM )
Link to this post Comments[0]

Wednesday Apr 13, 2011

A Long Overdue Update

Hello and sorry for the absence!

As a final year student, the work is really piling on...

But enough of that depressing muck. Bookends is chugging along nicely, and as we approach the end of the year, we have just chosen a shiny new committee! This of course means lots of exciting change in the shop, as our new committee members need to be completely trained up and ready to handle anything that next year might throw at them. It feels strange to know that Bookends will carry on next year without those of us in our final year, and very strange that we won't be in charge of decisions anymore! However, it is great to see our enthusiastic volunteers carrying on the good work.

In fact, this year appears to have been a great success for our little shop, with more than twice as many volunteers as last year, and an all important rise in profits, heading straight to Aberdeen Students' Charities Campaign. (I will be sure to update with the total raised once it's all been counted up)

The last year has been incredibly rewarding and led to a close team at Bookends, which I hope will continue to grow and raise more money for charities in and around Aberdeen in future. Over the next month I'll be continuing to raise awareness of Bookends around campus, especially with exams looming and the need for last-minute textbooks! Apparently we're even getting a mascot soon, so if the costume arrives before summer I am sure that passers by will spot me by King's College handing out leaflets and sweets dressed either as a massive red scholarly dragon.... or as an owl (obviously).

Anyway, until then... Fi.

Posted by Fiona ( 12:00 AM )
Link to this post Comments[0]

Wednesday Oct 27, 2010

A revitalised bookshop?

Hello again!

Well, this new opportunity appears to have started with a bang for Bookends! In the recent weeks since the beginning of the new academic year, our little shop has seen a boost not only in customers, but also in shop visibility around campus. Our new position has undoubtedly helped this boost, as students have come to explore the new Student Union headquarters and all it offers. The space itself has also been a massive improvement, as many students come to the shop as a space to study, have a coffee, and just chill out!

On top of this initial success, the Bookends team have been working hard to ensure that we maximise our potential. For my part, I have ordered more advertising merchandise (mainly in the form of posters, leaflets and flyers) to distribute around campus to ensure our status remains prominent. We have also recently begun a scheme of a monthly bakesale, the first of which was yesterday and alone raised over £50. We are currently discussing the possibility of using our bakesale money to donate ourselves to a local charity which promotes reading to young children. As these talks are still in process, I will have to update next time on what eventually will happen with the money.

 

Our new committee seems to have made a huge difference to morale in the shop, with new enthusiastic volunteers having their say too. We already have a tonne of team-building/social activities in the works, and are hoping to also create many more promotional events to raise awareness and funds around campus... which I hope I'll be able to reveal in my next blog! Until then... Fi.

Posted by Fiona ( 2:00 PM )
Link to this post Comments[0]

Monday Sep 27, 2010

A new year, a new shop, a new opportunity!

Hello! It's been a while, but with a new semester starting today (after the carnage of freshers) I think this is a good time to have a little update on what's going on up here.

Bookends has officially been open again for a week, after the hard work of several of our volunteers over summer to organise the shelves and make a good start on our filing - and I have to say, the shop is already looking quite good!

As I said before, the new shop is about 3 times the size of our old space, with plenty more shelving and a whole load of sofas and beanbags. Although we don't have the cafe facilities we were originally gunning for, we do at least have a coffee machine offering the cheapest coffee on campus - with the proceeds being split between the cafe downstairs and our Charities Campaign.

The shop is already beginning to get busier as people realise where we are and what we provide, which is great news as the shop could often prove to be a little empty last year. As a member of the marketing committee (and gunning for marketing director this year, among other positions on the committee...) I've already had some advertising postcards made up to increase our visibility around campus, as we previously had no real advertising of our own. We have also put up signs around the new SU centre, although a lot more still needs to be done, with a poster campaign hopefully on the way as soon as I enlist some help!

During freshers week we relied largely on the help of freshers week volunteers, which has been fantastic for helping us to enlist new volunteers and for advertisement through word of mouth. However, it has also been a big indication of how many volunteers from last year are now graduated, which could make the first few weeks of term difficult until we have our new volunteers trained up and a routine back up. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes.

Bit of an essay, but that's all I've got for now - I'll check back soon with jucier schemes. Fi.

Posted by Fiona ( 10:30 AM )
Link to this post Comments[0]

Friday May 07, 2010

A new start for Bookends...

Well, as I mentioned in my last post, I ventured off to China during the easter holidays on a study programme. This should have lasted 3 weeks, but oh yes you guessed it, a little volcanic eruption managed to extend my stay by 2 weeks! So sorry for the absence...

This of course meant that I had to delegate all my Torcher's organising to others while I was stranded in Shanghai - unfortunately I obviously delegated to the wrong people! I arrived back in Aberdeen on the day of the parade and found our float looking a little bare, at which point I marched off to Asda to buy random summery things (bubble machine and a paddling pool? Yes please!) and called some mates to help fill up the float as apparently only 4 other volunteers were showing up!

I was a little shocked at the lack of interest when before Easter everyone had seemed so enthusiastic, but on the night we still made a good go of it, dancing down the street to some ehhh "Hawaiian" inspired techno...which then hit Bassment Jaxx etc... well, my bucket was pretty heavy by the end despite emptying it twice so it can't have gone too badly! The parade as a whole is estimated to have raised over £10 000 for charity, thanks to the help of other 2000 students, and a huge and generous crowd lining the streets!

In other news, our new store is officially open! The space is about 3 times the size of our last shop, with extra space for tables, chairs and comfy sofas and beanbags, giving us a social and lively space, which will hopefully soon have all the cafe facilities we need! The store's shelves will be closed and locked in the evenings, as the space is also available to societies and students to rent out at night for events, allowing us to provide a further service to the students of Aberdeen - fantastic!

So far, we've had our hands pretty full with just attempting to shelves all the books and decorate the store, but now that it's all finished, we're hoping to see a surge in customers, which can only be good for the Charities Campaign...

Well that's the plan, I'll get back to you with how it goes... Fi.

Posted by Fiona ( 5:00 PM )
Link to this post Comments[0]

Tuesday Mar 23, 2010

Aloha Aberdeen?

Well, after much deliberation and rather odd ideas involving the royal family, Pacman and bumblebees, myself and the other volunteers on our official Torchers Team 2010 have decided to go for a Hawaiian themed float for the Torcher Parade on May 1st. With Aberdeen weather, this is a lot braver than it sounds - but we decided a Hawaiian float could remind people it's the start of summer, even if we do risk Hypothermia on the day...

The paperwork is not quite through, but should be by the end of the week which will hopefully see us entered into the procession on our own little float!

Also, the Big Move to our new location is officially on, with all the books being packed up this Friday, and all the volunteers available in Aberdeen over the 3 week Spring break helping to move everything over for the Grand Opening on April 19th! Unfortunately, I am not available over the holidays as I'm actually off to China on a study programme instead. However, I will most definitely be back on April 19th to help the other Bookends volunteers in promoting the new store and raising awareness about our new location, along with the other Student Association Services. Hopefully the new store will help to rejuvenate the bookshop's image around campus, as a nicer and larger space where students are also able to relax and have a nice cuppa!

With these important details on recent progress out of the way, I'd also like to mention I've already achieved the first of my MV awards for 50 hours of voluntary work this semester! Hopefully I'll achieve the next one before the summer holidays...

Anyway, I will return in a month to spill the beans on our new store, and hopefully with further news of Torcher's, and some marketing ploys! Fi.

Posted by Fiona ( 12:50 AM )
Link to this post Comments[2]

Saturday Mar 06, 2010

Actual work detail... Important?

Well, it's been a slow week at the shop, so I thought I should maybe take this opportunity to explain what I actually get up to in the bookshop on a regular shift - perhaps an important detail?

During each shift, there will be between 1 and 3 volunteers around, taking turns to tidy the bookshelves and displays; operate the till; and help customers search for specific books. This is the basic jist of what we do, though of course there's sometimes random other things (ie giving out free fairtrade fruit, advertising Charities Campaign events). Unfortunately we're often also left completely to our own devices with nothing to do in a spotless, organised, and completely deserted shop!

At the moment I also spend a fair bit of my time in the shop searching through our paper-based system of records and then contacting the people who we owe money to. As the seller gets their two thirds of the book selling price only once their book/books have sold, it can often be months before they receive any money back and so it is important for us to contact them as quickly as we can.

However, this is a bit difficult at the moment because, as I said before, everything's on bits of paper! Having been promised a shiny new database which should have been installed back in September for us to keep our records all tidy and up-to-date, we have been relying on a stop-gap paper system the whole year so far! By this system, we need to write down the code of every book we sell in a folder (and no, it is NOT helpful if we forget...) so that we can later look for these codes on the list of books we have from each seller and mark them as sold, at which point we can send out an email to inform the seller and offer them a cheque or cash payout.

As you can imagine, this leads to a bit of a backlog which we are really only just beginning to tackle properly, having resigned ourselves to the idea that the shiny new database may well not be operational until Septemer... (damned techies). 

Yes - I just wanted a jab at the dude who messed us around with this database.

Thankfully I've rounded up 6 other volunteers who are interested in helping me properly with Torchers, so I've named them as my lovely Torchers Team 2010! Next week should bring the first of our theme ideas following a pub meeting - you know that alcohol-fueled ideas are the best sort. Fi.

Posted by Fiona ( 11:30 AM )
Link to this post Comments[0]

Tuesday Feb 23, 2010

Happy Fairtrading!

Well it's Fairtrade Fortnight, and I thought I'd leave a quick note (barely a blog but hey it's nice to be up to date) to mention how Bookends have decided to celebrate. Simple idea really, over the course of the fortnight we decided to give away a piece of fairtrade fruit with every purchase made in the shop! This gives us a chance to promote fairtrade on campus, as well as boosting student health and our own position as a friendly little shop great idea I reckon!

I'll check back soon with more news on Torcher's, the big relocation, and general goings-ons... Fi.

 

Posted by Fiona ( 9:20 PM )
Link to this post Comments[0]

Saturday Feb 20, 2010

Chugging along

So, we've been working away with the shop re-opened for a few weeks now and really things are going along as normal for the moment. Future plans are just beginning to take shape as we've been having more socials recently, and next year is beginning to loom over us.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, I'm currently working towards my MV awards for volunteering in the book shop. The part that surprised me is that I'm already well over half way to my 50 hour award! Most of the new volunteers in the shop are now signed up for the awards and I've found it really is encouraging lots of us to put in extra shifts at the book shop, which is itself has let us all work together more often, and to enjoy shifts more! I knew the scheme would help to encourage many people to work more hours when I first joined, but I had not even thought about the positive consequences it could also have on each of us as part of a team!

Also, I have not achieved much so far in organising our float for the upcoming Torcher's Parade on May 1st. On Thursday I put up a quickly sketched poster asking for help from my fellow volunteers, so hopefully by Monday I'll know of at least a couple of people who feel willing to help out with it all!

The Torcher's Float will require a lot of organisation, as we firstly need to decide on a theme, at which point we can choose what sort of float we want to go for (how big, covered or open air), before we get to work on the acual design, and put it all together! Of course, it may not exactly go to plan as we then have to put our designs into practice ourselves, with a combination of random bits of wood, cardboard, paint, glue and no doubt some glitter...it will be very much like a primary school end of year art project! I hope that plenty of people will offer to help, especially those who will be staying on in the book shop for next year, as it'll provide some brilliant team-bonding banter, and hopefully help us to raise a fair few pennies for charity!

Anyway, I don't have much to update on today, so I'll be quiet for now. Fi.

Posted by Fiona ( 12:00 PM )
Link to this post Comments[1]

Thursday Feb 04, 2010

First week back in action

Hi again!

Well, Aberdeen uni is finally onto the second semester of the academic year, after a nice long christmas break followed by a not so nice exam period. Now that we're properly back into classes and all of our volunteers have the free time again - Bookends has reopened for business!

Our first meeting of the semester was on Monday evening, where we discussed important issues such as the fact that our new database system has STILL not been installed (it was promised in September...) and of course, our upcoming socials! Unfortunately I'm missing the first of them which is tomorrow night, as I'm down in Edinburgh to see my long distance boyfriend instead...however, we're also having a pub quiz followed by who know what nonsense on Sunday which I will definitely be attending! The socials are a key part of the Bookends club, as it helps us to get to know each other and feel part of the team, even those members who only commit one hour a week - as we're all essential. I have to admit, regular socials was in fact one of the deciding factors making me join, as I wanted to do something which would also help me to meet like-minded people, and where I'd really feel involved.

Anyhoo, I thought I should let you in on my plans for what I'll be up to at Bookends this semester so here we go...

Firstly, I've signed up for the Millenium Volunteers Awards Scheme, which allows Scottish volunteers on certain projects to log the hours they've worked, and then earn awards for them in blocks of 50, 100, and 200 hours. A great addition to any CV, the awards encourage recognition of the hard work that volunteers do, and also help to encourage you to join new projects through advertising them on their site, and offering volunteers the chance to rack up more hours towards their awards (www.mvvolunteeringpassport.org.uk). 

Secondly, I've committed myself to a minimum of 4 hours per week now working at the shop, which I will try my best to stick to, and will probably often stay a little more!

Finally, and maybe most importantly, I've signed myself up as a member of the marketing team for Bookends. In this role I hope to become more involved in the Bookends family, and to improve our fundraising potential! This week I decided to decorate the shop with lovehearts and a raunchy display of books related to love and sexual themes in order to celebrate St. Valentine's Day coming up next Sunday, as something a little different for the customers - although I'm not too sure my History lecturer was too impressed when she came in!

Also I've thrown myself right into the deep end as I'm planning to head up our voluntary team for a Bookends float in the annual Torcher's Parade we have here in Aberdeen - the largest student torchlit parade in Europe! This is a massive event in the Aberdeen diary, especially for the Charities Campaign as it is our second highest fundraising event next to the Student Show. The Parade marks the end of Charities Fortnight, as you may have guessed this is the busiest fortnight of the year for our fundraising antics and is guaranteed to be a fun time! I've never taken part in the event before... So I'm not even sure where to start - but I promise to keep you updated!

Bye for now Fi.

Posted by Fiona ( 8:00 PM )
Link to this post Comments[0]

Monday Jan 25, 2010

More do-gooder activities...UK-stylee

Hello Hello!

Newcomer to the student blog, I'm Fiona, a friendly third year Cultural History and Sociology student from Fife, currently studying up North in Aberdeen.

For those of you who may have skimmed through the overseas blog, you may have come across my name before as I excitedly rambled on about my voluntary experience and travels in the beautiful country of Mexico. Well, as my travels came to an end, I vowed to myself that I would carry on and become more involved with voluntary work once I was back at Uni - and I did!

Unfortunately, due to money troubles, my first semester's efforts were not epic, as I struggled to get through coursework whilst holding down a heavy-going waitressing job. However, money troubles are now sorted (for the moment, fingers crossed and all that jazz!) so I can now shift my focus back on to spreading the love through voluntary work again. Awww.

So far, I have enrolled myself into the Aberdeen Charities Campaign, and have committed a few hours each week to our on-campus second-hand bookshop, Bookends. Run by around 20 enthusiastic student volunteers, the shop provides Aberdeen University with a great opportunity to raise money for the Charities Campaign through a simple process:

1. Students bring in old books (course-related especially, though we take all books), CDs and DVDs.

2. They then decide how much they are prepared to sell each item for.

3. Once sold, we inform the seller and they receive two thirds of the price, while we collect the other third as a donation to the Charities Campaign - simples!

Enough of my marketing, so far, I have maintained a loose contribution to the bookshop, which I hope to expand upon this semester, by working more hours, and working harder to improve publicity and the status of the bookshop, to maximise our charitable contribution. I also hope to get more involved in events organised in the name of charity in Aberdeen, which I hope you'll enjoy reading about as much as I'll enjoy doing them!

Anyway, I think that's enough of an introduction from me for now, I'll be back in touch once the actions on as for now, I have an exam to study for... Fi.

Posted by Fiona ( 3:35 PM )
Link to this post Comments[0]