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.

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Tuesday Apr 06, 2010

Volunteering Committee Business

Hello again. It's not something I've written about a great deal here, but when I applied to contribute to the student's blog for do-it.org.uk, someone suggested that I join the Volunteering Committee at my University. I welcomed the fact that I now had an excuse to do something I'd quite like to get involved with anyway, and sent an e-mail off asking if they had any vacant positions left on the committee.

I thought I was being early, but I had already missed their AGM. Happily though they got back to me and said that they still had some positions that had not been filled, and so I joined the committee at the start of the academic year as a 'publicity rep'.

That was 18 months ago now, and I was allowed (or elected) to stay on with the committee for this academic year too, although I have changed roles now to a 'just do it' co-ordinator (see a previous blog post for what this means).

I didn't think I was a committee person, but in retrospect I have no idea what I thought a 'committee person' was. Maybe someone with spectacles and a diary? In any case, aside from the more specific roles every member has, just being in a working committee has been very interesting. Meetings have gone from discussing the colour of our hoodies (blue) and slogan (still in discussion), to getting more people involved in volunteering whilst at University and whether anyone would like to meet the High Sheriff of South Yorkshire.

I didn't know there had been a High Sheriff post Robin Hood era, but coincidentally a 78 year old volunteer has just received the High Sheriff's Award, for her work with a homeless centre in Sheffield.

Anyway, the nub of what I am trying to express is that it has been a well enjoyable experience and I'd recommend it. Also, by a surreal twist of fate, I've even become a bespectacled diary owner. !

Posted by Harry ( 11:34 PM )
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