Wednesday 30-01-2019 - 10:21

When I think about volunteering I don’t really associate it with my own experience even though I’ve done a heck of a lot of volunteering. Societies have been a huge part of my whole university experience but I didn’t even realise what I was doing was volunteering until my second year when someone said to me: “you know this is a volunteer role, right? You know you don’t get paid for this.” I’d never really thought about it like that before, but I guess it’s true.

I was on society committees for most of my time at uni and on the societies council for two years. I did other bits and pieces volunteering-wise but not to the same extent as external volunteers or volunteers that go to work in the community, but society and sports volunteering are just as important and also at the heart of what The Union is about.

My experience actually started in sport when I got the vice-chair position for Akido – I even registered on the sports volunteering portal but didn’t log any hours (sorry!). My time in that role led me to be more involved with Anime Society and I ran for committee in my second year. I stayed on committee from then right up to graduating – I was on the societies council for two years.

For me, the main pull of being a committee member was getting to set things up, recruit new members and making the society the experience the members wanted. My favourite thing was organising a trip to Birmingham Comic Con in collaboration with the Gaming Society. Making it happen was such hard work, but it was one of the most rewarding things I did during my time at uni. It was amazing to see people having so much fun and making friends with people they’d never met before.

I love being a part of the societies council too. The main aim is to make sure that societies are happy that we’re feeding directly into our represented officers, helping societies with their finances and getting the development fund, as well as helping new societies get set up. There’s really nothing better than helping other societies create amazing experiences for their members. (I guess ending up as the Societies and Development Officer was a pretty natural progression!)

Yeah, being on a committee can be a lot of work – especially if you’re organising things like trips – but you don’t really realise it at the time and it all ends up totally worth it. It’s so much fun you kind of forget that it’s work. It’s only when you stop and take stock, you realise just how much time you’ve devoted to it. It’s been really weird for me this year not constantly sorting out room bookings and organising things in the evening or sorting out a trip here or a trip there.

It makes me so happy to see the Anime Society now – even though I’ve left, I can see the influence I had on their direction and it’s amazing to see the current chair, Harry, doing such great things. The members are still being listened to, and awesome things ¬– like the Birmingham trip – are still happening. It’s awesome to see him giving subtle nudges to people that he wants to take over the committee and carry on maintaining a great society when he graduates.

My experiences definitely taught me a lot about myself – I’m a self-confessed control freak, I struggled to delegate but I had to learn how to let other people take stress off me and how to make the most of other people’s skills. But I also learnt things like how to fill out a risk assessment, or think deeply about inclusion factors (are all the rooms accessible for wheelchair users? Is the film subtitled?), and how to make an event accessible for everyone to participate who wants to. These are skills and knowledge that I never knew would be beneficial to me, but it helps me in every aspect of my life now.

Of course, I’d encourage everyone to get involved with volunteering in whatever way interests them – be it a society, in sport, or with an external organisation, or in the community. There really is something for everyone, and everyone’s experience is unique. You don’t have to run to be on 100 committees, you can dedicate as little or as much time as you want. Go and speak to the volunteering team, go to a fair, talk to other volunteers. There’s so much information available for you, and you’re bound to find something you feel passionately about.

If you’re thinking societies are the way you want to go, my advice would be to join one and feel first-hand what it’s like being within that group. Once you’ve got an idea for that, and you want to have an influence on the future of that experience – think about going for a committee and steer the direction of where it’s going to go in the next few years.