Get Involved Fair roundup and Employability and Development

Get Involved Fair:

702 people came through the doors, nearly 200 more than last year.

53 students became members of societies on the day, 465 expressing an interest and giving email addresses for further information.

Get Involved Taster Sessions:

1192 non-members attended society taster sessions/workshops

83 students became members of societies on the day of their taster session, a further 62 students became members in the following two weeks after the taster session.

Overall I think the Get Invovled Campaign was great, it was another opportunity for groups to recruit members to those who may have not got involved at Welcome Week, which is what we are here to help you do. On the whole, feedback suggests groups did not feel it was well advertised outside of the Guild. This is something I am very conscious of (advertising to the converted), so I worked really hard to get the message outside of the Guild. Here’s a quick run-through on what was done to promote the Get Involved Fair and taster workshops:

Know Your Guild booklet – a full two page spread of all the Get Involved taster workshops that we were given information on. This went out to every halls of residence with the Mentors (thank you mentors!) and were also distributed on campus for a week by the Sabbatical team (thank you Sabbs!).

Redbrick – a Know Your Guild pull out included a full page Get Involved Fair advertisement, and two page spread of Get Involved workshops. Redbricks are available from various outlets across campus, and are also delivered to halls of residence and Selly Oak.

Lecture Shout outs – The Sabbaticals did lecture shoutouts and presentations about Know Your Guild and the Get Involved Fair in the week running up to the event

Posters – posters were put up in departments, the Guild, and at halls of residence.

My.Bham portal – Get Involved was advertised on the main my.bham portal in the week running up to the fair

Guild E-Newsletter – the Guild e-newsletter that goes out to all students included the Get Involved Fair.

Facebook – A Get Involved campaign Facebook event was created from the Guild of Students Facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=18490018344&ref=ts).

University electronic display boards – We advertised the Fair on the board around campus

Guild of Students Website – The fair was a prominent feature on the website, and the individual taster sessions were also advertised for each society.

I'd be really keen to hear any more feedback, so please do get in touch with any suggestions for next year :)

Development and Employability

‘Dinner with a Dozen’ or ‘Dinner with 10 strangers’ (based on numbers) is an idea that has come from the USA and enables students, alumni and staff to share different experiences of University life with one another. The format of the evening will, usually, be a dinner for 10-12 guests with no set agenda but may have a theme for conversation. The value in the dinner is encouraging open conversation between groups who wouldn’t usually have the opportunity to meet with one another and to share stories which will add value to the student experience. The dinner also offers alumni an added opportunity to interact with current students of their University.

I felt my role was two fold: an alumna of the University of Birmingham, and also as a Sabbatical who promotes personal and professional development through extra-curricula activities or part-time work. It was an excellent event, and I really hope the students found some benefit from it.

The key things that I felt were important to highlight were:

· What makes the University of Birmingham different to all the other Universities? For me, it is the wealth of opportunities that are available to students here. From part time work, student ambassadors, volunteering, societies, sports, wardens, mentors, workshops, student reps and much, much more –this University is fantastic. The opportunities are there on a plate, ready for students to enhance their student experience and personal development.

· Key message: Do something. Anything. We all have interests, so pursue them whilst you have the opportunity to do so. Employers want to know you are interested, in anything, and you demonstrate commitment and passion through pursuing it.

· This is a safe environment to learn. One of the best ways of learning, is through making mistakes and having the self awareness to realise what the mistake was, and how to act/do something differently in the future. Whether in part-time work, or in volunteering, if you never fail or get something wrong, you will never succeed or know you are doing something right.