Wednesday 01-02-2017 - 12:06

It’s February, how did that happen? I mean I’m fully aware of the order of the months but each year, they always take me by surprise!

January has been busy ‘behind the scenes’ in the SU. Staff are preparing loads of fun things like the Elections (fancy being the next President??), Varsity, the SU Awards and generally working hard advising and supporting students and ensuring our sports teams and societies are running smoothly.

Last week I went to the National SU CEOs conference; yes, such a thing exists. I still find these things slightly intimidating, being one of the younger and newer CEOs surrounded by decades of experience and knowledge. Mostly though everyone is very supportive and helpful, my Welsh and North West England colleagues especially.

I went to one session which was very useful and made me realise that, you know what, I’m not in this alone and even some of the most experienced CEOs don’t have it all 100% figured out. It was a session where we were given statements such as ‘All my HR documents are up to date’ (I’m telling you, my job is the most fun!) and you had to stand at different points in the room ranging from 100% confident to 0% confident and that visual of seeing everyone all over the room at different statements was reassuring and made me feel like not so much of a young, inexperienced CEO, but rather part of a group of people who are all learning, relearning and supporting each other.

Later on as we all went out for dinner (any maybe some drinks) I sat back and thought about how lucky I was to be part of a movement in which we aren’t in competition with each other and actively go out of our way to help each other. For example one of the Trustees of this students’ union is a CEO of another Union; Trustees volunteer their time, they don’t get paid and this is happening more and more.

So in summary, it’s been busy and I love working in a students’ union so if you ever get the opportunity to do so, grab it! Speaking of which, I started out as an elected office in my students’ union back in 2008…and you know what’s coming up here? Elections! It changed my life and I’m sure it would change yours too.

- Sarah, CEO