Thinking of running in the Leadership Elections? Each day this week, we'll be giving you an insight into the average day of a Sabbatical Officer. VP Societies & Sport, Alastair is kicking us off!
Alastair Copland
VP Societies & Sport
How my days start
As I commute to campus, I wake up at 07:00 and by 07:45 I’m out of the house and on my way to Egham, getting there ready for work at 09:00! Most Sabbatical Officers choose to live on campus, but it is also possible to commute in if you need to!
Mornings
Once I’m in the office my day almost always starts with an hour of breakfast, coffee, and emails. During busy periods, I can get up to 20 emails a day, so it’s important to dedicate time to answering them!
Mornings are normally taken up with some sort of meeting. Monday starts with a Student Opportunities team catch-up, to keep everyone up to date and share plans for the working week. However, I also have regular meetings with the University, other SU staff, RHUL Sport, and anyone relevant to student groups. It’s useful to get meetings done earlier in the day when people are on campus and available!
Afternoons
Afternoon work is normally much more variable. As an Officer I work on several different projects (e.g. better publicising of group events and Varsity), so I often block out periods to work on them. Sometimes there are general Sabbatical Officer responsibilities, such as Boards or management meetings. And sometimes you’re not even in Egham at all, going around the place for NUS and BUCS! It can be a huge range and variety of tasks, but that’s one of the best parts of the job, you get to work on whatever you want!
Wednesday Fixtures
Finally, on Wednesday afternoons our sports teams play their weekly fixtures down at the Sports Centre. If I’m lucky and don't have any meetings I’m able to go down and support the teams. It’s definitely a perk that getting involved in sports is part of the job.
What's the best thing about being VP Societies and Sport?
You have a job that is completely focused on students, student groups, and working to make Royal Holloway better. Student groups were such a fantastic part of my university experience, so it’s been amazing working to give back to campus.
What's the hardest thing about being VP Societies and Sport?
There are so many things that you can get up to, but unfortunately, you only have a certain number of hours in the week. You normally run because you want to improve things on campus and have a lot of ideas on how to do that, but you only have the time to do a small portion of them in the year. You need to learn how to figure out what is important and possible, and it’s definitely been the hardest adjustment for me.
Anything someone running for VP Societies and Sport should know?
Go for it! The campaigning period will be a challenge, but you’ll be so much more experienced and strong afterwards, and if you end up winning, you’ll have the best job out of all your friends! Even putting yourself forward is an achievement, and you should be proud of yourself.
Nominate yourself