Aug
Meet your RAG Officer!
Do you ever wonder what all the different positions are in SUSU? We want to make things clearer for you so you’re aware of the different officials who work or volunteer here. We have 7 Sabbatical Officers, 33 Student Leaders, 4 Student Trustees and 41 Councillors, who all play a massive part in the running and improving of SUSU so that students have a better time at the University of Southampton. We’ll be releasing Q&A’s of individual Student Leaders, Councillors and Student Trustee, so you can find out more about them and their role!
If anyone has heard Jenny talk about RAG, they’d instantly know she’s perfect for this role. She loves RAG to pieces and we wish her the best of luck in her new role! Have a read below to find out more about Jenny and what a RAG Officer is!
Tell us a bit about yourself Jenny!
I’m a 20 year old student in Marine Biology with Oceanography. I lived in France up until Uni and love sharks!
What does RAG mean to you?
RAG has basically taken over my life, I love it. It’s such a great way to do something meaningful and fun at the same time as well as developing skills and meeting so many friendly and different people.
What’s the best memory you’ve had from being part of RAG?
I’d say getting my first position on committee was pretty awesome. I’d started as RAG JCR officer for Bencraft and got involved more and more and when I ran in the 2013/2014 committee elections I was really excited. I may have aimed a bit high at first, I ran for Big Give Officer, it was a new role for an event that promised to go big and I don’t think (with hindsight) that I was ready for it! I’m so glad Charlotte got it as she did an amazing job. I then ran for Charity Liaison and didn’t get that either, Beth had much better ideas and was definitely more prepared for it than I was! And so, when I ran for a position for the third time I found myself getting elected as Collections Officer. When we came out of the room Catherine said to me she was glad I’d got it because she thought I was made for that job. I think she was right, I loved being collections officer and trying to get people involved in raids and backpacks, it’s not always been easy but it’s been so much fun!
What’s the best way to get involved in RAG this year & who can get involved?
There are soooo many ways to get involved! Every student at the University is a member of RAG, a fact that people aren’t always made aware of. This means that if students have a fundraising idea and want to put on an event, they can! We’re here if they need any help or advice – from the organisation to the publicity. Other than that, the committee works hard all year to put on great events but we aren’t enough, we constantly need volunteers to help us out, and of course there’s no long-term commitment! You can help out at one or ten events, we don’t mind, we’re just always grateful for the help!
We’ll also be having adventures again this year, more to come on that! I’ll just say that if people want to make a difference while having the time of their life, we’ve got what they need! And, of course, we’ll be putting on events such as Speed Dating, the Christmas Market, raids and backpacks and much more! Clubs and societies will be able to join us on the shoot of the naked calendar again. The Big Give will also be coming back and we’ll be looking for Champions to help us raise even more than last year.
So you see, there are so many ways to get involved with RAG, I’ve probably forgotten some, and we’re always open to suggestions. We’ll be having our volunteer meetings again this year, we’ll be letting everyone know when and where they will be happening in September.
What are you looking forward to the most this year?
I’m really looking forward to seeing what my committee achieves, most of them are in the job for the first time and they’re already starting off great. I can’t wait to see how we work together and what we can achieve. Having a more diverse committee (they don’t all know each other and study a great variety of subjects in different years) will hopefully help us reach out to more people and make people feel like they are part of RAG and, ultimately, raise a huge amount of money for charity!
What are the three main things you want to accomplish this year?
Bouncing off what I just said, one of my goals for this year is to get more people involved and make them feel a part of the team. We really want people to know that we are a friendly group which wants to get to know people and have great times together. We’ll be having more social and relaxed times together so people don’t feel like there’s a pressure to constantly raise money – raising money is great but we sometimes want to have fun too!
A second goal is to improve our collaboration with other student groups, we have a great range of clubs and societies here at the Union and many of them are already getting involved in fundraising whether that’s their ‘purpose’ or not! We’d love to be able to help them out as much as we can, whether it’s publicising their events, pointing them out in the right direction or simply coming along to it. We’d love people to send us an email or message when they are planning something so we can tell people about it but also to recognise them for what they’re doing and thank them! We want to work with everyone to create bigger and stronger events.
My third goal is a bit of a cheeky one, but I think it’s fair to say it’s also the aim of Raise And Give: I would love to help us students raise more than ever before, beating this year’s record!
Do you have any media streams that students can follow to keep in touch with RAG?
Of course! You can like our SUSURAG page on Facebook & Follow us on Twitter
Join our Facebook group to be kept in the loop on all the opportunities that come up: Team RAG
You can also email us at susurag@soton.ac.uk, me at ragoffic@soton.ac.uk and our publicity officer at ragcomms@susu.org
You can also add me on Facebook or even Ragglesworth Bear (he will always keep you entertained and updated!)
I also would like to share the following group with you: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SUSURAGandCharities/ This Facebook group is a bit different in that it is a point of contact between all SUSU charity and volunteering societies. It’s a group for committees, members and individuals who are part of these areas of SUSU to help each other out all in the aim of improving collaboration. I invite everyone interested to read the description as I can’t explain it better!
Tags: Charity Liaison, societies, Student Leaders, SUSURAG