Running for Sabb: A Day in the Life..

It is hard to explain what I do on a daily basis, every day is so different but I will try to give you a taster of what it is like to be a sabb.

Each sabb lives in University accommodation, you get your own flat, so the commute to work isn’t too painful. I live in Norwood so it’s just a quick trip down the stairs for me. It’s a full time job with core hours of 10-4 each day, I get into the office normally between half 9 and ten as I prefer to work a little later than get up early but then again everyone is different.

It’s hard, it's challenging, it's varied and it's very very busy but I wouldn’t have rather been anywhere else for this year, it has been a fantastic journey and I am glad that I have another 5 months left before I have to hand over the reins to someone else.

I start off each morning by checking my emails and reviewing the priorities that I set for myself the night before. I am always surprised by the sheer volume of emails that I receive, even before 10am!! I’ll spend some time looking through the emails to see if there is anything that needs urgent attention, if not I'll add them to my list of priorities and get chipping away at the work I’ve set for myself.

I have meetings every day, nowhere near as many as Dot or George but there is always something to start planning or to review and update on. For example, today I met with the Alumni Office, the ICIA, two student groups and had a sabb meeting. One of the things I enjoy most about my job is getting to make change happen for you, the students. We all have open doors so I often get people pop their head in to ask a quick question of raise an issue; that of course is what we are here for!

There are days when I honestly think that I’ll never finish all the work I have to do, and being pulled in so many directions is never fun. There have been occasions where I’ve been in my office well past 10 o’clock at night as I want to fit in as much as I can into this year. However, there are lots of really fun bits too – I have met a massive amount of new people that I wouldn’t have had chance to otherwise, I have visited a number of other unions around the country, and I’ve even been to the Vice-Chancellor’s house for drinks, twice!

Ahem…. I’ll shamelessly admit that I stole most of the previous paragraph from Helen Sawyer VP Welfare and Campaigns 08/09, it sums up perfectly how I feel sometimes!

It’s hard, it's challenging, it's varied and it's very very busy but I wouldn’t have rather been anywhere else for this year.  It has been a fantastic journey and I am glad that I have another 5 months left before I have to hand over the reins to someone else. I would recommend to anyone and everyone to look into becoming a sabb; it really is a once in a life time opportunity! You don’t need to know anything about the Union or the University before being a sabb, you receive all the training you need during the summer. You get sent away to meet sabbs from other Universities and receive fantastic training from NUS. During the year you will be involved in writing strategies, planning campaigns, talking to students, running events, planning activities and a huge amount of personal development.

That is a mixture of what I do on a day to day basis and also why I think that being a sabb has been the most valuable experience of my life so far. Feel free to come and talk to me about what I, or the other sabbs, do and I will do my best to help you. If after this you still don’t think being a sabb is for you, that’s fine, but make sure you use your vote when campaigning starts!

Ben Cole

VP Communications 09/10