My new role as Vice chair in the Cancer awareness GC has definitely shown me the list of tasks and responsibilities of a vice chair. The transition from being communications officer to being vice chair was initially a challenge. However, I was able to smoothen that transition by using some of the skills that I had as a communications officer, and developing them further (example : coordinating between 2 parties, such as the GC and the service office). In this process, I also had to develop my skills as a leader, specifically qualities such as the ability to delegate roles, adapting to new circumstances, and lastly, my self awareness about my influence and capacity to make change. So what was initially a challenging start to a process, became an opportunity to develop universally applicable leadership skills(LO2)
I feel quite honoured to be involved and play an integral role in the this group. Personally, cancer has affected 2 family members of mine, and being involved with this GC has taught me that we should not take for granted the fact that treatment is an option. I also have a strong interest in public healthcare, and the issue of lack of healthcare provision in a developing country is an issue that I feel should be addressed immediately. With cancer, it affects people of all demographics, but it marginalises people below the poverty line, which I strongly believe is an indicator that there needs to be a source of awareness and funding for these marginalised communities. By playing a leadership role in this GC, I know that I am taking action towards a cause that I personally believe in, which allows me to play an active role in engaging with a global issue. Although our funds may be directed to a single organisation, the awareness aspect of our GC is what covers the global significance, and emphasises the scale to which our contributions can impact the world. (LO6)
In our GC, our main event is in the beginning of the year, so there is a lot of planning in various aspects (such as advocacy, finance) that require the collaboration between the chair and vice chair, along with the service office members and GC supervisor. In the beginning weeks of our GC this year, we have to plan diligently to ensure we’re meeting the required deadlines in order to hold our Movember event. We held a voting session to allocate leadership roles within our GC, such as communications officer, finance, etc, to allow the spread of tasks amongst a large number of people. This has already helped us to work more efficiently, and it makes sure that every member has a role and contribution to our aims and goals as a GC This process is highly beneficial, especially since later on, when we begin our MOVEMBER event, committees and individuals within our team who have a specific role will be able to collaborate and get work done more efficiently (LO5).
Going back to my new role as vice chair, which has created a more thorough sense of what goes on behind a fundraising event, the forms and permission slips, as well as the logistical and financial planning beforehand is now familiar to me, as I oversee the documents and help to fill them to ensure a smooth event this year. An example would be the College fundraising approval form. This was one of the steps that I, along with the chair, had to complete in order to begin the planning process for our MOVEMBER 2020 event. Other aspects such as logistics, which included filling out a timeline ahead of our event to set deadlines and goals for each week, or communications, which involved planning how to advertise our event this year and how to connect with our community better to create a larger impact. In general, I was able to grasp a better understanding as to what it takes to plan and initiate an fundraising event (LO3)
The two images above are the ideas we had about how we would conduct our event this year. Both ideas were still raw, but had a good amount of planning and we believed that their implementation would maximise our impact this year considering the numerous restrictions put into place.
