James Sheard Fundraising Officer at MCAI and Steve Edwards Student Project Leader for MCAI at Loughborough
James- What I’ve leant about Freshers Fayres
2003- I first went to a Freshers Fayre in the September of 2003. I signed up to eight different societies and let down at least six of those.
In fact my sole contributions to the societies I signed up to was a few Ninjitsu and Model United Nations sessions, then the guy I went to Nijuistu with found God and stopped going and I found out the girl I’d fancied behind the UN stall had a boyfriend, so that ended my interest in global peace and reconciliation.
Lessons Learned
1- Having a mailing list of names only guarantees that you have a mailing list of names
2- Attractive people will bring more business to your stall, but possibly not the type of business you’re looking for.
3- Christianity and Martial Arts are totally incompatible.
2005- The third Freshers Fayre I went to in 2005 I was in front of a stall, giving out ‘Freshers Week One Survival Kits’.
These included enough donated Sainsburys baked beans tins that my student house was investigated by a member of the Nottinghamshire Constabulary, intrigued to find a back garden filled with thousands of comestibles.
The group I worked for signed up a lot of new members as a result, however as with most years only about 10-15 of those were able to make a good contribution to the society.
Lesson Learned
1- Freebies will get students to your stall, but it won’t necessarily get them to do what you want.
2- If you’re too successful with getting free beans from Sainsburys, you’ll end up with a flat that smells slightly of ketchup and a pathological hatred of tomato juice.
2010- As I covered a seventh Freshers Fayre for MCAI last Wednesday, I was able to draw on my several years of experience but what really kept me going was the strength of the cause we have in terms of our living saving work.
We didn’t have any freebies, or attractive stall help (well it was just me on Wednesday), and all the names that were put down are just that at the moment, names, but I know within those list are a few fantastic volunteers to help our cause.
Lesson Learned
1- Freshers Fayres are the most important event in the student fundraising calendar. Till they’re over, then the real work begins.
Steve- Being in charge at Loughborough
When I think of ‘society-starters’, I tend to think of hyper social go-getters of the sort that seem to have 48 hours in each day and an unreasonable amount of energy. I don’t fall into either of these categories, so when the opportunity materialised to start a ‘Students for Safe Motherhood’ society this year at Loughborough, I was a bit apprehensive.
Where do I start? What kind of admin nightmares await me? Does this mean I have to meet and remember the names of even more people?
After a few months of testing the water, I’m finding it’s not so daunting after all. It really is true that ‘two heads are better than one’ in this instance. Being able to bounce my (often ludicrous) ideas off other enthusiastic volunteers is a real encouragement and benefit, and it’s a great learning curve. You can usually count on at least one of us having the common sense to gently negotiate a sane course of action!
Loughborough Freshers fair starts in just over a week. Naturally, there’s the buzz of a dozen little ‘to-do’s’, but I’m finding it a pleasure to work through them with fellow volunteers- everything from media design and strategy to more mundane things like databases and filling envelopes!
It’s great to know that these little contributions all play a part in assisting the international work of MCAI. It’s also a great privilege have a chance to invite fellow students to join in! After all, there are a thousand societies out there protesting ‘against’ something; it’s great to get active ‘for’ such a great cause as the work of MCAI.
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