Train the Trainer

I am writing this on the train on the way back from NSLP Train the Trainer in Leeds. I was attending this course as a trainer and had my own tutor group, it was a great honour to train on this course I remember when I went on this course a year and a half ago as a trainee and loved it and I hope that my tutees got as much from it as I did. There were four students there from reading Ryan our VP education, Gemma, Marcus and Jack all from JCR’s or volunteer groups, they all seem to have come away from it really enthusiastic about training next year. I know we have a really good group of student trainers with the 4 that went to Leeds and two that went to Bath Spa earlier in the summer. We are going to get together and write some new sessions before term starts. Training next year is going to be brilliant!
But what have I been up to before train the trainer! since I last blogged I have
· Done interviews for external trustees
· Talked to someone doing research into the social and economic impact of volunteering in reading, and from this talked about doing our own volunteer audit looking at how many students volunteer and the impact that they have,
· Had a meeting about Transferable skills and the new website that the university is developing, putting all the skills based stuff that the university does together and made sure that RUSU is mentioned at every possibility as we are one of the biggest skills providers of the university
· I’ve attended communication in action training in Leicester which was good fun, it was good to meet other officers and talked about student media and the place that it has in unions and also for me to learn about the legal aspects of media that I had no experience in before. I also got accosted at 8.30 in the morning slightly hungover being interview on film about my reactions to the students library being opened! It then got played in front of the whole group!! Which was an embarrassing experience to say the least!
· After communications in action I had the Friday off and went to reading festival for the whole weekend! Which was great fun and really good to have some time off! Saw lots of band think that Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish and Hundred Reasons we’re my best bands but it was nice to send time with my sisters and friends I’d not see for ages and my box of wine!!
· On the Tuesday after the bank holiday Dave, Nick and I headed down to Winchester for a demo planning day and a SEANUS exec meeting
· I then spent some days in the office catching up on emails, developing our training plans for the year and helping to look at our new volunteer co-ordinator post and the applications we had received.

When I get back into the office next week I will be doing more external trustee interviews, interviewing for our volunteer co-ordinator, helping to plan Freshers fayre, having a meeting with the new printers for spark, making sure that the Junction11 studio gets put back together and planning a trainers session writing day so we can all get together to plan some new sessions for next year.

I will blog later which I know I said last time about my plans for next year but as I’ve still got 4 hours left on the train there should be plenty of time for me to write it!