Volunteering with ‘Give it a Go’
Are you sitting comfortably? Good, then I’ll begin.
Once upon a time, there was a great tower filled with a variety of cool and amazing opportunities for all
students of Cardiff University. So enthusiastic were the student clubs and societies that lived within it that
they achieved marvellous things with nothing more than sheer determination and student spirit. There was
also a huge treasure trove of opportunities available to students to develop skills, learn languages and
volunteer. They called this building the Students’ Union, and it was amazing.
However, in the mystical Kingdom of Cardiff University there lurked a problem. A mighty beast, whose name
was Ignorance wandered the streets of Cathays at night and gobbled up poor students’ ambitions as they
slept. All the students thought they could ignore Ignorance, but he was cunning and crafty. One terrible day
in the Kingdom of Cardiff University, Ignorance gathered his forces and led an invasion of the wonderful
Students’ Union tower.
The tower put everything it could into defending itself from the mighty forces of Ignorance. It amassed a
powerful force called the comms department who battled ignorance relentlessly to defend the poor
students’ dreams from slaughter and pillage. But it was not enough. Ignorance broke through the
barricades and many dreams and ambitions were lost, drifting into obscurity and myth. The evil monster
Ignorance held the Students’ Union Tower hostage and guarded it greedily.
Ignorance was so cunning, that he made himself invisible. The students went about their day not knowing
he was there; not knowing he was hiding their dreams and ambitions from them. And that’s how it stayed
in the Kingdom of Cardiff University for a long-long time.
But… some people did know that Ignorance was there. Their names were ‘Give it a Go’ Volunteers Team
and they were ready to take back the Students’ Union for the students and banish Ignorance forever! And
that’s where our story begins.
What is ‘Give it a Go’?
‘Give it a Go’ is the most amazing initiative since sliced bread. We take all the existing opportunities available
to students in and around the Students’ Union and break down the barriers to them, placing them under a
single collective booklet of opportunities. We then build on them, add a variety of wild and wonderful
experiences which were never previously available and then shout about them to anyone and everyone
who will listen to us!
Fancy trying your hand at lacrosse? Climbing the Brecon Beacons? Cake making? Ice skating? Skydiving?
Learning Swedish Back Massage? Ballet dancing? Scaling the Eiffel Tower? Exploring the Edinburgh
dungeons? Cocktail making? Qualifying First Aid? Motorcycle maintenance? Learning Japanese? Visiting
the isolated elderly? Exploring Amsterdam? Learning to use Photoshop? Or maybe you want to take up
knitting. The point is that if you’re a student at Cardiff University there’s something for you and you’d be a
fool not to have a Give it a Go schedule knocking around!
There are ten ‘Give it a Go’ categories:
1. ‘Try a Sport’
2. ‘Be Creative’
3. ‘Develop your Skills’
4. ‘Learn a Language’
5. ‘Music and Performance’
6. ‘Volunteer’
7. ‘Look after yourself’
8. ‘Thought, Discussion & Democracy’
9. ‘Day & Weekend Trips’
10. ‘Other’
And there are A LOT of Union resources being poured into the project. The marketing plans are astounding
and we’re pretty confident that by the end of the year everyone will have heard of it and fingers crossed, a
lot of them will have engaged with it in some way… but that’s where you come in.
Why should I Volunteer with ‘Give it a Go’?
Aka, ‘what’s in it for you’? Well, funny you should ask actually. By far the best reason to become a volunteer
with Give it a Go is because for every 15/20 students we take away on a day and weekend trip, we need
an ‘appropriate responsible individual’. Would you like to travel around the country with us, seeing
Stonehenge, the Roman Baths, the Eden project, Hadrian’s Wall? Perhaps you’d like to come to Edinburgh,
Dublin or Manchester. Maybe you fancy spending a weekend with us in London? Perhaps your tastes are
more exotic (comparatively) and you’ve got your eye on a trip to Paris, Berlin or Amsterdam. Where ever you
want to go, you can come FREE, as a volunteer with Give it a Go. Oh my god, and breath.
As well as that all volunteers will get:
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A Give it a Go Volunteer Accredited Certificate.
Access to free First Aid training and leadership courses
Extremely nice (and free) ‘Give it a Go’ t-shirt and hoodie.
An extra-circular CV reference from the Students’ Union.
Massive opportunities to make friends and contacts.
Possibly a free Summer Ball ticket… although we’ll see!
Sound too good to be true? Well it’s a pretty amazing deal, but there are some fairly easy going strings
attached. Nothing to be worried about, but like your mum always said, ‘there’s no such thing as a free meal’.
What would I do as a Volunteer with ‘Give it a Go’?
Basically, in receiving all the benefits of a Give it a Go volunteer – we ask for some commitments in return.
Firstly in coming with us on the trips you will have the responsibility to making sure that they run smoothly.
You will usually be given a proportion of the students and be asked to act as the Day Trip Leader for them.
Consequently you will be asked to communicate essential information, liaise with the students, coach
drivers, hostel reps or any connected staff. Your job will be to ensure that everyone can sit back and relax,
safe in the knowledge that you’re in control of the situation. You will have responsibilities on the trips, but
we will equip you with everything you need to ensure everything runs as it should, e.g. leadership and first
aid training. You will be the responsible person on these trips and as a result your position is more akin to
a member of staff than a student. In return the Union will pay for your ticket!
To come on the trips you will have to accrue VCs (volunteer credits). So for example, supervising a day trip
to Tenby with Give it a Go may require 4/5 VCs. Coming on a weekend trip to Paris on the other hand, may
require 15/16 VCs (we’re still not 100% sure what kind of quantities will be expected where). There will be
a variety of ways you’ll be able to earn you VCs and then the idea is that you can choose how you spend
them. For example, by working on a Give it a Go stall in freshers for an hour may earn you 1 VC. Leading a
city centre tour during freshers may earn you 2 VCs. Promoting Give it a Go outside the Union or doing a
couple of lecture shout outs for a trip, helping with the GIAG admin or marketing may earn you certain
amount of VPs, as would making a promo video, teaching a student-led Welsh language taster or writing a
Give it a Go article for Student Media… would all earn you VCs and you could ‘spend’ them as you wanted.
We think it’s a pretty good deal – we wouldn’t expect it to be any more work than you may do for a society
committee.
How much time do I need to give up?
This is entirely up to you! Everyone we’ve asked to be a Give it a Go volunteer obviously has a degree to do
– and that must always come first… unless it’s journalism, then we don’t mind. In addition a lot of the
people we have asked to be a Give it a Go volunteer already have Union/Society/AU/Residence
commitments – that’s what makes you a good person to have on board!
To answer the question, there is no set amount of time to give up. The more trips you want to come on, the
more VCs you will have to earn and the more time you will want to allocate to the position. Some weeks you
won’t have time to do anything – and that’s fine. Other weeks you will have more time to earn the credits –
and we will enable to you to do that if there are VCs available.
Freshers will be the time when most VCs will be up for grabs – and we will aim to get everyone doing
something in that period – as much as you can handle. But again, it’s up to you.
How do I sign up?
You will need to fill out a quick form that should be attached to this email and send it to Josh at
[email protected] together with about 200 words as to why you’d like to do it and what qualities you
could bring to the role. In particular we are looking for examples or indications of:
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Enthusiasm
Responsibility
Leadership
Ability to work under pressure
Attention to detail
Organisation
We can’t wait for your applications! Good luck Volunteers!