Project Managing a Conference

Hello! I’ve been volunteering at the Centre for three years now and have had the chance to get involved in some really great projects. I thought I would take this opportunity to tell you about my latest project. I project managed our 2013 conference on the new Children’s Hearing Act 2011. We had over 250 delegates attend this fantastic conference (you don’t have to take my word for it; you can listen to the audio recording of the conference here).

Being the project manager meant that I had to do everything from finding a venue to processing booking forms to drawing up a budget for the event. The great thing about volunteering with a small charity, like the SCLC, is that you get the chance to get involved in projects that would be given to someone with much more experience in the commercial sector. However, this doesn’t mean that you’re on your own. I worked under the close supervision of the Director and Office Manager, and thankfully they made all the important decisions. I was given lots of scope for independent work, but was always able to rely on lots of support and guidance. My first budget was returned with lots of post-it notes attached by our Office Manager (‘have you thought about this?’ ‘how much does this cost?’ ‘does this price include VAT?’) but after lots of cups of tea we had a lovely colour-coded spreadsheet that became the budget and I had learnt a new skill!

Andrew Processing Bookings

I also had lots of help from our great team of volunteers and interns who did a tremendous job. Many thanks to Bethan, Rachel, Jameela, Susanne, Josephine, Mateus, Emily, Seb, Joe, Camila and Bethan. We really couldn’t have done it without them!

The whole project has taken an entire year. Starting in August 2012 I spent one morning a week on the project until the conference in February 2013. After the conference there was still lots of paperwork and things that needed to be followed up until last week when our new Project Manager, Jameela, took over. Jameela will be in charge of organising the 2014 conference (the topic of which is soon to be announced!). Hopefully she will be blogging and tweeting about her experience so you can see what is involved. If you think being a Project Manager for the Centre is something you would like to do, get in touch! It takes a long time to train for the role and the Centre will be running events in 2015 that need organising!

I’ve left Jameela a big folder full of notes and tips to use for the next conference but i’m sure she will be great anyway!

Andrew

Helen’s Experience

As an international student, the Scottish Child Law Centre was indeed an enjoyable experience. As a volunteer, I was allowed to sit on the training that usually takes place every Tuesday afternoon. So far, I have attended training pertaining to The Children’s Hearing System and the effects of the new Act; Data collection and Confidentiality of Children’s records; The Looked after Child and Sex and Children/Young Persons. These courses were in-depth and gave practical and functioning knowledge of the law as it relates to the rights of children and young persons.

It was galvanizing to work with people, who are committed to working, improving and ensuring the protection of the rights of children and young persons. I am glad that I was given the opportunity to work at the SCLC, and with the dedicated staff at SCLC. I am very happy that I was able to contribute in some small way, but the SCLC has definitely contributed more to my personal development.

Helen

Tweeting

Today I have been tweeting from the centre’s Twitter account. My tweets have been looking at children’s health and promoting a campaign to end the stigma regarding growing up in care. Twitter is really great to use because I can get instantaneous reaction to the issues I tweet about. It makes me really happy to see how many people care about children’s rights.

Twitter is also really exciting to use because it allows you can see what is happening in real time. As soon as I log on I can see charities across the world tweeting about the work they do to improve children’s rights. It is a great tool for learning about global efforts of which we are only a small part.

Make sure you follow us at @scotchildlaw and tweet us a ‘hello’!

Andrew