Friday, 25 June 2010 11:00 | and posted in Features
This week I have been spending time at the Scripture Union Scotland office in Glasgow experiencing the daily life of a charity based organization. Each day I have worked with different people within the office to see all the different areas of work involved in Scripture Union. Having gone to SU Holidays (and recently back from Basecamp) I found this really interesting to see what goes on in the office and how much work is involved in organizing camps!
Here is how I spent the first two days at the office.
Every day I got the train in from Edinburgh. When I arrived in Glasgow on the first day, I was convinced I wouldn’t be able to find the office but luckily it didn’t take me too long to get there! I was then shown round the office and introduced to everyone. There were so many different people doing different things and I still hadn’t quite recovered from the excitement of finding the office to take in everyone’s name! Thankfully by the end of the week I knew more names. I spent the morning learning about ignite and how it worked. After lunch, I helped out in the volunteers and resource library. This involved sorting through mountains of disclosure and reference forms and using a huge machine to scan them all. Initially when I was told I had to scan all the forms I was slightly worried as me and scary-looking machines don’t exactly go but I managed to get the hang of it quite quickly. After sorting through the forms, I started to file them alphabetically but I didn’t finish as there were so many and I had to leave to catch the train. I really enjoyed the first day, even though filing things alphabetically wasn’t the most thrilling task, it made me realize how much effort is put in to ensuring that all the camps run smoothly.
My second day at the office was quite similar to my first. My morning began with working with the holidays department organizing folders and boxes of information that had to be sent out to each camp. In the afternoon, I sorted through photos from camps which was quite entertaining as there were several faces that I recognized! I finished the day by reading the Scripture Union magazine and thinking about an article to put on the website.
I really enjoyed my week with Scripture Union in Glasgow. It was a good experience to gain insight into life at the office and everyone was so welcoming and friendly. Throughout the week, tasks varied from sorting through camp photos and making camp badges to putting addresses on piles of envelopes. I thought it was funny that everyone kept apologizing for giving me boring things to do and seemed surprised that I came back each morning! The week was a great opportunity to learn more about Scripture Union and how it actually works. My time at the Scripture Union office has allowed me to see all the preparation and hard work that has to go into each holiday. As a camper I never realized how important everything “behind the scenes” really was but this week has helped me to appreciate all the work that Scripture Union does, not just at camps and events but also in the office.
About the author: Miriam (S5) is one of ignite's members.