Applications are now open for getting involved in RAG for 2010 – 2011

How do I get involved?

There are three types of positions we are looking for people to fill:

College Reps

Unmandated Positions

Central Committee

 

College Reps

 

College reps run their college RAG committees and represent RAG in their college. They’re also the people who make the events planned by central committee happen, through selling tickets or forms, advertising and generally being fantastic. This is one of the most important ostions in RAG as without reps we would be unable to run many of our large events such as Jailbreak and Blind Date.

 

Please send all applications to rag@cusu.cam.ac.uk

 

 

Unmandated Positions

 

There are up to three unmandated positions available. You need to send in a short paragraph outlining what you would do if co-opted to this position. The scope of your role is up to you to decide and will be finalised with the Chair and President if you are co-opted successfully onto the Central Committee from your original proposal.

 

If you wish to apply for an unmandated position please return your application by Saturday 8^th May.

 

Please send all applications to rag@cusu.cam.ac.uk

 

 

Central Committee (Chair, Treasury, Events, RAG week, Raids, Admin, Publicity)

 

For the central committee there are five elected positions and the rest are co-opted.

 

Applications for the elected positions need to be returned by Thursday 29^th April with an A4 manifesto, to be distributed prior to the election to be held on Sunday May 2^nd at 6pm. All candidates except the chair will have 3 minutes to speak prior to the questions on the position. The candidates for Chair will have 5 minutes to speak.

 

All other central committee positions are co-opted and applications for positions need to be returned by Saturday 8^th May. It is advisable but not necessary to write a short paragraph about why you wish to take on the role/s you are applying for to help your application.

 

You can apply for any number of co-opted positions and one elected position (unsuccessful candidates for Central Treasurer will have the opportunity to stand for Colleges Treasurer at the Hustings.) If you are applying for multiple co-opted positions please could you rank your preferences. You may be both a College rep and on Central committee at the same time. You may not hold more than one position on Central committee.

 

Please send all applications to rag@cusu.cam.ac.uk

 

Chair – Head of Committee

You will be responsible for running the committees of rag and assisting the president.  You will need to keep an eye on the various teams (and check that the President is doing what she’s paid for) and make sure the reps are happy and know what’s going on. You will be a Trustee of RAG. (ELECTED)

 

 

Treasury (Central Treasurer, Colleges Treasurer)

 

Central Treasurer – Head of Treasury

This role involves the recording and monitoring of all of RAG’s bank accounts and ensuring that everything is correct for the audit in November.  Competency with Excel is recommended as the job involves working with several spreadsheets, some of which can appear quite complex at the beginning.  It is important that you are able to devote a regular amount of time to this job as it important to RAG that we know our financial position throughout the year so we can maximise the donations to our selected charities. You will be a Trustee of RAG. (ELECTED)

 

Colleges Treasurer

This position is responsible for keeping the College Totals up to date weekly and presenting these at meetings.  One of the trickier elements of this job is ensuring that the College reps keep you up to date of their transactions (as they are responsible for the money raised in college events) and that all the money paid into these college accounts is accurately recorded.  A certain amount of competency with Excel would help, as spreadsheets are integral to the job, as is devoting a regular amount of time to work through bank statements in the office. You will be a Trustee of RAG. (ELECTED)

 

 

Events (Events Supervisor, Blind Date, Jailbreak, Lost, Beer Festival)

 

Events Supervisor – Head of Events

This position involves keeping in contact with all the event teams and making sure that they are keeping on schedule and helping out when needed, which could be very short notice. You would also develop new ideas for events and, if possible, put them in place or do enough development that the event could be easily put in place next year. The role would also look at events strategically, suggesting improvements in how they are run, assessing their continued viability and, in cases where they are no longer viable, suggesting replacements for next year.

 

Blind date

You will be in charge of running one of Rags largest events- this year we swapped approximately 1800 forms! The duties that are shared by the two Blind Date officers are planning the event, obtaining the deals from pubs and clubs, poster and form design (with help from publicity if required), form distribution, keeping track of numbers, evening up men and women, organising and running the swap meeting and making sure all the forms are swapped after the meeting. One of you will need to be in Cambridge a week before Lent term begins to get the pub offers.

 

Jailbreak

You’ll be in charge of running Jailbreak in team of up to five people. This is one of RAGs largest events and your responsibilities will include organising and running the event. You will need to sort out insurance, make up the t-shirts, run the squash and recruit participants. You will also need to update the risk assessment for this event, liaise with our sponsors (KPMG) in conjunction with sponsorship. During the competition you will need to be available via telephone for all 48 hours. Participants must report at 9am each day and report when they cross a border so you need to keep track of everyone and make sure they are all safe. You also decide the winners at the end. Following the event you will need to collect the sponsorship money in from the participants and help organise the publicity for the papers and local radio.

 

Lost

Similar to Jailbreak Lost is a new event to be run next year. Lost has participants taken to a secret location in the UK. Participants are then required to race back using no money, maps or GPS. You will be working closely with Jailbreak team in setting up this new event. All profits from this event will be going to Oxfam so you will need to liaise with them also to negotiate prozes and marketing for the event.

 

Beer Festival

Your job as beer festival organise is to source the beers, gain a venue, get relevant licenses, organise stewards, staffing and the logistics of running the event itself. Part of the job is to promote the event to the correct audience. The event is run over a weekend and is time intensive during this period and the week before. It is also recommended that you put some time into helping CAMRA with their Oktoberfest and Winter ale festival to see in practice how a beer festival is run.

 

 

RAG week (RAG week supervisor, RAG week committee, RAG Mag Editor, Carnival)

 

RAG week supervisor – Head of RAG week

You will be in charge of RAG week, which is usually towards the end of Lent term. Your job will involve running the RAG week committee and helping to organize the RAG week events. Responsibilities will include helping to decide what events will be run and when, in addition to helping ruin the events themselves.

 

RAG Week committee

Your role will be to take ownership of an event in RAG week and organise and run it, in addition you will be expected to help out with other events that are going on within the week. The role will be similar in tasks to organising either Blind Date or Jailbreak, but different in the specifics.

 

RAG Mag Editor

You will be responsible for putting the RAG mag together and helping fill it with adverts from local businesses. This is a glossy A5 magazine which is given to every student and can be vital in securing us some of our biggest sponsorship deals. It contains photos of everyone on the administrative committee, pages on all our big events and is our best publicity tool in sending out to large companies. Securing adverts from local firms will involve phoning and writing too many companies. You will also need to deal with printers and help orgainse the distribution through liaising with PR and the President. The magazine needs to be ready to distribute to the University by the beginning of RAG Week

 

Carnival

This event traditionally kicks off RAG week and required quite a bit of organization beforehand. Your role will be decide which route the carnival takes (we have two traditional routes), updating the management control document as appropriate before sending it off to the council and other bodies as required for approval. This may require several edits before it is approved, then you need to apply for any licenses that are required. The President and Head of RAG week will work closely with you to ensure this is done as close as possible to the start of the year. Closer to the event, you will need to recruit stewards and organise the colleges to get the carnival full of people. The carnival itself needs a theme and this should be reflected in the costumes from the colleges. People taking part and stewarding need to be fully briefed and carnival parade made ready. Potentially local children could be involved through talking to schools and scouts etc. Also this role will involve speaking with the publicity team to ensure that we have local news coverage of the event.

 

 

Raids (Raids Supervisor, Raids Officer)

 

Raids Supervisor – Head of Raids

Your role is to contact the charities who have permits for running street collections in applicable areas so we can send out our own volunteers, this includes Cambridge, other local cities and for megaraids. This role involves liaising with the charities so that we have the appropriate materials to run the raid (such as T-shirts). You also need to ensure the admin after the raid is completed, such as sending the charity the returns from the collection in addition to a cheque for the money collected. You will be responsible for organising some street collections such as for Children in Need and making sure that the returns are done for these promptly. You will need to coordinate with the raids officers to make sure that the raids are run efficiently and help with ensuring that there is good recruitment. While it is not your job to either organize or go on our collection tours or GOSH you are more than welcome to help with these.

 

Raids Officer

Your role will be to will work in a team with three other raids officers to run the weekly street collections within Cambridge and in other cities near to Cambridge, if away raids are run. Your role will include advertising the street collections and ensuring that volunteers are found. In addition you will need to run the raid, which is usually 9am – 5pm on a Saturday and within the team you need to decide how you are going to staff these times. Also your role will include teaching people how to raid, keeping raiders motivated, making sure that the raid is carried out in a safe and legal manner, counting the money collected using our counting machine,  banking the money, e-mailing out to people how much they raised and helping keep the raids area of the RAG office tidy. While it is not your job to either organize or go on our collection tours, or GOSH you are more than welcome to help with these.

 

 

Admin (Secretary, Charities Secretary, Alumni Officer, Reps Liaison, Sponsorship, Social Secretary)

 

Secretary – Head of Admin

You’ll need to take minutes of the Trustees, Central and Administrative Committee meetings and make sure that everyone knows what’s going on. You will also be in charge of booking rooms for meetings. You will be a Trustee of RAG (ELECTED)

 

Charities Secretary

You will need to organise the ballot of charities that the RAG grants go to.  This involves dealing with information from many charities and counting up the votes from the administrative committee to decide where the money goes to. Throughout the year you will need to update the charities database so that it is kept up to date. You will also need to organise presentation lunch in June. This role has a large workload over the Summer holiday as the voting needs to take place at the beginning of Michaelmas term.

 

Alumni Officer

The aim of this position is to develop fundraising from alumni to help cover the costs of RAG. One aim of the role is to keep in better contact with Rag alumni, looking at more innovative methods than the current newsletter and set up an annual contribution scheme. You would also need to organise the Reunion Dinner in November term and invite alumni to it, which should help to build upon the contacts in our alumni database. Furthermore publicising the Beer Festival to alumni is part of the role, as many take this as a prime opportunity to catch-up.  You would also be able to develop and initiate other fundraising ideas, looking at successful models such as boat clubs or college societies for guidance.

 

Reps Liaison

Liaising with and recruiting new college reps, ensuring that they know what’s going on, reporting their feedback to the central committee and help college reps put on events and sell central event tickets in colleges. You will need to edit the reps guide and be a friendly face for the reps.

 

Sponsorship

You will be charge of negotiating and maintaining our sponsorship deals with various companies. In particular you will be responsible for organisaing a new large sponsorship deal for all of RAG’s operations.

 

Social Secretary

You will be in charge of organising social events for RAG after the weekly meetings (such as formals and pub trips) and whenever else you deem to be appropriate. In addition you will need to help the Alumni Officer with organising Reunion Dinner (our annual black tie dinner). Furthermore you will also be expected to organize a May week garden party for the members of the administrative committee.

 

 

Publicity (Public Relations, Publicity Design, Webmaster)

 

Public Relations – Head of Publicity

You will be in charge of the promotion of RAG events through electronic mediums such as Facebook, the RAG website (in coordination with the webmaster) and Twitter. You will need to make sure that e-mails are sent out to publicise RAG events to all relevant e-mails lists. Also you will be in charge of ensuring that the publicity reaches colleges and departments around the University. Also if applicable you will be responsible for getting adverts into the student newspapers

 

Publicity Design

Your responsibilities will be to design posters, flyers and any other forms of publicity requires for maximum impact. You need to design publicity in coordination with the event teams. Further to this you need to liaise with the President to ensure the designs are printed. Proficiency with Photoshop is recommended, but not essential.

 

Webmaster

You will be responsible for keeping the website running, in addition to keeping it updated both on content (in conjunction with the PR officer) and the backend.

 

 

Please send all applications to rag@cusu.cam.ac.uk