I’m sure most of you will be aware that the OU Students Association has a shop. Our shop, or more correctly YOUR shop, sells a wide variety of branded OU items not available anywhere else and helps us to feel part of the OU community when we sit at our desk in our OU Hoodie sweating over a looming TMA deadline. They can even be worn outside I’m told.
Have you ever wondered who runs the OU Students Shop? There is a team of OU Students Association staff at Milton Keynes called Operations which do a lot more than take your orders for shop goodies as they also, amongst many other tasks, run a charity called the OU Students Educational Trust (OUSET). What is the connection? If you have purchased OU branded goods or downloaded past exam papers (who hasn't!) then you will have noticed that you are encouraged to donate to OUSET and help OU students who are less fortunate than most of us, due to circumstances beyond their control.
In addition to the staff, there is a small team of volunteers who act as the shop management which has, in the past, been drawn from the Association Leadership team. We want to be more inclusive, as well as get fresh thinking around what we should be selling, so now we are looking for someone who is not already involved in the Association Leadership to join us in the Working Group. If you have any retail experience (or want to gain some) or just want to improve your skillset to include management responsibility, perhaps this is a role for you.
When I was a member of the Board of Directors and held the office of VP Administration, which made me a trustee of OUSET, I got a lot of satisfaction out of my role with the shop and knew it is also supporting my role with the charity. The duties are not onerous as the staff are so efficient in the day-to-day running of the shop, but we had meetings whenever we needed to make decisions, such as writing off obsolete stock, approving new lines, approving the annual accounts, etc.
If you think this sounds interesting, why not let us know?
0 Comments