Laura Leigh Hicks, Campaigns Officer at UCLan Students’ Union explains that making volunteers feel appreciated was one of the main reasons for the success of the education funding campaign.
“For our Union it was a first to have so many students who wanted to get involved in such a political campaign. We had a team of 15 core volunteers who helped out with our protests in Preston, Burnley and the demo in London. By putting them at the forefront of the campaign and giving them the responsibility of stewarding the demo and other protests ensured they felt valued and all their hard work was appreciated. To help celebrate their hard work, for the first time ever we had two award categories for campaigners in our SU awards, the two volunteers who won awards were extremely happy and proud to win.
Throughout the whole campaign, both in the lead up and afterwards, we ensured we took on board the volunteers ideas not only listening but actually implementing their ideas. Students designed the 'Why pay more to get less?' logo instead of our in-house designer, they helped to design the posters and placards as well as developing ideas to create more awareness of the campaign on campus.”
Next lesson learned: Has this been successful before?