Hi, I’m Trinity and I was the LGBTQ+ Students’ Officer for two years running from 23/24-24/25. I loved my time in this role so I wanted to share a bit about what it’s like to be an LGBTQ+ Students’ Officer for anyone who is considering running for it in the future.
Hi, I’m Trinity and I was the LGBTQ+ Students’ Officer for two years running from 23/24-24/25. I loved my time in this role so I wanted to share a bit about what it’s like to be an LGBTQ+ Students’ Officer for anyone who is considering running for it in the future.
The LGBTQ+ Students’ Officer role gives you the opportunity to run events and campaigns that you feel will have the most impact for the LGBTQ+ community. There’s lots of freedom to shape the role how you want and the Guild’s Student Voice Team are very supportive with helping you organise and run things.
Everyone at the Guild is understanding of the fact that you’re working alongside studying. The role includes lots of interaction with students and feedback on how their experience as an LGBTQ+ student at UoB can be improved. It’s an incredibly rewarding job, particularly seeing events come together and students benefitting from campaigns, opportunities or information you have shared.
You also get a budget to use throughout the year to run campaigns and events for the LGBTQ+ community, and there are many opportunities to collaborate with other LGBTQ+ groups on campus. Over the past two years I have ran many events for LGBTQ+ students, including film nights, coffee socials, a picnic social and a speed-friending event in Welcome Week.
It was also important to me to use my time as an Officer to contribute to improving support for trans and non-binary students on campus. I ran a trans and non-binary social, submitted a policy on trans conversion therapy to the Guild democratic system and worked on some new guidance for trans and non-binary students who are looking to change their name.
I also used some of my time in the role to share educational resources to support LGBTQ+ student wellbeing and educate those within and outside the community on LGBTQ+ issues.
The LGBTQ+ Students’ Officer role gives you the opportunity to have a huge impact on the LGBTQ+ community at UoB. You can improve the social spaces available to LGBTQ+ students. You can ensure that LGBTQ+ students feel supported and welcomed on campus and be there to help them with any issues and listen to their feedback.
You will be part of a team with the other Guild Officers, meaning you can easily collaborate with them or go to them with anything that you’re stuck with. The Guild Officer Group also meets every month – this will give you the opportunity to contribute to wider discussions and impact across the Guild. You can also use these meetings to share what you’ve been working on and bring any LGBTQ+-related issues you would like to discuss with the group.
To anyone considering running for the role, I really recommend you go for it! It’s fun, rewarding and a great opportunity. Guild Part-Time Officers work seven hours a week so there is lots of flexibility to fit your responsibilities around your studies – I did the role during both my industrial placement year and my final year!
I would also recommend that, if you’re planning to run for the role, you reach out to members of the LGBTQ+ community or LGBTQ+ groups to get some ideas of the wants and needs of the community you’ll be representing and to really target your campaign!