My diary in Trustees’ Week: conference calls, blogs…and Downton Abbey
During Trustees’ Week, I’ve been asked by several people to break down a ‘typical’ week of my activities to show you what I get up to as a trustee, student and 20-year-old in London. This was the week of 15 -19 October 2012.
Monday (day off from university):
10:15 – Go to Plan UK offices (Old Street). Read the Metro en route – I still haven’t appeared in the ‘Rush Hour Crush’. 11:00 – Met with Jo to train her on Twitter as Plan’s global youth engagement officer. Was difficult to explain what a ‘hash-tag, trend and direct message’ are. 12:00 – Meeting with two guys from NCVO to discuss a potential collaboration project on creating an ‘How to’ guide for including young trustees. 16:00 – Catch up on emails – my inbox is bursting. 17:30 – Gym – but I’m feeling lazy so didn’t do cardio just weights. 20:00 – Downtime.
Tuesday (messy timetable)
09:30 – Up, gym and breakfast. 12:00 – Equity and Trusts lecture. 13:00 – Agreed to participate in the Guardian question and answer session for Young Charity Trustees, Plan UK, Interact Worldwide and Leap Confronting Conflict. 15:30 – Brief Maggie Thomas, Plan’s youth engagement officer on Plan’s global participation agenda and governance shake up. 17:00 – Dinner at Nandos. 20:00 Clear out inbox of 14 emails, reply to texts and check Facebook/Twitter and upload Wednesdays documents to the SkyDrive, with Glee in the background.
Wednesday
08:00 – Early start. Read briefing papers on the Young Health Programme partnership between Plan UK and Astra-Zeneca. Prepared questions around purpose, impact and donor expectations. 09:30 – Went to Paddington for a meeting in Sloe bar and cafe at 12. However, at 10:00 I also had a conference call with two Plan employees from the press and corporate partnership teams to receive further details on AstraZeneca brief. 11:00 – Fascinating conference call on AstraZeneca partnership. Some excellent grass-roots work going on around adolescent health in Zambia, India and Brazil focusing on sexual reproductive health and mental health. 12:00 – Meet Laura, development officer from TrailBlazers Mentoring about future communications strategy and fundraising targets. 13:30 – Worked on AstraZeneca blog while on the tube to uni. 15:00 – Two-hour seminar for Law and the Environment. Discover that the daughter of the owner of Watsons Milk (which I’m drinking at the time) is in my tutor group. 19:30 – Cinema and dinner – watched Taken 2 – it was OK, not much you can do with the storyline that appeared in Taken. 21:30 – Work on tidying up the Astrazeneca blog. 22:30 – Finished university preparation work for Family Law.
Thursday
09:00 – Wake up and finish AstraZeneca blog, send it to Helen at Plan team for editing. 10:00 – Check edited version of blog and sign off for publication to the Huffington Post. 13:00 – Equity and Trusts lecture. 14:00 – Family Law tutorial. 15:00 – Conference call with trustees from Plan Sweden, Denmark and Norway. 16:30 – De-brief with Jo. 17:00 – Catch up with Lee Willows, chief executive of TrailBlazers Mentoring. 19:00 – Clear up inbox on the way home and catch up with Twitter/Facebook
Friday
11:00 – Go to InterHealth to check I’m vaccinated (I am) and pick up anti-malarials for upcoming trip to Tanzania. I’ve lost my Yellow Fever vaccincation certificate and need to find it. 12:30 – Go to Plan offices and brief a new starter at Plan on the international governance structure. 14:00 – Straight to university for a Family Law lecture on domestic violence. 17:00 (onwards) - Home, quick bite to eat and then get ready for tonight with friends
Saturday
08:00 – 15:00 – I work at an international students residence. Hardly, anyone knows I’m a trustee – it’s a bit weird having no responsibility and being heavily managed as if I’m incapable of doing a fairly simple job.
Sunday
ALL DAY – I do hardly anything productive as I’m still recovering from Friday night so spend the time finishing Downton Abbey which I LOVE; especially Elizabeth McGovern’s (Lady Cora’s) voice.
