The UniSport Nationals volunteering program is a top-class operation with fantastic people involved. Volunteering for an organisation or event can sometimes turn into a laborious process with things not settling or turning out right. Organisations can be dismissive of volunteers or not lenient enough when they’re learning and settling in. UniSport, I’m glad to say, has none of those problems.
From your first meeting with the UniSport Nationals team, they put you at ease. They make it clear just how important volunteers are to the running of the events and services. I found people generous and eager to answer questions.
I volunteered as a Journalist at UniSport Nationals Division 1 and enjoyed my experience immensely. The event gave me the opportunity to improve on my filming and interviewing skills and meet people from around the country interested in similar career paths. Being a part of the UniSport media team was a learning experience. Outnumbered by photographers, I got to interview athletes and create little clips for the UniSport YouTube channel. The set up of the timetables allowed me to travel to different sporting events around the Gold Coast and gain work experience in sports that I hadn’t even considered before.
The esprit de corps among us volunteers was brilliant, especially within the media group. Ian Leishman was great with us photographers and journalists and we were always pushing each other to produce. The photographers excitedly compared images, commenting especially loud when one was especially good. At the end of a day we would sit together in the media room and upload our content and comment on where we were stationed tomorrow and who with. I felt valued by everyone involved in the operation and glad that I had taken part.
Personal highlights for me included being involved with the sailing, where I got to interview all the University teams and get out on to the water to film. I enjoyed filming the basketball because of the back and forth nature of the sport and the close scores of the games. The softball was a new experience too because I was not too knowledgeable about the sport and it was great to meet people and learn from them.
Altogether, the experience was a fantastic opportunity to make contacts, meet people, and dive into learning about working in and around sport. I highly recommend anyone interested in sport in any way to get involved with UniSport and get out there at the Nationals. I’ll see you there!
Author: Connor Munday
2018 UniSport Journalist Volunteer
2019 UniSport Journalist Intern