What’s your job title and how long have you been at Loughborough?

Club Development Coordinator at Loughborough Sport and I have been here for nearly 2 years.

Tell us what a typical day in your job looks like?

During the term time, a typical day will usually consist of some meetings with the club committees I personally mentor, being 11 sports at Loughborough in total. These meetings are usually centred around the club’s development and how I can help the committee to grow their sport and continue to improve the sporting experience for their members. Some days I will attend a training session or a competition of the clubs, as I find this really helps to build the relationship with the committee rather than just always having meetings with them. It’s also great to see the committee members thriving in their own environment.

I’ll also often have meetings with other teams in Loughborough Sport, whether that is with our performance support team in increasing the accessibility of their support to non-performance sports or the Coaching & Officiating team on the different CPD courses we can offer to the army of volunteer coaches we have at Loughborough. Outside of meetings with students, I’ll often be planning and preparing for some of our busiest periods in the year, whether that’s trials and tasters, committee elections or committee training.

What’s your favourite project you’ve worked on?

My favourite project has been coordinating and developing the programme of committee training that we offer to over 300 committee members as they take on the responsibility of leading their club for the next year. Being able to support them and provide them with the key skills for their role is incredibly rewarding. Having done this for 2 years now, being able to develop and evolve the training programme we offer to our students has been incredibly exciting!

What is your proudest moment at Loughborough?

Without a doubt, it has to be our annual AU Colours awards evening. I am very fortunate to be responsible for organising the event that celebrates the achievements of our highest achieving athletes and volunteers. It truly is an evening of pride where staff and students come together to acknowledge all of the amazing efforts put in across the Athletic Union community. For me specifically, seeing so many of the club committee members that I have mentored over the year receive their club colours is a huge moment of pride for me.

Which University value do you most resonate with and why?

In my role, I resonate the most with being creative. My role gives me a lot of freedom to be creative and innovate new ways to engage our AU clubs and committee members. Whether that has been putting together a marketing campaign for committee elections to boost recruitment, rebranding our performance support to having clubs apply for their own bespoke workshops or introducing a new scheme where all clubs will be marked on their efforts around club development to incentivise them to keep striving forward with their club.

Working with the clubs that I mentor also allows me to encourage them to use their creativity in any way to develop their club. Whether that may be through fundraising ideas, building their workforce in coaches and officials, or improving the club environment, it is truly fantastic to see the creativity and enthusiasm they bring to their clubs.

Tell us something you do outside of work that we might not know about?

I actually play competitive dodgeball. I started playing at University, and when I graduated, I found that in England, there is a massive league structure. A few years on, and I now play in the English Premier League for Bedford Mighty Eagles, and this summer I will be going to Limerick to compete in the European Championships, my fourth competition representing Wales and my first as the men’s captain.

What is your favourite quote?

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new

If you would like to feature in ‘5 Minutes With’, or you work with someone who you think would be great to include, please email Lilia Boukikova at L.Boukikova@lboro.ac.uk