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Meetings, Lego and biscuits.

By Chris Jefferies
November 8, 2009 at 2:31 pm

A slightly strange combination at the best of times, so what links all three?

The answer is 11 Million Takeover Day of course!

Last Thursday and Friday, 12 driven and passionate young people descended on the British Red Cross’s UK Office. Their goal? To oust the senior management team and replace it with 12 young faces. All around the country, managers and staff were being replaced by young people as part of 11 Million Takeover Day where young people are given the opportunity to become decision makers.

I travelled up to London to take on the role of South East director for the day. We arrived bright and early on Thursday for some leadership training before the big day. I think all of us were expecting different things, however none of us were expecting our first task: To build the “biggest and best” tower.

Out of Lego.

Of course, this task was designed to test our teamwork and planning skills. However, honestly, we all just played with Lego. In the end, our team ended up designing the “biggest and best biscuit holder” out of Lego.

Now that’s talent.

Towers built, we cracked on with the rest of the day. I found this training really useful, we covered topics such as how to manage meetings and presentation skills. This was all designed to prepare us for the actual meeting itself the following day, it was also a great chance to meet and get to know other young volunteers from throughout the UK.

Friday dawned, suited and booted we eagerly arrived at UK Office. First on the agenda for the day was discussing the British Red Cross’s new corporate strategy, we debated where to allocate future funds. There was a general consensus around the table that the Red Cross’s work with refugees and vulnerable migrants was a key part of our work and we would love to see it expanded.

Throughout the day we had various (and sometimes passionate!) discussions about young people and the Red Cross. I think we all believe the Red Cross provides fantastic opportunities for young people, but that we really need to push the message out that the Red Cross is a dynamic and inclusive organisation for young people.

Overall everyone had a fantastic time. I think we all came away more driven and passionate about the cause that has inspired all of us. We’re grateful to everyone on the senior management team and the staff who gave us this opportunity. I’d love to see Takeover day return in 2010!

Comments (8) »

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 8th, 2009 at 2:31 pm and is filed under Fundraising and events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • Kate Lee

    Well done to all of you. It has been noted that your ’suited and booted’ put our SMT to shame! Great choice of focus area for more development – I look forward to reading your minutes for how we might do some of that.

    Thanks again for your input, an important exercise it would be good to have more than just once a year. And.. I appreciated the supportive comments that being on SMT is quite complex (made me feel better!)

    Kate Lee
    Director of Strategy

  • Kate Lee

    Well done to all of you. It has been noted that your ’suited and booted’ put our SMT to shame! Great choice of focus area for more development – I look forward to reading your minutes for how we might do some of that.

    Thanks again for your input, an important exercise it would be good to have more than just once a year. And.. I appreciated the supportive comments that being on SMT is quite complex (made me feel better!)

    Kate Lee
    Director of Strategy

  • Phil Talbot

    Thanks for the update Chris. I hope to catch up with Melita, who was “me” for the day, to see what and how you all thought we could do better with communications. I love the fact that you were all passionate about what we all do together – believe me, the real SMT is passionate too and your note reminds me how important that is when the going gets tough. Glad you mastered the Lego, I think I’ll ask Nick if we can spend an SMT making Airfix kits one day – how far do you think I’ll get?
    Great job, all of you….let’s do it again.
    Cheers,
    Phil

  • Phil Talbot

    Thanks for the update Chris. I hope to catch up with Melita, who was “me” for the day, to see what and how you all thought we could do better with communications. I love the fact that you were all passionate about what we all do together – believe me, the real SMT is passionate too and your note reminds me how important that is when the going gets tough. Glad you mastered the Lego, I think I’ll ask Nick if we can spend an SMT making Airfix kits one day – how far do you think I’ll get?
    Great job, all of you….let’s do it again.
    Cheers,
    Phil

  • http://www.redcross.org.uk/ Chris Jefferies

    Thanks for your comments both :-) We certainly did have a great time and found it useful. Maybe we should do this more than once a year! There was talk of a young person’s committee to represent the views of young people in the British Red Cross – perhaps this is an idea for the future?

    Chris

  • http://www.redcross.org.uk Chris Jefferies

    Thanks for your comments both :-) We certainly did have a great time and found it useful. Maybe we should do this more than once a year! There was talk of a young person’s committee to represent the views of young people in the British Red Cross – perhaps this is an idea for the future?

    Chris

  • http://www.matchpeg.com/ Selwyn, Productive Meetings

    Well done to all concerned.

    Any initiative that coaches the next generation of decision makers and gives them the opportunity to engage with the leadership side of an organisation has to be a great thing.

    If the next generation focus their attention simply on preparing, running and following through the actions from each and every meeting they could tackle the world wide scurge of unproductive meetings head on.

    It’s great to hear stories of people envigorated to take on responsibility and build a reputation for getting things done.

  • http://www.matchpeg.com Selwyn, Productive Meetings

    Well done to all concerned.

    Any initiative that coaches the next generation of decision makers and gives them the opportunity to engage with the leadership side of an organisation has to be a great thing.

    If the next generation focus their attention simply on preparing, running and following through the actions from each and every meeting they could tackle the world wide scurge of unproductive meetings head on.

    It’s great to hear stories of people envigorated to take on responsibility and build a reputation for getting things done.

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Chris Jefferies

Chris Jefferies

Chris is a young volunteer in Surrey. He teaches first aid and does first aid at events.

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