Today MHSA held its "Training Recruitment and Initiation Network’ workshop at the Agenzija Zghazagh headquarters in Santa Venera. During the workshop, which was open to anyone aspiring to join a student organization, students were given an inside look into what it means to be a part of a student organisation, how to run it and also promoting student activism.
Even though the day started off rainy, many people still fought the weather and attended the workshop. While everyone was getting registered, some breakfast snacks were being served. Until the first speaker arrived, everyone was mingling with an excellent ice-breaker game which involved random facts about all those present was taken beforehand and we all had to guess who’s fact was whose.
The first speaker, Mr Albert Camilleri, spoke to us about marketing and how even as student organisations, we can use these skills to push our organisation forward. He spoke about how important it is to try different mediums in order to push forward events/campaigns etc. and not just limit ourselves to the use of social media. Even though he recognised the role that social media plays in marketing something: by trying many different media, the outreach will be more diverse.
Mr Mario Frendo spoke to the audience from the journalistic point of view. He spoke to us about how to properly write a press release, describing journalistic laws and freedoms whilst giving some very helpful tips as to how we can get the attention of journalists to make sure what we have to say gets heard. He spoke to us about how student organisations also need to target people outside the organisation when writing a press release and also how to find the right channels to get the news out there.
After a lunch break, Mr Andrea Attard spoke to us about finance and how important it is for all members in the organisation to work together in order to keep to a budget. Mr Attard shared his experience as Financial Officer in KSU and how important it is to see finances not simply as one event at a time, but more importantly the finance of the whole year in order to have successful finances within the student organisation. He also told those present about how important corporate sponsors are to student organisations and how the student organisations can also help their corporate sponsors.
Some public speaking training was given by MHSA’s own Education Officer, Christoph Schwaiger. He explained how important it is to know your audience in order for you to deliver your message well. He gave many different tips as to how important public speaking is to an organisation and also carried out little exercises to prove this point.
The workshop came to a conclusion when the past and present executive board members of MHSA spoke to us about what it meant to be a part of MHSA, how their roles helped them improve both in their personal life as well as professionally and also answered questions of the students present.
All in all, the MHSA TRAIN workshop could not have been more interesting. Jam-packed with useful information that at the end of the day will not only benefit those who attended in the near future, but also many more years down the line. Student activism was really pushed forward in this event. One can really learn to respect and appreciate more what it means for students, under voluntary basis, that find time from their own busy schedule and work for a better environment for other students. I think we can all agree that our experience as students would be a lot duller without student organisations to help make it better. A big well done goes to all the students who form part such organisations and thank you to MHSA for organising this informative event enabling students to improve their scholastic experience.
