November is the month of improving the competences of VDU SA members

The month of November was a very busy period for the Vytautas Magnus University Student Representative Office (VDU SA). Volunteers of the organization participated in the "Startuok" trainings of the committees and the Lithuanian Student Union (LUS), the purpose of which is to raise the competences of the members, to expand the available knowledge and to give the members the opportunity to gain practical experience, which will help them to continue to function purposefully in the organization and represent students.

The first three weekends of November were devoted to committee training. Their marathon was started by the Academic Affairs, Human Resources (ŽIK) and Marketing and Advertising (MiRK) committees. The members of the organization, together with the former coordinator and vice-president of the Academic Affairs Committee of Vilnius University, Arnold Solovjov, spoke about the fundamental principles of accreditation and participated in a simulation about the distribution of scholarships. VDU SA alumni Tadas Juodgudis shared the accumulated knowledge and talked with ŽIK members about sensitive problems, such as retention of members in the organization, their attrition and the reasons for its occurrence. MiRK members together with former coordinator Roks Miltenius talked about the art of attracting sponsors, calling companies and writing letters correctly. The participants of the training enjoy the opportunity to discuss and raise questions about the activities of the committees, which helped to better absorb new knowledge. The participants really liked the form of the training, because it had an excellent environment for discussions and raising questions, which made it easier for the members to absorb the information and feel free.

The second training weekend was dedicated to the Organizational Affairs Committee (Ork). Even before the beginning of training, committee members generated unique ideas that would improve or enliven the life of VMU students and began writing projects for their own initiatives. During the first day of training, former Ork coordinator Joana Gasiulytė talked about the intricacies of filling out project applications and how to write them correctly. After perfecting the ideas and applications, project presentations and defenses before the evaluation committee took place in the evening. On the second day of the training, the lecture was led by Aistė, a former member of the representative office, who is successfully developing a private event organization business. The lecturer shared her experience, emerging challenges and fun events that motivate her to set new goals and pursue them purposefully. The coordinator of the organizational affairs committee, Santa Vozbutaitė, is happy that the training went well: "I hope that every participant was able to find interesting topics and activities." However, our committee is made up of countless areas, so we tried to cover all of them at least minimally!”

During the last training, the members of the Public Relations and Social Affairs Committees deepened their knowledge. The participants really liked the lectures and fun practical tasks given by VDU SA alumni Karolis Klikna. "These trainings allowed me to understand more about myself and what I want to do in the representative office" - Dovilė, a first-year member of the RSV committee, shares her impressions. Volunteers of the organization not only delved into social networks, but also into various social activities and scholarships. "This year, in the Social Affairs Committee training, I tried a different format, where members had a simulated problem adapted to the main activities of the committee. Attempts were made to understand, analyze and find solutions. This format provided a lot of practical skills needed for further work," Emilija Drabužinskaitė, the coordinator of the latter committee, tells about the training.

VDU SA first-year students took part in the "Start" training organized by LSS on November 26-27. The participants learned what LSS does, participated in creative workshops that helped them get to know themselves better, their desires and goals while working in the organization, and the training was also a great place to get to know how other municipalities work, what are the similarities and differences between LSS members. Algirdas, who participated in the training, says that the weekend was rich, informative and fun. "Personally, I was very surprised that there are so many motivated young people in the representatives of other high schools, the visible example made me push myself even more and not stop being interested and improving my competences."

Weekends dedicated to gaining new experiences have paid off handsomely for members. They not only wrote projects, participated in various simulations, delved into problems, looked for new solutions, but also got to know each other, other municipalities better, and improved their ability to work in teams. The members of the VDU SA have mastered the newly gathered information perfectly and are looking forward to applying it in their daily lives, helping students and achieving a smoother study process.