A day in the life of Vic, SADD Operations Manager
One question our team gets asked often is “what do you actually do?” In this blog post, Vic takes us through what a day in the life of SADD’s Operations Manager looks like!
Like with most of our team, my role covers a lot of different areas of our organisation and is each day is completely different based on what events are coming up or what time of the year it is. I manage our delivery team and oversee what resources and information goes out to students, I plan and coordinate our big events like our annual conference and I support the whole SADD team in a range of projects and tasks. I’ve been a bit cheeky and chosen a particularly epic day to share with you all, but the beauty of my job is that I get to experience cool stuff like this from time to time! Read on and join me for a day in my shoes!
My day starts like any other, with a good coffee and a quick scan of any emails and calendar events for the day. I wave goodbye to my husband and my mini-me and head off for my first task of the day - picking up a bunch of our awesome National Leaders who are in Christchurch for a few days of activities, innovation and creation!
A day in the life of Vic, SADD Operations Manager
One question our team gets asked often is “what do you actually do?” In this blog post, Vic takes us through what a day in the life of SADD’s Operations Manager looks like!
Like with most of our team, my role covers a lot of different areas of our organisation and is each day is completely different based on what events are coming up or what time of the year it is. I manage our delivery team and oversee what resources and information goes out to students, I plan and coordinate our big events like our annual conference and I support the whole SADD team in a range of projects and tasks. I’ve been a bit cheeky and chosen a particularly epic day to share with you all, but the beauty of my job is that I get to experience cool stuff like this from time to time! Read on and join me for a day in my shoes!
My day starts like any other, with a good coffee and a quick scan of any emails and calendar events for the day. I wave goodbye to my husband and my mini-me and head off for my first task of the day - picking up a bunch of our awesome National Leaders who are in Christchurch for a few days of activities, innovation and creation!
I taxi the National Leaders from their accommodation to our event venue - the Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) training centre. We are super lucky to be hosted by this venue and by some fantastic staff who are also so passionate about engaging young people in road safety. We are doing a lot of work at the moment to collaborate and connect with agencies such as FENZ and NZ Police to ensure that our members have access to a huge range of support and resources for their SADD activities and campaigns.
After a quick catch up with the leaders, I leave them to it for the morning and head back to my office to tick off some other tasks. This is one of my favourite times of the year because I can get really stuck into planning for next year’s events. A big part of my job involves organising our annual conference season - 3 events held in the April school holidays. Today I’m drafting up a proposal for next year’s challenge that will make up a big part of the agenda - this is some super exciting work but I can’t share what it is all about - you’ll have to wait and see! It’s going to be really fun and I can’t wait to see what comes from it!
After a bit more office work, answering emails and chatting to some team members, I head back to the FENZ venue to see what the National Leaders are up to. When I get there, Greg Bell from FENZ is getting them all decked out in firefighting gear ready to have a go at the training maze. It’s so cool to check out the equipment they use and see the buildings set up to train firefighters! Our leaders are wearing firefighting helmets and masks that completely impair their vision and their task is to navigate their way through a maze of different heights, tunnels, obstacles and ladders using only each other and a small rope. When training firefighters are tested in this maze, the structure is heated up to an almost unbearable temperature and they have to complete it while carrying oxygen tanks and using full breathing apparatus - it’s crazy to even think about!
The National Leaders had spent the morning doing some exciting work on SADD’s vision, ensuring that the messages that we share continue to be relevant and engaging for the right audiences. This afternoon they are doing some filming work so I spend some time helping out behind the camera while they run the show. We get some footage at the FENZ station in the fire engine and then head into town to do more filming there. Our leaders are incredibly capable and talented young people, they make our job easy as they don’t require much guidance or direction. One of my favourite things about our programme is that it is student created and student led - these guys call the shots and our team is just there to support and facilitate where needed. Sometimes that means we get to sit back, relax and just watch them smash it out ;)
Once the filming is done that signals the end of my work day! I leave the leaders with some other staff members and head home to my family, ready to kick off again the next morning!
It is such a privilege to work for an organisation that is making a positive change and to do it alongside a team of epic coworkers, inspiring young leaders and passionate community partners. This is just a wee snapshot into what a day at SADD looks like and while other days are spent at my desk the whole day, I also get to experience some really fun events and meet some incredibly inspiring and proactive people.
Keep an eye out on the SADD website and blog over the next few weeks to see more about what the National Leaders got up to these holidays and the resources they have been working on and for more information about our 2020 conference season!
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