Today, as I am about to celebrate a year working as a volunteer for the Society of Young Publishers (SYP), I want to take the time to reflect on what the experience has brought, taught and given me. My SYP journey started with an advertisement for a ‘Student Liaison’ role in my Publishing MA’s newsletter (Oxford Brookes) last October. It really looked like a perfect opportunity to get to know people in the industry, learn new skills and make sense of my new life in Oxford, so I quickly sent them my carefully crafted application to demonstrate my ambition for the role. Within a few weeks, and after a few email exchanges with Anna and Kate, SYP Oxford’s co-chairs for 2019, I was offered the position alongside another of my classmates. I then spent some time learning everything I could about their previous initiatives, and what I wanted to bring to the committee, with my publishing student hat on.
My introduction to my new colleagues was quite memorable, actually, as it happened a few hours before the SYP Oxford Conference, when everyone was running around trying to get everything ready on time. I helped as much as I could, whilst getting to know the rest of the committee; while all of them had started at the beginning of the year, I had joined the SYP following the academic year calendar. I remember the excitement of this day, as I met so many talented people - from SYP Oxford colleagues, other committees giving us a hand, volunteers and attendees, to all the wonderful guests and panellists booked in for the conference. This was a great start to an amazing and eventful journey! Proper introductions happened during my first committee meeting, held in a spacious room at Oxford University Press. It was fantastic as I got to visualise everyone’s role in-depth, and understand the aims of my position as a Student Liaison Officer. I then got introduced to Slack, our main communication platform - I can definitely confirm that I am now a professional ‘Slacker’.
As December came, I started receiving exciting emails around the planning of our committee Christmas dinner. As it was scheduled after one of our meetings, we all walked down to the restaurant together, in a very festive spirit. The evening was well spent with great food, fantastic conversations and a few group pictures - it also ended with a memorable sprint through Oxford’s narrow lanes as I desperately tried to catch my last bus (spoiler: it was a success). Although we had a little break to our events and initiatives throughout the Christmas break, the committee was still very engaged with the publishing community. As 2020 came, a new committee and co-chairs were introduced and we all met up in St Aldates Tavern to warmly welcome our new colleagues and pass on any essential information. Some people I had worked with the previous year had switched position, such as our new co-chairs Esther and April, but the committee was mostly new and fresh! Thanks to my September start, I got to work with both committees, and meet so many like-minded people, which definitely was a huge bonus. That evening, I ended up joining forces with the new Events Officers as I felt that my student voice could guide their ideas for future events.
After a few weeks of great initiatives, ideas and content created by the new committee, we were unfortunately met by the covid-19 crisis, which meant that a lot of our plans had to be rethought. From updated book club logistics, new content, to a switch to online events, everything had carefully been discussed in our monthly - and intense - committee meetings (with sadly no crisps or biscuits this time). All our initiatives from March onwards got a lot more attention as we witnessed growing online publishing communities and more collaboration than ever, something that was motivating the committee to produce even more content. Although I had contributed to content creation throughout the year, I led my very first event in June, with the help of a colleague, which was a literary pub quiz that we hosted live on Instagram. I really enjoyed planning the questions with my colleagues, promoting the event and even the hosting part - although I was obviously anxious. As of today, I haven’t been able to watch the recording of the quiz, as I find it very embarrassing to listen to my voice for a good half hour. A few weeks later, following an online event I had attended with Rachel Moriarty as a guest, I got to investigate the committee she was a part of, the ECPC, a sub-group of the STM association. After quite a bit of research, I presented an event idea to the rest of the committee: ‘myth-busting’ STM publishing in the eyes of publishing hopefuls. I was and still am very proud of this event, as I had successfully planned everything from panelists, content, promotion and its logistical aspects. I obviously received a lot of support for the implementation of this plan from many of my SYP and ECPC colleagues. Again, this was stressful, as we had quite a few attendees throughout the event, and I was not the most knowledgable on STM jargon - which was a great way to learn, by the way! This experience was very valuable as I can now use it to demonstrate some of my soft skills and other technical abilities - I believe Zoom should be elected ‘Word of 2020’, don’t you?
"I am very grateful for the opportunities I was given throughout the year, extending my initial range of tasks, catering for my ever-growing ambition to thrive in my passion-led publishing career"
Throughout the year, I have always remained engaged and committed to support student inclusion in publishing events, in Oxford, but also now online. I have provided guidance to my colleagues on student interests and needs but also connected people together as I was able to find useful contacts for various SYP initiatives. I am very grateful for the opportunities I was given throughout the year, extending my initial range of tasks, catering for my ever-growing ambition to thrive in my passion-led publishing career. I have also met so many incredible people who became friends and valuable contacts in the industry. For all of that, a massive thank you to the SYP Oxford committee. I am now looking forward to sending my application for a 2021 committee position as I don’t want this journey to end anytime soon…