Hello everyone!
My name is Morgan Winyard and I am essentially a masters student completing my PGDE with Teach First at the university.
I joined Korfball at the start of the academic year with my move to Sheffield and despite the pandemic getting in the way, I have found that the club has been really supportive and I have formed a great support network of people that I know I wouldn't have had if I didn't push myself to join. Since joining, I have come to realise what a dynamic, sociable and friendly club Korfball is and I feel that I want to step up and take on some responsibility and run for Fixtures Secretary.
Now, you might wonder why a 'fresher' who has very limited experience in the Korfball world would want to consider running for the committee in such an unprecedented time. Prior to my teacher training, I previously completed a Geography degree at Lancaster University, and had thrown myself into various roles to keep myself busy, and do my bit for the societies that I was part of during my time there. I have previous experience of being part of various committees - one being part of an actively competing community brass band, the other running the university brass band as a conductor. Both roles required me to be extremely organised and focussed on keeping both groups running. With the first, I have experience of working with lots of adults and various groups of people, and I am a very sociable person who can form and establish strong working relationships to get things done. With the latter, I was responsible for sourcing rehearsal and concert venues, signing new members to the brass band and to the competitions that we competed in, and improving the band as a whole with my musical knowledge and expertise. Although the music aspects do not help me in Korfball, those skills do transfer over in the role of Match Secretary due to the fact that it all links round to signing new members of the club, sorting out venues for matches and practices, and keeping on top of the administration circling this, and I am also a massive team-player. Additionally, over the first lockdown, I was also having to work full time at a supermarket back in Norwich and complete all of my online preparation training for Teach First. This was a massive undertaking as I was essentially doing two full-time responsibilities for an extended period of time. From this too, I feel like I can manage my time and workload incredibly well, and I am resilient to the tasks at hand.
With Teach First, my training is different to the usual teacher training routes as I work full-time at a local high school and complete all my training in a practical environment. I have been doing this now for 6 months, and I am now comfortable completing the immense workload that teaching brings. With my job, I have to be extremely organised and delegate my time well in order to keep ahead of the game. I am also extremely versatile to change as I have had to adapt my teaching from in-person to the virtual environment really quickly and have adjusted well to this, thus I know that if I was to obtain this role, I will get to grips with all the key aspects and dive in.
I am also aware of the club's view of the referee situation of not using in-house referees to avoid the potential bias that could arise from this situation. I aim to continue with the current strategy of the agreement that the current Match Secretary has cemented with the two other Sheffield clubs to ensure that we do not risk getting into trouble!
Overall, I really believe I would be a great candidate for this role as I definitely feel like I have the relevant experience to take full control of this important role, and I understand that this role is critical for the running of the club, and therefore would take the position very seriously, just like my job. I am also very approachable and considerate of others, and I think as well, it would be a great opportunity for me to strengthen connections with the rest of the club. Finally, I recognise that communication, transparency and commitment are three key traits that sum up this role perfectly, and due to my current job and my previous experiences during my undergrad years, I really feel like I can be the best person to take on the role as Match Secretary.