Women's Engineering Society: Treasurer

Hello everyone, I am Sirine Bhouri, a first year Biomedical Engineering student and I am nominating myself for the role of treasurer within UCLWES ! ^_^ 

Having been a member of UCLWES for the past few months, I really enjoyed being part of such a vibrant, ambitious, and empowering society and I believe I have what it takes to occupy the position of treasurer. 

First, I have experience with being a treasurer as last year, I was the treasurer of a volunteering charity organisation which main aim was to help improve people’s access to both education and health. From planning the budget of each action that we conducted to contacting potential sponsors, that position taught me a lot about the responsibilities that come with being a treasurer and it further improved my communication and teamwork skills.

In addition to this, in 2019 I was also the head of the sponsoring department of the Harvard Model United Nations (HMUN) club of my high school. Creating the sponsoring file, managing both the budget and a team of sponsoring executives as well as getting into contact with various sponsors, all enhanced my leadership and organisational skills.

Finally, since I am the current assistant treasurer of UCLWES, I already know what is expected from a treasurer and I am well aware of the work that needs to be done.

All in all, I am extremely motivated for this role and my experiences/positions as well as my hardworking nature make me adamant that I am a fit for it ! ^_^

I have applied for the role of as a treasurer because I possess the three core skills which would help me excel in this role: strong communication, leadership and organisational.  I am interested in managing finances of the UCLWES alongside maintaining the account and budgets. I would be able to transfer my leadership skills, which I developed through working as a tutor. Using my strong negotiating skills, I will ensure to contact existing as well as new sponsors and proactively maintain a long-lasting relationship. I developed this by explaining concepts differently to pupils. To add to that, my ability to communicate to range of people (including parents, senior programme officers and my coordinators) has developed both in written and verbal. Therefore, I will apply this skill to liaise with the finance department to fill in expense request forms. By being a committed and attentive individual, I would record and track the details of tasks to be completed. As a transition mentor, I communicated with my Senior Mentor on a weekly basis where I provided feedback of my sessions. This helped me monitor the content I had to cover with the students. Furthermore, by planning mentoring sessions with activities, I have developed the skill to create a feasible spending plan for every event. Therefore, I think you should choose me to become the treasurer.

As the social media manager of UCLWES, I have had the chance to understand how the society operates and the importance of actively contributing to ensure all our events are successful. I understood the importance of the impact that our events had on students whether it be career orientated or social events, and this motivated me to run for treasurer.

Through partaking in the Young Enterprise programme, I gained a wealth of experience with efficient budgeting and increasing funds for our team by managing fundraising events (cake sales etc). My minor in Managerial Accounting has helped me become confident with expressing financial information on spreadsheets, which I believe is a great way to ensure all the society expenses are managed. Being the social media manager has equipped me with skills that are transferable to the role of the treasurer, like effective organising in ensuring our marketing posts are released on time will be applicable when keeping records and tracking financial details (receipts etc). Through my experiences, I've gained numerical and detail-orientated skills, which means I am able to handle my responsibilities as the treasurer with care and patience.

As treasurer, I plan to:

-Build on our existing sponsors and create financial sustainability, by ensuring that the society is within its agreed budget

-Ensure that UCLWES’s funds are used appropriately

-Monitor the society’s expenses and ensure that reimbursements are efficiently handled