Natalie Slayman

Busy student Natalie Slayman explains how she came to be involved as a CIPFA volunteer in the North West

One of the hardest things that a CIPFA trainee has to contend with is how to find that mystical balance between work, study and some sort of a social life.

So volunteering to get involved with Institute activities, such as the National Student Forum, regional student groups or the CIPFA Council, might seem like the last thing a student would want to do.

But it shouldn’t be.
Diving headlong into the various groups, events and activities is actually an excellent way of combining all three elements of the magical equation into one time slot – how about that for effective time management? Don’t believe me?  OK, try this.

I recently joined the National Student Forum as a North West/North Wales representative. I joined at just the right time to be invited to London to participate in the meeting where decisions regarding the NSF conference are made.

My employer was very happy for me to attend, as participation in these sorts of events is considered to be good at raising the Audit Commission’s profile and it therefore actively encourages us to get involved. (See, there’s another ‘plug’ for the commission, so it couldn’t be happier.)

The meeting was genuinely interesting. We were given a briefing on what will be involved in the ‘blended learning’ process to be introduced in February – and fed back some frank opinions, both positive and negative, which were taken on board by the CIPFA representative.

We then went on to discuss the NSF conference: where it was going to be held, who the guest speakers might be, whom we could approach for sponsorship, what freebies we wanted to give out (and there are going to be some good ones, so reserve your place).

Everyone in the room participated fully and there were some really interesting and exciting proposals and some seriously impressive brainstorming going on. Being in that meeting allowed me to feel genuinely part of the driving force behind the direction that the CIPFA students are being taken, which is a far better feeling than one of being pulled along, unsure of what is going on.

As if that doesn’t fulfil the CIPFA side of the triangle, being involved in activities such as the NSF conference is excellent Initial Professional Development Scheme fodder and it makes a refreshing change to be able to write about something other than – in my case – grant claims and auditing debtors and creditors.

Last, but not least, we finished our meeting and headed straight round to the Bell and Compass for a couple of drinks, before traipsing off to Pizza Express for a communal chow-down.

Before the evening was out, we were all swapping phone numbers and declaring everyone to be new best friends – the wine might have had something to do with this, but we did all seem to genuinely get on.

And a Saturday afternoon cocktail in Manchester with one of the other ‘northern lasses’ is already pencilled into my diary.

So:

• Work – check
• CIPFA studies – check
• Social life – check

The next NSF meeting is in Belfast. Now are you interested in getting involved?

Natalie Slayman