Success from being a leader in the community
Tue 27 Sep 2016
Hamish is an inspiring youth leader from New South Wales and has been actively involved in the bleeding disorders community for many years. Hamish has been a volunteer with his local Haemophilia Foundation, New South Wales (HFNSW) and is also currently a committee member. This has helped him gain confidence and led to his recent employment by a services company as a Customer Service Centre Consultant. Here is the story of Hamish’s journey of being involved in the bleeding disorders community and how he had achieved success.
Committee Meetings and volunteering
Hamish currently sits on the HFNSW committee and explains that he has been attending the committee meeting regularly since last October (2015). He has attended five (5) committee meetings and in May (2016) he became a committee member.
The committee is the official part of the foundation who make decisions about the work and activities of HFNSW. They have to know what goes on, and they have to know what and if people in the bleeding disorders community need help with and how HFNSW can help them.
Hamish is proud of his promotion: “I was youth observer, but now I’m an official committee member.”
Including Hamish, the HFNSW committee is made up of the president, the vice president, the secretary, the administration officer and three other committee members with Hamish noting that “everyone on the committee has a bleeding disorder, or is affected by a bleeding disorder”.
“ I’m now a current committee member, now I have the opportunity to vote on important issues”
Hamish’s involvement in the community “has been a bit of a journey” for him over the years. Ever since Hamish came to Sydney in 2011, he has kept up to date with the committee meetings, but not until he went to an AGM two (2) years ago did his involvement with the committee really begin. After attending the AGM, the President of HFNSW talked to Hamish about the benefits of being further involved and encouraged him to attend the next committee meeting. This committee meeting was to be held at the family camp and Hamish learnt that the meeting was formal and had an agenda (a pre-organised schedule of topics to be discussed), but he was also surprised to discover the discussions that took place had an informal nature and this has made attending the meetings welcoming. His highlight so far has been “participating in discussion giving my experience my point of view and ideas “.
Hamish explains that as part of the agenda, a different topic is brought up for discussion and Hamish gives his point of view or adds to the discussion where he can. In the past he has been asked to speak about the Youth Lead Connect program and MyABDR. (He is on the user review panel for MyABDR and has reported on any relevant updates to the HFNSW Committee.
Regularly attending the committee meetings, Hamish became highly visible to the staff at HFNSW. As a result, Hamish was asked to apply his skills in IT to assist the Foundation. This has included helping with the HFNSW website, including making new events and articles for website and helping navigate the new system which the new website uses. Hamish has also assisted HFNSW with re-evaluating their current computers in the HFNSW office. This has led to the addition of a laptop, which was deemed more appropriate for travelling staff.
Hamish explains that he can be shy and often soft spoken but “I think that the volunteering, working with the HFNSW staff, and being part of the committee has given me self-confidence to put myself out there. When I had the job interview, I was more confident in myself than I would have been previously”.
If you're thinking about being involved in your community, or you want to take the next step and be a leader, the Youth Lead Connect program may be for you!
Find out more: Youth Lead Connect