The new Sabbs have been at the Union for just over six weeks now and, after 4 weeks of training and handover, have officially been in office for two. So, we're all still pretty new to our roles but if the job so far has taught me anything it's that the whole year will be one learning experience. Adam Curtis (Societies Officer 2012-13) told me that you only really become an expert right at the end of your term and I'm starting to think that may have something to do with the sheer number of acronyms the University have! Anyway, I don't plan on being an expert. As I see it, being a Sabbatical Officer is demanding because it requires you to spread yourself out over various projects and multiple areas. There's no room for experts – you have to be diverse.
You also have to be reactive. Lots of things happen around you and have already been happening around us, even at this early stage. Dealing with these requires us to discover strengths we never knew we had whilst dealing with fears that prevent us from using them. Okay, that just got cheesy...back to my point. If we each become experts in very particular fields and have little ability outside of that, we'll never be equipped to deal with the enemy of the expert – the unexpected.
I met the unexpected very recently during our 'simulation day'. Our Chief Executive, Daniel, pretending to be a disgruntled English Lit student who was, despite getting straight Firsts, unhappy with the feedback on his work. Daniel thought (rightly so) that a grade of 76 and no other markings was insufficient. However, as the day was designed to make us work under pressure, he wanted advice and solutions against the clock! If you ever meet Daniel, you'll fairly swiftly realise that he's a very nice guy. However, in this instance he had a fake train to catch and suddenly the niceties disappeared, along with every policy about feedback that I had previously known. The safety of expertise was lost in the face of the unforeseen.
Much of what us Officers have to do, like thinking on your feet in a pressured situation, requires a ‘big picture’ judgment and experts often have more data than judgment. So, in a waffly, semi-anecdotal way, this is why I don’t intend on becoming an expert.