DUCFS Application Final

DUCFS EXEC APPLICATION
2021

Niamh McGuinn

Hi, I’m Niamh a second year student from Grey
College studying BA Geography. Since attending my
first DUCFS show in 2019, I have always been amazed
at how successful DUCFS is as an entirely student

run event, in terms of the creative visions
displayed and the amount of money raised for
charity. Having gained insight into the running of
DUCFS this year through my role as a charity
representative, I would love the opportunity to get
more involved by being considered for a role on the
2021 Exec. The roles that I’m interested in applying
for are Product Sponsorship Director and Charity

Director.

WHY DUCFS?

CHARITY FASHION

Charity is something that I’ve always been Growing up, I’ve always been interested in
passionate about. During my time at school fashion. A few years ago, I watched the

I spent 3 year volunteering at my local ‘True Cost’ documentary and was shocked by
charity shop and since coming to Durham, the impact of the fashion industry on both
I’ve been involved in my college’s charity individuals and the environment globally.
Since then I have been fascinated with the
committee and charity fashion show. In
recent years, I have also taken part in impacts of the fashion industry and thus
numerous voluntary programmes including a decided to write my EPQ essay on this topic.
maths mentoring scheme and taking on the
role as a Durham Geography ambassador. The A number of the themes I discussed in this
scale of DUCFS’ charity work has inspired piece link to the the manifestos of the
me to apply for the 2021 Exec as I would
love to be part of the biggest student charities that DUCFS has supported over the
fundraiser in the UK which raises money last two years. I truly believe that fashion

for such amazing charities each year. needs to be made more sustainable –
personally, I have taken small steps towards

this by using hire services such as
Hirestreet. I would love the opportunity to

be part of DUCFS in order to spread the
message of the importance of sustainable

fashion further.

My Skills

A BIT ABOUT ME TEAMWORK & LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATION

I would say that I am a Since first year I have Having worked in customer
conscientious, friendly been playing college services, I have improved
and enthusiastic netball. Being part of my communication skills
individual – I love the team has been a great through interactions with
meeting new people and social experience whilst customers and internal
getting involved with improving my teamwork teams. In addition, my
various activities. skills. At this start of role on the GCCFS Exec,
this academic year, I was as a member of the
In addition, I have a promoted by my peers to Fashion Team involved
strong work ethnic – I am become part of the Exec. collaboration with team
highly organised and good This role has allowed me members and external
at delivering against to improve my companies in order to
deadlines and getting organisation skills by source clothes for the
tasks done to a high managing team admin. In show.
standard. addition, by running
training sessions I have
improved the strength of
my leadership skills.

Role Specific Skills

Product Sponsorship Director

As mentioned previously, this year I was on the Fashion Team for my
college’s fashion show (GCCFS’20). I believe that many of the
transferable skills that I learnt during this experience are

applicable to Product Sponsorship. Starting in October, the team and I
sent hundreds of emails to different brands looking for clothes for
the show. My role firstly involved finding the brands, initiating

contact and then staying in close communication with them up until the
show in order to ensure that the clothes were delivered on time. I
also had to liaise with the brands regarding how they wanted their

clothes to be displayed on the night and photographed during shoots.
Although the experience was stressful at some points with brands

dropping out last minute, the overall experience was highly rewarding
with everything coming together on the night. I believe that the

skills I learnt and the commitment that I demonstrated during this
experience would make me a great asset for the DUCFS 2021 Exec.

Role Specific Skills

Charity Director

I am applying for the role of Charity Director due to my interest in
the charity side of DUCFS. Having been a charity representative for the

2020 show, I believe that this has provided me with an insight into
some of the requirements of the role, including the responsibility of

overseeing the charity reps. My strength in communication will be
beneficial for being the main point of contact for the charity. In
addition, having been involved in some of DUCFS’ outreach programmes

including the food drive collaboration with Embrace The Waste, I
already have an understanding of the types of programmes that have
taken place thus this provides me with a good grounding for developing

new ideas for 2021.

Changes for DUCFS 2020

• Increase Engagement With Sponsors
• Increase Charity Focus During Shows
• Increase Charity Focus Before Shows

Engagement with Sponsors

Despite their being a good level of exposure for the product sponsors
this year through Instagram stories and IGTV, I believe that this could

be improved through encouraging the students to engage with the
sponsors in new ways especially during the show itself. From attending
the show, I know in many cases the students tend to enjoy the sponsored
products without paying too much attention to them. A way to encourage

the students to engage could be through providing incentives for
example if everyone on the table follows the Instagram for Dominoes
another pizza could be delivered to the table. Further, a raffle could
be held for a selection of sponsored products in which the students
have to follow each of the sponsors or like their page in order to be
entered. I believe that encouraging further engagement with the product

sponsors through social media is a great way to increase product
exposure.

Charity Focus During Shows

Although there appeared to be greater focus on the charity side of DUCFS
this year, I believe that more could be done during the show in order to

remind the audience about the charities that are at the core of DUCFS.
The show’s introductory video this year worked well in highlighting the

negative impact of human consumption however, I believe that this
message could have been reinforced later in the show perhaps via a video
message from the head of one of the charities explaining the importance
of the work they’re doing and how valuable the money raised by DUCFS is.

In addition, if DUCFS 2021 was to focus on ethical fashion consumption
again during the show it would be great to get students engaged with the
issue perhaps by encouraging them to share pictures of their sustainable
show outfits on Instagram with the best ones being reposted to the DUCFS

page.

Charity Focus Before Shows

Personally, this year I loved the ‘Friday Fashion Takeover’ on the DUCFS
story I thought this was a great way to get the student body engaged

with the charity aspect of DUCFS. Although the first story outlined the
purpose of the Takeover, I felt that this contextual information needed
to be reinforced as the weeks went on, perhaps this could have been done
by providing a small fact about the charities each week. In addition, as
a charity rep I found the Exec awareness updates really insightful. In
order to improve charity awareness, these Exec updates could perhaps be

turned into posters or infographics that can be displayed around the
university. Further, this year I felt that the charity aspect behind

each Chapter eg. how Chapter III was related to workers remaining
trapped in their restricted working position, sometimes got lost behind

the amazing graphics on Instagram. To overcome this, I propose that a
video could be uploaded to the DUCFS Instagram story on the same day the

pictures are released to the feed in order to ensure that students are
engaging with the charity aspect behind the creative vision.

Greater utilize New Ideas for 2021
the charity
Despite the charity representatives playing a role on the
representatives charity side of DUCFS through sharing the just giving page,
in order to
engage the running the food banks and writing articles for Thread, I
student body believe that their role could be expanded in order to spread
with charity the importance of the DUCFS charities further. Being from a
aspects of
DUCFS range of colleges, I propose that the charity reps could
easily go into the colleges to talk to the students about the
importance of the charities that DUCFS is supporting. When I

was in first year I saw a similar thing done for the
promotion of Palantinalps, in which the reps went into
college during meal times in order to hand out flyers with
important information and chat to the students. I think this
is especially important with first years as they tend to be

less aware and engaged with the DUCFS movement.

Further, expanding on the columns written for Thread, I
propose that in order to increase engagement that some of the

best ones are converted into videos for the DUCFS IGTV. The
video would comprise of the rep perhaps with another member
of the exec summarising their column. I believe that this is
important for increasing the exposure of some of the great

content that is posted on Thread.

New Ideas for 2021 Encourage local
charities to
My experience as a charity representative this year pitch to gain
highlighted the difficulty in implementing outreach financial
projects such as the Exec and Models volunteering at local support from
charities due to issues surrounding the longevity of our DUCFS 2021
impact. It was evident from the conversations that Megan
fed back to the charity reps team that local charities
weren’t looking for volunteers but instead financial

support. Due to the small scale of most of these
charities, even a small proportion of the funds raised by

DUCFS would have a massive impact, thus I propose that
local charities are encouraged to apply for financial
support in 2021. If DUCFS decided to support a small local
charity this may be alongside a larger charity working in
a similar area, for example if DUCFS decided to focus on
mental health the main charity could be one like ‘Mind’
with a smaller proportion of the funding going to RT
Projects (Gilesgate) which emphasizes the importance of
creativity for mental wellbeing. Expanding the outreach
ability of DUCFS is something I’m really passionate about
and I believe that this could be a great way to achieve

it.

Increase the New Ideas for 2021
variety of food
sponsors during Due to the high ticket price of the DUCFS show, I
know from talking to friends that most people
the shows expect their to be a substantial amount of
sponsored food provided. Although in previous

years there has been lots of snack type food on
the table, I think that for 2021 this offering
could be expanded. Outside the arena, or perhaps
in the drinks reception area once people have

moved through to the main arena, mini food
vans/stalls could be set up in order to offer more

food options including independent ‘street-food’
style vendors. Although this offering may be more
expensive for the companies, this could be offset

through increased sponsorship exposure or by
encouraging the students to engage with the
sponsors via social media as mentioned previously

in my application.

Thank you for taking the time to consider my

application for the DUCFS 2021 Exec. I hope my
application has highlighted my passion for DUCFS
and my willingness to be part of the Exec during

my final year at university. I look forward to
hearing from you soon.