As this year is coming to a close, we are currently preparing for our Annual General Meeting („Jahreshauptversammlung“) and the election of next year’s committee. If you are interested in guiding the Uni-Verse through the next academic year and in turning your ideas for projects that promote creative writing in Vienna into reality, becoming a committee member is an amazing opportunity to do all of that. To give you an idea of the committee positions that are up for grabs, this year’s committee members tell you what their positions are all about below.

Since some of the committee members are graduating and/or will be moving on to other adventures soon, we invite you even more to run for any position you find interesting!

Positions available include President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, Social Convener and Social Media Manager.

If you are interested in becoming a committee member or have any questions, just write us an email at writing@universe.univie.org 🙂

The positions

President

current: Anmol Gandhi

Core Responsibilities:

  • Hosting and moderating the weekly writers’ meetings
  • Hosting the committee meetings
  • Acting as a lead representative and signatory of Uni-Verse
  • Managing and leading the committee

What I particularly liked and learned:

  •  I have loved hosting every second of every weekly meeting I have attended and the community I have found through them. The weekly meetings have helped me to find friends, mentors, editors, and the other Highlander 😉
  • It has always been a dream of mine to work in publishing and being in the committee has afforded me the luxury of learning and closely partaking in that process. 
  • The biggest learning of the past year is how effective communication can solve just about any problem out there. So communicate, communicate, communicate and then, communicate some more!

Vice-President

current: Holly Evans

Core Responsibilities as VP:

  • President’s deputy and second-in-command: staying on top of dates, assignments, and managing expectations
  • Host weekly meetings & cohost monthly committee meetings with the President
  • Manage and support fellow committee members
  • Organise the Annual General Meeting (AGM) with the secretary
  • Manage grant applications and other bureaucratic tasks

What I particularly liked and learned:

  • Dressing as an astronaut and biking through the city to sell anthologies 😉
  • Writing Newsletters
  • Anthology publishing and editing
  • #NoWrongWayToWrite creative writing workshop
  • Managing the Uni-Verse Instagram account
  • Among the things I’ve learned is a wide variety of writing skills and trades! (content creation, editing, teaching, networking, publishing, etc.)

Treasurer

current: Selina Rebhandl

Core responsibilities:

  • Manage the regular finances: keeping a ledger of all in- and out-going money, refund committee members, collect membership
  • Communicate with sponsoring members
  • Manage the annual finances: compile the annual finance report, run the report by the Wardens (Profs. Radak and Reichl), present annual finances at AGM

What I particularly liked and learned:

Greatest passion project: I got to co-host the 90min creative writing workshop #NoWrongWayToWrite at an academic conference (YouthMediaLife 2021) and it was both great experience and great fun.
I think the biggest thing I learned is how many things stand or fall with good and successful communication and how utterly crucial it is to always state as clearly as possible what is happening when, involving what/who, where, and what needed to happen to get it done. The other thing I learned is more like 15 small things summarised in one: how to semi-professionally work in a team and keep a thing (in this case a society) running. I spent three years figuring out how to share and pass along work and responsibilities, how to apply for grants, do paperwork, communicate with businesses and partners, and keep my team updated on it all.

Secretary

current: Florentina Jungwirth

Core responsibilities:

  • Keeping a list of official members
  • Preparing the agenda for committee meetings & taking minutes during committee meetings
  • Organising and hosting the AGM with the VP

What I particularly liked and learned:

Although it’s not necessarily the secretary’s duty, I loved creating the booklet every week and getting to experiment with the visual elements of it. The booklets along with organising Maypril Fools are my biggest achievements as a committee member to date. What I learned on the job: branch out if you’re passionate about something.

Social Convener

current: Christina Mattson

Core responsibilities:

  • Planning multiple events of varying sizes throughout the academic year
  • Working with the social media manager to market events to the public
  • Hosting and putting together events (gathering supplies, setting up, breaking down, etc)

What I particularly liked and learned:

As a committee member, I’ve gained a lot of experience in adaptability. Helping to plan a book launch that moved from in-person to hybrid to digital forced me to be resourceful and gain some much-needed technological skills. I also hugely enjoyed working with other members to put together an academic conference workshop that aimed to make creative writing feel more accessible to both established scholars and newly-minted students. The support and stimulation of a passionate team has been incredible.

Social Media Manager

Current: Amadea Brenner

Core responsibilities:

  • Announcing the weekly meetings
  • Creating content for Uni-Verse’s social media channels
  • Moderation of the Uni-Verse Facebook group
  • Overseeing the email inbox

What I particularly liked and learned:

As Uni-Verse’s social media manager, I gained a lot of flexibility in my creative and academic writing through designing content for our social media channels. I also learned a lot about teamwork, communication and leadership skills. One of the aspects I liked most about being a committee member is the freedom and space you get to create. To me, this not only concerns my writing but also events that we jointly planned (like our #NoWrongWayToWrite workshop) and projects that at first may seem like far-away dreams until they become reality (like self-publishing our anthologies).

cc: Farbraum Wien

If you are interested in joining the committee, feel free to get in touch with us prior to the AGM. However, it is also completely fine if you participate in the AGM (official membership of our Verein required, more info here) and announce that you’d like to run for a particular position during the AGM. 🙂