RAG Portsmouth refuse to let the collapse of Student Adventures adversely affect them and are set to be even stronger next year.
Although RAG raised over £223,000 for assorted charities last year, over £100,000 of that was raised by students who were participating in international challenges with the adventure fundraising company, Student Adventures, who went into administration on Thursday 28th August. While this could have been a large hit to RAG Portsmouth, the committee have announced that they are determined to do even better than last year.
The collapse of Student Adventures initially threw the entire student fundraising community into disarray as charities, students’ unions and RAGs alike all attempted to deal with the unprecedented chaos that ensued. However, after a week of concern and confusion, the outcome is fundamentally positive.
RAG Portsmouth has taken this crisis as an opportunity to refocus their efforts on student engagement rather than raising larger and larger sums of money and they plan to do this in several ways.
The problems caused by the questionable ATOL certification has resulted in much greater understanding as well as ensuring stringent checks will be in place for all other such trips in the future. The financial crisis of Student Adventures has also seen charities put vigorous checks in place with all other adventure companies; Breast Cancer Campaign (BCC) and Meningitis Research Foundation (MRF) have both made agreements with other companies that include the finances of the travel companies being submitted to the financial director of each charity for scrutinisation.
RAG Portsmouth has met with BCC, MRF, Dementia UK, Make A Wish Foundation and Action Against Hunger to discuss the future of international adventure trips being run at Portsmouth and the outcome was extremely positive; students will once again be offered the chance to trek The Great Wall of China, climb Mount Kilimanjaro, cycle from London to Paris and trek across the Andes to Machu Picchu. Students whose 2014 trips were cancelled are being offered the chance to do them again with a new travel company. The trips to China, Kilimanjaro and Machu Picchu are all being organised through Choose A Challenge while the London to Paris bike ride is being set up by Skyline.
Not only are RAG Portsmouth happy to be continuing to offer international trips but they have also expanded their non-challenge itinerary. In crisis discussions when the future of the big trips were not agreed, the RAG committee worked at ensuring that, were the trips not to go ahead, they would still have a busy schedule in terms of fundraising events and activities.
Annual events such as RAG Ball and Lost have been set up months in advance in order to maximise the events’ success while new events such as Jailbreak, Take Me Out and The Hunger Games are being organised. The hope is that more students than ever will find something that they want to get involved in with RAG; student engagement is the key factor for RAG this year. In order to run so many new events, RAG is, for the first time, setting up active team meetings for engaged members, rather than relying on ‘recruits’ of adventures.
Most importantly, though, is the focus on community fundraisers and making a difference to the local community. Discussions with Dementia UK raised the idea of all funds raised by Portsmouth students being directed to local Admiral Nurses while all committee members are currently researching local causes that are looking for funds.
If you have any ideas or are passionate about any local causes, please email rag@upsu.net and help them to make a difference.
The RAG Welcome Meeting is on Thursday 25th September at 6pm in Union Room 1.