Hello, everybody. Welcome to this week's broadcast.
I'm delighted to welcome our Ambassador Mahinda Ball, otherwise known to everybody as h.
H. Welcome. Thank you. You like being called H?
I do. Especially when I was four and I loved letter names.
Yes, it's. It's stuck, and I don't mind it whatsoever.
And how many call you by your full name? Hum. I don't think my parents ever called me either.
So very few people. But I am quite impressed with the number of people having the time to take and do get it right.
So right. Low to level. Good, good. And H, you have been in college now for nearly a year.
That's right. Yeah. First academic year nearly finished. So congratulations.
We're very pleased to have you on board. And you will know from listening to other broadcasts that one of the reasons I'm
keen to interview people is so that everybody in college knows who you are,
knows what the home person does, and can stop you in the orchard or in the quad and chat to you.
So tell us, what does the home person do? I think the home persons role touches so many parts of college life.
So I feed people, I let people sleep, I make think, I make conference and events take over.
So it's it's quite a large remit.
But at the end of the day, it's really to support the core purpose of the college and the students and or the fellows, the staff generally.
So I'm quite fortunate it's a wide frame and that it covers so much because I get to meet so many people.
Hmm. And you have quite a big team.
I mean, your team is probably the biggest team in college. It probably is, yeah.
And they're all wonderful people and they all work incredibly hard.
They have some tough roles and that must many of them,
most of them are not seen by staff and students because they work odd hours or behind the scenes and they committed to doing like I do.
It's just been the support that for the rest of the college.
You know, I often talk about the importance of one Worcester and how everyone in college, whatever their role,
contributes to the success of Worcester College, but also the success of our tutors and our students, the ones who are less visible.
I'm keen to shine a light on on them.
Tell us a bit about the ones that most people visiting college don't see and what they do.
Yeah, so many of the scouts of the night team, unless you're actually here on site,
you probably won't recognise the faces or realise or recognise their names,
but they're all doing the same thing, which is just helping students achieve what they here to do.
And the students who may wake up late have come in late at night, will see the night porters.
But those staff members who do a 9 to 5 role probably wouldn't because the shifts are 7 to 7 and things like that.
So it really varies. But the one Worcester I'm fortunate with having a large team is these guys from what the duties they carry out there
is fairly obvious to them what that means because they are always contributing with the students at the forefront of,
you know, what we do and how we do it. And you know, we're not going hopefully we're not charging in 536 in the morning to go and clean trees,
but we're a bit more sympathetic, you know, But I've heard nine, 10:00 still early for some, but that's totally acceptable.
I've got 217 year olds who would be quite with the idea of waking up later in the day.
And how big is your team. So I'm guessing I've over 40 members of of headcounts.
Yeah. And most of those will be in the housekeeping team.
But again, we were the type of team that will contract and expand depending on business.
So term time when it's the busiest for other parts of the college is the out of term time is probably the busier my teams.
Yeah so I will expand the contract accordingly there whether that's from housekeeping to the catering staff because we got we have so
much business over the summer period which obviously helps manage during term time in terms of finances and what we need to do that.
So yeah, so most of our students probably don't see that business.
Yes, it's probably worth reminding everybody, particularly students listening, that even after the end of term,
college continues to take over and that's when we make about a third of our income.
Yeah, So tell us a bit about that because yeah, it's often overlooked because what's not in front of you isn't that visible or memorable.
So as the students depart for the summer and the Easter vacations at Christmas,
to a certain extent less so nowadays, but you know we're reaching pre-pandemic levels of a.
Come. We have lots more queries. If if we had more bedrooms, we had more spaces, we'd be able to sell them.
So we limited in that sense. But you know, the students leave and within days we've got other people coming in and all that income is just
helping us manage the cost controls that the students then have to face during term time.
So it's absolutely vital we continue to do that. It's painful for people to go home, you know, during those breaks.
I understand that. But that's that's the majority of the work load for us as a team.
And the students benefit from all that hard work.
Yeah. And why do conferences choose Worcester?
I think it's several factors. One is the location, without a doubt.
It's the beauty of the grounds. And actually I'd even go one step further.
We have a lot of repeat customers because they like the people they work with.
They like the food that's they like the way they're served, which is not always the case in in other institutions or other venues.
But, you know, if we had a large car park, it'd be even busier.
If we had more conference rooms, it'd be busier. But you have to play with the costs dealt with and it works really well.
What a beautiful place to come to. What kind of feedback do paying guests give you?
You know, to be completely honest, and if I speak self-critical, it's not just the feedback from customers,
but if I was a customer, put myself in a student's shoes or a confident guest use,
that there's investment needs within some of our buildings and some of the stock of bedrooms
and making sure they're a little bit more modernised than perhaps they currently are.
But equally, I get feedback where some of the people, some people staying in the really old rooms love the character and the history that that brings.
So very confident on the quality of and variety of food that we serve.
That's good. And without a doubt it's just the landscape, the setting.
No one's ever never heard a bad word.
And your background, which really does qualify you to do this role because you've had various interesting jobs before you arrived here,
immediately before you were at Brooks, Correct? Yeah.
And so let's start with with Brooke's, because Brooke's is a similar higher education institution, but a much bigger one than us.
Yeah, it was the one of the differences. So I was at Brooke for 11 years in various roles, but the last one,
being like a commercial director, was a similar to the home best role, but on a much larger scale.
And I guess the key difference there is what I love about the college is I know students by name and I recognised Brooke's is a is a numbers game.
And when I talk about numbers, I don't know student names. I know student numbers.
There's a big difference that that but this is a much nicer place to work because it's more manageable and you can make a difference.
That to me is the big difference for me is having the ability to influence students in their journey year on year to year three or as graduates.
I can make a difference, you know, and however small that is, it's adding to that overall outcome.
Prior to that, I did in the main some the noughties was rock and roll exhibitions for various companies in who owned sport in Olympia.
And prior to that I helped build over 50 factories, 56 different catering outlets at the Millennium Dome as a project manager, which was up and down.
But that puts pressure on you and I've never lost so much sleep.
But that's but it comes back to where I originally started off as a chef, doing a degree in hospitality management and then just building up a career.
I've been really fortunate where I've studied something.
I've seen that whole career based around that, that that discipline of cooking and service.
And I'm still able to do that as I, you know, 30, 40 years on.
It's absolutely wonderful that I've been able to choose a career and and stick to it.
And I think lots of people can follow that that passion.
And whether it's from overseeing the running of the kitchens through to running a venue,
you can dip down and understand the challenges of every member of your team.
So yeah, absolutely. There's nothing that a member of my team in college does that I've not done myself
before and I think they all recognise that and I understand the challenges to it.
I think that generates a huge amount of respect and a working relationship.
Some of the jobs that we have to do aren't the most pleasant, but they need to be done.
They're long hours, the late nights, but they have to be done and they're done for the right reasons,
which is for the benefit of the students who attend. No, that's a really powerful message and I think everyone appreciates that.
Just going back to your life, staging venues, which was the most exciting gig or bands that you dealt with, I'm not sure if this was.
Make it through to the final cut. But I did have an incident where George Michael approached me and asked me where the toilets were,
and I said, I'll show him because it was quite a convoluted route. So that was one of them.
The other one was hosting the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and having to deal with
police and rumours of what was going on in the green rooms in the dressing room.
So yeah, they, they were great rock and roll days.
Q On the production side next to them.
So it's not as glamorous as it or as it perhaps sometimes that's because it's very much driven by health and safety,
crowd control and safety matches which similar, funny enough, you know,
we've got the, the ball, which I helped wait for, been helping to organise that.
It reminds me of so much of what I used to do and hopefully this,
this ball and that which hasn't happened for the last six years will be a memorable one and you'll be working with notation notation.
Alana And yet all the team, the committee members we meet far more regularly now the exams are coming to an end,
but it's those final bits of detail, final bits of paperwork and I've been really impressed with the ball committee's approach,
their attitude, their desire to get it right, their desire to be inclusive, especially with the local community taking on feedback,
seeing the local community, which is really thoughtful of them because I do.
Having spent a bit of time at St Barnabas earlier this morning,
it's fairly obvious that college and community had a bit of a separation and it's good to be able to be part of
that effort to build that back up because they're so integral to what we do and we're entitled to what they do.
And I think we've got to be know, be mutual, respectful of each other's aims and continue to thrive on that relationship.
I'm delighted to hear that because you came with me to the grilling that I received and seven of us from Jericho Community,
and you and Simon in particular were very supportive, centred, appreciate.
But the good news from what you just told me is that they are much more positive.
They obviously hosted a number of local events in the Gardens Haven in the conference
centre and I think event managing that and supporting them and just raising their spirits,
that we are here to not just pay lip service to what they want but actually work with them and,
and have the bowl committee attend one of the functions just to show real interest.
And we do care about you as a community. Sorry about the noise.
Sorry about the mess that happens, you know, on Friday, Saturday nights and you know, it will happen with the ball.
I just think that the tolerance levels just increase because they feel they've been heard.
Yeah. And that goes a long way. Good, good.
And so they will be relaxed. When we have 3 minutes of fireworks.
The pets will be more relaxed than the previous years.
But, you know, the ball committee have been dealing with the production, the firework discovery,
just to reduce the amount of noise and have more interest in light and fall and the artistic point of view.
So it's great that I'm really impressed with their efforts.
It's really nice to work with the like, say, Alana and Evie and Ralph as well, that the committee members have been interesting.
And I know you'll be on duty. Yes. Which bit you're looking forward to, you know, when you actually can.
I'm looking forward to some say the morning.
Well, because I've got to take one of my boys to an open day, Warwick.
So I'm hoping to just get in the car and take him. I might actually tell it to come and meet me here.
It might be easier, but now we will make the survivors photo.
Oh, I might wait for that, but I don't know.
That's. I just want to get it open. I want to see the flow of people.
I want to see people happy. Yeah.
And you know what will really help is a bit of good weather, but a good organisation, if that all happens or clicks in place like we want to.
Yeah, then it'll be happy throughout. Good, good.
Now that people understand what you do in your team,
do any messages you'd like to give to students in particular and also, you know, other members of staff and to Yeah.
Tutors, any, any key messages.
I mean the key message for me is, and I always keep this in the forefront and I encourage my team to put themselves in the shoes of students.
Think about let's say she might could think of the students because the impact it
could have could be and amplifies that impact in a good way and in a bad way.
So think of the student first. That's why we're here. And that takes time to change hearts and minds of understanding,
just reminding people and that people are getting it, that people are thinking like that.
And it's good. And I just from a student perspective, we're all here to wish you well, but sometimes we all need a bit of a helping hand.
We need someone to chat to. We need just need a we're having difficulties whether that.
Financial law with house may system talk to us you know come and talk to us we worked in colleges or institutions where what you're
going to tell us probably doesn't surprise us and we probably can help in some way because we're only here to help those students,
you know, to graduate and to finish their studies. And they're so lucky.
They've got world leading tutors of fellows, you know, impressive bunch of people I really do admire.
Having been able to sort of socialise with such intellectuals, it's really quite inspiring as opposed to just a chef like myself.
But, you know, but I, I do find I do find it just fascinating to sort of work with that community and I just want to be part of it.
So and in a way that just makes the points that we all contribute to the success of our students and academics,
because this community wouldn't function as you just demonstrated in this chat, without everybody working hard to deliver their respective bits.
And we all are helping our students flourish.
Yeah, and this is where I do believe our, you know, our aspirations to really live and breathe the one.
Worcester It can't be done overnight and take time.
But when, when we as a team, as a community get that,
it would be really powerful and people will recognise and they'll remember it for years going forward.
And I think the is getting forward is incredibly important because you meet all members when they come in and I spend a lot of time with them and yes,
this is a place that's important during the student years, but actually when people leave as well, they love coming back.
They have this incredible affinity with the college.
And yes, when they come back in, that's an equally important part of being part of the Worcester family.
And I'd want even students of today to be able to come back in years and decades in the future where
they feel as welcome and appreciate the beauty of the grounds as as all members currently doing.
It's been great talking to you. Thank you for all the work you do, but also to everyone in your team as ever.
If anybody would like to come to see me at one of my drop ins in the same way that you can stop H and chat to him around college,
many of you already do. But those of you who don't come and talk to me, always keen to get feedback to hear how you're getting on,
but also to ensure that you're having a good time.
So thank you for listening. Good luck if you're still doing exams.
And for those who are able to go to the ball each and I look forward to seeing you on the 23rd of June.
Thanks very much. Thank you.