QuidditchUK are thrilled to announce that Beck Throup, coined as 'the meme queen' by some, is taking on the role as Media Director and leading her new team into next season as we get to work with rebooting quidditch in the United Kingdom.
Beck started her quidditch career playing for Bristol Quidditch Club from 2019, competing with the Brizzlepuffs at both 2019's British Quidditch Cup & Southern Cup before the rest of the season was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. During the first lockdown, Throup was elected as Bristol's Social Media Officer (but we're not convinced it was actually called that in the committee elections!) The Meme Monarch played an essential driving force in making Bristol's presence on social media an outstanding example of how to do it right, with a myriad of open socials, workshops, trainings and guidance on returning to play with restrictions still in place. She also got stuck in (literally!) with our take on Taskmaster, assisting Bristol's successful 2nd place finish in the competition earlier this year.
Whilst this is her first role within QuidditchUK, we were particularly impressed by Beck's enthusiasm and delivery for creating content for her previously affiliated quidditch club as well as her managerial experience for taking on executive positions with a number of societies during her time at the University of Bristol - including Bristol's inclusive LGBT+ society.
Beck had this to say when asked what she was most looking forward to whilst sat amongst the rest of the Executive Management Team:
“As the new Media Director I'm really looking forward to carrying on Sam's legacy, as well as continuing to grow the department, and build on the creative communication foundations that have been laid down already. My strengths are in graphic design and social media; I'm particularly enthusiastic about making our social media and interactive and valuable resource for all QUK teams and members. Most of all, I'm excited about working with the fabulous team of media volunteers, and supporting the great work they do!”
In addition to this announcement, and similar to previous double whammy posts that I've written, it would be criminal not to highlight the successful recruitment of Beck's new assistant who is a returning face for QuidditchUK and we're super excited about them coming back!
Jaelithe Swan Becomes The Assistant Media Director!
Without the title of this section literally saying it all: I am grateful to not only write about my successor but also an additional 'Senior' ranked volunteer joining the team. Jaelithe Swan will be joining team Media as the new Assistant Media Director.
Jaelithe started playing quidditch in 2016 with the Portsmouth Horntail Strikers. She captained Portsmouth at the start of the 2018-19 season before transferring to the Oxford Mammoths, and now plays for Southsea Quidditch - who made their debut at Southern Cup 2019 and managed to get to the European Qualifier Tournament at the beginning of 2020 after a tense playoff match against Werewolves of London Seconds.
Swan has volunteered with QUK in the past on temporary projects including transferring content for the new website last summer as well as assisting with the Events department and Fran Morris with developing pre-production for events behind the scenes. At club level, Jaelithe manages Southsea Quidditch and spearheads the South Coast Cup, with their first event is taking place later this month!
Photo Credit: The Dislodged Hoop (Simon Blackshaw)
Upon her appointment as Assistant Media Director, Jaelithe had this to say about sharing responsibility for the Media team:
"I'm really excited to join the Media team at such an important time. We've already seen so much enthusiasm from the community for QUK's competitive return and I can't wait to celebrate the successes of our teams and showcase sport in the coming months."
Sam Instone, QuidditchUK's outgoing Media Director who held the position between 2019-2021 had this to say about the news:
"I'm ecstatic about Throup & Swan's collaborative partnership with their positions in the Media department. I don't think I could have found a better fit that shared the same level of passion as I did when I started two years ago. I'm confident that Beck will do amazing things to further Media as one of QuidditchUK's strongest rated departments, to a point where QUK can match other NGBs social media output and quality of content at a consistent pace. Watch these two work their media magic for this season and future years to come!"
QuidditchUK would like to wish both Beck and Jaelithe the upmost congratulations towards their appointment of their respected roles, we're really looking forward to seeing what this new Media team can do for the future of the sport. Please join us in welcoming them to the organisation!
If you're keen to get involved with working for QuidditchUK, we have a number of roles live on our volunteer page including Junior, Senior and Executive positions that are up for grabs - full list of roles are available here.
