Committee feedback survey – Midway through their year as a committee
27th Jan 2017.
Laura Chesterman, Brand and Insight Ambassador, UoNSU Insight Team.
Contents
What our hall committees think 2
What successes have you had during your time on committee? 2
What challenges/difficulties have you encountered during your time on committee? 2
How do you perceive the Pres Comm meeting? 2
Are there any specific scenarios you have had to deal with in the last two terms for which you felt untrained or unsupported? 2
What steps has your committee taken to ensure that the following students are included in your hall’s social life? 2
At the events you host, what percentage of participants that attend are from an international background, and/or study at postgraduate level? 3
What steps have you taken to ensure that all aspects of Hall life are nurtured, e.g. welfare, mental health, democracy and social justice rather than purely socials? 3
What (if any) methods have you found particularly useful for engaging more students in hall activities? 3
Rating the advice provided to committees: 3
Skill development. Since being on committee… 3
Areas of additional support wanted: 4
Event problems 4
Examples of events organised to promote… 5
Other comments: 5
What our societies committees think 5
What successes have you had in the following areas during your time on committee? 5
What methods are particularly useful for engaging more students in activities? 6
What challenges have you experienced in following areas during your time on committee? 6
Are there any particular circumstances where you have felt unsupported in your role on committee? 7
Confidence to fulfil the obligations of your role 7
Rating the advice provided to committees: 7
Skill development. Since being on committee… 7
What our association committees think 8
Confidence to fulfil the obligations of your role 8
Rating the advice provided to committees: 8
What successes have you had in the following areas during your time on committee? (These may be personal successes, or successes your committee has had as a group) 8
What (if any) methods have you found particularly useful for engaging more students in activities? 8
Are there any particular circumstances where you have felt unsupported in your role on committee? 9
Skill development. Since being on committee… 9
What our hall committees think
43 committee members across a range of halls completed this survey.
What successes have you had during your time on committee?
- For you personally: many of the answers mentioned that they felt they had developed their organisational skills by successfully running and setting up events and also their communication skills by working with different members of the team.
- For your committee as a whole: the majority of people mentioned the success of the formals and organising social opportunities for others
What challenges/difficulties have you encountered during your time on committee?
- For you personally: most people struggled managing time with the role on the committee at the same time as doing their degree. Also communication with other members was mentioned by a few
- For your committee as a whole: again communication with other members of the committee was mentioned many times, as well as getting everyone in the committee to contribute equally instead of some putting in all the effort
How do you perceive the Pres Comm meeting?
- Only 2 answered this question but both said that they find it extremely valuable, 1 made a comment stating it enabled them ‘to establish whether issues in our hall is found in all of the others’.
- Topics raised aren’t always resolved. There should be a follow up on the issues
Are there any specific scenarios you have had to deal with in the last two terms for which you felt untrained or unsupported?
- All responses said no
What steps has your committee taken to ensure that the following students are included in your hall’s social life?
- International students: most suggested that the formals and social events that included everyone were positive
- Postgraduate students: most suggested not a lot had been done or that they don’t have any post grads
- Quieter/shy students: having alternatives to clubbing such as movie nights or non-alcoholic events
At the events you host, what percentage of participants that attend are from an international background, and/or study at postgraduate level?
- Most people said lower percentages of around 15% suggesting that there are not many that attend
What steps have you taken to ensure that all aspects of Hall life are nurtured, e.g. welfare, mental health, democracy and social justice rather than purely socials?
- Most focus was on alternative events e.g. mental health awareness events, charity events, movie nights, workshops etc
- Many also mentioned they have made sure they are available to the students and promoting support for students
- Collaboration with LGBT+ events
- Have hosted some polling across different issues such as divestment, student housing co-op, and wage increases to encourage activism.
- Stalls on mental health awareness and policy safety info
- Vegetarian food on earth day
- Clothes swap
- Massages
- Ice skating
- Encouraging students to vote
What (if any) methods have you found particularly useful for engaging more students in hall activities?
- The two most popular methods were the offer of free food and using social media, especially the Facebook page, to communicate with students
Rating the advice provided to committees:
Quality / Usefulness / relevance / Availability / accessFunding support / 3.5/5 / 3.6/5 / 2.9/5
Dealing with committee problems / 3.3/5 / 4.1/5 / 3.8/5
Event planning / 4.1/5 / 4.2/5 / 4.1/5
Day to day running of committee / 3.5/5 / 3.6/5 / 3.8/5
How to engage students / 3.3/5 / 3.4/5 / 3.5/5
Understanding of the SU’s role / 3.7/5 / 4.1/5 / 3.6/5
Skill development. Since being on committee…
The following skill set of students has improved a lot
- Forward planning and contingency
- Decisiveness
- Leadership
- Fundraising and campaigning skills
- Confidence
The following skill set of students has improved a little
- Delegation
- Organisational skills
- Problem solving
- Conflict resolution
- Chairing meetings
- Time management
- Financial responsibility and awareness / budgeting
- Public speaking
- Initiative
- Confidence
- Diplomacy and negotiation
- Administration and accountability tracking
- Interpersonal skills
- Team work
- Analytical and research skills
The following skill set of students has not changed much
- IT skills
Areas of additional support wanted:
- Help us talk to wardens
- Having a handover was essential
- Would prefer no event form for small events
- Event organisation could be more transparent – particularly for halls with no activities officers in post.
- Like that there is a finance app, but it’s not always correct.
- JCRs want more regular meetings with finance about their budget
- Send budget to President and VP – and make it clearer what funds are available for spend.
Event problems
Committee problems:
- Committees not agreeing on what to do. Indecisiveness led to missed opportunities.
- Had trouble selling the tickets
- Lack of communication within the committee (low meeting attendance, slow responses)
- Unequal division of work
Promoter / sponsors:
- Promoters trying to unnecessarily charge (over charging)
- Promoters focusing on selling their events at the same time as committee events without agreement.
- Students were able to host their own event far cheaper than student clubber
- Not given accurate cost breakdowns
SU/Uni:
- Delays in replies makes planning difficult
- Lack of budget
- Would like more role clarity
- Being overcharged when damage has occurred during an event
- Hall managers not wanting to cooperate
- £500 being taken for ‘welcome week’ at the start of the year – meant budget struggled in a small hall.
Examples of events organised to promote…
Cross cultural learning:
- Hall tutors normally do this
- Movie night
- There’s a lack of interest in the hall
Integration of UK/International students:
- Hall tutors normally do this
- Cluster evening
- Movie night and hot chocolate evening
- Easter egg hunt
- Arts and music nights – student showcasing
- Didn’t want to do any events like this as it isolates international students further by ‘pointing them out’
Welfare:
- Sexual consent workshop (but low attendance) – collaboration with FemSoc
- Workshop on lad culture (low attendance)
- Open mic night (collaboration with another hall) relaxed atmosphere
- Hall tutors host these events
- ‘There’s too much focus on balls and boat parties’
- Healthy U roadshow
- Puppy day
Other comments:
- ‘It’s a great opportunity and learning experience’
- ‘Thank you SU for being so thorough with Welfare Rep information. I felt very prepared’
What our societies committees think
28 society committee members completed this survey
What successes have you had in the following areas during your time on committee? (These may be personal successes, or successes your committee has had as a group)
- Events/activities: many said having a wide variety of different events and organising them well so that lots of people turned up was there best success – specifically mentioned the fresher’s social and the Christmas concert
- Student engagement and communication: many responses suggested increased membership was a big success as well as higher attendance
- Offering new opportunities to students: range of different answers of activities such as bringing in new companies to events and sponsorship or networking events to increase employability
- Committee development: most mentioned the overcoming of issues within the committee such as lack of communication or having more meetings, as well as introducing new roles within the committee
- Financial management/sponsorship: most responses outlined how they had increased the number of sponsors or changed their financial approach to their events
- Student welfare and increasing sense of belonging: many answers suggested they had managed to include everyone in events and help first years settle in. Also getting new members who are first years or international students helped them integrate into university life
What (if any) methods have you found particularly useful for engaging more students in activities?
- Most said that using social media (mostly Facebook or Twitter) to communicate with students, or the TV screens around the university were the best methods, and advertising there will be free food at events
What challenges have you experienced in following areas during your time on committee? (These may be personal challenges, or challenges that your committee has experienced as a group)
- Events/activities: most said it was difficult to get high numbers of attendance at events or find the time to run the events
- Student engagement and communication: generally, they found it difficult to get students to come to events when there are so many going on, and also harder to get older or more shy students to get involved
- Offering new opportunities to students: many said it was hard to think of new events to host or new ideas they could do which hadn’t been done before
- Committee cohesion: many responses suggested it was difficult to find a time when all members were available in the week to have a meeting, and also communication problems where some members were disengaged. Some mentioned having disputes in meetings that weren’t resolved but one mentioned that having a vote at the end of meetings was a helpful way of getting past this
- Financial management/sponsorship: a few had problems when trying to find sponsors as they were unsure of how to reach out, and also managing the large amount of money was a struggle for one
- Student welfare and increasing sense of belonging: most common problem mentioned was having a lack of interest of attendance at events. Some felt they should be doing more for student welfare, especially during stressful times of year
Are there any particular circumstances where you have felt unsupported in your role on committee? (Please describe the circumstance and suggest ways in which you could have been helped)
- Most of the responses stated they didn’t have any circumstances where they felt unsupported. One mentioned that the SU staff often didn’t support them, and they found it difficult to get a response from them or when they did it was to pass them onto someone else
Confidence to fulfil the obligations of your role: 8.6/10
Rating the advice provided to committees:
Quality / Usefulness / relevance / Availability / accessFunding support / 3.7/5 / 3.8/5 / 3.7/5
Dealing with committee problems / 3.7/5 / 3.7/5 / 3.4/5
Event planning / 4.0/5 / 4.0/5 / 4.1/5
Day to day running of committee / 3.8/5 / 3.7/5 / 3.6/5
How to engage students / 3.4/5 / 3.4/5 / 3.4/5
Understanding of the SU’s role / 3.7/5 / 3.6/5 / 3.6/5
Comments on the above:
Skill development. Since being on committee…
The following skill set of students has improved a lot
- Forward planning and contingency
- Decisiveness
- Leadership
- Interpersonal skills
- Public speaking
- Diplomacy and negotiation
- Confidence
The following skill set of students has improved a little
- Delegation
- Fundraising and campaigning skills
- Organisational skills
- Problem solving
- Conflict resolution
- Chairing meetings
- Time management
- Financial responsibility and awareness / budgeting
- Initiative
- Administration and accountability tracking
- Team work
- Analytical and research skills
The following skill set of students has not changed much
- IT skills
What our association committees think
19 students on an association committee answered the survey
Confidence to fulfil the obligations of your role: 7.9/10
Rating the advice provided to committees:
Quality / Usefulness / relevance / Availability / accessFunding support / 3.2/5 / 3.6/5 / 3.5/5
Dealing with committee problems / 3.3/5 / 3.3/5 / 3.4/5
Event planning / 3.6/5 / 3.6/5 / 3.6/5
Day to day running of committee / 3.1/5 / 3.1/5 / 3.4/5
How to engage students / 3.1/5 / 3.1/5 / 3.3/5
Understanding of the SU’s role / 3.3/5 / 3.5/5 / 3.5/5
Comments on the above: