UNAD Meeting

Date of Meeting: Wednesday 26th February 2014, 16.30-18.00

Location: Seminar Room

Attendance:

Matthew Stephens (MS) – President

Becka McClaughry (BM) – General Secretary

Jonny Rollo-Walker (JRW) – Treasurer

Lydia Lee (LL) – MPT 1st Year Cohort Representative

Dan Townley (DT) – Male Welfare & Equal Opportunity Officer

Natasha Knowles (NK) – Female Welfare & Equal Opportunity Officer

Wayne Fradley (WF) – Sports & Societies Co-ordinator

Sarah Nicholls (SN) – Social Secretary (GEM)

Anne-Marie Meadows (AM) – Social Secretary (BSc Nursing)

Beth Cattermole (BC) – Fundraising & Volunteering Co-ordinator

Peter Hateley (PH) – Communications Officer

Apologies:

Ashley Garner (AG) – GEN 1st Year Cohort Representative

Vicki Moss (VM) – GEN 1st Year Cohort Representative

Emma Cran (EC) – GEN 2nd Year Cohort Representative

Sarah Brown (SB) – BSc Nursing 1st Year Cohort Representative

Katrin Sander (KS) – Postgraduate Representative

Fahad Aljebab (FA) – Postgraduate Representative

Alun Webber (AW) – Sponsorships Officer

Theresa Rathjen (TR) – MPT 2nd Year Cohort Representative

Agenda Item / Information/Details/Discussion / Action Points
Welfare /
  • C-card – DT and NK are prepping to get comms out to student body about launch of the scheme. People can either collect orders from a white box outside the UNAD hub, have orders delivered to their pigeon hole or alternative collection by arrangement. DT and NK will be setting up a regular order with the hope of dispensing twice a week. The scheme needs to be used otherwise it will lose funding in Derby
  • HealthyU roadshow– currently run in Nottingham featuring local community groups involved in healthy living. Derby date set as 13th May 2014, no choice on day was given. UNAD committee are asked to “drop-in” although no further commitment is required.
  • Welfare drop-ins – not been much demand so far, NK and DT are now looking to work more with informal meet-ups by request. PH offered to include reminders of drop-in times in weekly UNAD emails, NK suggested using the email to share Welfare contact details instead (UNAD and SU).
  • LBGT – looking to establish a network over here, still very early stagesbut high on the agenda. SU Campaigns SU are keen to get LBGT network set up. DT has approached Charlotte Magness to see if she wants to be involved, also chasing contacts via Matt in the SU Welfare team. MS also noted that 2nd year GEM Mickey is involved in LBGT work in Nottingham and suggested contacting him about this. It was proposed to have an LBGT rep from the cohorts working with the welfare team in UNAD, NK suggested holding on this idea until they had more plans in place.
  • Mature student support – BM was approached by Suravi Chaterjee-Woolman who was keen to have more support available for mature students returning to study. Gaps in support included return to study, dealing with a family, managing without an income etc. Involvement at open days and during fresher’s week would be welcome. The university staff members she approached were quite unsupportive and she hoped UNAD could step in. A suggestion was made to approach the hospital to see if they have a crèche and could offer affiliation for students.
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  • All aim to drop-in to HealthyU roadshow on 13th May
  • NK to share UNAD and SU Welfare (Matt) contact details with PH for weekly UNAD email
  • DT to follow up on mature student support services for Derby

Socials /
  • SN and AM are working on introducing more family friendly socials
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  • SN to arrange UNAD dinner

Cohort info /
  • Lonsdale Hall update –SU Campaigns team checked Lonsdale accommodation when they visited and decided it meets standards. They are looking to make it feel a bit more “Nottingham”, with branding and a campus feeling.
  • MPT engagement – MS and MPT reps expressed concern that MPT students living in Derby (about 10 out of 40 in 1st year) are feeling increasingly isolated are not involved in university events in Nottingham. Engagement with UNAD societies and events from MPT cohorts is still poor. LL explained that during fresher’s week, students in Lonsdale (Derby University accommodation) were not able to attend Derby Uni events, TR was surprised as in previous years this had been encouraged. MS informed the group that SUPA (physiotherapy healthcare association) are keen to get MPT students involved in their events, but these will probably still be in Nottingham.
  • Hoodies – people who ordered hoodies a year ago have only just got them, due to human error on the part of the last committee rather than an issue with the fulfilment process. There is still interest in hoodies amongst cohorts, including end of year versions for graduating MPTs.
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  • SN to liaise with Derby University to arrange for Nottingham students at Lonsdale to be able to attend Derby fresher’s events
  • MS, PH and BC to work on hoodies

General items /
  • Open days –the GEM and MPT open day is in April (GEM), but the committee were unclear about when the other cohort open/taster days were due. AM explained that the BSc nurses had a taster day in Nottingham. MS needs to recruit 8 students for paid work at the open day. He has already had a lot of interest from GEMs, but all agreed that it would be good to have a broad representation of students especially for MPTs. TR agreed to attend, MS asked that others interested should email him. MS was unsure of arrangements for student presence at the GEM interview days.
  • 5 year plan – MS and BM asked that the committee read the sections relevant to their role, and follow through on any plans set out by the previous committees as appropriate.
  • UNAD constitution – Matt Wilks has asked MS write a constitution, currently all that is needed is to confirm the relevant roles that should be present in the committee. All agreed there should be at least one cohort rep for each year group.
  • Cohort rep elections –Matt Wilks has informed MS that each cohort rep must be re-elected each year. The committee was largely opposed to this, as it was felt that students had implicitly voted for their reps for the duration of the course.BM suggested instating whole-course terms for cohort positions and making this explicit in the initial voting process. It was generally felt that having cohort reps as part of UNAD for the duration of their course would be especially helpful in terms of ensuring continuity in the running of UNAD which has been raised as a problem already.
  • UNAD elections – BM proposed moving the UNAD elections to mid-January to encourage more involvement from non-GEM cohorts. However, it was generally felt that this would result in the elections clashing with MPT and GEM exams, followed by the GENs, BSc nurses and 2nd year GEMs going on placement during the handover period.JRW also noted an issue with funding, as grant allocations are made in August and as such the outgoing committee would need to be very careful not to spend everything, MS suggested talking to cohorts early on to generate interest, and WF suggested creating an interest list for positions that could be followed up on closer to elections. The committee debated holding elections in December to at least encourage more MPT and BSc engagement, but again this was felt to be too close to placements and exams in January. The decision was made to hold elections in the autumn, and then re-open in January for GEN rep positions and any other unfilled posts. PH highlighted the need to improve communications around elections to maximize nominations and turn-out.
  • UNAD handover process – It was generally agreed that substantial improvements to the UNAD handover process were needed. WF suggested having a pro forma handover sheet to be completed for each. It was also suggested that the incoming committee get much more support from the SU early on (e.g. treasurer training, web, welfare).
  • Microwaves – MS has investigated the options for re-instating a microwave (or two) in the common room/kitchen area of the medical school for general use by all cohorts. If approved, it would be UNAD funded and MS suggested instating a UNAD rota to ensure the microwave is cleaned regularly as this was the previous argument for its removal.
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  • MS to find out dates for non-GEM open days
  • MS to find out more about GEM interview days
  • BM to ensure 5 year plan is available on Dropbox, and email again to UNAD
  • MS to draft and circulate UNAD constitution
  • MS to set up cohort rep elections and discuss implementing whole-course student rep positions with Matt Wilks
  • MS to arrange general elections for autumn 2014
  • MS to talk to Sue Lane about microwaves

Fundraising & volunteering /
  • Gambia – MS met with Danny and was given more information about where things stand. Currently rhere is no existing relationship, the Gambia is quite anti-UK and there is a serious visa and funding barrier for the reciprocal exchange. MS felt the project was not manageable for UNAD, and was also concerned that it was financially unsustainable if reliant on Cascade funding. BM suggested handing the project over to someone else, Emily Sams had expressed an interest in getting involved in managing it. MS was still unsure of the project’s viability, and noted that any future committee would need to have involvement from MPTs and nurses.

Communications /
  • Email and web – PH asked the committee to keep him abreast of events, welfare work, societies etc. and suggested that the weekly email be used as a central point for communication to cohorts rather than multiple separate emails. He is still chasing the team in Nottingham to get editing access to the UNAD Facebook page and has not heard from the Web and Comms teams in the SUfor training and support despite chasing.
  • Campaigns – PH is working with the SU Campaigns team on a parking survey andconcerns about the Hopper Bus frequency and evening running times. There is a central SU project team working on Hopper Bus-related issues. BC noted that the Red Arrow is a reliable service and runs late, and PH suggested it might be worth looking more into setting up a Mango/discount card scheme for students. It was also suggested that UNAD could do more to arrange coaches to and from specific Nottingham events.

Finance & sponsorship /
  • Surplus budget –MS and JRW highlighted that there is a budget surplus that needs to be spent before the end of the year. There is currently £3k in the account to be spent over the next 6 months. Some of this will be needed by societies but there is still likely to be a surplus. In the previous 6 months, UNAD has spent £2k. The committee asked how much would likely be available, JRW was unsure and it was agreed that this should be revisited at the next meeting. If the surplus is not used UNAD will have a reduced funding pot next year when it might be needed by more financially active societies.
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  • All to think about projects to be funded by the UNAD surplus

AOB /
  • Various societies have complained about difficulty accessing the UNAD hub cupboard due to mess.
  • BM shared updates from EC – GENs are running a peer mentor scheme, and it was confirmed that other cohorts are already doing similar schemes.There had also been some concern from GEN students about lack of support from the university in securing housing for a Jan-Jan academic year, MS agreed this should be followed up.
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  • WF to arrange UNAD hub cupboard tidy-up
  • MS to look into lack of university support for GEN housing issues