05/03/2013 SCMD02 – Officer Reports

KeeleSU Union General Meeting

Tuesday 5th March 2013

Society/Activities Space, KeeleSU

SCMD02 – Student Council Meeting Document 03

Officer Reports

President: Joe Turner

*UPDATED WRITTEN REPORT NOT SUBMITTED – will submit additional comments orally*

VP Education: Ally Bird

*UPDATED WRITTEN REPORT NOT SUBMITTED – will submit additional comments orally*

VP Welfare: Alex Clifford

Firstly, apologies in advance, I’m currently on annual leave until the end of the week (8th March) so won’t be at Student Council. Secondly, congratulations to all the election winners (I would mention you all by name, but as it’s currently only the second day of polling I don’t want to tempt fate!). Finally, as ever, if you have any questions, get in touch, happy to answer! – Facebook.com/keelesu,

Campaigns: Since my last report at the beginning of the month, there have been a few smaller scale Drink:Aware and Sexual Health campaigns, so to not confuse messages alongside the elections process (Although I have been helping out with Elections where I can, creating videos and manning polling stations, etc). Upcoming campaigns include a continuation of the safety work going on by spreading the message to include raising awareness of cycle theft and how to prevent this happening to you, as well as working with the Counselling Service to promote good mental health and Prevention in Student Suicide.

Street Team: Is still going – our volunteers had their second outing on Friday 22nd, another successful event. A recruitment push ready for the next week of training (which should be in early March) is underway. If you want to get involved, get in touch with either myself or Volunteering Coordinator Sarah ().

Welfare Forum: At the time of writing, the next forum has been planned and arranged for Thursday 28th Feb – This Forum will focus around a student facing Harassment and Bullying framework that the University are looking to put into place and are keen to get student input for this framework.

ASK: Helping out in ASK where I can during what continues to be an exceptionally busy year for the service. This, as well as the long term sickness of a staff member, is why the Live Chat service hasn’t been launched so has been delayed. Hopefully the Live Chat service will be launched before the end of the academic year and make ASK even more accessible to the students it serves.

Know your Rights: This is continuing to develop, in the short term as various different booklets/leaflets of accessible information to go alongside University Regulations/Policy/etc. In the longer term, this will be made up of a comprehensive FAQ/Page on the website.

Trustees: Held a day of interviews, with Joe Turner, for the Alumni Trustee spaces remaining on the Trustee board (3 candidates interviewed for 2 spaces). Applications for the 1 External Trustee spot are also being taken, and we should have a full Trustee board soon!

Accommodation & Laundrettes: Still on-going, but progress is being made; The University are looking at their options regarding laundrettes, including potentially operating the service in house as well as other providers aside from Circuit. Regarding the current contract that the University have with Circuit, the University’s legal advisers are going through it.

VP Finance & Activities: Dave Plant

*UPDATED WRITTEN REPORT NOT SUBMITTED – will submit additional comments orally*

VP Athletic Union & Sport: Rachel Hodkinson

Policies and documents:

Coaching policy – this has now been passed by AU council and will be put into force after elections.

AU Disciplinary policy – an early draft has been agreed by myself, Joe Baker and Ceri Smith. This will be circulated to clubs for further comment. The policy will include guidelines on how clubs handle their own disciplinaries.

Keele SU disciplinary – work on the first draft is under way.

Model club consititution – work on a model club constitution that gives clubs a basis will be starting in the next few weeks.

AU Funding paper

Format of this paper has now changed we will be presenting to a committee so we can better explain what we need.

Club levels

Following the excellent success of society stripes we have decided to create a sport version of these for AU Clubs as the stripes are not all necessarily applicable to the clubs and also clubs have different minimum standards and different activities that can be accounted for.

Varsity

The final list of sports has now been published for Varsity, and preparations continue for the big day!

Presentation ball

The AU presentation ball will be held on the 23rd March, three days after Varsity tickets are £25 and on sale from the AU office. Nomination forms will be collected in soon and awards committee will meet to discuss who wins!

Student Councillors

Dexi-Louise Ellis – Chair of Student Council

Basically all of my general duties, such as:

·  Attending all Student Council and Union General Meetings as chair

·  Prepared recent meeting’s order papers

·  Consulting with the CAC on constitutional issues

·  Making sure all documents are ready for meetings

·  Advising the sabbs on any constitutional issues

With the recent running of elections, I have also been involved in the following:

·  Sat on the Elections Forum to help with the smooth running of Hustings and also dealing with general Election queries and issues with rest of EF

Chelsea Turner – Constitutional Affairs Secretary

It's been a busy time to be Constitutional Affairs Secretary lately! I've been working on a few things, namely:

·  Compiling a Policy Document (we've not had one that I can find!) so that there's reference to all active policies and mandates made at UGMs and Student Council. This should hopefully be ready in the near future

·  Putting some work into a Constitutional Review (watch this space, I've not forgotten guys!)

·  Working together with the two other lovely ladies of CAC to advise and help the Sabb team

·  Putting together a document ready for hand-over detailing all of what the role of CAS is

Rachael Mellers – General Secretary – CAC

Just general everyday running of CAC has been going on for the general secretary recently. My normal duties include:

·  Keeping up-to-date with the CAC email account

·  Attending Meetings and writing the minutes which then need to be written up and pass around

·  Helping with constitutional issues in any meetings

In additional, I have recently sat on the Elections Forum and ensured the smooth running of the nomination and voting process, as well as manning polling stations and dealing with issues as the arose with the rest of the EF team.


Danny Walker - RAG Rep
Being a candidate in the SU Elections hasn’t stopped me from working hard in preparation for RAG Week which is from Saturday 9thMarch 2013- Friday 15thMarch 2013.

· I’ve had ourTemporary Event Notice for the RAG Parade confirmed.

· I’ve organisedcollection permitsfor the day of the RAG Parade.

· I’ve organisedroad closureswith Newcastle Borough Council for the RAG Parade.

· I’ve got thebungee jumpconfirmed for Wednesday 13thMarch 2013 and registration is now open.

· I’ve met with Staffordshire Police again toconfirm the route of the paradeand had a ride in a Police Car to look at where road closures need to be placed! We’ve finalised where Police Officers and PCSO’s need to be stationed to stop the flow of traffic to ensure the parade moves safely through Newcastle.

· I’vemet with various charities and societiesto talk about possible fundraising events.

· I’ve beenadvising societies and individualson how RAG can help with their own fundraising events.

· I’vefinalised the publicity for RAG Weekwith KeeleSU’s Marketing Team. I’ve not been the easiest customer, so I need to say a MASSIVE thanks to the Marketing Team, but especially Annie and Emma for all their hard work, guidance and patience with me.

· I’ve spoken withStaffordshire Fire and Rescue Serviceabout their involvement in the Parade, so hopefully they will have a presence alongside us in the Parade.

·
I’ve met withSantanderto discuss working together for RAG Week.

· I’ve been working with the Student Activities Team on theRAG Week Fun Run; thanks is especially due to Andy Barnett for his help on this.

· I’veorganised a Comedy Nightfor RAG Week featuring Carl Hutchinson and Phil Wang, so thanks to Vinesh Patel and Ents for their help with this.

· I’ve been working with Newcastle-under-Lyme Town Centre Partnership about RAG Week and havefinalised the details of the music eventin Newcastle on 9thMarch; thanks is especially due to Matt Taylor, the Town Centre Manager, for his help on this.

And I’ve been up to so much more too!

We’ve had some really good days when things start to fall in to place and then some days where things seem to fall apart at the seams. But that’s all part of organising the biggest RAG Week Keele has seen for many, many years. My thanks go to Rachel Hodkinson, Dave Plant, the RAG Committee and especially Paul Sayers for all their help over the last few weeks and months. I couldn’t have done it without them.

Daniel McCarthy Stott – International Students Representative

World Festival

At the time of writing the World Festival is now into its second week. So far we have had a number of events including the first ever launch event, talks from international alumni, numerous taster sessions, world quizzes, traditional Chinese meal and much more. I will be writing up a full report on the World Festival after its completion. There will also be a meeting at some point over the next week to discuss what went well/not so well and what could be done better next year. It would be great to see as many as you as possible there.

Organising this event has taken up a great deal of my time over the past few weeks and I therefore don’t have a great deal else to report. Following the World Festival review I will begin work on assessing provision for students over the Easter vacation.

Happy to take any questions.

Alex Bladen – Nightline

These past few weeks the public team of Nightline are working on videos and so we have spent our time editing videos and making sure that they are good to be released. Also a public team will be taking place on Thursday and so from then we will be planning and organising events for the next few weeks. The quietness is due to the workload of everyone increasing and essays being planned and starting to be written up. But it will be by the end of this week Nightline public team will explode into action and be out at the union and Norman will be hugging people on campus along with a new video

Helen Jenkins – Volunteer Rep

I have recently met up with Sarah Amphlett, the KeeleSU Volunteering Project Leader to discuss how we want to promote Volunteering within the University. There will be a Volunteering Forum on Wednesday 27th February to enable our understanding of what my fellow students want. I will also be creating an online forum so that students can express their opinions. Once I have gathered everyone's thoughts I will be helping Sarah to create new Volunteering opportunities for the students of Keele, and continuing my goal to increase the number of students on the Volunteering database.

Michael Campbell – Campus Representative

Housing Fair

I have been working closely with Alex Clifford (VP Welfare) on the Housing Fair which took place on Wednesday 23 January. I wasn’t able to attend the whole event but for the 2 and half hours I was there, it seemed to be a big success with a large amount of both landlords and students in attendance.

Surveys

I am currently awaiting feedback from Alex Clifford and other universities about two surveys I wish to conduct. The first one of these is a “Rate your Landlord” survey to gather information from students in the Newcastle/Stoke area about their experiences living in student houses and landlords. The second one is a Transport Survey that will examine what impact the 25/X25/X75 buses and car parking have on students travelling onto campus.

As soon as I have the feedback required, these surveys will be constructed and then sent out to students.

Off-Campus Night in Newcastle

I tried to arrange a promotional night at Missoula in Newcastle during Refreshers Week for those students living off-campus. This unfortunately fell through due to issues beyond my control however I am still liaising with the manager to try and hold another night later in the semester. I have also been talking to a member of Newcastle Council about the Student night on Thursdays that they are hoping to launch. I will keep the Student Council updated on this as it progresses

Katriona Towell – Women’s Rep

Apologies this is short but unfortunately I have been unwell this term and this has impacted my availability women's representative. I am pleased to announce that my idea of a 'street team' is starting in a couple of weeks with training beginning this week. Thanks goes to Sarah from volunteering for organising this whilst I have been ill.I have also attended two women's society meetings and am looking forward to helping them with the campaigns we put together at the initial meeting.