This first term in office has been a real eye opener as we are very much thrown into the deep end! The operation structures around running societies was really underdeveloped and so I’ve found the majority of my time has been spent working on this, then fitting other projects around it.
Societies
I have been streamlining some of the society processes, such as working with staff to update our help hub on the website; the next steps for this will be updating the forms themselves to allow for receipts and more effective communication. Behind the scenes, I have been improving recording methods and had continued conversations about how we can more effectively provide balances for societies.
The society presidents committee is still in the works, in the meantime I have created a teams group chat in which I can communicate quickly and directly with presidents. Larger scale executive training will happen later this year after AGMs, however, as new societies have been established, I have been meeting with them in person where possible or via Teams video calls to provide in-depth training.
The governance and regulations around society/executive behaviours is currently very minimal. This has been highlighted through a few incidences this term and so I am currently researching the governance in place at other SU, with aim of pulling together our own regulations.
Activities
As mentioned above, the main focus this term has been societies, but in the in between I have organised activities and events support. The foundations for an events committee have been set up and we hope to start bringing the committee together this term, along with integrating Alcohol Impact. I have recently come across a charity called ‘A Good Night Out’; they provide specialised training for SU bars to ensure that students are kept safe during parties. This is something I hope we can research further and perhaps implement going forward.
University Mental Health Day was a great success, despite some terrible weather setting us back! In particular the free fresh fruit and veg stall was really popular – we asked students to tell us one thing they loved about themselves as payment, and it was so sweet to hear everyone’s responses. This is something I’d like to make a regular event as healthy eating is consistently an issue with students, which hugely effects their studies as well as personal wellbeing.
Coming up next week I have organised with Wellbeing, a Masters student only event to be held at the Old Gaol, hopefully the first of a series of postgrad specific events. We will be bringing back Girls Night In and utilising our events committee to find out what activities students are really looking for!
Projects
Whilst I’ve struggled to find the time for larger scale campaigns, there are been various mini campaigns/projects I’ve either organised or supported on, such as; expanding our free sanitary products project to Verney and Crewe campus, advertising the Student Leftovers Competition organised by Oxford Brookes, supporting the Head of the SU with an Asylum seekers coffee morning, distribution of Friends of Buckingham plants, highlighting Eating Disorder Awareness Week, supporting an SU staff member with an Art Gallery Fundraiser for Turkey and Syria, highlighting the University’s Financial Report and the importance of students educating themselves on the running’s of the University and finally, writing the George Galloway statement plus driving forward solutions for issues it highlighted subsequently.
It has been incredible to see the engagement from students with the volunteer opportunities we have been advertising. In particular, the responses we had from students wishing to volunteer their time to support Asylum seekers living locally was incredible. I’m hugely looking forward to this project hopefully coming to fruition in the next month.
This coming term, along with the plans mentioned above, the focus will be on kick-starting more robust operational systems so that I can turn my focus back to activities and campaigns. Students should continue to keep an eye out on our Instagram (and their emails for Students Announce!) for ways to get involved as volunteering opportunities come up and SU led events. All I can ask of students is to engage as much as they possibly can, to not forget that their voice matters and most importantly that they will always be heard by the SU.