Activities President Report 09/11/06

In this report there are breakdowns on the following subject areas...
Societies Budgets, Referendum, National Demo, Strategic Review, Constitutional Review, Joint Student Affairs Committee, (Bower) Parking, Site Chairs, Chaplaincy, Events Progress, Media Progress, Second Site Surgery (Bower), Meeting NUS, House Services and Nursery Plans!

Budgets

First things first, budgets have been allocated by Societies Executive. You should soon be receiving a notice of your allocation and I hope you're happy with what you've been given! It was noted, however, that some societies could be missing out on money they need because of discrepancies and confusion when reading why you need the money you ask for.

I shall be requesting that anyone that is in a society committee goes away when they reads this, attempts to fill out a budget form from scratch, and then feeds back to me either in person or on email as to the problems and confusion they have while filling it out. The Societies Executive and myself are determined to weed out the confusing elements so that we can all allocate funds more fairly.

Referendum
As everyone will no doubt know we held a referendum and it was a highly successful event. The figures for voting in the referendum and our site chair elections was over 1000 people, with the referendum result at 89% voting to stay affiliated to the NUS. The most resounding result of this is that we got almost half the amount of people to vote on this one issue as the amount that voted on the four issues of electing the UWESU presidents. This can only be good news for participation in the students' union and we are now crossing our fingers (but not resting on our laurels) that we'll see an even bigger election turn out in March that'll break over and above the average percentage that students' unions achieve throughout the UK.

National Demo
The National Demo was a partial success for UWESU. We took about 80 people to the demo and joined up with a predicted 10,000 others marching on the issue of free education. The rally held at Trafalgar square was very inspiring and left a lot of people feeling pretty happy with the results of the day.
Unfortunately it didn't get the media coverage it required in my opinion, and ultimately cost this union a lot of money to do that we don't necessarily have. In the future the money set aside for campaigns will need to be reviewed heavily if national demos will happen frequently. We won't be stopping here though, with plans for a campus rally and other action getting under way now.

Strategic Review
This is an important time for UWESU as for many years there has been claims that we would make a strategic plan for the union, but it has never formulated into an actual document. The university is now pretty much demanding we have a strategic plan, and rightly so, and as such a huge amount of effort and resource in the union is going to decide on our direction for the next 3 to 5 years. Currently we are working with the NUS and external facilitators to truly get to grips and back to basics"¦ why are we in existence, what is it we exist to achieve, and what is a realistic way to go about achieving our goals? We will have a draft document by February which will be submitted for your notice and feedback, and look forward to the opportunities this exercise will bring about with the university.

Constitutional Review
Alongside out strategic review we also are reviewing our constitution. There are some unfortunate flaws with our governing document as well as potentially disastrous ones. Gaps need to be plugged and in effect the document could do with an entire reworking. We are heading in as officers, along with a nominated interested student party, to a time where with staff direction we look honestly at our system of governance and how we engage with students.

This won't result in a fundamental change to the core beliefs in the constitution"¦that councils like these targeted at individuals who are interested are much better forums of communication than one larger meeting that rarely achieves quorum, and that students should have easy and frequent avenues to explore to hold the union presidents to account, but it will ensure that the document is written in a way that anyone should be able to understand how we work by reading it.
Again, this document will need to be noted by yourselves as well as other students before being approved by the board of governors of UWE, however we are pushing hard to realign what the presidential roles are by rewriting the remit of the SRC Vice-President into a Welfare and Campaigning role, by renaming the SRC council to Academic Rep council or similar, and to reintroduce an adequate level of union general meetings to go over and approve policy that is too large for a single council to decide but needs a decision before the AGM.
It's truly an exciting exercise and we'll look forward to seeing what your response is when the task is complete.
Joint Student Affairs Committee
We had our first meeting of what is called a Joint Student Affairs Committee, a body that deals with ensuring the student experience at university is dealt with in an appropriate manner as defined by the university on a senior management and governor level, as well as by the students' union. Many issues came up at the last meeting and they revolved around the idea of how the university can improve retention of students, improve the ability for graduates to get a job after finishing their course, to engage with students on a positive level and also to help students get more from their time at University.
It was the first of its kind, and after the next meeting I hope to feedback fully with an idea of how things progress due to the get-togethers we have as a union with the university on this issue.

(Bower) Parking
Parking in general is an issue, though it is almost exemplified by Bower Ashtons current car parking woes. This is possibly the biggest issue I'm dealing with right now along with the Sports President on the transport agenda, bigger even than buses! With the hiring of a transport planner in the university there will soon be the chance to discuss changes to the car parking permits with the cap on £15 being lifted for next year. Possibilities are being stated all around that range from keeping it and limiting parking space to raising the price significantly. It's important that people that have an opinion on this get in touch with me to let me know what they would like to see done so that I can truly represent the students on this issue.

Site Chairs
Welcome to our new Site Chairs! Unfortunately participation was down significantly on all levels from last year on this issue, and as such Bower Ashton and Hartpury don't have a Site Committee yet. Work is going on now to try and hold local by-elections to get these committees off the ground as they form a vital part of the new constitution and student communication. I hope everyone else will welcome Kevin and Vikki as Frenchay chairs, Jess as St Matt's site chair and Vikki and Clare at Glenside chairs.

For next year we are reforming our laws in line with constitutional review to ensure that Site Chairs (as well as a few other elected roles) are voted for in March along side the full time executive. It is important to both have true awareness of the site chair elections at an opportune time, but also to elect site chairs before their incumbents potentially leave university with such a huge responsibility being helping to co-ordinate their site Freshers' activities.

Chaplaincy
Talks have recently been going on with all of the officers and the Chaplaincy. The Chaplaincy is currently trying to find its feet in the new scheme of life on campus and define what its purpose is to all students whether they have a faith or not. UWESU intends to work with them primarily on diversity issues as we see the chaplaincy as the perfect outlet for celebrating diversity on all levels. More will be developed through the year and an initial draft of diversity events and campaigns for next academic year is the very least that must be achieved.

Events Progress
Events progress is slow and ultimately problematic. The line up of events has drastically changed from what was initially programmed due to student demand. Gone are the comedy and film nights that cost the union much more than it brought back, as is the Saturday night dance and RnB night. Instead we now have a Shipwrecked Pre-Party on Tuesdays, Sports on TV on Wednesdays, and Saturdays are now Boogie Wonderland, a 70's and 80's funky retro night. Mondays were previously free and are now being trialled fortnightly as Speed Dating nights.

Financially our events program is struggling and it is disheartening to see students choosing to take their custom elsewhere than the students' union. The plan to tackle this is two fold, with a proper planning and promotions development meeting for the second term so we aren't the cause of our own problems. This term has seen poor planning and promotional issues and it can only have been detrimental to our intakes on the various event nights.
We will also be looking at the various surveys we're carrying out through the year, as well as providing focus group opportunities, to truly get to the bottom of what it is that a student market at UWE desires from an events programme, as well as to engage more constructively with the university to discern how UWESU is a separate yet very important part of the university experience, rather than being ignored as currently happens in university welcome events.

Media Progress
I don't want to infringe on the responsibilities of the Media chair but with some unfortunate timing there hasn't been much chance to convene a media sub-committee as per the time of writing this.
Ultimately we're seeing a lot of results now from work that has been put in. The website is now up in its updated form and we're processing the niggles and listening to feedback on its appearance and usability. Everyone is encouraged to go and use it and get a feel for what is right and wrong with it. The HUB is now broadcasting again and can be listened to on AM radio frequency 1449 or you can listen to a much better quality broadcast online at http://www.uwesu.net/thehub/.

Second Site Surgery (Bower)
We held our second site surgery, though perhaps arguably the first in terms of effectiveness, and it was a great experience. Myself and Katherine Smart the sports president spent 2 hours talking to Bower students about their issues. We got everything from transport issues, site issues and course issues, to problems with the bar, food, and provisions on campus. Everything that was brought up has either been passed on to people to get something done, or is ready for bringing up and fighting for in relevant meetings in the near future.

Meeting NUS
The NUS have clearly shown to me that they are changing their spots. Post-referendum I had to be cynical and expect to be forgotten about, but NUS staff have constantly been there ever since to help out and offer guidance. We met with Sarah Caines who is the South West RO for the NUS, someone who has a lot of time for UWE it seems, and we've also had further facilitation and guidance meetings with the NUS South RO.
All of this recently culminated in the South West Regional Conference taking place here at UWE on the 8th of November. At the next meeting you should get our reports of how that went if you don't receive it before hand, but it was a very enlightening experience for me personally.

House Services
In a meeting with House Services, a department of the university that deals with transport, accommodation, catering, etc, I had a lot of good progress made on several issues, some I've already fed back on in this document. What I haven't is as follows"¦
Car Park 20 is in a state of flux at the moment, and its temporary nature is being questioned. This is encouraging news as it shows the university is thinking hard about its provisions for students, and lays the ground work for potentially sorting out some of the car parking issues that have been had. Of course nothing is confirmed until the new transport planner is in his office!

A bus shelter is being put up over the 70 bus stop at the end of the bus lane at Frenchay, you may even already have seen it by the time you read this as it is getting put in very soon.
I'll be talking with the university and the bus company they use about the Flyer and Shuttle routes after 6pm. There's hope that through communication we can facilitate a route between Glenside, St Matt's and Frenchay until midnight while still getting people to the city centre and back.
And finally, halal is back on the menu! Both the UWESU shop and OneZone now supply halal options for those that require them. As ever we want to know your feedback on this if you do eat halal foods as to if the issue is properly resolved.

Nursery Plans
Finally, the last issue is the nursery provisions. With Halley being all but saved from the fate it was recently given of being torn down in stead of a super nursery on Frenchay, it is clear the university is willing to put a lot of time into nursery provision at UWE. With £750k being invested in nursery provisions, £50k for Halley and £700k for a temporary 40 place nursery at Frenchay, it is clear that it is a time of change. The Frenchay Nursery will be placed on Car Park 18 and will be open in October 2007! The only question now is who will run it, and UWESU obviously believes the experience we have of running Halley goes to show that we should be running both, something the university is clearly giving consideration.