Guild Officer Elections: Voting Open Now!

If you’ve been able to come onto the main Edgbaston campus recently, you will have noticed cardboard and posters and matresses and banners and balloons and people dressed in odd costumes. This can only mean one thing: elections! The student media groups have also been covering the elections online: BurnFM have interviews with each candidate, GTV also have interviews and Redbrick have been writing articles along the way, as well as featuring manifestos and statements from each candidate.

Voting is open right now on www.my.bham.ac.uk (log in as usual, click the blue elections banner and off you go!) and closes at 4pm on Friday 9th March. Results will be streamed live by GTV on the evening of Saturday 10th March, as well as being live-blogged by Redbrick. Interviews will be available throughout the night from BurnFM.

Every student has a vote in these elections and every vote really does count. Last year we had a huge voter turnout and this year we’re aiming to have even more engaged students logging onto my.bham to get their voice heard. Remember, the Guild is not just a building: it is also a service for representation and welfare.

——

Vici Royle
Satellite Sites Officer
email: v.royle@guild.bham.ac.uk
twitter: @GuildSSO

Guild Council Report: 02/02/2012

Firstly, there is a movement that has been created by some students from the University. It calls for a General Meeting at the Guild of Students. To find out more, please follow @ReclaimThe Guild on twitter, peruse their website at www.reclaimtheguild.com or find them on Facebook by searching for ‘Reclaim the Guild’.

And onto the report…

All Guild Council meetings tend to get rather passionate with various sides of a debate getting frustrated that the other cannot be led to agree with their points. As such, I learnt that I get extremely passionate about rooms within the Guild and, separately, the role of the President. Both passions are logical as I used to be a President of a society, and am currently in a team with a prominent President; and I have experience of being frustrated about being beaten down by the demand by more established societies about the need for rooms within the Guild therefore having less bookable space would cause further, more intense frustration.

As my constituents are likely to live away from the surrounding areas of Edgbaston and main campus, I imagine that many would not have been able to attend Guild Council last night. As such, this blog post may end up being particularly detailed so I do apologise if the length makes you forget about something important you needed to do today. Write a check list now! I don’t intend to discuss every aspect of the seven hour long meeting, however, as not all of it was relevant to either my constituents or the reaction it created within me.

One of the motions called for a ‘tweak’ in the description of the President’s role, as written in the bye-laws. It was claimed, by the proposer, that this does not alter the role of the President in any way but removes a phrase that is an oxymoron and satisfies correct use of English. Whilst this is something I agree with, being a self-confessed pedant for use of language and grammar, the proposed amendment went further:

“As Chair and spokesperson of both the Sabbatical Officer Group and the Guild Officer Group the President shall be first amongst equals and act as the lead officer of the Guild of Students responsible for supporting each sabbatical officer in their role.”

The amended description gives the impression that the President would still act as a face of the team but also a secretary under the Vice Presidents to organise the time of his/her team rather than as a leader, as implied by the title of his/her job. To satisfy pedantic language needs, I would have stopped after the first clause as the second does not need correction. During Guild Council, I asked the proposer the reason for the inclusion of the second clause in the amended text to which the reply was that the Chair of a committee in a student group is never the leader but more the supporter of the rest of the team. Though the proposer comes from a strong student groups background, I also was a committee member in my time so have experience of this. As the President of a society, I felt that I was primarily the leader and delegated tasks to the committee in order to ensure the smooth running of the society. As the society was one I established myself, with a friend, it was even more of a personal experience having written the constitution, including the roles of each committee member, ourselves. I felt that the proposer was dangerously changing the dynamic of the team, especially this year, which would have a detrimental affect on the team’s structure and relationship. This motion passed, however, after much debate, so I guess Mark’s role has changed slightly. Consider my feathers ruffled.

The most passionate response I gave was to the motion that called for four rooms in the Guild to be allocated to each liberation association respectively (LGBTQ, Ethnic Minorities, Womens, Disabled Students). This would take the four rooms off the room booking system to the detriment of student groups. As reported, the main purpose of these rooms would be to create a safe space where meetings could be held regularly and events could take place. Consequently, a greater presence of these associations would occur. I am hugely supportive of liberating students who may feel marginalized and do not wish any uncomfortable feelings amongst them. However, I could not understand why taking four rooms away from student groups, who are frustrated with the lack of room in the Guild to begin with, would be beneficial to both parties.

During the meeting, I asked this question, raising the issue of the variety of events, each with different room requirements and specifications, that would become restricted in the event that this motion would pass. The response I got was not satisfactory as the proposer began to explain the meaning of a safe space. This was not what I was focusing on but thankfully the Guild Councillors in the room recognised the problem and voted accordingly. The motion did not pass but the liberation assocations and, hopefully, officers will discuss with the Vice President of Activities and Development a compromise or solution to this matter which is clearly an issue that needs to be resolved.

Unfortunately, after discussing this motion with a variety of people it seems that the motion would have passed if only one room was asked for, as a cross-liberation room, rather than the rather ambitious four. To create a greater presence, I encourage liberation associations to organise events to raise the profile of each liberation sector and to benefit all students. For example, the current Womens Officer is doing a brilliant job with the Womens Association to organise Womens Week, to take place the week post-elections. (To get involved, email Kelly at k.rogers@guild.bham.ac.uk)

Other motions were discussed during the nearly seven-hour-long meeting but those two particularly stood out as directly affecting either myself or Satellite Sites students. If you were unhappy with my response to these two, please do let me know so I can act accordingly. If also you’d like to know what else was discussed, I’d be happy to go into more detail either in a future blog post or in a private conversation.

Always happy to chat,

Vici Royle
Satellite Sites Officer
email: v.royle@guild.bham.ac.uk
twitter: @GuildSSO

When there’s no tea, there’s no team

Recently I visited the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-Upon-Avon to promote the upcoming Guild Officer elections. After my speech about what the SSO does and how they could run not just for my position but for any of the other non-sabbatical or sabbatical roles, I invited everyone to come and have a chat and ask me questions. This was my second visit to the Institute (my first being in campaign week for the by-elections) though I have kept in touch with them through email. Similar issues were brought to my attention that they spoke of when I visited the first time. Noting them all down, one particularly grabbed my attention: tea.

If you’re like me, a cup of tea solves many of life’s problems. After (or even during) a stressful day, taking a break with a cup of tea does not come without the ‘ahh’ feeling of warmth. Indeed, during the riots I took part in ‘Operation Cup of Tea‘, an anti-riots movement started by Sam Pepper. My time so far as a Guild Officer, milling around the ‘Sabb corridor’, has involved overhearing pretty much every Officer’s need for a good cup of tea at some point. I was disgruntled, then, when I was told that the University had cut funding for the Shakespeare Institute’s tea and coffee without even warning or consulting them. Kettles everywhere couldn’t even boil with rage. Mugs watched life go by in cupboards. Milk had only cereal to mix with. I certainly hope this makes you as sad as I was.

This is a central part to life as a student at the Shakespeare Institute. After the Thursday afternoon seminar which most students attend, everyone filters out into the social area to chat about the seminar topic over tea and biscuits. It’s usually free but due to the cuts has had to be funded by donations from the students. The Institute is such a small community where everyone knows each other by name. Most of the students are international or part-time distance learners who come in to the campus only when they need to. This requires some home comforts and warmth.

I remembered the joy of Welcome Week when new students, as well as sneaky not-so-new students, were given purple bags from the Guild with vouchers and lolipops and goodies… AND TEA! When I returned to Birmingham, I waltzed over to marketing to find that we actually still have quite a lot of Yorkshire Tea left that has been used to perk up Guild staff. A quick request was made and my mission was nearly complete. When I take some of the Guild Officers over to Stratford at the end of March, we will be taking with us a donation of Yorkshire Tea as a short-term solution for their tea woes. Ahh.

I hope you see some jest in this post: I acknowledge there are bigger problems that cannot be solved simply by taking a break with a cuppa. If they’re Guild/University-related, I’d be happy to speak about them. …over a brew and a digestive, of course.

Cheers,

Vici Royle
Satellite Sites Officer
email: v.royle@guild.bham.ac.uk
twitter: @GuildSSO

The Importance of Sleep and Organisation

Non-Sabbatical officers continue with their degrees whilst fulfilling their elected positions. As such, I’ve been swamped by essay deadlines and the beauty of the dissertation. Having 5500 words to write, and a re-draft of a dissertation proposal to research for and do, over Christmas and New Year really makes free time all the more enjoyable.

However, I have not been neglecting my duty as Satellite Sites Officer! On the first day of term, before midday, I was already in a meeting with the Welfare representative of the Drama department, amongst others, regarding the possible closure of the social area in the Orchard Learning Resource Centre (OLRC), on the Selly Oak campus. Obviously I’m fighting for the area to stay open or, if it really does come to it, for an alternative to be arranged. Watch this space.

As well as this, I’ve been involved with developing a strategy to make Satellite Sites students feel more involved with the Guild in order to submit themselves as candidates in the Guild Officer elections, which are coming very soon. I’ve already done a lecture shout to first year Drama students, advertising the job of Satellite Sites Officer, which was followed up by a department-wide email. Next Thursday afternoon, I’ll hopefully be taking as many Sabbs and Non-Sabbs as possible to take ‘Sabbs on the sofa’ to Stratford-Upon-Avon for the students at the Shakespeare Institute. Not only will they have the chance to grill the officers about the elections but also they can ask questions regarding the Guild itself.

Though I have all this planned, I’m also the Assistant Lighting Designer for the drama department’s production of Dostoyevsky’s Heroines so my time is being taken up substantially by that and I’m soon to have very little sleep. Come and see it, it’ll be grand! 9th – 11th February, George Cadbury Hall (Selly Oak campus), 7.30pm – tickets £5 for students.

Fab (every Saturday at the Guild!) this weekend will be a welcome relief to what is going to be a rather full week.

As always, I can be contacted about any Guild/Satellite Sites issue by the means below.

Keep smiling! And enjoy sleep!

Vici Royle
Satellite Sites Officer
email: v.royle@guild.bham.ac.uk
twitter: @GuildSSO

Round round, get around, I get around…

A week ago I had a meeting with John Heath, one of the Pro-Vice Chancellors of the University. Sitting in were also Hugo (the VPDR) and Caroline Radnor (the Sustainable Travel Coordinator). The aim of this meeting was to communicate the need for a bus stop (possibly two) on the main Edgbaston campus to encourage more students to use the three shuttle buses. As the Satellite Sites Officer, my main concern was with Route C, the Selly Shuttle that runs between the Barber Institute on main campus and an access point on the Selly Oak campus. Without this shuttle, some students would not be able to attend lectures, classes and seminars or use the library and IT services in the OLRC.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get my bus stop. What I did get, however, was the (loose) promise of an all-student email (yes, to 28,000 students) advertising each shuttle, their stops and their timetables. I was also told of the possibility of sticking a virtual bus stop on the UoB Student App (available for Android and iPhone – Blackberry on its way) as well as a timetable as a pdf document. It was also suggested that a bundle of timetables would be distributed to the OLRC on the Selly Oak campus and in the Arts Building on main campus (as many who study at the Arts building also study on the Selly Oak campus). I wasn’t particularly pleased with the latter suggestion as my point was that not enough students know of or use the shuttle and it could benefit so many more people. To distribute the timetables doesn’t really do anything: whoever knows about the shuttle will seek out a timetable, whoever doesn’t know about it will not do anything and will ignore timetables for things they do not know about. I was told to ‘be nice’ and acknowledge that even the simplest of ideas turn out to never be that simple. I can understand that but when I have a limited amount of time to serve Satellite Sites Students and a short meeting with a PVC, I very much took a bit of an Alan Sugar approach and was polite but firm with my requirements.

The reason I didn’t get a yes for the bus stop was buried under planning permission reasons. With the works that are underway particularly on the route of the Selly shuttle, it wasn’t possible (or rather, it would have been too much work for the University – sigh) to put a bus stop where I wanted it. There were also issues surrounding the Barber being a heritage building, which I can understand a little more. This definitely won’t be the end to this crusade. The app and the distribution of timetables are a start but this is not quite up to standard for what I wanted to achieve.

A comment made by John Heath was that even if I got a bus stop sorted, I couldn’t claim it as my win because it would take a couple of years. I’m not entirely sure he saw the point, there. Yes, it was one of my manifesto points so I’d like to tick it off as an ‘I promised and delivered’ thing but I’m more concerned about actually getting the job done in the first place. I’m not all that bothered about shouting that I did it: I just want people to know that it was done. There’s a definite difference.

The chat about transport didn’t end there. As we’d used up only 20 minutes of the hour slot I was scheduled, I raised more issues that I’d found during campaigning:

• Vale to Medical > make it safer to walk or add it onto the shuttle route
• Dental Students > it’s in the centre of town! Give them a discounted/free travel card
• Shakespeare Institute > help them get their minibus back to allow them easier access to not just other campuses (including Edgbaston campus for the Guild) but also for educational field trips and the like
• Shakespeare Institute > visa issues for international students who study in Stratford but have to come to the Aston Webb for a 10 minute meeting about visa troubles

I’m happy to say most of the above was either agreed on or came to a happy compromise or further action point for research. Hugo seemed flabbergasted at the amount of issues Satellite Sites Students have.

Now the Sabb team (or at the very least Hugo) are at least aware that Satellite Sites students should be recognised and heard because they face problems those who study on Edgbaston Campus just don’t understand. I’m shouting as loud as I can about how the Guild should be looking after their needs, too, and will continue to do my job.

Another of my manifesto points was to bring the Guild to satellite sites. By this I meant that some services are portable and the Sabb team are indeed very portable so can travel away from their beloved offices. I invited the whole Officer Team to watch third year Drama students in ‘East Lynne’ at the Selly Oak campus. Mark, the President, and Hugo, the VPDR, managed to make the effort with others sending their apologies as they’d already made plans (I was a little late with the invite). Two days prior, I’d found all the Sabbs and most of the non-sabbs to write a small good luck message to both the cast and the production team which I presented to them on the night. Little things like this really do make a difference and I was able to explain to the other officers that the production is completely student-run with third years acting and doing the most important jobs backstage, second years helping with backstage aspects such a sound, lighting, costume, stage management, props and set and the first years doing all the running around and hard graft jobs. Each production is always of a stellar quality: a very enjoyable experience for the students involved and for the audience. And, of course, it counts towards their final degree mark. Mark and Hugo both enjoyed it, with Mark noting the night as his first visit to a satellite site (and certainly not the last!). Watch this space for the Officers visiting again for ‘Dostoyevsky’s Heroines’ in February!

As always, I’m happy to receive comments, complaints or concerns about satellite sites and can be contacted by email or twitter as below.

That leaves me with only the joy of wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a safe, relaxing holiday! Here’s hoping for snow…

Vici Royle
Satellite Sites Officer
email: v.royle@guild.bham.ac.uk
twitter: @GuildSSO

Guild Officer Report for Guild Council

To follow Guild Council, either follow the twitter hashtag “#GuildCouncil” or visit Redbrick’s microsite here: http://www.redbrickpaper.co.uk/guildcouncil/

————————

Date submitted: 21/11/2011.

The following was submitted as part of the Guild Council paperwork for the Guild Council meeting on 6/12/11. It was emailed to all Guild Councillors and attendees on 29/11/11. The below was included in ’4h. Guild Officer Reports’ on pages 21 and 22.

—

What duties have you been carrying out which tie into your manifesto pledges?

Better Representation:

>Attended Student Rep Induction event for Dental School student reps and collected feedback on how my role could be used effectively this year. Concerns have been noted and will be acted upon as far as I can manage.

>During campaign week, I visited the Shakespeare Institute and met with the committee of their performance group to discuss matters of the relationship between them and the Guild. They were unsatisfied with the representation they have experienced and told me that their last visit from the Guild was in 2009 and even then they were unsatisfied. They requested that if I am elected, which of course now I am, I should visit them once a term.

>I also told The Shakespeare Institute Players about being a Guild recognised society, which they responded positively about. I followed up my promise to them by sending them an email with the start-up form and further advice. I am awaiting a decision from the committee.

>During the Better Forums, I requested that promotional material should be sent to the satellite sites and not restricted to prime spots on the Edgbaston Campus. This was noted.

Improved Transport:

>I have met with a staff member at Selly Oak campus to discuss the current state of the Selly Shuttle. This staff member has been dealing with the change of timetable over the summer and informed me of the limitations and frustration he has faced. We discussed options for protecting the welfare of drama students during production weeks (four separate weeks in the academic year) and a further meeting is required to make decisions. Options were also discussed for the betterment of the Selly Shuttle service and the reasons for its reduced timetable.

Bring the Guild to you:

>By attending the Student Rep induction at the Dental School, I brought the Guild to a satellite site and created a more positive, comfortable atmosphere for students to voice their opinions in their familiar site.

>Promotional material has been suggested to be distributed to satellite sites as well as on the main Edgbaston campus.

>I’m planning visits to the satellite sites by some of the Guild Officer team in the future.

>Forwarded email with details of away trips for international and home students – positive feedback received.

What other duties have you been carrying out within your role?

>As a side project for myself, I co-ordinated a collection of shoebox gifts for Operation Christmas Child. Operation Christmas Child is a project whereby you decorate a shoebox with Christmas wrapping paper and fill it with small gifts like teddies, toothpaste, tennis balls and more, then add a note for the gender and age group you wish to receive the box. The boxes are sent to the most deprived parts of the world. To promote the project, I added a note in the weekly Societies newsletter, asking for people to get involved either as individuals or as societies. I also posted leaflets with contact details in the pigeon-holes of societies as an extra point of contact. Posters were distributed around the Guild. This meant that in addition to my own box, Saturday Morning Playscheme got involved by giving two boxes, The Beeches Volunteering Officer passed on ten boxes from Beeches residents, the Guild’s own Disabled Students Officer donated a box herself and a very welcome last-minute addition was made by an anonymous student. In total, 15 boxes were taken to Edgbaston’s drop-off point and I will report back in January when I receive news of where the boxes were delivered to. Thank you to Jen Kirk for helping me send the boxes off to the drop-off point and to all those who got involved with creating their shoebox gifts – you’re going to make some children extremely happy this winter!

>Blogging! Since being elected, I have published three blog posts well above the requirement of 100 words. The first post was an introductory post that promised for a good year, the second post introduced Operation Christmas Child and the third post was a report from the last Guild Council. See: http://officerblogs.com/sso for more details.

>National Demo Coaches. At the end of my first week as Satellite Sites Officer, I had to make a difficult decision about the National Demo coaches as part of GOG.

>MAD: Mind Awareness Days. Attended the focus group for MAD. I was actioned to present research on the use of colour in marketing, following comments from attendees who suggested a change of design for publicity. As well as this, I promised to use my contacts within the Drama department to potentially bring local theatre groups who may want to get involved. Also spoke to a student group committee member and asked him to put forward the idea to his committee. Awaiting feedback.

>Guild Council. Attended GC on 10^th November and engaged in debate where necessary. Defended the President when a censure was proposed against him for inappropriate tweeting. See my blog for a full GC commentary.

>Staff. Whilst I represent students, I do feel that the staff should be taken into account and their concerns should be looked after. As such, I have spoken with a lecturer of Drama and Theatre Arts concerning the non-use of some buildings on the Selly Oak campus. This will be brought up with the VPDR in due course and information will be fed back to the department.

What do you aim to get done before the Guild Council?

>Meet with Sabb mentor to discuss action plan on certain manifesto points.

>Publish this report on my blog when the Guild Council papers get sent out.

>Present colour research to DSO and VPW for MAD.

>Attend GOG.

>Attend Intercultural Awareness Training session as suggested by ISO.

>Hopefully attend non-sabb training (it has been problematic to arrange a training session due to the busy schedules of the new non-sabbatical officers).

———–
Vici Royle
Satellite Sites Officer
Email: v.royle@guild.bham.ac.uk
Twitter: @GuildSSO
Blog: http://officerblogs.com/sso

Guild Council Report 10/11/11

Firstly, as a point of information, Guild Officers are not able to vote on anything in Guild Council so no reports of how I voted will be available (because, well, I didn’t vote, obviously).

Here we go…

Guild Council is the highest democratic body in the Guild of Students. Those who attend are elected to represent constituents such as student group mini-forums, departmental schools, associations and so on. The whole sabbatical and non-sabbatical (aka the Guild Officers) also attend but do not have a vote on the motions. We are there to receive comments from the elected Guild Councillors, to answer questions and to speak up about topics if needs must. Also, as Guild Officers we need to understand what’s going on in the Guild and what students want. Attending Guild Council is an efficient way to do this. The people in the room are not only Guild Councillors (or Guild Officers, or the chair & deputy chair): anyone can attend and the meeting regularly welcomes students with no constituency to represent (i.e. they come representing themselves).

The point of this post is not to explain the workings of Guild Council but to report on the changes made and a few poignant discussions that happened during the last meeting. If anyone has any questions on the methods used at Guild Council, either email me (v.royle@guild.bham.ac.uk) or the Vice President of Democracy and Resources, Hugo (h.sumner@guild.bham.ac.uk). A more detailed account of an Open Place Guild Councillor’s experience of Guild Council, including a breakdown of all the motions that were voted on and sections discussed, can be found here: http://defraine.tumblr.com. I’ll just be focusing on the issues I feel most affect the Satellite Sites students and I found a personal interest in.

Firstly, the Officer Discipline Policy. At the previous Guild Council, not enough people attended for the meeting to be quorate (so there was less than 50% + 1 of elected representatives). One of the motions that was not starred (i.e. did not want to be discussed) was the Officer Discipline Policy. As it was not starred, it passed (it was agreed on). The elected Officer team then had to sign this document in agreement to follow its rules. Previous to this, there was no Code of Conduct by which the Officer team had to adhere. Whilst it goes without saying that Officer should be responsible, it was, in effect, a free-for-all. A brief discussion was had regarding this policy and many felt that certain sections were “unacceptable”. The argument to ratify this motion called for it to be agreed upon and then changed at the next Guild Council to amend the “unacceptable” sections. To nullify the Policy document would mean that amendments could not be made therefore progress is halted. It makes sense to me that there should be an Officer Code of Conduct so that Guild Officers have enforced responsibility with clear guidelines for how they must act and what they cannot do. The Code of Conduct should be relevant to the Guild and useful. A vote was held and the motion did not pass. Therefore, there is no current Officer Code of Conduct or Discipline Policy.

In the Questions & Scrutiny section, comments are directed at the Guild Officer team on a variety of subjects. Censures can also be given if an Officer is believed to have strayed away from his or her job or done something “not cool” (in the words of Chair Johnny Dolan). Three censures were attempted. The first was against the President for “inappropriate use of social media” (namely: Twitter). This censure did not pass and, in my opinion, rightly so. I gave a point of information that if the President was to receive this censure, the whole Guild Officer team should be monitored on their use of social media (namely: Twitter) and the fact that only one of the GOs received this censure shows that it was potentially a personal attack. I used an example of VP Housing & Community’s (VPHC) tweets that was seemingly irrelevant to his job as VP. In addition, there are no guidelines for the use of social media and, referring back to my previous point, there is not Officer Code of Conduct. How does one justify, then, inappropriate or appropriate use without agreed guidelines? A point I did not make at Guild Council was realised to me later on: the tweet used as an attempt to prosecute the President referred to “post-Fab analysis”. Whilst the general jist of the tweet was social rather than business-like, he still did refer to a Guild-run event therefore was promoting involvement in the Guild. Just saying.

The second censure was against non-sabbatical officer of Environment and Ethics (EEO) for lack of communication. This, again, did not pass. The EEO’s sabbatical mentor, VPHC, produced a perfectly valid defense that as a non-sabbatical officer, work over the summer is difficult as she spent her time at home as a break from her studies and that emails were sent to the correct people but were not replied to. In this instance, I feel that this problem could have been ironed out by speaking to the officer herself rather than potentially humiliating her in front of the whole of Guild Council. Alice Swift, who proposed the censure, repeatedly said “I don’t want to be doing this”. I wholly agree and suggest that if you do not want to do something, don’t do it. I urge any similar potential censures to be resolved by contacting the officer in question directly rather than going to such means at Guild Council. All email addresses are fairly simple: either use the first initial, then a dot, then their surname (i.e. v.royle, h.sumner etc) or their job title initials (i.e. sso, vpdr) followed by @guild.bham.ac.uk (v.royle@guild.bham.ac.uk, sso@guild.bham.ac.uk). As I said, this particular censure did not pass and the EEO was given a chance considering her commitments within her degree and the time-restraints she has.

During questions, the Guild Officer team (possibly directed specifically at the VPDR) were asked of their thoughts on female-participation within the recent Guild Councillor elections and Officer By-elections. The VPDR suggested going through the candidates list and presenting the findings of male:female ratio as a solid statistic. When questioned on the representation of women in the room and suggested that there should be more women at Guild Council, I gave a point of information, which I have since been criticised for, that it is impossible to find out whether people voted for a candidate based on gender or based on policy. I can say that the way I vote for candidates is based on whether I believe they would be the best person for the job, decided through an observation of their personality and analysis of their policy points. I respect that some people would prefer to see more female Guild Councillors and, in that case, urge women to step forward and show that they, as individuals, are the best people for the job. Democracy is about fairness and having a 50-50 split of female:male Guild Councillors based on their gender does not seem very fair to me as this may push good candidates to the wayside. If a 50-50 split occured as a result of the best candidates being elected, this would be a fantastic thing and, as I’ve said, I urge those who believe in this ratio to encourage females to run for Guild Council positions. The current Women’s Officer has suggested that she will work with the VPDR to research the ways in which they can encourage more female participation.

This brings me to the end of what I particularly wanted to communicate. As aforementioned, for a more detailed account from an Open Place Guild Councillor, please read this.

As always, if there are any questions or comments that you wish to make, either email me (v.royle@guild.bham.ac.uk) or leave a constructive comment.

______

Vici
Satellite Sites Officer
email: v.royle@guild.bham.ac.uk
twitter: @GuildSSO

A side project: Operation Christmas Child

This year I’m donating a shoebox gift to Operation Christmas Child and wanted to get more people involved as it’s such a great cause. If you don’t know about it already, OCC is part of Samaritan’s Purse International Relief and is the largest Christmas project in the world, set up in 1990. To get involved, you decorate a shoebox with wrapping paper and fill it with small gifts like notepads, pens, hat, scarf, gloves, sweets, soft toys, small sports equipment, hair accessories etc (see attachment for full list of suggestions). It is then sent to a drop-off point (the nearest to the Guild are in Harborne and Edgbaston) where it is then sent to the toughest parts of the world for the benefit of underprivileged children.

As I want to get more people involved, I’m coordinating a collection all throughout Week 8. To get involved, create a shoebox gift and drop it off in the Guild Officer offices (up the stairs past Spar to the top floor, take a U-turn to the right) or email me on the address below to arrange a personal collection. On Friday 11am in Week 8 hopefully many people will have given me their shoebox gifts and I’ll stock up the boot of a car and drive off to the drop-off point to make lots of people happy.

I’ve already made my shoebox gift and, just to give you an example, it was aimed at a girl aged 5-9 and I included:

• A hat and gloves
• Jelly beans
• A pack of 10 notepads
• Felt tip pens
• A toothbrush and toothpaste
• Hair accessories

If you want to get involved, please leave a comment or drop me an email at v.royle@guild.bham.ac.uk

For more information about Operation Christmas Child, their website is: http://www.operationchristmaschild.org.uk/

The deadline for handing in shoeboxes is Friday 18th November at 10am.

______

Vici
Satellite Sites Officer
email: v.royle@guild.bham.ac.uk
twitter: @GuildSSO

A promising year

I’m Vici and I’m the Satellite Sites Officer (SSO). I’m a third year Drama student studying at the Selly Oak Campus. I ran to be Satellite Sites Officer because I felt under-represented at the Guild, being a student who spends most of her time away from the main Edgbaston campus. Publicity did not reach even the Selly Oak campus and satellite sites were rarely referred to in open forums. Representation is one of two points I ran with for my campaign and something that will be continually worked upon and reported on during my term as SSO.

Equally as important, the other policy I ran with was improving the Selly Shuttle (and transport between the main campus and satellite sites altogether). Having already had a short meeting with a member of staff at the Selly Oak campus who deals with the shuttle’s organisation, I now understand the ways in which I could improve the service for students who currently use the shuttle and for students who want to but don’t know when or where it runs from and to.

It is too early in the meeting stage to disclose what could be done as I don’t want to make promises that I can’t keep. I can, however, say that I will be speaking to the appropriate people about signposting and making the shuttle stops more obvious to students who don’t know about the service. Timetables are currently on the screens in the OLRC on the Selly Oak Campus, and available online, but I feel more can be done to improve publicity so more students can benefit from the service. This is also something I am looking into and developing on.

Referring back to representation, during campaign week I had a meeting with the President, Treasurer and Secretary of the Shakespeare Institute Players, based on the Stratford-Upon-Avon Shakespeare Institute campus. They told me in depth about issues they were experiencing with the Guild of Students and spoke of a lack of contact, even saying there was no discourse between the Guild and the Institute in order to have any relationship, negative or positive. They appreciated my visit and requested that, should I be elected, I return to see how they were getting on and to talk to them about resolving the problems. I’m thankful that I received such support from the students at the Institute and will strive to strengthen the bond between the Guild and them, to set an example for future SSO candidates.

Considering I was officially elected on Monday and today is Wednesday, watch this space for a promising year for satellite sites students at the University of Birmingham!

______

Vici
Satellite Sites Officer
email: v.royle@guild.bham.ac.uk
twitter: @GuildSSO