On the 27th January, the Vice President of Democracy and Resources (Hugo) and I went to Manchester to see the first prototype of the NUS Digital website project that should be available from this coming academic year if all goes to plan. There are some real benefits available for student groups which are detailed below:
NUS Digital!
Society Information
• Online Membership – this will become a reality with the new website. The advantages of this mean that students will easily be able to sign up and pay membership online at any point throughout the year. It also means information needed by the Guild such as ‘next of kin’ can be easily given which will stop problems with incomplete forms being returned.
• More control – society committee members will have more power over what they can upload on to the website. It will mean societies can upload anything they want and that will then notify an administrator for approval if it is needed to complete the upload.
• Online memory base – each society will be able to upload links, pdfs, photos, documents, articles and pages to customise their own area. Certain parts of this can be available to admins, members only or everyone.
• Finance – societies will be able to view bank statements and print these out. The idea is that it will also be able to link up to our finance system to allow groups the ability to submit claim forms, purchase orders and contracts online which will then be sent straight to the relevant person/department for approval.
• Awards – Guild Awards and External Awards can be added to each group page so students know which our award winning societies are!
Tickets and Events
• Calendar – any group that uploads an event will be able to view it on the master calendar of all club/society events. There is also an option to have Guild events and club/society events in different calendars.
• Printing – There will be an option to print e-tickets with a barcode on them that can be scanned if wanted
• Pricing – Different prices can be added for the same event
• Society control – societies will be able to add, amend and delete their events, see who is attending and add links, sound and animation
• Number of tickets – A limit can be placed on how many tickets are available per person.
The website will also be accessible via a smart phone.
I am hoping the next stage will be to show a working demonstration to societies and clubs to get some feedback. However, if you want any more detail or information about what is written above then please get in contact. (See Contact Me Page)