Ollie Cosentino – VPAD Blog

Hi all,

First of all a massive thank you to everyone who came to Guild Awards and congratulations to all the winners and those who were commended.

There are some more changes to rooms going on at the moment that we’re looking for some feedback from student groups.

There have been talks with the University about setting up an on-campus job agency to centralise all university jobs. Originally the Guild wanted to host this through the Job Zone but due to the fact that we’re a seperate charity, it created issues with VAT.

Since then, the University and Guild have been working together to propose a model where we work together with the Job Zone, so students are signposted to the same place for part time work rather than splitting it into two areas.

However, the current Job Zone space is too small to house another couple of staff members and so the only real place for it to move to would be the Harvey Milk Room. This is so it is still next to the membership area and of a suitable size.

I know some of you will be very worried about this, but don’t despair! Rather timely, Fresh Asia have cleared out of their space. Although we are still in talks with them about this, we will be able to guarantee this space for student groups in exchange for Harvey Milk in the long term. This may work better for some of you because it is a large (Rosa Parks sized) room with a hard floor and high ceiling which should make it quite a flexible space.

Unfortunately the only problem with this is that there may be a time gap between losing Harvey Milk and gaining Fresh Asia. The University have already started recruiting for the agency and if they cannot put it into the Guild over the summer at the latest then they will create the agency elsewhere in the uni which could be a rival to the Job Zone. The trend of SU job shops across the country is that many are being absorbed by the uni or struggling to continue due to the recession. Due to this, there are fears that if we do not get the on campus job agency in the Guild then the Job Zone may have a limited lifespan.

Apologies for not being able to talk about it with you sooner. The first I have been made aware of this was earlier this term and I have not been in contact with the uni about the agency. It has only just been confirmed that the uni definitely want the Harvey Milk space hence why I am contacting you all for feedback now.

I know many of you may be worried about this so please don’t hesitate to contact me if so. I have brought any previous feedback – on the society email to the attention of the Sabbatical Team. As a consequence, they are largely in favour of the development going ahead all though it is noted that drama groups and the Tea society are especially concerned about this. I will be in touch with those groups in due course to talk about their needs and working around these specifically but if anyone else does have any concerns please let me know asap.

Thanks,
Fliss

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)

For some of you this may be seen as a response to recent action on campus but this is more of a culmination of events that I have witnessed throughout my time as a student and within my term in office and something that I have wished to voice for a while now.

To express what I feel I need to on this issue I’m going to start by going right back to my very first experiences in the Guild as a first year unengaged student in my second semester:

A Perspective of an Unengaged Student

I decided to go along to a Wednesday afternoon Guild Television meeting; partly because I’d paid £5 for membership for the year but more importantly because I’d never been able to afford a video camera and I wanted to have a go at filming. I was welcomed into the society and never looked back. The Station Manager at the time took time out of their busy schedule to teach me the basics in camera work and half a year later I stood for committee myself. My involvement in the society gave me life long friends and also the confidence and skill to get work experience in the media, deciding my preferred career path in something that seemed very much the impossible dream in my home town of Derby. Something so impossible that I didn’t even think was a remote possibility. That is the main reason that I wanted to be Vice President (Activities and Development) because I wanted to give back to the institution that had offered me so much. In turn, that is totally down to the positive attitude of the committee and society members that welcomed me all those years ago and student group committees are now the people that I enjoy helping, who are offering the same treatment to their members that I was offered. This is something that I see on a daily basis in the Guild and arguably one of the most rewarding aspects of the job.

However, there was one aspect of being a brand new society member that I couldn’t understand. There was so much frustration, at times bordering on hatred, for the Guild that was unfathomable to me. We were given access to 3 semi professional cameras; a studio, complete with blue screen and gallery to edit videos in yet the society would often unite in moaning about the Guild, usually on a weekly basis. Now this negative spiral of anger only assisted in embedding this culture within the society and eventually escalated when our one computer died 3 weeks before the deadline for the National Student Tv Awards. (Not aided by staring enviously at the 6 macs used by Redbrick across the corridor). Now as Station Manager at this time I’m not going to pretend that I was happy with the Guild or that I’ve never criticised it, or that I haven’t been jealous of Redbrick, god knows I have done, many a time. Although one thing was for certain; the shouting and venting of the frustration definitely didn’t achieve anything apart from a short term release. By working with the VP(S)AD at the time we managed to not only get a brand new i-mac, but another computer, the old one fixed and a refurbished gallery.

Reflections of a Committee Member

On reflection, GTV was just as much to blame as the Guild. We had failed to communicate our problems and need for a equipment in a way that other media groups had so it was no wonder that we were in a position where we couldn’t function. I’m not letting the Guild off scott free here – arguably they haven’t, and I would say still aren’t, fully supporting GTV to realise their potential but one thing is for certain, communication has improved and I think the effects of this is showing with the higher output of the society and better equipment! (Something the current committee should be taking credit for rather than myself!)

It’s easy to comprehend why a communication meltdown can happen though. Sometimes when you are working so hard to run a society and you are working with people so closely who understand your problems and share your frustrations it becomes unbelievable to you that the Guild isn’t really aware of them. You become trapped in the bubble of your society and the negative feeling shared by your colleagues, at least that is my experience. For me, this only became broken down when we started talking to the Guild and found that there were actually less barriers than we thought in terms of getting things fixed! I became prepared for a battle that I never had to fight.

The lack of communication between societies and the Guild (or more broadly students and the Guild) is something my colleagues in Student Development have commented on from time to time. It is only really when something goes disastrously wrong that we hear about it – a ‘snapping’ moment like the one I had experience with above. I would love to see as many of those avoided as possible. Work with me. Come and tell me your frustrations and what is wrong. Don’t just chat amongst the committee but channel those feelings upwards. You never know, the negative vibes may be baffling new members in the same way I experienced a few years ago and there may be less barriers than you think. The Guild is awful at communicating why it makes certain decisions and is something I have been at fault of time to time but I am working on it – so come meet me halfway.

As a Sabbatical Officer

Now, having moved over to the ‘dark side’ or to that of the ‘enemy’, I have seen sadly more instances of a negative attitude that I would have liked. My opening sentence to this section is something that I am often made to feel by some of our engaged students in the Guild and for me is something that is not conducive to making change.

Now you may think I’m being oversensitive with that opinion but I don’t think the sarcastic language and swearing that is so often banded around on the Guild Open Forums will allow you to instantly form that conclusion. Tonight has seen some of the worst of that. Too many times had political ideology got in the way of working together to make real change. Too many times has unconstructive criticism got in the way of discussing the real issues at hand and too many times have personal attacks been made. This is something that I would say is worse on the online forums than their physical counterparts or Guild Council, but are definitely not restricted to them. I’m not sure if it’s because hiding behind a computer screen allows people to forget they are offending ‘real’ people or if they just don’t have the courage to come across like that in the physical meetings.

I am not here to comment on what actually took place today, for one I was not present due to a prolonged period of illness which I am only just recovering from but also because I feel it will undermine the point of this post. What I will say is that if a more positive attitude was adopted before the protest was carried out, would we even be in this mess now? If people thought the route was ‘too tame’, then why was the Guild and University not questioned as to a longer route in a more prominent position? If the idea was to do an occupation to protest against the injunction, why was that not made explicit in the mandate passed through Guild Council? If the idea was to surprise the University, then why was this not communicated to the stewards? As a Guild led protest the stewards were there to help and from some of their comments, have been made to feel not welcome on a student protest. Also, the Guild is liable for things that happen on its protests and as a Sabbatical Trustee I feel very uncomfortable that some of our students didn’t feel that they could communicate their frustration at the plans before the event took place so we could ensure our Risk Assessment was relevant. The law, even if we disagree with it, should never be disregarded without full consequences taken into consideration and is something that flippant comments have often been made about in Guild Council.

I’m nervous about posting this blog because I don’t want this to appear like I am ‘hating on’ students. There’s been enough “sabbs vs students”, “sabb-bashing”, whatever you want to call it and this post is not about that. I will not defend some of the posts made by the sabbs, and the officer team is just as guilty for not always working with a positive attitude as some of our students. But it is about time it stopped, particularly if we ever want a hope in hell’s chance of engaging more of our students.

It has put me off from engaging in student democracy. The Reclaim the Guild Campaign is something that I want to know more about but I am put off attending the meetings, rightly or wrongly, purely because I am a Student Officer. Now again, this may be my oversensitivity but if you are involved in the campaign then please ask yourself why I might feel this way?

Equally I have made some controversial decisions this year but I feel that my biggest critics have not come to question me on this in person or via email. If anyone is unhappy with anything I’ve done then I hope they will feel comfortable enough to question me but if not, they should be able to voice their opinion either to other Officers or Student Development. I am disappointed that some students have felt they have had to go through Guild Council rather than being able to come and speak to me about things they are unhappy with. Some of those present at the last Guild Council will know how much this upset me and I believe is probably one of the reasons I have been run down and ill for the past few weeks.

Moving Forward

Ok so I’m aware this post is not a happy one, especially considering it’s supposed to be about positive attitude but I felt it had to be said. I felt it necessary to give an open and honest account of my feelings in the job at the moment if I’m going to create a better working relationship with students. I have been honest in my communication and I hope you all feel you can do the same to me. My door is always open. Especially for anyone with a positive attitude…

…And I want to end on a positive now. I am really looking forward to being back at work, I’m hoping to make it in tomorrow. Apologies to anyone I am yet to reply to by email, it’s been a while because of the time off ill. I’m especially excited to visit some more student activities, the truly loyal work of the committees to their members never fails to astound me. I am also going to enjoy taking an hour or so to read through everyone’s Guild Award nominations and hear about more of the fantastic work that you guys are doing!

See you back in the Guild,
Fliss
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Hi all,

I know there has been a lot of talk and discussion around the Room Review that was undertaken last term in the Guild so I just wanted to fill you all in about it. This review has been conducted following consultation with affected groups, largely through the Association Review, but also through a steer that was passed by the Student Groups Committee, who are elected to act in the best interest of all student groups.

The review is as follows:
This has meant that the following groups have kept their room: TV, Radio, Newspaper, Photosoc Dark Room and the Artsoc Room

The following have been removed: Debating Society Office, LGBTQ room and Women’s Association Room.

The criteria was looked at on a functional level – if it was only possible to carry out activities in one room in the Guild then societies kept their room. If not, then they would have to book rooms like all our other societies.

The main concern has followed from the Liberation Rooms because of Safe Space. To aid with this, we are currently working to further promote our Zero Tolerance policy and discipline students who break this policy anywhere in the Guild. This is following on from our Association Review which passed through Council last year. We have also moved any literature from the LGBTQ and Women’s room into our main membership area to make this more accessible for all students because it was locked in their rooms, of which one was not disabled access. This also makes it fair for our other two Liberation Associations who don’t possess rooms: the Black and Ethnic Minority Society and Disabled Students and Mental Health Association. To ensure that these groups are guaranteed a room which best suits their needs and provides their safe space within the Guild they are given first priority on all our termly room bookings. Currently both the associations with their own rooms have had to book other spaces because their room is either too small or doesn’t possess disabled access.

If anyone has any questions about this then please don’t hesitate to contact me via the usual channels. See the contact me page to find out how.

That’s it for now,
Fliss
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I hope you’re all looking forward to Christmas and having a bit of a break over the New Year – I know I am!

It’s been a very stressful term, but highly rewarding and I will do a longer and more detailed term review once I finish at the end of this week. For now, I will update you on some of the projects I’ve been working on and some of my main focuses for term 2:

Society Space/Basement Redevelopment

Plans for the basement space to be turned into a fully functioning dance/performance space are very much on going and highly exciting! Funds have been released by the finance committee for the project and it will include a sports hard flooring, speaker system, mirrored walls and rigging on the ceiling for tech lighting. We will also be knocking out the old student development cash office, a venues store room and pillars to square out the room. The doors will also have to face into the corridor to increase the capacity of the room.

To compromise on a dark room needed for performance space and a light space required for dance spaces, we will be painting the ceiling grey, similar to the membership area in Stu Dev, and then having white walls (and one mirrored wall). We will then put a black curtain that can be drawn around the room so we can black it out for performances to make the space as flexible as possible.

As part of the changes following the room review, some groups have unfortunately had to lose their rooms. This consists of LGBTQ, the Women’s Association and the Debating Society. One of the big questions at Guild Council was why GC couldn’t have a say on this. Rooms are a Guild resource and, in interest of fairness, the decision to allocate a permanent room to a group has been made on the basis of fixed equipment in a room being needed that is unavailable anywhere else (Media groups and Art Soc). If this decision was taken to GC then, arguably, it would allow GC to allocate rooms to any society that would pitch to them. This process proves problematic considering our current room shortage and we could be in a position where a group possesses a room who does not need one to function.

In terms of Student Group consultation, the relevant societies who have lost their rooms have been spoken to, particularly the liberation groups who have been consulted as part of the liberation review last year. Moreover, I took a steer from student groups committee, who have been elected to act in the best interests of student groups, and they have supported this review.

If anyone has any questions in terms of the groups keeping/losing rooms then do get in touch and I will be more than happy to explain the reasons why.

PSA PG Pathway

PMSO, Emily Halford, has joined me on the PG PSA working group to develop a tailored Postgraduate Pathway of the Personal Skills Award. We attended the 3rd meeting today and have reviewed a draft of the outline for the award. After some minor tweaking, the PSA should hopefully be taking this out to focus groups for consultation in the new year. If you are interested in this then please get in touch. (see contact me page).

Student Group Paper Work/AGM Process

A new Risk Assessment proposal was accepted at Health and Safety Committee today which means Student Development will be moving forward with the annual risk assessment idea in the view to cut down on the amount of paper work groups do and focusing in on more of the high risk activity. This change will hopefully be brought in along with the changes to the AGM process. A reminder to all groups who do not think their society/association/volunteering project can sync to having a feb/march AGM to get in the relevant form sent out on the Student Group email before the end of week 1 in January for consideration by the student groups committee.

Any questions on this process then please email.

Marketing

I aim to do a huge marketing push for student groups next term to fit in with Get Involved, Student Volunteering Week and after the new wave of the ‘wayfinding’ system has been implemented. As part of this, I would love to collect a brilliant photo from your society, with the relevant permissions for it to be up there, to use on the website (We are currently making tweaks to this). If you have any you would like to use then please send this in to me.

That’s it for now. I’ll be doing a full end of term update next week.

Merry Christmas!
Fliss
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Hey all,

Long time no blog! It’s been very busy here at the Guild and I’d like to congratulate all the student groups for their fantastic work so far this term. A special shout out fo watch this and their brilliant rocky horror 48hr, the sikh society for their langar on campus which saw 2,300 – 3,000 students in attendance, j-soc for inviting sabbs to their delicious fri night dinners,the northern society for their pub quiz, friends of palestine for chairing a controversial talk with norman finkelstein and the wayfarers for having me in the lake district at the moment!

Last week we had a very successful Interfaith week which saw all but two faith groups attend a networking lunch with faith societies as well as an Interfaith Cafe in which food was available for everyone to learn more about different faiths and celebrate culture relating to these group. This also formed part of our spotlight week upon our Faith and Religious miniforum and I would like to express my thanks to the Interfaith Association for compiling some of the events to publicise on our brand new minisite promoting the spotlight weeks. This can be found on the Guild of Students website Under “Society Spotlight Weeks” in “Get Involved”. I am also looking for more video and photo content of these groups for this site so please send them over to me if you have any. (Visit the Contact Me page to find out how). Groups will be contacted shortly about the next spotlight week!

To help with compiling together a list of student events, which I want to be able to shout about then please post them on the relevant miniforum facebook group. The groups are all linked on the Better Student Groups Forum: Just scroll down the page to the one that matches your miniforum. I would encourage all committees to invite as many members/friends as possible to help publicity for your events and to share best practice about your groups. Currently the league tables stand like this:

1)Campaigning and Political Miniforum – 59 members

2)Volunteering Miniforum – 48 members

3)Departmental Miniforum – 33 members

4)Drama and Performance Miniforum – 31 members
Media Miniforum – 31 members

5)Cultural and International Miniforum – 30 members

6)Liberation and Associatiob Miniforum – 18 members

7)Outoors and Recreational Miniforum – 17 members

8)Religious and Faith Miniforum – 16 members

9)Indoor Activities Miniforum – 12 members
Music and Dance Miniforum – 12 members

As you can see, it’s all to play for so get adding people! There will be a prize at the end of the year for the miniforum group with the most members and a prize for the group that makes the most use out of it!

Also, planning has been taking place on the refurbishment of the student activity space in the basement following consultation with groups conducted via telephone interviews and with focus groups. This is after the steer was passed at the last Guild Council which recommended the Common Room be redeveloped into a social learning space and the basement to be converted into a large activity space, suitable for the types of activity currently conducted in the Common Room. I shall also be looking at developing a ‘Quiet Room’ within the Guild for during the day to replace the current use of the Common Room that currently happens during the day.

Finally, I would like to apologise for having to edit this blog post. I tried to blog from my phone as I was without internet access on a computer at the weekend but only half of my post was published and the other part wasn’t saved.

Any comments then get in contact as always,
Fliss

Hi Everyone, I’d like to apologise for anyone experiencing problems with room bookings this evening. It sounds like the message about Sports Night and the building closing at 8pm hasn’t got round to everyone who has booked rooms this evening. In future I will do my best to make sure notice is given about full building events that may affect student groups.

The Sports Nights at the Guild for the rest of this term are:

Wednesday 16th November – Week 8
Wednesday 7th December – Week 11

Apologies once again,
Fliss

Student Group and Sports Forum
So we’ve just had the first Student Groups and Sport better forum. Thanks so much for everyone that attended – it was great to chat to so many of you and if you have any more queries then please don’t hesitate to get in contact. Just visit the contact me page for the details

I’ll be reviewing all the action points shortly and then feeding back to you once I’ve chased them up. I’ve got a meeting booked in to review all the outstanding actions from last year too so hopefully will be able to report back with some good news soon!

Miniforums
We’ve just confirmed the miniforum dates for the next couple of weeks, please take note of which meeting your group needs to send a representative to. During these meetings, we’ll be electing 2 students per miniforum to sit on Guild Council to represent the interests of student group members.

Thurs 13th: Religious & Faith, 6-7.30pm, Green Room
Fri 14th, Associations, 4-5.30pm, Basement Rehearsal Room
Mon 17th, Campaigning & Political, 5-6.30pm, Green Room
Tues 18th: Music & Dance, 5.30-7pm, Old Mentors Office (near Mandela)
Thurs 20th: Volunteering, 5-6.30pm, Basement Rehearsal Room
Fri 21st, Outdoor & Recreational Pursuits, 5.30-7pm, Basement Rehearsal
Tues 25th: Drama & Performance, 5-6pm, Green Room
Weds 26th, Media, 4-5.30pm, Green Room
Weds 26th, Cultural & International, 5.30-7pm, Green Room
Thurs 27th, Departmental, 6-7.30pm, Basement meeting room
Fri 28th: Indoor Activities, 5-6.30pm, Green Room.

Please ask if you’ve got any questions, and sorry for the short notice for the first couple – we need to squeeze them in to fit Guild Councillor training dates (as the first GC is on 10th November)

Guild Council
It is highly important that student groups have a voice in Guild Council so if you think you’ve got what it takes to be one of our councillors for the year then put yourself forward at the next round of miniforums. I used to love Guild Council – it’s more fun than it sounds and it was my first insight into student union politics. I highly recommend it and if you want to chat to me about what it entails/my experience then please get in contact. I probably wouldn’t be sat here now without having got involved with guild council and it really helped give me a great grounding for the role of VPAD – there aren’t many places where you can make a real difference to changing viewpoints, seeing change enacted from what you say or getting your voice heard but this is one of them. Even if you have no prior experience of politics like myself.

That’s it for now. I’ll be giving you a more comprehensive update of what I’m doing soon!
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So moving in weekend is nearly upon us so I thought it was time for an update before the madness descends upon campus from Saturday.

Costa Coffee
Just a bit of an update on the Costa Coffee proposal. Any Costa Coffee franchise will now be implemented in Term 1. This is because the Guild are taking the impact of this opportunity on student groups very seriously. We are also looking into alternatives for a potential dance studio such as the old basement space. This will include hard flooring, raising the ceiling so it is appropriate for dance lifts, removing the cash office and potentially making the room larger so we have a full rectangular space. On top of this, we’re looking at making the Costa seating space bookable for groups from 6pm each evening (roughly a 3rd of the current size of the common room). We’re still looking at the feasibility of all this but until then nothing will happen. Room Bookings are also being looked at to make sure this wouldn’t have a disastrous effect on student societies.

Society Awareness Weeks
As part of the marketing of student groups I’m looking at setting up spotlights on different types of societies (mostly seperated into miniforums). I’m hoping to then signpost relevant work experience opportunities relating to the different group but also create some extra promo on the screens in the membership area/info on the website.
At the moment I’m looking at the following eight groups:

Recreational pursuits and Outdoor activities (inc sport)
Deaprtmental, Campaigning and Political groups
Indoor Activities
Religious and Faith societies
Volunteering Projects
Associations (Liberation + Representation)
Media
Drama, Performance, Dance and Music

I’m currently in the process in setting up provisional weeks for these and linking them with big events such as Interfaith Week for the faith groups and Volunteering Week for the Volunteering projects.

There will then be the opportunity for groups to decide whether they want to do something special for their week, promote their weekly activities or highlight a recent successful event or upcoming event.

Screens
I’ve also been working hard to try and get photos/videos up of societies doing their activities. I’m in the process of firming up how this will work for groups (similar to getting posters up on the screens at the moment) but watch this space because it will be available soon!

Society Door Knocking
If anyone is looking for extra promotion for their societies then get onboard with society door knocking! A chance to promote your society, make new friends and join in the heart of welcome week, whilst promoting the society fairs at the same time. Especially useful for societies who have stalls on the traditionally less well attended Friday!

http://www.facebook.com/groups/282037818477321/

PSA/Careers
I recently met the PSA team which was great and I’ll be hopefully following this up with a meet and greet with the rest of the Careers Centre shortly. I’m going to be working on some exciting projects with the PSA team this year and if you want more infomation on the Personal Skills Award then make sure you come along to their information fair on the 7th October to find out about the modular, activity and advanced pathways!

Apart from this I’ve been working on some of the changes to paperwork and training in Student Development this year. For all of those who didn’t know the speaker request form deadline had been reduced from 4 weeks to 2 weeks which will hopefully make things easier for student groups – but we still recommend you get this in as early as possible to reduce the risk of any problems!

Also, please join this event and publicise to your friends so we get as many people to the societies fairs as possible – remember there are different groups on each day!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=233061650079675

Looking forward to seeing those of you who are back next week!
Any questions then please get in contact. (See contact me page)

VPAD love – Fliss
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For those wanting information about fresher’s week events. Many Student groups have asked for a schedule to be released so they can plan their activities around them: