Christmas!

I'm sat here on the night of Christmas, pounding out tunes from my new Gatecrashers Anthems CD, reading a book which in honesty displays a total lack of literary interest and if the fact it was published was astonishing enough, the lack of punctuation in dialogue makes me think this woman has lungs the size of small pillows... So, sod the book, lets write something :D

I've been a student officer for 2 and a bit weeks now, with one of them being at home, still - I've been up to a few things in the mean time...

The Parkour Society:

Before the Christmas break, I've been talking to Chris Farrell about going forward with the recently approved Parkour Society which - expecting it to be quite popular - has surprised even me with the level of interest from students; we have over 30 students' details on file, and about 20 more who have showed interest...

Hopefully, as soon as we get back after Christmas the Society's membership details will be set up on the main computer at SOAP, so you can go in and sign up. We plan on booking in a couple of training sessions, though the location, date and time are unconfirmed, about a month in advance to make sure everyone who has paid membership can go.

Travel (if required) will be supplied, and the cost of the session covered - these sessions are where most of the membership funds will go - and we can have a professionally led session to get those who haven't done Parkour before introduced to it.
I'll be on hand, with 2 other experienced students, as we are qualified to coach 5 members each which means we can definitely have everyone involved who wants to be!

Communication:

If you've read my first post, you'll know my manifesto comprises mainly of looking into the communication between the Union and Students across the board, and trying to identify and implement ways of improving this.

I've been thinking more about how I want to achieve this, and have given myself a bit of a 'mental action plan':
-Find out how students feel the Union communicated with them; if they have enough information of SU activites etc...
-Find out how Students communicate with the SU, or rather - how they would WANT to communicate with the SU
-Do a little research into the feasibility of  changing communication methods to what students want
-Put these changes to Exec. Committee/Student Council

Yes, it's a very brief plan and could be considered an obvious way forward to look at communication, but it's a plan non the less, involving potentially quite a lot of time, something we all have little of!

Have a good holiday everyone,
See you all in January!
-Joe

Joe Hicks: Student Officer

After being voted in by Student Council, I've been working on getting to grips with the workings of the Union, one of which being the creation of this blog to keep people up to date with what I've been up to.

So far I've been finding my way around the offices, talking to other Officers in more detail about their projects and how I feel what I want to achieve can fit in with their aims.

Coming in pretty much halfway through the year has given me the opportunity to jump in right at the deep end, with a team of equally enthusiastic Sabbatical and Student Officers.

More in depth reports of my activities will follow soon, but for now I'll leave you with the manifesto I presented to council...


Joe Hicks – Manifesto for Student Officer Position:

So far this year, I’ve come from being a new student to the University, to being involved with student representation at Course Rep, Business School Liaison Rep and Student Trustee levels, in which I believe I have succeeded in putting students opinions forward, and encouraging students to become more involved with the Student’s Union’s representation system.

I feel these experiences have given me a comprehensive understanding of the operations of the Student’s Union, and opportunities to put forward changes in the interest of students; with an officer position, I feel that I could continue to represent the student body with a more active role.

One of the major concerns which has arisen from my current representational roles is that of communication with students; something I will direct my efforts to improving given this position. I’m keen on taking the initiative with regard to helping Liaison Reps and Course Reps improve their contact with students; something I have begun to do within the Business School via a poster campaign with Reps’ photos and contact details, which has been received as a great suggestion both by the Faculty Board and other reps I have spoken to.

I’ve had other students suggesting communication could be improved; as a Student Officer, I feel that I would be able to concentrate on making this happen across the whole of the Student’s Union.

I have been involved in assisting the SU team over numerous events during the past few months; such as the Board of Trustee’s AGM, in which I chaired a number of motions submitted by students.

This is another aspect I wish to concentrate on maintaining and moving forward with should I be elected as Student Officer; I’m a confident, articulate speaker who’s very approachable and understanding, yet determined and tenacious when it comes to getting the best for students – attributes I will continue to employ in supporting the Student’s Union.

I feel as well as having my own ideas of how I could work for the benefits of the student body as an Officer, I’m very interested in assisting the other Officers in their projects and campaigns; for example, in my aims for improving communication with students across the board, I would liaise with the other officers support of their own projects, such as the Course Rep system in which I feel I could offer assistance and synergy. I also have interests within the Sports Societies’, Media Crew and RAG – other areas of the Union in where I could offer my skills.

I think I could also work well with the VP Communication and Media Officer in their operations, in an effort to further implement contact with students via different sources of media.

All in all, I believe I have a lot to offer the Officer team; I would love the opportunity to have a more dynamic role within the Student’s Union and be able to fully represent and work for students to the best of my abilities.