Challenges and Opportunities

Well oh well! I cannot believe that we are six weeks into term already.

 From the getgothe student activities office has been insanely busy and I've personally had no control
over my diary zipping from meeting with societies to university meetings and to-ing
and fro-ing between the Medway and Canterbury campuses. In fact, the only way I've
managed to find time to write this blog entry is because I have a long car journey today
and I'm not driving!

From one perspective the amount of traffic in the activities centre is encouraging as it
means that more students are aware of where the Union offices are, what services we
offer and how to utilise them. On the flipside resources are more stretched then every
before and staff and students alike feel frustrated if even a single student leaves the
building dissatisfied. In a student Union this is doubly felt as staff genuinely care about the
clients they are working with and with what the organisation is working towards. The fact
is that at Kent the strategy focusses on growth with 100 society application last year and
40 received so far this year in Canterbury, a 70% growth in society numbers at Medway
a 50% increase in student led volunteer groups and a new Television station 'KTV' a real
investment needs to be made in activities in terms of staff and cash as this growth is just
not sustainable if standards of quality and support are to be maintained.

In one other student union each group of approximately 25 societies has a member of
administrative staff to support them as well as a full time member of staff responsible for
development. At Kent there are two full time members of staff spread across all societies
and sports clubs. The question is, where is the money going to come from?

I've had the experience of sitting on two recruitment panels in the last few months for
two members of staff who will be working in the broad and occasionally ambiguous
area of 'student experience' with one member based primarily at Canterbury and the
other at Medway. Where many of the issues facing students such as limited staff,
money and facilities are shared across campuses Medway does bear the burden most
heavilly. The new free Medway shuttle service travelling regularly currently on a pilot
scheme has already started to make an impact. Kent students studying at Medway are
turning up all over the place at society meetings, a talk for the NUS Demonstration
and many of the 'Stand-out' training sessions delivered by Kent Union. I must admit I
was a little suprised at how quickly this has started to influence this development. It is
vitally important that this service continues if synergy and community between the two

campuses is to continue to grow. This has been a long and hard-fought battle by staff and
students as well as Kent Union over a period of about five years and I am glad to see it
being utilised.

However, it is vital that development at the Medway campus is stepped up to the
next level. The C4 building is a real opportunity for development. Currently disused,
developing the listed building internally for use as a social study space in the day and
activities space for use by societies in the evening would be highly valued and have
untold benefit to existing students as well as be an attractive draw to prospective students
from a recruitment perspective. Yet the appetite for development has been quelled
due to stalling recruitment at the Medway campus. It may feel like too much of a bold
investment from the University's perspective to lavish dough in the current climate. After
all, the sector hasn't been in this place before? But this means that education institutions
all over the country are being forced to sink or swim, making decisions that they have
never made before. Investing in these flexible activities spaces is undoubtably the right
investment for the University of Kent and it may just be the sooner the better.

Unfortunately, for students currently studying at out beloved institution, 'sooner' is likely
to be 3 years minimum.

I had the good fortune to be able to sit at a table with a wide range of university staff
from a range of departments and discuss the 'student experiece' at both Canterbury and
Medway this week and give a short presentation on the challenges and opportunities that
exist for rewarding student activities at Kent. If anyone would like to see this short 10
minute presentation let me know and I'll happilly deliver it to your society or department.
In the looming shadow of the feasibility study which will not only propose designs for
a development of physical Union activities but offer solutions to many of the challenges
facing student groups I'm keen not to pre-empt any of the outcomes but am very excited
to see proposals being taken to the Board of trustees on November 12th.

Top moment of the week has to be the first meeting of societies council committee which
is the UMSA Medway version of socfedcom. I was asked to come and deliver training to
this group of society members and hopefully galvanise them into fighting the good fight
for Medway societies and activities in general. I'm expecting great things to come from
societies at Medway.

In other news. The NUS demo is fast approaching and funding has been secured in part
through a contribution from the UCU teachers' Union three coaches have been organised
and tickets subsidised so each return seat will be £5. At the 2010 Demo a £50 incentive
was given to societies or clubs who wished to take part for the group who sent the most
individuals being welcomed by groups. This was repeated this year with the intention to
encourage attendance from those who may not usually attend such events. This year there
has been some mixed response with some individuals claiming it is 'bribery' or forcing
the politicisation of societies. Others have welcomed the incentive stating that no-one is
being 'forced to attend.' This subject will be discussed at societies federation committee
this week. If you have any input for this meeting please let me or your societies
federation committee reps know, you can contact me at union-activities@kent.ac.uk.

Apologies that there are not any pretty pictures in this entry yet. I'm just keen to get the post out today :)

Summer and Student Groups Q and A

Its that time of year that is supposed to be 'quiet' for students' unions considering that most undergraduates have gone back to their family homes and many postgraduates have their noses to the grindstones writing research papers and dissertations. In truth, its just a different sort of busy being the time of year when the National Union of Students (NUS) run the majority of their training sessions, not to mention our own internal induction process for the new elected officers and staff. It is a chance to prepare for the year ahead and complete any projects with the relative 'quiet' of an office, locked-in.

One of my projects this summer is to re-write the societies handbook, a document which I hope will empower societies to be able to find solutions to their challenges and answers to their frequently asked questions rather than having constantly having to come to the Union which is frustrating and time consuming for them.

I've recently been in contact with an associate member of one of our societies twittername @Sk1mble who has raised some issues some of which are frustrating societies at the moment, you can view his blog here. I thought that it might be useful to address some of those issues via a blog so other society members and committees can view my response.

Paying Society Membership

Not so long ago societies were taking cash payments from their members in payment for their society memberships. Unfortunately, there were occasions where this money was not paid into the correct account or was not paid into the society funds at all and was therefore unaccountable for. Therefore, society memberships can be bought on-line at the Kent Union website  using the 'worldpay' service or alternatively can be paid in-person at the Mandela reception on campus by card or cash between 9-6 Monday to Friday in termtime. Kent Union tries to discourage societies from handling cash where possible although for some events this is unavoidable.       

Online Society/ Volunteer Group Elections

In the recent past societies held elections at their own Annual general meeting with a 'returning officer' sent to societies in order to ensure that elections were fairly conducted. The Union holds its own main elections on-line through the MSL web-based system. Considering the growth of the number of groups, the reported inconsistencies between society elections and the time taken for the volunteer returning officers (members of societies federation committee) to attend all of these meetings it was decided that society voting would be cast on-line. Benefits of using the on-line system include the ability to track the number of people voting, consistent, fair and accurate elections across the board. Groups would still have their hustings debates and A.G.M.s but would cast their votes on-line.

However, based on feedback given throughout the year by societies anecdotally and at societies federation meetings (once a term) it was felt that where the on-line system was beneficial it was not yet able to effectively fulfil all the needs of societies such as being able to see who has been nominated for positions and stand last-minute if a position was not going to be filled, for instance or being able to find out the results immediately. MSL have been contacted to see if these changes to the system can be made ideally giving individual groups admin control over their own elections rather than it having to be done centrally.

In light of this, for 2012-2013 societies and student led volunteer groups will be encouraged to use the on-line system but will be able to request a volunteer returning-officer if they wish to hold a paper-based election. 


Some societies have had to request the results to their elections or have been kept waiting for prolonged periods which is something I am looking into as I don't believe that this should be the case and that election results should be transmitted automatically.          

Constitutions and Membership fees

Societies and volunteer groups write thier own constitutions based on a core document provided by Kent Union. Any changes to this must be approved by the individual society membership (usually at a general meeting) and Vice-President Activities/ societies federation committee or volunteer committee (elected representatives.) These changes are rarely refused unless they conflict with Union policy i.e inclusiveness, cause significant overlap with the activity of other societies or the law.
 
Societies may set their own membership fees, notifying Kent Union of any changes. They must be at least the minimum fee and must charge associate members (non-Kent Students) at least £1 more than full members (Kent Students). At the last societies federation meeting in the third term of 2011-2012 it was voted to increase the minimum fee to £5 from the previous £3. This was agreed as part of a new funding package to give increased funding to the smallest groups who most need the financial aid. The details of this new funding package will be published in the societies handbook which is currently being designed.

General Bureaucracy

Kent Union and myself personally acknowledge that the Union's systems are clunky and not member-friendly  enough. So much of what is currently done is paper based and office centric and here are some of things we're working on at the moment.

*A new full time staff post has been created to help with the administration and development of sports and societies

* A new form is being put together in order to make organising events simpler, consolidating these into one easy to use form.

* Looking into on-line video training sessions

* A new comprehensive societies handbook  

* Facilities where student groups can view their accounts on-line

* Transport tender looking into providing more accessible transport for student groups

* Increase to the sports, societies and volunteering development funds

* Building of two purpose built storage facilities for our student groups

* Student led stand-out (employability) sessions worth £150 each in society fundraising (see previous blog)

* Cross training of activities staff to provide answers to basic student queries


If you have any additional suggestions please feel free to contact union-activities@kent.ac.uk

     
    

 

Why does everything take so long and what are you doing about it?

"Kent Student chilling in Templeman
pre-final exams" 

So this week has been a challenging one. In case it has managed to escape any of you at Kent this is exam term  and the stress levels are running high. For final year students in particular there are very high pressures to perform well in the assessments at the end of the year. These stress points are further impacted by the cost of living in Canterbury particularly leading to students having to work at their part-time jobs rather than revise because they simply need to be able to eat! On top of this many students are questioning more that ever whether simply having a degree is going to make them stand-out in the employment market. This means that many students have taken the initiative in getting involved with the Union and volunteering. There are many ways to get stuck in including standing in one of the part-time officer positions and representing students in a range of ways to joining a sports team, society or volunteer group committee or simply using the Kent Union volunteer portal to get engaged in some community or one-off volunteering opportunities.

When I was studying for my degree I was committed to the 40 hours a week of study that was asked of me (honest!) and was fortunate in a sense that the nature of my course meant that a considerably high number of these hours were spent in workshops and seminars as well as rehearsals. I spent a lot of time on campus. On top of this I held down between one and three jobs during my four year course working about 20 hours a week. This is not uncommon now for students with many working between 10 and 20 hours in term-time, many of which are employed by the university and 300 are employed by Kent Union alone. On top of this I was an engaged volunteer doing between 10 and 20 hours a week making my week about 80 hours long and I don't think that I was the exception to the rule. Gone are the days where students received a grant to study that covered them over the holiday periods. Not everyone's parents can afford to pay their rent for them either!

This week I feel like I caught a 'stress flare' with many of the feedback and volunteer fora I chair expressing their frustration at how difficult it is to organise events on campus. This is a frustration I remember well, routinely coming up to the student activities office (now my office) to come and complain to the VP-activities (now my role) about not having the resources I needed to fulfil my role as president of a society. The difficulty of booking a room, struggling to hire equipment, not being able to find a member of Kent Union staff to help me or locate my VP Activities when I needed him as well as not having a whole lot of money to do all of these things!

"Students too busy to complain often forced to
send pets to my office on their behalf"

On top of this I believe that Kent Union's systems are flawed, out-dated, being bureaucratic and not 'user-centric' with volunteers often having to find a member of staff who is ill or in a meeting, on lunch, at a conference, doesn't work out of termtime etc. Many of our systems are still offline where other unions are moving their operations online with societies being able to make orders and payments online and this being authorised at the Union end. This has been recognised but is a big thing to change, the student union provides an incredible range of facilities from the nursery to competing sports clubs, dance groups to the advice centre, a radio station, a paper, technical services, not to mention representation and democracy, training, volunteer programmes, community link-ups, retail, bars and a nightclub (across two campuses!) the course rep system, awards nights and contributes to a massive part of the student experience here at Kent. Yet it is expected to do it on a shoestring budget with a skeleton staff. Ultimately, we need more staff, specifically I feel we need focus on societies and volunteering but improvements are happening and we are moving forward.

So what am I/We doing about it?  

Open diary- You can come into the student activities office to speak to me (above essentials) and if I'm not there you will be able to ask at reception for where I am, what I'm doing and when I'll be back.

Staff Support- Kent Union have taken on a new member of activities staff this year Amy, she's been supporting societies and sports here this year. We have an employability coordinator Suzanne who has been developing the Employability toolkit.We will also be bringing a new member of staff onto the team to support Steph Hughes in our work with Volunteers on and off campus.

Systems- Part of my ongoing activities campaign is to review the systems we use (such as the cash reclaim form) and see what of it we can move online for better access.

"Schedule for Third Term training sessions"

Societies Funding- I have focussed a lot of my energy on justifying an increase to the societies development fund a pot of cash societies can apply to for additional funding for an event. This year it was increased from £2,000 to £4,000 and next year the budget to be approved by the board of Trustees will be £5,000 the first increase in at least 5 years. I've also set up one off fundraising opportunities in the form of stand-out training sessions. Run by student groups and funded by the faculty of Humanities societies can 'earn' £150 for their society by showing how their activity can help members to develop employability skills.   

Ents Forum- I run a forum where you can offer feedback on Kent Union's licenced trade (Rutherford Bar, Woody's the Venue and the Attic) attendees benefit from free entry to the Venue/ attic once a week by arrangement. We meet every other Thursday at 4pm in the student activities centre. All are welcome. Facebook group here 

Grant Funding- Proposals will be going to Societies Federation this coming Tuesday at 6pm in RLT1 which will give a range of options for societies to vote upon. The suggested systems would increase grant funding for societies overall and give more to smaller groups that need it most.

"Venue in Full swing"

Online Elections: This year has been the first year where society elections have been able to be held online. Societies can still maintain their old traditions around elections but now their votes are cast online which means there is no need for a returning officer and more autonomy is given to societies. There will also be a Q and A sessions at the societies federation meeting about the system. 

Kent Tech: Kent Union Technical Services are a group of volunteers working with Kent Union in order to provide technical support and equipment at low cost to student groups on campus wanting to hold events. This year a new member of staff has been hired Joff Taylor and a brand new group of volunteers who have been nominated for an award at The Kent Union Awards. This year they've gone from strength to strength and next year anticipate more of the same.  

Training: Next Year 70 key volunteers will be trained and awarded with an award in volunteer management. I believe this will be instrumental in helping students to become more self-reliant as far as organising volunteers is concerned (read more here). I am committed to renovating the societies training introducing a new multi-strand training day where volunteers will be able to chose the training that they feel is most relevant to the volunteering that they will be doing as well as including the core material that everyone needs. I am planning future blogs with videos showing volunteers how to do key things like complete risk assessments and organise events. I am planning on re-writing the out-dated and slightly ugly societies handbook which has been out of circulation for a while and helping societies to help themselves.

I hope this helps. Please send any suggestions to union-activities@kent.ac.uk  

         

       




  

Hard to Reach Students and City Councillors

Hard to Reach Students and City Councillors 


Today wasn't such an exciting one unfortunately. Solid meetings from 9 until 6. The highlights of the day included discussing Kent Union's new strategy around 'hard to reach students.' Although I'm not sure I'm happy with the title I think this will be a significant step forward for Kent Union in terms of reaching out to students who might not be catered for by some of the more traditional activities that we organise. This can range from nights out in the 'Venue' and other bar nights, to the time and location groups hold their meetings. People who might fit into the groups of 'hard to reach students' might include mature students, students with dependants, international students, ethnic minorities and many more.

I'm particularly excited about the new Mature and Postgraduate society which is being set up. The first meeting of the group will be held at Dolche Vita at 10:00am on Wednesday 9th of May and anyone is free to attend whether you consider yourself a mature student or not. It will be a chance to meet your Mature students officer who represents you here at Kent as well as a chance to set the objectives of the society as an social group but also potentially a support network. I personally believe that higher education is becoming an increasingly attractive proposition for non-traditional (18-21) year-olds as many take a career break or seek a career change and return to education or perhaps to study for their second or postgraduate degree. This is why I believe this group is so important and needed at Kent. If you have any questions please drop me an e-mail. You can follow the society on twitter @KentMature or join the facebook group here.

Stage Spiders Do Great work with kids 
in the Canterbury community and beyond

www.stagespiderscanterbury.webs.com

  

The other thing of note today was a meeting with local Head of Canterbury City Council John Gilbey where we discussed a range of issues including the 70,000+Volunteering hours that have been logged by Kent Students so far this year (if you haven't logged your hours its still not too late go to www.kentunionvolunteering.co.uk before May 10th) and the Community Spirit Award won by CSR at the 'I love Student Radio' awards. As well as all the fantastic work that many of our societies and student led volunteer groups are doing in the local community with special reference to stage spiders.

That's all for now, here's hoping that the weather cheers up a bit and that I don't get stuck in meetings for the rest of the week!

'Lovely Bunch of Foakes'


Today has been a really productive day. For the last two weeks I have felt a little stagnant in the work I have been doing. Whilst its been nice to to catch up on the e-mails and admin it hasn't really fed my soul and I don't feel like I've been doing the work that really matters. Having recently come back from Cardiff this has all changed and I'm feeling energised and a bit more motivated.

Pupils from Hersden School in the CSR
Studio Red Based At University of Kent's Canterbury Campus  

Today I helped to move some shelving units into the Foakes Room which is a room in Eliot college near CSR studio Red which has until recently been derelict and used as a room for storing technical equipment whilst the new Studio blue was being built at Canterbury Christchurch University. As a C.Y.S.M. (CSR's Board) member and as a Kent Union student representative I'm very excited about this new development as it will mean a greater involvement from students at the Chirstchurch campus due to ease of access (not being keen to trek up to Kent's Canterbury campus for everything) which will ultimately mean more variety and output for listeners and more opportunity for students to get involved in this amazing community project.

CSR's Studio Blue based at Canterbury Christchurch

In addition this means that now the work is complete on the new studio that there will be room to move Inquire, Kent Union's student newspaper into the Foakes room. This will mean more independence for the Inquire volunteers as well as more space and better computing facilities to be able to do their work. In addition, the space will be shared with CSR volunteers increasing communication between the two groups and even closer  collaboration in the future on projects. The space will also be set up with presentation and training facilities in order to help volunteers develop new skills. We are starting to make baby steps
towards the improved facilities that I would like to see for our volunteers. Check out the http://www.inquirelive.co.uk/ website.

Mel Lewis, we're so lucky to have
a student media specialist staff member .
She is not the Beebs... and she is not
good at lifting heavy things

In other news, I am currently reviewing the Kent Union society handbook, updating it with more accurate and up to date information. I also intend to make it a bit prettier than it currently is as it doesn't exactly make riveting reading. The way we train our society committees and student led volunteer groups is also being reviewed with the most exciting  suggestion being a multi-stream training day where volunteers will all be shown the core information but will then be free to select the more specialised training that refers to their individual role.

That's it for now, I hope you all have a fantastic weekend.