Room To Swing A Cat

An irrelevant  Shocked looking Kitten

Hi All, I just wanted to make a couple of short posts to update you about some of the latest issues that I have been working on for societies and students led volunteer groups in particular.

As many of you know, last year a change was made to the room booking system meaning that you can no longer book rooms directly with the college masters. Instead this is done centrally through the timetabling office. Room bookings are made by societies online using a link, groups request their room requirements, this is sent to us at the Union who then confirm that the booking is on behalf of a Kent Union student group. This then gets forwarded onto timetabling who will do their best to accommodate the groups' needs and then get back to them with a booking I.D which is confirmation of the room having been legitimately booked.

Eliot Hall, The Most requested room on campus for
our student societies. 

Although it could be said that it is an advantage having all of the room bookings going through a central location there are still limitations to the system. If students want to book facilities that are in a school building as opposed to a college building then this must be done with the individual school, outdoor bookings are made with estates, some bookings depending on location (particularly spaces with commercial 'value') are booked through hospitality. In addition, some spaces are controlled by the union, but in fact the only space which students could really use for activities are the bars.

In addition to this, the real clincher for students has been that although in most cases the official line was for college masters to require a week's notice to book rooms, in actuality exceptions were made in some of the colleges allowing for a level of spontaneity and flexibility. Another potential problem for students is that under the old system 'average Joe student' could book a room for say... group study. To my knowlege the only way this can still be done is either with the Library or through an academic.        

Our Circus skills society; have special requirements
for the rooms they use 

Recently I met with the Academic registrar and timetabling to thrash out some ideas and see if there were any improvements that could be made to the system namely whether we could cut down on administrative delay and  secondly, introduce a limited number of rooms on campus which could be booked at short-notice (less than a week). Through the efforts of the stretched timetabling department some success was possible with the design and introduction of an improved online booking link that will mean that requests will not have to wait to be forwarded from Kent Union but go directly to timetabling with only 'questionable' bookings being flagged up by Kent-Union which should help to speed up the process.

Unfortunately, due to "the complexity of operating a two tier system it was felt that this is not a viable proposal" which effectively means that a short-term room booking option is still out of grasp for most groups. Any suggestions at this stage would be welcome.

However, every cloud has a silver-lining! Performing-arts groups may be in luck. Following a meeting with my friends at the Gulbenkian, a space has been available for societies and volunteer groups to use. Short-notice bookings will be possible for this room which is available from 1 (I think) until 6pm on Wednesday afternoons. This space is large enough for a small rehearsal I am told. If you are interested in this space then you need to get in touch with Jess Thomas who is in charge of marketing at the Gulbenkian. I am very grateful for their efforts so far.   

The Attic Bar has a great open floor but will in future be a busier cafe
 in the day, prohibiting use for society activities 

In addition to this I have recently met with Venue General Manager Renaud and Hels who is in charge of facilities management. The Attic is hoping to improve its daytime provision including the installation of a new 'proper' coffee machine and improvements to lighting and power provision which is hoped to make it a more inviting space for social and group study.  This does put pressure on societies who had been using it occasionally for bookings for dance or musical rehearsal. In reaction to this Hels and Renaud are looking into whether there are any improvements that can be made to the cleaning rota which would allow groups to use the balcony and venue floors for activities space from Monday to Wednesday during daytime hours. Another small improvement. Please contact R.Mayers@kent.ac.uk if you are interested in using this space.     

An impression of the new Colyer Fergussion Music Building Main Hall Interior

I have also recently met with Sue Wanless who is the director of music at the University of Kent. The new Colyer Fergusson music building which is being constructed on the Canterbury campus (due for completion in October 2012) will have soundproofed rehearsal rooms of all sizes which I have been told student groups will have access to for the price of an access card (£5). This will be available to groups who have music as their main objective such as Music, live music, CPAS, Musical Theatre and any other groups who wish to make music.

I am unaware of any such developments at the Medway campus and would love to hear about any advances that have been made. I am looking forward to attending the new democratic meetings that are being set up at U.M.S.A which should allow for greater empowerment and effectively turning complaining into campaigning.    

Softly softly catchy monkey!

  

That's Entertainment

Kent Union 'Ents' Forum  

Chillin` in the 'student union' for a 'swift half' after a long day of lectures/ revising/ not a lot is not a new concept for students all over the country. Student Unions have often provided a bar as one of their services for students often offering a relaxing atmosphere which students can really have a sense of ownership over buy a reasonably priced beverage and enjoy some quality student focussed entertainment.

However, long gone may be the days where student unions can rely on healthy 'wet sales' of alcohol to prop up their finances and fund the kind of activities which cost money such as running our sports teams and societies or the Kent Union advice centre which sees over 4,600 students in need of advice.

Students just aren't big drinkers.... 78 cup beerpong?

Nowadays tax on alcohol is high and coupled with this, student unions individually and nationally through he NUS often have strict policies on responsible drinking even beyond the requirements of the law.  Supermarkets can mitigate against the tax levied on products because of the wide range of products that the provide. This means that there is a real change of culture in the way that students (and indeed society more widely) consume alcohol. 'Predrinking' or 'preloading' which is the practice of downing a few before heading out to party has had a serious toll on the 'spend per head' especially in the Venue and attic. Customers have already had as much as they want to drink before they arrive at the club which apart from creating issues with people being less than sober in the queues also means that people are drinking less in Union outlets.

I have my reservations about a system which increases the tax on alcohol in order to discourage (especially young) people from over-indulging. I think that the principle of a minimum price for a drink is also wrong. The strategy should be to encourage society to bring its drinking habits back into bars an pubs and to empower landlords to be able to operate responsibly and keep an eye on consumers. I would also propose that alcopops and other products which are targetted at young people but are cheap to produce and of low quality should be taxed the hardest and certainly not real ales, artisan ciders and wine where the main customers generally have a more mature attitude to the consumption and appreciation of the drink rather than 'getting smashed cheaply.'

Apart from this, the attitudes of students are changing generally. Coming to university is expensive and a lot of people don't want to get 'wasted' every night. This is even more the case with increasing numbers of international, postgraduate and mature students, this means that we need to be responsive to the needs and wants of students.          

Teetotal rave superstar "Crazy Hands" source of much
feedback at the forum. 

Three years ago at AGM a policy was passed to set-up an entertainments committee of students that would offer feedback to and be a liaison and working group with Kent Union licensed trade. Not much work was done on this over the two years that the policy was active but at the beginning of my term this year I really felt that there was a need for this group. Changing it from an elected 'committee' to an open 'forum' that any student could attend, students attending were offered free entry to the attic or venue every time they attended a meeting.... and they could bring a mate!

As will all new initiatives it got off to a bit of a bumpy start but by the end of the year there was a Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/309225215767462/ and regular meetings every other Thursday chaired by myself and often with a member of licenced trade present. Feedback ranged from the length of the queue times and service times to the quality of individual acts, the customer service, the price of drinks, the way the attic and venue operate as separate venues in a shared building to feedback on the Summer Ball, Keynestock and new nights such as Prism. There was also a lot of feedback about the implementation of our Zero Tolerance to sexual harassment and discrimination http://www.kentunion.co.uk/goingout/thevenue/zero/ as well as the difficulty of putting on student organised events in Kent Union outlets especially the Attic.

Based on feedback on the method of feedback, members of  the group felt that the process was positive and felt it particularly useful to hear the actions that had been taken based on the feedback given. I am particularly excited about the hiring of Renaud our new Venue manger an the recruitment of a new Entertainments manager who will be working closely with students in order to improve the range of nights as well as work more closely with student gro.

Below are some of the plans Kent Union have to improve the service at the Venue and Attic in particular and outlets in general.

"We are reviewing how people can get on a guest list and why. We want the process to be leaner, with more controls. We are thinking about a pass system for some people.

A Twitter wall as well as a text wall are part of the plans for next year. You should have both of them up and running by September. These were part of our requests sent to both sound and light suppliers we deal with. We are negotiating a new contract that should see the venue undergo a full make over on both sound and light and it should save Kent Union around £10 000 a year.

We are running simulations at the moment with next year’s budget and it is part of my plans to increase the amount of glass collectors employed each night to 2 on each floor.

Furthermore, glass collectors baskets have been ordered. This should enable glass collectors to collect more glasses quicker, hence keeping the floors and shelves clear of any rubbish.

This in turn should ensure that glasses are cleaned and returned to the bars quicker. Thus hopefully reducing the waiting time at the bars for our customers.

Heavy petting : Once again, this is subjective, subject to personal opinion and perception.

Couples are going to flirt and kiss. That is all too natural.

We need to ensure everyone abides to common rules of decency and do not cross the line. There should be no groping going on.

The feeling that there are more incidents at the Venue can be explained by the fact the Venue holds more people than other outlets on the campus.

When you multiply the people in one venue, you multiply the risks. This is simple mathematics.

Add to this the fact the premises are much bigger and slightly darker and it makes it the more difficult to detect misbehaviour.

Considering the average age of the people involved and the total weekly footfall, we can consider the Venue to be a pretty safe nightclub.

We will redraw the door team deployment plan to make it more effective, pre-emptive and reactive.

This should hopefully reduce the amount of bad behaviour in the venue accordingly.

Regards people drinking too much; this is part of our duty of care and  part of responsible licensing also.

We are drawing a training session for supervisors and bar staff. People who seem too drunk should not be served at the bar. This is against the law. End of story. Staff and supervisors will be trained accordingly.

Bar supervisors will spend more time behind the bar also, helping us all enforce the adequate policies and procedures in place.

Queues : We are trying to change the admission system used on the tills to speed up admission times. 

Furthermore, having that many people outside is a health and safety risk. And as people get frustrated, tempers flare and that may lead to an increased risk of fighting and other misbehaviour.

Yeah will not be continued next year, a new Friday night session will be organised.

However, regardless of the session attendance, we cannot vary door prices. Law dictates that we should display door prices at the door/admission desk and we can’t change or deviate from it.

Prism : Under review. A final decision will be taken once the new entertainment manager is hired and settled in

Summerball…

With such events, I am afraid we will not be able to please everyone. Every single one of us has different music taste and a favourite band/DJ. It is simply impossible to make every  people happy.

We have spent a substantial amount of money on entertainment this year and regardless of how much more we would spend, we would still upset some people.

A 1 hour DJ set can cost between £5000 and £15000.

One big name asks for £9000 per 30 minutes worth of performing…

A full band is more expensive.

If the artist has had a number 1 chart hit in the 6 months previous to the performance booked, you can expect prices to double.

What I can do is ask my staff and supervisors and you guys to give me a wish list for the acts next year and we will make our utmost to meet expectations… As long as expectations are realistic."

If you are interested in getting involved with the forum and want to offer your feeback next year, drop me an e-mail at Union-activities@kent.ac.uk

The Start of Something Beautiful?

Welcome to my new blog, here's hoping that I will get used to this site and posts will improve in standard over time. 

I have recently just returned from The University of Cardiff after going to support my younger sister who is planning on studying business and considering Cardiff. I also saw it as an excellent opportunity to visit a Students' Union with a bit of a reputation for good facilities. However, this visit was not out of the blue and is part of a benchmarking exercise I am conducting; comparing the facilities and systems of Student Unions around the country against the provisions at Kent Union. 

Nick Clegg delivering a speech to students at Solus Nightclub, 
Cardiff Students Union 19.4.10.  Photo Alex Folkes

This includes (but is not limited to):

• Number of Societies
• Most popular/ successful societies
• Funding per member
• Which Funding Systems were in place
• Physical facilities including room provision and booking
• Specialist facilities
• Volunteering provision
• Volunteering funding
• Student media including; T.V, Radio and Publications
• Raise and Give Charitable fundraising 

Whilst at Cardiff Union I was fortunate enough to be able to spend some time with their membership services manager and pick brains over how thing work there. It was a very informative conversation, I am hoping that Kent Union will be able to combine the best parts of both our funding systems in order to increase the low 'grant per head' that societies at Kent currently have.

But, the most striking observation is the Union's incredible physical facilities at its disposal; a fleet of 7 vehicles student groups can use, 4 meeting rooms accommodating 200 people, a lecture theatre with retractile seating and nightclub, each with capacity of 800+ accompanied by a further two cafes/pubs and fabulous media facilities. The student radio station plays gently in the background as you walk through the clean and spacious corridors of the four storey union building. All of this means societies have access to the spaces when not occupied for organised activities and are therefore less reliant on the facilities of the University for their activities. This ultimately empowers the students and is what I wish to achieve with a new Kent Union facility. 

Rutherford Hall University of Kent
(Not Currently Available for most society bookings) 

The Campaign for an activities building on the Canterbury Campus as well as the campaign for the C4 building at the Medway Campus to become a flexible activities space are priority campaigns for me this year and I met with Professor Keith Mander Deputy Vice-Chancellor at University of Kent today to discuss the importance of these facilities. We also discussed at length the positive impact that non-competitive activities have on students developing employability skills independently and informally through volunteering opportunities at Kent Union and how we can make existing University Facilities more accessible.     

Thanks for reading. I will Keep you updated on the progress of the Benchmarking exercise and also the developments to activities at Kent.

In the meanwhile you can contact me at...

Twitter: @kbuddinyourface 

            @ku_activities

E-mail:   union-activities@kent.ac.uk