Get Involved! Have an experience! Learn Valuable Skills

The Part time officer elections are coming up! Perhaps you are thinking; what's a part-time officer? Or, what's that to me? Or, why should I be interested? Then hopefully this short blog entry should be of some benefit.

Any union member who is a student studying a University of Kent course can stand in election to be a part-time officer. There are a very wide range of these posts from the liberation officers doing important campaigning work through the representation of women, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi, trans-people) ethnic minorities and students with disabilities, to the college presidents who organise social, fundraising, sporting and pastoral events in each of the colleges. The roles are voluntary and hours invested by officers can be logged through the employability and volunteering toolkit  and also accrue employability points as part of the EP scheme. Together these schemes offer volunteers the opportunity to record and develop their experience and recognise the soft and transferable skills that have been developed during volunteering and awards internships, work-placements  as well as prizes such as Amazon vouchers to students based on the number of points they have earned.

As well as developing skills which employers really value such as communicating with a wide range of different people, being organised, report writing and public speaking (for instance) volunteering to be a part-time officer is a great way to meet people and make new friends and connections. It is also an excellent way to learn more about the workings of the Union and University and is a great opportunity to give back to the student body and really make a change that will improve the University experience for the benefit of all students. It is also an opportunity that opens doorways to other options, through increased exposure to the full time sabbatical officers you may get an idea of whether this is a path that you might like to consider yourself.

Part of the role whether the Ethics officer or international students' officer, is to sit on Union council, one of the most senior decision making bodies in the Union where all part-time ad full-time officers discuss matters brought by members of the council or the membership of the wider student body. This is an excellent way to learn more about others' politics and ultimately come to understand the different perspectives of individuals. I have always found that through understanding the motivations of others I can better understand my own perspective. Its also always good to be challenged on views that you may have always taken for granted. Sometimes it can get pretty heated, but this is how you know that the topics mean something to people and are therefore worth debating.        

The amount of time spent volunteering can vary incredibly and its always worth remembering that it is better to have someone in a post doing one hour a week than no-one in post. Even if you have not been involved in the past and this may be your first volunteering experience there is training provided all the way. In addition, this year has been the pilot year of a new scheme which has trained all full and part-time officers in Volunteer management, a qualification accredited with the Institute of Leaders and managers. More information can be found on this in my previous blogs.

As well as representation on a local level can lead to running for NUS (national union) delegate position, representing Kent students on a national level and making sure that our voices our heard. Gaining exposure to students from around the country has given me an incredible sense of wider community, that students are 'in it together' which on its own is a feeling worth having.

If you would like to discuss any of the opportunities available please contact me by email on or on twitter @kbuddinyourface and I can direct you to the best person if I don't  know the answer myself.

Although full-time officers sometimes have the most time to dedicate, some of the greatest achievements in Student Union history have been from dedicated part-time officers and volunteers. Just ask them yourselves here!

Nominations close at 12:00 on Wednesday 6 February 2013 

The polls open at 17:00 on Friday 8 February 2013 

Nominate yourself here! 

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!

  

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  

         

       




  

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