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

     
    

 

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

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  

         

       




  

Scene Change at the Gulbenkian Theatre


For today's blog I'd like to take the opportunity to talk about the Gulbenkian and some of the recent changes that have come about since September.

The Gulbenkian Theatre, a fantastic facility for students

At the University of Kent, Students are fortunate to have a theatre and cinema on campus which is owned and operated by the University this has the distinct advantage of meaning that the views, opinions and tastes of students are at the forefront of the mission of the complex. Sadly, in my opinion in my time as a student studying at the Canterbury campus the Gulbenkian has not shown evidence of these commitments in its service in the way that I would like to have seen. In the recent past a tiny proportion of the audience would be made up of students and these were either at the healthily supported stand-up comedy nights (which have always been popular among students at the Canterbury campus and surely nationwide) or by arts students who to all intents and purposes are already engaged with the world of art and culture.The Gulbenkian was failing to engage the young thirsty-minded population of students on its very doorstep which I believe is not only a missed business-opportunity but guttingly is a dis-service to students. I believe that an arts complex on a University Campus has a duty to the students that walk through; and sadly sometimes past its doors to nurture cultural engagement especially as for some individuals this may indeed be their first visit to a theatre or cinema that doesn't just show blockbuster hits and high impact West-end musicals.

T:24 Drama And Theatre society at
Canterbury Campus, Nuts of course, but we love them. 

Having been employed, studied, volunteered and performed at the Gulbenkian like I've had quite a relationship with the place over my 5 years here and so felt quite passionately when I came into office last summer that some changes were due.

At this time there was an interim manager Mary-Ann Lelean for a period of several months and I met with her to discuss some of the major issues facing successful student engagement in the Gulbenkian including; the cost of hiring the theatre for societies such as T:24 Theatre society and Kent Dance, prices of the bar, cinema and theatre, the absence of any volunteering opportunities and the lack of any student dialogue or feedback. I remember turning up to the meeting with a list of items I wanted to raise and potential battles I expected to have, Mary-Ann was also armed with a list and as she listened to my suggestions she ticket them off on her almost identical list of intended improvements. This thought Yogi Bear ... was encouraging.

"Under Construction" The New Colyer Fergusson Building

Sometime between that meeting and September I had the pleasure of meeting Alan Fox and Liz Moran the two new permanent managers of the Gulbenkian who not only shared my vision for a more student-focussed and engaging campus arts-centre but had their own exciting big ideas... and a proven track record including a successful MacRobert at the University of Stirling. Now is a time of development at the Gulbenkian with the University's new Colyer Fergusson concert hall being built next door posing a world of exciting new arts opportunities for students and the local community and a facility I am keen to get my teeth into on behalf of current and future students at Kent crying out for quality extra-curricular facilities.

New Look Film and theatre
Programmes

As part of my priority  'Gulbenkian Campaign' I have worked closely with the new team seeing cinema prices plummet to £4 for students and £3.50 for student Gulbenkian Club members and theatre prices dropping to £5 (although this is dependant on negotiation with performers.) Having seen the figures for student attendance at the Cinema, there has been impressive growth in student numbers attending. The price for hiring the theatre for performance has been set to a low flat fee for student groups making it much more accessible for putting on performance.

Tiny Furniture: Free to feedback meeting attendees 

Most excitingly, I am working with Jake Taylor (Technical Manager) to set up a six-week rolling  volunteer placement scheme which will expose students to real first hand technical, front of house and arts centre marketing which will have formative feedback and offer students a mentor as well as being fully integrated with the K.S.C.V scheme awarded by the Union and University.

Finally, the Gulbenkian will be planning its first users' meeting open to all (dependant on room capacity!) at 4pm on May 30th at the Gulbenkian which will be an opportunity to offer suggestions and brainstorm with the team for future development at the arts centre. You are welcome even if you aren't a previous user. This will be followed by a viewing of Tiny Furniture a film about what one does after completing an arts degree! (Ironic?) or the Funny side the stand-up comedy night if you Prefer.

Above, the Salsa Society Performing at Worldfest in 2011 Winning "Best Choreography"


 All in all I'm very excited about the direction that the facility is taking. Although I'm proud of what I consider has been one of my most significant successes so far this year, much credit is due to the breath of fresh air that is the staff now working there.