**I APOLOGISE IN ADVANCE FOR THE LENGTH OF THIS BLOG**
This blog aims to enlighten you about the Students' Union Evaluation Initiative. This is a process that we hope to enter into this year. It involves a lot of commitment and dedication from everyone who works at ULSU as well as each year's sabbatical officers. It's going to be long, so go get yourself a cup of tea/coffee/other beverage of choice (maybe a sandwich while you’re at it).
The process is highly commended and will allow us to see where we are doing well and what we can do better, more importantly it will flag what we are not doing at all and most importantly it will flag what we are doing that you don't want us to be spending your money on.
This is a positive thing for students as it is a chance for the Union to engage more openly with you. This will be an aim of my Presidency. Where the shit has hit the fan you will know about it, where there have been mistakes made, you will be informed and where things are going well this will be communicated to you to let you know exactly what it is we are doing both at our desks and all over campus.
The Goal
SUEI is a three year cyclical process. Once the accreditation period begins the clock starts ticking and we have three years to prove ourselves as deserving of an award. Getting to Bronze will be an aim of the first cycle, if we can achieve this, although I will be gone by the time it happens, I will be extremely proud of the staff and the sabbatical teams that have lead us to it along with all of the students who will have engaged throughout the process. The goalposts are constantly shifting and as the union sector becomes more effective at delivering membership services, the bar gets raised higher!
How it’s Measured
1. What’s so special about the Union?
o Participation
§ What is the level of democratic participation and engagement?
o Representation
§ How is the Union representing you, the student, to the University?
§ Is this effective?
o Governance
§ Is the system producing results for students?
§ Is the staff of the Union being monitored effectively?
§ Is there a balance of expertise with student interest?
We will be putting a proposal to the Executive this week which proposes radical changes to the representative structure which aim to make the union more effective at engaging people in areas of interest.
2. What does the Union aim to achieve?
o Vision
§ Is there a long term vision?
§ What is it?
§ How is it being implemented?
o Objectives
§ Are they linked to the Union’s strategic plan?
§ How do services and activities match the long term objectives?
o Membership Focus
§ Does the Union understand what members want?
§ Is it delivering on this?
§ Is there a sufficient balance between individual vs group needs (Equality Framework)?
§ Is there a sufficient focus on communications in officer training?
§ Are sabbats communicating with members effectively?
3. People
o HR Systems
§ Does the Union’s HR strategy link to the strategic plan?
§ Does the HR Strategy engender a member first ideology?
o Roles and Responsibilities
§ Does the Union’s staff feel the General Manager is leading them effectively?
§ Is there a strong working relationship between the GM and officers?
§ Is there an effective performance management system in place for the General Manager?
o Employment Record
§ Is the Union an employer committed to best HR practice?
4. Quality Outcomes
o Impact
§ Does the Union have a positive impact on its members’ time at university?
§ How does it know?
§ How has the Union improved as a result of member interaction?
§ What is the Union’s reputation amongst members?
§ Is it easy for members to find help at the Union?
o Activities
§ How successful is the Union at engaging members?
§ Does research show members are satisfied with the Union’s activities offering?
§ What is the Union doing to provide members with opportunities to grow their skills base and broaden their experiences?
§ What is the Union doing to enhance members’ employability?
o Services
§ Are membership services provided effectively?
§ Are membership services provided efficiently?
§ Are membership services providing value for money?
§ Are services provided in imaginative ways that are not building centric?
§ Is the Union capable of influencing and adapting itself to meet ever-changing membership needs?
5. What Underpins This Quality
o Communication
§ Is there a communications strategy?
§ Does it follow the strategic plan?
§ Is there timely and accurate communication to members?
§ Is it communicated through sufficient channels?
§ Is transparency and accountability promoted?
o Finance
§ Is there a long term financial plan?
§ Does the Union hit its financial targets?
§ Is there a regular review of finances?
o Partnerships
§ Is collaboration and partnership a priority?
§ Do partnerships form a part of future plans?
§ How are these partnerships built?
What are we doing on this?
1. What’s so special about the Union?
o Participation
§ We will be putting a proposal to the Executive this week which proposes radical changes to the governance structure which aim to make the union more effective at engaging people in areas of interest as well as slimming the governance process while devolving activities.
o Representation
§ This is bread and butter sitting on committees, contributing to policy.
o Governance
§ A separate proposal, constructed by last year’s team and amended by this year’s team, will be put to the Executive in the coming weeks. It is quite radical in its process and will initially raise some eyebrows.
2. What does the Union aim to achieve?
o Vision
§ A strategic plan is in development. We aim to bring this to you for consultation in semester 1 through the new Members’ Forum (Open General Meeting as promised in my Manifesto) which will not have any agenda items, just be where you come to tell us anything you want us to hear about the Union.
o Objectives
§ Objectives are currently derived from manifestos. There is a group objective which has been set by the Sabbat team.
o Membership Focus
§ This is an area requiring vast improvement. You need to feel that you can come and tell us what you want your Union to be. We are much more than aplace to coe when you have problems, but we need to communicate that to you more effectively.
§ Blogs, a proper engagement with Twitter (which has been poor to date to be polite about it), Facebook (which has been extremely interactive), getting out and talking to you and making more time available to you for Union development.
3. People
o HR Systems
§ Our new General Manager is working on putting robust HR systems in place that protect the staff and position the Union well legally.
o Roles and Responsibilities
§ The General Manager is new to the organisation, newer than most of the officers so it will take some time for him to begin to gain the leadership position in the staff team.
§ The President holds weekly meetings with the GM to discuss any issues that need resolution and monitor progress.
§ The governance proposals should place staff and GM performance on the agenda of a meeting with external professionals who will offer impartial advice to officers on this.
o Employment Record
§ The GM has been tasked with beginning the process of Excellence Through People for the Union.
§ The Commercial Manager has been tasked with beginning Excellence Through People for University of Limerick Students’ Union Services Limited.
§ An aim I set out in my first meeting with both the GM and CM was that ULSU and ULSU Services should both be included in Ireland’s Top 100 Small or Medium Enterprises to Work For by 2020.
4. Quality Outcomes
o Impact
§ We need you for this!
o Activities
§ Clubs and societies are our main skills offering at the moment.
§ This needs expansion and we need YOU to tell us how we should expand it!
o Services
§ We’re thinking on this, but again we need YOU!
5. What Underpins This Quality
o Communication
§ There isn’t a comms strategy; it is something that will have to be developed.
§ We know we are failing to communicate effectively to everyone, but we are getting to a lot of students, this needs lots of research and we intend on hiring casual labour for research purposes as well as interacting with relevant University departments to gain synergies.
o Finance
§ There isn’t a long-term financial plan. We will need guidance on this from SUEI.
§ The Union has been without an accountant since March, so targets will be reviewed as soon as the information has been put together by the new Group Accountant.
§ Under ordinary circumstances Executive reviews management accounts monthly.
o Partnerships
§ Collaboration is something that benefits both parties and where opportunities for this exist we will investigate them and if suitable initiate them.
§ Future plans, such as a redeveloped Students’ Union and enhanced campus facilities are collaboratively focussed.
The Plan
I aim to have the accreditation period started by March 2012; it will be a difficult process that requires us to ask some very unpleasant questions about ourselves. We need to identify key action areas, conduct market research with you the members and agree on visits and role of a SUEI mentor. We will have up to 2 years to hit all targets before a mentor visit that will assess success. After this we will have between 6 and 12 months to act on the recommendations of the mentor visit and we will then hopefully be awarded a Bronze Award, or Silver Award if we challenge ourselves sufficiently and achieve all goals.
SUEI will require a dedicated member of staff, so the cost is not just in accreditation, but I hope that it will drive improvement not only for the next three years, but indefinitely. The aim in my mind is clear; that your union will be the first SUEI accredited Union in the Republic of Ireland and will continue until it achieves a Gold award and is judged independently as the best Students’ Union in the Republic of Ireland.
See ya soon
D
Apologies again for the length of the blog, but I hope it’s been worth the read. It did take nearly three hours to write, so I really hope you’ll leave some comments.
