Statement relating to questions on Union finances

I want to clear up some issues concerning the matter of the finances of the University of Limerick Students’ Union Services Ltd (ULSU Services) which have arisen over the past few days

I would rather have had full facts and audit complete before having made this statement, but my hand has been forced on the matter and I do not want misinformation and panic to distract from the real issues facing students.

ULSU Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of ULSU. The company is ultimately owned by the transient student body of the University of Limerick.

Over the past number of years ULSU Services has been trading poorly. In April of this year the company was restructured and positions were made redundant. An overall Commercial Manager was appointed. Summer is a traditionally slow trading season for ULSU Services and 2 of the 4 operations are closed for the summer months to reflect the trading realities. This summer, business on the campus was slow due to a reconfiguration of foreign language course offerings. This has been felt by all campus companies and ULSU Services is no different.

During the period where ULSU sought a new accountant following the departure of the Secretaty General the sabbatical officers were left to manage cashflow. This is not a function that transient officers are or should ordinarily be asked to undertake. Once a suitable candidate was found to fill the role of Group Accountant and he had begun work, he sought a meeting with me and the General Manager to advise a spending freeze. We could not agree to a blanket spending freeze, but did agree that only previously authorised and essential expenditures would be spent.

In July, in the absence of the physical ability to have a meeting of the Executive I contacted all members of the Executive with the following email.

Dear Exec,

Please note that anything contained in this email is not for discussion or information outside of those addressed until such time as I have spoken with all stakeholders and informed you otherwise.

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there is a financial situation that has arisen through extraordinary expenditures throughout this year (5 figure recruitment costs being just one) as well as a poor trading year in the services company.

Our new Group Accountant Barry started on Monday and requested to meet with me and the new General Manager Philip this afternoon. There is currently €106,000 in Union Group bank accounts which will not meet requirements (mainly of the services company) until capitation is received and the trading season begins again.

As it stands the services company is eating into the Union's cash. This has been halted to an extent with the arrival of a Commercial Manager who has visibly transformed the operation and is keeping a close eye on all costs, however the costs of the commercial operations for the summer months have and continue to exceed the income.

The 2 substantive items I would like you to consider and revert to me on (by 1pm on Tuesday) are:

·        To cover capital items (minibus and radio station fit-out) I am requesting that I be authorised to apply for medium term loans of 3-5 years (should leasing not be available) not exceeding €70,000.

·        To cover on-going expenditure, such as salaries I am requesting that I be authorised to access the Union reserve and transfer this to the current account and to increase the overdraft available to us from €50,000 to €100,000.

Please be re-assured that all expenditure is under review as a result of this afternoon's meeting, but that we will endeavour to continue to operate more efficiently within the resources available.

These measures are temporary until capitation is paid by the University during the first week of October. I will be requesting a revised accounting procedure to ensure that a future Exec isn't receiving a similar email in a number of years.

Please accept my sincere apologies that this situation has arisen. In a break from past practices this information will be made available publicly as soon as all stakeholders have been consulted with. I believe in transparency above all and intend to outline the situation to all members of the Union at the earliest opportunity, but would remind you again not discuss this outside of the recipients of this email until that time.

I would ask you all to include your understanding of ULSU Services in the Handover Document for your position.

Gach dea-ghuí

Derek

The Sabbatical Team also met and agreed the measures following clarifications and discussion of concern.

All staff members were made aware of the financial situation in an email on the 3^rd of August, which they became free to discuss with anyone they so wished on the 4^th of August. It outlined that this is not a long term issue for ULSU, but for ULSU Services which is being addressed by the new management at the company. This email also outlined that management accounts, once prepared and approved would be published and made freely available. This remains the intention.

The matter which has led to the necessity of a statement concerning whether €60,000 in underspent administrative charges through Clubs and Societies was utilised is a moot point. Clubs and Societies have this available to them. All money held in bank accounts of the Students’ Union belongs to students and as the head of the Union I, along with the Executive, must ensure it is utilised for the ultimate benefit of students.

To ensure staff continued to be paid and that on-going expenses could be met I recommended the actions above. In the end, due to prudent financial management of the reserve it was not necessary to extend the overdraft.

At 30 September 2010, the date of the last audited accounts ULSU held reserves for clubs and societies nominal codes (cost centres/expenditure lines) of €158,740. This information was and continues to be available to anyone who wishes to call to the Union to view accounts. That figure was an increase of €21,742 on the previous year and includes vehicle and safety net reserves. It forms part of the Union reserve. I do regret that some members of the Executive felt that this was an oversight in forming a decision, for me the best interest of the student body dictated that as a Union we must be unified for the benefit of students.

The simplest decision in requesting to access the reserve was that reserves are held for “a rainy day” and at the time of recommendation there were storm clouds gathering. The money belongs to the students and the recommendation was made on my belief that it was in the best interest of students.

The issue that most concerns me is whether ownership of ULSU Services continues to be in the best interest of the student experience. There is no doubting that as a standalone commercial entity with the sole aim of making profit that some of the operations of ULSU Services would have ceased, however at the moment it is the view of the Board (and the Executive which was briefed on the financial situation at ULSU services following the 2010 Audit and controls the Board) to continue providing the service.

I am wholly in support of Clubs and Societies in this matter and recovering any monies owed to ULSU by ULSU Services over a sustainable period for both entities is a priority of mine. Attempts to recover loans to ULSU Services over the last number of years in a condensed period have led to an unsustainable circle whereby the sustainability of the company has been threatened. Loans will have to be recovered over a longer period and it is vitally important that students utilise the shops at Cappavilla, Dromroe and the Courtyard as well as Uni-Cycle to ensure the natural balance whereby ULSU Service is a net contributor, not only on paper, but in cashflow to ULSU is returned to.

Any claims to the effect that ULSU is engaged in financial mismanagement are unfounded; and I reiterate that I am fully committed to recovering the loans from ULSU Services.

Once audited accounts at the ULSU Services are complete and have been approved by the Board I will make all members aware of the situation as I had committed at the end of July. However without full knowledge I do not intend to engage in guesswork.

If there are any further queries relating to the above I will make myself available to discuss them with anyone who wishes to arrange to meet with me over the coming days.

A rudderrless Union...but it's okay, we're on dry land with 4 good tyres!

So it hasn't quite been a week but I can't sleep so I'm gonna update the world about what's up in the SU President's life considering there's so little going on in Derek Daly's life that falls outside of that. Well I did get 2 dinners over the weekend for my granparents' 50th wedding anniversary. So well done them. I'll keep the rest of that for my own blog.

AGM
WE MADE QUORUM!!!

As bad as it sounds to say that it is a massive achievement to get more than 200 people in a room to vote on Union policy matters, I haven't seen it done since 2008/9 and the last entirely busted quorum was 2005/6 when the VP/Campaigns & Services Officer


Congrats to all who aided the effort and we had a comfortable margin above 200 with 263 signatures and a few more than that counted in the room.

What it means
For a start:
Full time officer positions from 2012/13 will be

• President
• Deputy President Welfare
• Vice President Academic
• Vice President Communications
• Vice President Campaigns and Engagement

to more adaquately reflect what the respective officers do.

It also means ULSU currently has no Council (or Executive after the scheduled meetig on Thursday takes place) until new ones are put in place. In essence ULSU is like Libya at the moment, but without the war and bloodshed. Many didn't like this idea, but we're committed to making a reformed structure work and will have it in place ASAP. Over the coming days we'll be finalising when it will be possible for elections for Councillors to take place and opening nominations with job descriptions in toe. This means a lot of campaigns, but worry not, they'll more than likely be restiricted to online campaigning only so you don't get bombarded. We'll be finalising that ASAP.

As well as that it now means there are official sabbatical officers year round. We passed the housekeeping motion closing the gap whereby there were  15 days in the summer that nobody was in charge and also tied up toe Secretary General loose ends (this will mean nothing to most of you)

I was slightly disappointed that the majority didn't really want to know exactly what this meant for the Union, but the sceptical optimist im me hopes it was because people did the research before coming to the meeting.

Fresher Fest
Everyone involved deserves huge praise, but I have to credit Keith Quinlan for the huge amount of work he put in since starting only a few weeks ago. I'd never been to a silent disco and Bradley from S Club robbed my headphones to listen to Eminem while he made a trip to the jacks.

Hudson, S Club and 5ive kept the courtyard rocking and the Stables  and Scholars were delighted with their turnout too. The primary comment from the week was how well students behaved. We want to keep it that way so we can have more gigs throughout the year.

GOATing
This is a phrase apparently created in the UK to describe the process of getting out and talking to students. Kelly and I have partaken in the odd GOATing session since you guys came back. I'm not sure where I'll head to this Thursday, but the North Campus was a little more abandoned than the Kemmy when I was over there this week.

So your issues appear to be

• Student priced hot food on the North Campus
• Somewhere to sit and chillax on the North Campus (ironically I met the Facilities Manager when I was over there and this is planned as part of the Plaza when the Med School is complete)
• More indoor chillax seats in the IWAMD
• SULIS being a pain in the ass (email itss@ul.ie)
• A Clare entrance (an issue for various reasons but the University wants one too and I sit on one of the campus committees that is responsible for recommendations on it)
• More seats outside the shop in the Courtyard
• Hot food for evening students in the KBS
• Signage (finding things is hard on campus - there is a committee that doesn't like signage - there is a stalemate)
• Getting people to interact with each other (sit next to someone new in a tutorial this week)

Mentor
The General Manager has a mentor who I deal with regularly. He has been extremely helpful in identifying our strenghts and weaknesses as a Union. Our people are the key strength, our planning and engagement our weaknesses. We'll be looking a lot at this stuff up to Christmas and hopefully moving on it before then too

I'll do another blog before the end of the week because there's so much going on.

Musn't forget a video for you all:

Shattered like a window with a sliotar in it

So what have I been up to since Orientation Week. It’s been some hectic 2 weeks since I last checked in.

Keep an eye out in the Union for life size Kelly, Derek, Tara, Aoife and Paddy’s on the wall. They should be going up early next week!

This week is student safety week so keep an eye out for the videos Paddy is making on our YouTube channel youtube.com/whatshappeningulsu

All of the Freshers gigs are going fantastic. Lastnight and Monday sold out really fast. I was on MnM duty on Monday so only got to drop into the foam party for a small bit. It was savage and there were lots of people walking around soaked to the skin. FANTASTIC buzz in the Stables. The UV Paint Party in the Lodge was one of the best nights I’ve had in the last few years. I was wandering round writing and drawing all sorts on people and had to spend half an hour in the shower when I got home (then had a meeting at 9:30 this morning). There are about 500 tickets left for tomorrow’s gig with S Club, 5ive, Mr.Hudson followed by Silent Disco in the Courtyard and Transmitter in the Stables.

There are a number of issues raising their head at the moment. My main priority for the coming week is to bring you with me on the journey to a more inclusive Union. Though what we’re proposing is a vast improvement on what is already in place, we still need to be more accountable to students. We hope that the new Council if passed will increase accountability and make the Union run smoother. The VP Academic and Registrar is supportive of the plan and if it passes will be backing us to have that open access policy with heads of department.

Sports facilities for clubs have been raised at one or 2 levels and I met with the Sports Administrator to get an update on these. Part of the solution will have to be early morning training sessions as more and more clubs become more active. The extra goalposts have been removed from the astro behind the Arena now that the north campus pitches are open; this is to spare the astro damage from the goalposts being dragged across them. Much like the Arena, the north campus will have student pricing for any groups of students who want to use them for class games etc. This is yet to be finalised and I’ll be sitting in on a meeting where the proposals go forward.

A lot of the issues I’m currently hearing are budget caused issues.

I want to thank our MnMs for being so great in the estates the last few weeks. A reminder that you can be brought in front of Discipline even for things you do off campus if you are a UL student. I don’t want to see anyone suspended or expelled, so keep the noise down moving through the estates after 9pm and respect your neighbours.

Our General Manager's mentor was in yesterday too and had really productive meetings with almost everyone working in the Union building. He's been a manager of lots of students' unions for a number of years and is really impressed by ULSU. We have some issues to resolve, but we'll get there. It might not be this year, next year or the year after for some of them, but we'll be consistently improving.

I also joined some societies last Wednesday at the brilliant recruitment drive. When we have numbers for how many of you got involved I’ll let you know.

First Council was lastnight and went really well. It was a bigger turnout than usual for a Week 2 Council.

It’s been hectic round here. Still is. But I don’t think I’d have it any other way. Plus I'm pretty much hooked on this song....I know

Navigating a positive journey

So we’ve had a hectic 11 days since I last posted. Apologies for the delay but it really was absolute madness getting from pillar to post and getting to congratulate lots of people I’ve gotten to know through the years.

Conferrings
Last week was consumed mainly with watching over 2,000 people become UL graduates. I made 7 of the 8 ceremonies and it really did make me proud to be a part of what UL is all about to see so many people delighted to come get their parchment and shake the President’s hand.

There were moments when the heels trundling across the stage were almost taller than the person they were propping up which led to some near trips, but thankfully there were no actual trips.

Don shared some truly inspirational words last week. The sincerity shown by Don through his actions in his work backing up his words is rarely appreciated by students, so I would like to share some quotes:
“You cannot listen to what others say you should do or what society says you must do or what pessimists say you can’t do. The best way to be successful is to pursue what inspires you, what you love.”
“Nelson Mandela once said “There is no passion to be found in playing small, in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” And so I say to you: exhaust every opportunity, take every chance, and follow every road that will get you one step closer to where you want to be. This unfortunate situation our country is in will not last, it cannot last. So don’t lay the foundations of your future on it. Don’t settle because you think you have to. You have a long career ahead of you, a long way to go, so think BIG.”

“Find those who have so much potential but so little opportunity and do for them what your parents, guardians, teachers and supporters have done for you. Be as ambitious for them as all those throughout your education have been for you."

“We all share the responsibility to help shape a better future. The path ahead is not certain, however, I have confidence in the resilience, the talent and the passion of our students."

“….Ireland must develop larger numbers of indigenous companies. To our graduates let me say that each one of you has the knowledge, imagination, talent and courage to create and innovate- don’t be afraid to explore your entrepreneurial spirit, we need it now more than ever so dig deep and find it.”

“I have no doubt but that the talent required to deliver renewed prosperity to our country is sitting right in front of me. Over the last number of years we have seen you delight in discovery. For many of you I have seen for myself the results of your design and innovation through end of year shows and displays, projects and papers. All of us have been impressed by your inventive genius in the classrooms and laboratories. Please use what you have learned here in UL to explore your potential even further.”

**FUNNY ALERT**
Don also shared a much more light-hearted and humorous quote at the Grad Ball on Saturday:

“No, I do not have a lighter. I take out a cigarette, tell it I’m the President and it lights itself”

It is this quote that kept me laughing for a number of minutes when the story was relayed to me, and is the true measure of just what a down to earth character Don really is.

The Grad Ball was a fantastic event which went off without a hitch, apart from poor Aoife Kenny getting the wrong birthday cake and some unfortunate family with a baby called Ava getting a “Happy Birthday Aoife” cake for their christening the following day. That gave me a few laughs too.

Governors who travelled from around the country and around the campus to attend should also get a mention. I would like to thank them too. It really is important to the occasion that the stage has people on it and isn’t just a packed room with not many there from the University to show their appreciation for your hard work.

One other thing that was great to see some of the people who I have helped through my two terms as Deputy President\Welfare get to conferring. One of the most frustrating parts of the job is that when someone walks out the door chances are you won’t know what happened them after that unless you bump into them or see them around campus. It made a big difference to me to see some of those people there and I was really happy to see them get their parchments.

I think I managed to make about 3 meetings all of last week; one with the Gardaí and one Union meeting and one impromptu call about a crisis that wasn’t a crisis. Can’t even remember what it was now! It is a week that really shouldn’t be scheduled as a work week in the calendar as conferring takes up such a huge part of it.

Orientation
It has been a mad house around here since Tuesday when the first orientation groups started snaking through the campus. By tomorrow afternoon over 2,500 newbies will have been orientated and many of them disorientated.

My presentation from UCH is here for those that were there and were too bored or hungover to pay attention and for those of you who for some reason want to spend a minute or so flicking through it. I have a speech, but I don’t think anyone would really want to read through it, plus I do a bit of off the cuff stuff.

I’m really enjoying the buzz around campus this week and it has really tired me already. I’m wrecked!

Your Union – Get Involved
I want everyone to be involved in what we do as the Union this year, it’s not just about the ents and the craic, there’s a lot of influence from within the Union on University policy and you should have your say on that, you can get involved in campaigns, consultation teams or become a class rep.

We have the proposed new Council/Exec structure coming forward as described in a previous blog and we’ll be explaining that again in due course.

Clubs and Socs Fair is on next Wednesday the 7th September and I hope you guys will come along and join up. It’s a great way to meet friends and to get some personal development skills.

Your UL Path
I was at a graduate attributes seminar today with Kelly and Aoife where employers, teaching staff and administrators in the University came together and worked on what the most important things you need for them to hire you are.

A “spark” or “bit of whip” came out on top, academic performace ranked highly, as did adaptability. Employers are looking for people who take a task and make it their own. Initiative and adaptability are two of the main requirements of the modern workplace

One thing that came under fire was parents’ involvement in University life. I had to agree on this.You are all pretty much, if not, adults now; you have to stand on your own two feet, make your own phone calls and fight your own battles. You need to know how to properly construct an email.

First 7 Weeks
This programme allows you to settle nicely into UL, get familiar with the UL jargon like QCA, SAA, Campus Life, Aramark, KBS, UCH and the like. If you don’t know what they mean now, you will or should have been told by somebody by the end of week 7.

ULSU Services LTD.
Our services company is likely to have made a significant loss for the year to the end of June. Council will have to be informed of the figures before they can be made public, but this is going to impact on the level of gigs, services and campaigns we can provide.

The purpose of the company is to make a profit to put into those things so we need your help to turn it around. For the first time we have a dedicated Commercial Manager that has been tasked with turning a surplus for the company that can be re-invested in services for YOU.

I really need you to take up this challenge
While I’m not the most inspirational of people, I really am passionate about bringing your Union into the 21st century and bringing you as the navigator on that journey.