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
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)
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:
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