Jumpers for goal posts

At the start of the year I had three main objectives;

· Improving society communication,
· Reclassifying Working Committees and Societies,
· Organising a Sheffield wide summer volunteering project.

I thought I would take this opportunity in what could well be my last blog to highlight some of the ways I have achieved/or not achieved these. A fantastic Societies Committee combined with great staff team in the Activities Department have made this year a pleasure for me. Together we have supported Societies and Committees in a number of ways. These are some of the larger society support projects;

· The Activities Fair and the Refreshers Fair had over 8500 people in attendance
· The Societies Showcase event was a great success (over 200 students attended)
· The introduction of the ‘Society Handbook’ including everything a society would ever need to know which should be ready for September
· Introducing a ‘Society Co-ordinator’ post to better manage support for student societies in the future.
· We have run more society training sessions and developed the existing program tailoring it to society and committee needs
· The Activities Awards ceremony where we presented 20 awards for the fantastic contributions to University life by students who run societies and committees (check out the Website for all Winners!)
· For the first time ever we now have online forms to fill out for any extra curricular funding you would like to put on an event or start an activity and it is also just as simple to start a new society (again check out the Union Website)

I would hope that improvements to the Website, the Society Newsletter, and the Society Handbook along with the Training Sessions have helped to improve society communication both between the Officer and Societies and inter-Society dialogue over this year. One of the main reasons we have introduced a Society Co-ordinator post is to improve this communication further.

The Working Committee and Society review is a massive task which the previous two years worth of Activities Officers have also attempted. The timetable for conducting the review was thrown out of the window half way through the year after it became apparent that it was unrealistic to carry out such a big project with the time constraints of this job. However there has been limited headway made with this and therefore there will be a body of work and a strategy for going forwarded handed over to Matt Fox, Activities Officer elect;

· We held several focus groups with societies before Christmas to ascertain exactly what was needed from a society structure and funding point of view.
· We have re-categorised societies and removed the miscellaneous group that was previously the largest society group. We have also identified a potential system for grouping Working Committees we now need to resolve how these work together. There has been significant work done by Pete this year on Committee Funding and this needs to be incorporated however more consultation is needed
· This year we decided to remove one societies council and increase the number and regularity of training sessions. This will continue through into next year and was as a direct result of the focus groups
· There is a body of wrok from the previous officers that will prove useful going forward.


‘Summer Volidays’ is happening in less than 3 weeks and it’s going to be a great volunteering event with projects all over Sheffield. If you are staying in Sheffield after your exams and you want to get involved with contributing something back to the city that you live in then get involved. Check out ‘Summer Volidays’ on facebook. It is going to be awesome!


One of the manifesto pledges I campaigned with over a year ago was introducing an Environmental Officer, well you win some and you lose some and this year I lost one - we didnt introduce and Environmental Officer, but to be honest I think its better that we didn't. It didn't make it to my objectives either (it became apparent from the start of the year that this was unfeasible), it just wasn't well thought out enough, it's much more effective to have environmental responsibilities as part of a wider Sabbatical Officer role. Then it would be up to Students Union Council to ensure the Officer is fulfilling their elected responsibilities.

This year has been enjoyable but challenging for me. I feel as though I have learned a lot from being a Sabbatical Officer and I can see how many of the skills acquired this year will be incredibly useful in the future. I also would like to think that my election pledges were, wherever possible fulfilled and that I contributed positively to student activities, and the Students’ Union as a whole over my tenure.

And as with most of my posts throughout the year (which I'm sure you will have guessed by now), the title again bears no relevance to the content in any way.

So until next time, this is Matt Wiltshire reminding you to...

Stay Classy, Sheffield ; )