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 ; )

It's your RAG Week!

It's your RAG Week!

Today sees the start of one of the most anticipated week of events of the whole year. It’s RAG week and YOU could be taking part!

Its really gonna be amazing this year - the committee have been working their asses off to get tonnes of events happening, and all for a good cause... well several good causes really!

So let me tell you whats going down...

Starting today and all this weekend is the Beer Festival at the Union and while you’re tasting what’s on offer you can buy RAG merchandise in and around the place.

Tonight (Friday) Stuff'd Olives is breaking out the beats in Fusion with Cool as Folk happening in Foundry. This event will be raising money specifically for the Ituna Community Project. Tom our Welfare Officer is involved in this and you can check out the facebook group here...

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2252539238&ref=ts

Saturday night is 'Glo Tarts' there will be people literally glowing with brightness walking round selling glo sticks at this event so make sure you neon up!

Sunday night sees our very own SHRIMPS (Sheffield University Improv Society) performing at the Last Laugh Comedy Club - making comedy charitable.

The BIG DRESS is kicking off a week of its own events (which happen to be inside a Big Dress in Endcliffe Park) with a fundraising event at the Forum AND the Green Room on Division Street all Monday!

On Wednesday there's Rounders for RAG happening in Endcliffe Park. Buy your tickets for £1 from the Union Box Office and then turn up at 3pm to play!

Theres absolutely loads more going on, but far too much to chat about on here, so check out the Union Website and join the facebook group for much more info.

Oh but I couldn't leave without giving a massive plug to potentially my fave event of the entire week... Open Space on Thursday in Coffee Revolution 7.30pm-till late. It's laid back, its chilled, its acoustic music... and anything thing else you want to do with a mic really. £1 on the door and there will be a prize draw... and what’s more, its all for a good cause!

Check it out and get involved... :)

Captain Planet

Well, the new Societies Committee for 08/09 was elected a week and a half ago and the New Activities Officer 2008/2009 was elected on the same night. Congratulations Matt Fox!

Its pretty busy at the moment with the Activities awards coming up and if you're interested the shortlist has just been announced...

http://www.shef.ac.uk/union/activities-and-sport/societies/society-awards.php

The event itself will be on 13th May in University House and will be amazing! I’ll update how great it was after its all over, but for now I thought I'd better squeeze a blog out before the end of the month, so here's what I've been doing since my last update.

The Societies Information booklet that I have been working on this year has finally started to come together, it should now be ready for September 08 Hurrah!

From the Focus Groups we held before Christmas we realised that Societies Councils weren’t very effective and therefore we have scrapped one of them (potentially two next year) and introduced more specific training sessions for Chairs, Treasurers and Events Planning etc. This has proved a success and will be continued.

Issues involving University room bookings have mainly been resolved across the University, there are still some outstanding issues with bookings of the Food Court in particular to do with double bookings and porters kicking societies out early but as this is the first year the room is being used for societies I have been assured these are just temporary teething problems.

The Kiosks in the Source and Gallery have been changed and improved! You can now access some programs but most importantly listen to SURE Radio and watch YouTube. Now it is similar to a Windows desktop and easy to log out.

RAG Week is happening next week 2-9th May. Its 'back-to-basics' this year for RAG as the week is filled with loads of fun activities raising money for charity. There are some classics from the days of yore like a Bouncy castle and a Candyfloss stall.
Rumour has it that there may be a Tony Hadley sing-along Flashmob at one point during the week (check out YouTube) but keep it under your hat.

The Summer Volunteering project is all starting to come together now and it’s starting to get really exciting! Mark Willoughby has been doing the rounds with important University and Local types who have committed time and support to this project and both the Sheffield Volunteering Board and the Union's Volunteering Committee are in full support. After much discussion, the event is now called ‘Summer Volidays’ you know like Cliff Richard’s Summer Holiday… but for Volunteering… Summer Voliday? It is a terrible pun I know, but it grows on you.

If you want to get involved in promoting 'Summer Volidays' then join our facebook group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16622094988 basically its gonna be immense!

The last of the Working Committees AGM’s should be this week and there will be a training day held for all new committee members on Saturday 10th May. I've been nominated the co-ordinator so thats what I'm distracting myself away from doing now to write this blog.

Faith Matters Week happened last week. The question that was explored all week was ‘Does Faith Really Matter?’ It was pretty good though it couldn't be compared to last year with the amazing World Peace event, but maybe thats a project for next year...

And finally, you may be wondering why I started this blog with Captain Planet. Well, after my last blog we had the Ethical and Environmental Knowledge Week (EEK Week) loads of people took part in the events that went on throughout the week and a packed room for “Stuff’t Olives Green” that finished the week off with a funk. The theme of the week was Monsters (i.e. the poverty monster, exploitation monster etc.) which was awesome however that meant that much to my dissapointment a ‘Captain Planet’ week to encourage more Global Stewardship didn't happen, no-one was even up for dressing up for it.

So here's my point - Captain Planet was amazing at the time, and still is. There were so many good messages and infact pretty similar to our own student Union key messages as well. Take for instance the kids - Kwame (he had the Earth ring), Wheeler (Fire), Linka (Wind), Gi (Water) - and the additional power of Ma-Ti's Heart ring. All of them were from different continents, I mean if that isn't diversity, womens rights, internationalism, black representation, and all on an environmental and ethical agenda I dont know what is. Personally I think Captain Planet should be the Union mascot... but I wouldn't stop there, I'd go as far to say that our Union should be re-named 'Captain Planet' as he represents us so well. My main justification for this came from the theme tune, as if its true we'll definately win the Gold Sound Impact award for most environmentally friendly student Union next year.

'Captain Planet, he's our hero, he's gonna take pollution down to zero'

...the blue body paint from eBay should be arriving tomorrow.

What I've been up to...

I gave an objectives update to Students Union Council tonight so I thought I'd let you in on what I have actually been doing this year as well;


Union Council Update 21/02/08 – Matt Wiltshire

Since my last update Showcase happened, it was pretty much a success with about 14 societies performing from across the range of societies. Medieval Re-enactment, Dancesport and even Countdown Appreciation Society took part with a live game of Countdown to close the first half. It was well attended and in total 195 tickets were sold out of a maximum of 200.

Over Christmas I significantly re-worked my objectives and reduced them to fewer but measurable and achievable targets (see below).

I have also continued with planning the ‘Summer Volunteering’ event that myself and Mark Willoughby have been working on. Its basically a chance to hang around after term finishes in the summer and get stuck into community volunteering projects fixing railings painting playgrounds, that kind of thing! The Sheffield Volunteering Board have agreed a significant amount of budget for it and Student Connections have also found some commercial sponsors of the event - all that is left now is the students and there has already been expressions of interest in the event. I would hope most members of council would be up for getting involved… we’ll keep you updated!

There are good things happening with the computers in the Source I had a meeting with CICS today and although they’re still pretty dire the modifications to make it easy to log out etc should be happening soon. Printing will be available on four computers in the Source very soon and possibly in the future on all of them.

There has been numerous problems with room bookings across the University and a lot of societies are pretty annoyed at the University at the moment. There have been several unrelated issues to do with the residencies, University House and elsewhere, slowly but surely we are working it out (a lot of credit to Tom Bramall for using his politics degree to resolve these issues far better than I could).

The refreshers fair went generally well, unfortunately most societies were pretty annoyed at getting such a small pitch, this is something I will leave in the handover notes to be addressed next year… its not the easiest of tasks to fit everyone into the Octagon though!

The performance space in the Source area that has been talked about in the past has this week been used by the Islamic circle, I’m still looking to get SUTCO in to use it as a one-off venue for one of their short plays but they haven’t yet got back to me.

There is a perennial problem with storage in the Union but again the issue is slowly but surely being resolved. After Film Making society kindly moved up to be based in the Media Hub we have reshuffled around the storage for societies, fitted some new doors to cupboards on the finance corridor and hopefully by the time you read this shelves should be fitted as well to make (most) of our societies happy.

The Societies Committee and I are making progress on the Working Committee/Society review and after initial not-very-far-ranging research had been undertaken it was decided to mostly rely on last years research on the same issue… who would have thought… next job is to dig that out. I hope to have proposals for council after Easter.

All forms for new societies and extra funding forms are all online (http://www.shef.ac.uk/union/activities-and-sport/extra-opportunities-form.php) now woohoo! This is part of a broader plan which didn’t make it onto my objectives but I will drive by the by to build the profile of the Activities Space on the website.

The three most recent things I have been working on are the Society Awards, Uni Challenge and EEK Week. Next week the online form should be launched for societies to nominate themselves or others for awards. Secondly with the success of our University Challenge team this is a prime time to launch our campaign to find next year’s winning team ( Monday 3rd March 5.00pm SU Auditorium http://www.shef.ac.uk/union/event.php?contentID=2500). Thirdly I have been working on Ethical and Environmental Knowledge (EEK) Week this week and as far as I am aware (being buried in my office all day) it’s gone pretty well so far!

Working on Faith Matters Week with the Chaplaincy, which falls at the same time as International Week has been unfortunate but seeing as me and Marika love each other we should be able to resolve the conflict and all live in peace and harmony like Krishna.

Just after Christmas we managed to finally resolve the issue of Societies using Coffee Revolution and not being charged to do so. There needs to be further discussions on whether we incentivise student activity to stay within the Union, especially with other venues but for now a good compromise has been reached.


Revised Objectives as of 24/01/08

a.) Student Activities Review
To increase support for student societies and improve communication by;

i. creating a ‘Society Bible’ with everything a union society needs to know.
ii. introducing staff post specifically to support societies.
iii. re-categorising Societies and Working Committees to make distinctions clear (implications on Society Councils)
iv. supporting the Societies Committee in running an Awards Event for Societies.

b.) Support RAG and Volunteering
To support both the RAG and volunteering committees by;

i. attending committee meetings twice this semester
ii. supporting and leading on the summer volunteering project
iii. supporting RAG week as much as possible
iv. supporting the new community fundraising post – (focussing on society involvement)

c.) Environmental Excellence
To improve the environmental performance of the Union and University by;

i. supporting ‘Environmental & Ethical Knowledge’ week
ii. providing limited support for implementation of the ‘Sound Impact Awards’
iii. taking environmental considerations into account as part of the 2012 building project group
iv. reviewing other student unions’ practices

d.) Start a band

Officer Roles Review and Referenda

As returning officer I have removed any reference to the Referenda previously on my blog.

If you are looking for debate on any of the referenda there is info about each here;

http://www.shef.ac.uk/union/student-voice/elections08/referenda-2008.php

Best Students Union, Best Volunteering Events!

Wahey!

Just found out we won 'Students Union Of The Year' Award again! (I'll post the link as soon as its up). Just goes to show we're still the best Students Union in the country and as a member of Sheffield University and therefore the Students Union, I'm pretty proud of that!

http://www.shef.ac.uk/eview/articles88/studentneighbours.html

This is the Volunteering event called "Love Where You Live" that I was involved in at the weekend, I only turned up for half of it as I was attending the Students Union Council training day but just in time to look as if I'd done all the hard work for the publicity photo shoot...

Its stuff like this that really does justify the fact we can boast about how great we are as a Students Union. Even if Tom Bramall is too concerned about his own welfare to actually do any of the lifting or sweeping up at the end of the day...

Now I understand why he is called the 'Welfare Officer' ; )

When life just isn’t what you expect…

Many times in this job so far all eight officers have been invited to events where mingling and speaking to high up University types is the aim of the game. This is a role that we enjoy very much and are pretty pleased whenever we are asked to attend them. The fact that there is usually free food and drink at these events is purely coincidental (suffice to say these lunches are usually one of the few times ALL of the sabbatical team are in attendance). The most notable recent events we have been invited to have been; lunch with the new Vice Chancellor, a BBQ with the Chaplaincy, a Fish and Chip supper for International students and a very nice buffet lunch at the grand opening of the Information Commons.

The start of this week saw a mysterious event added to our diaries which was lunch with another University department, now I’m not saying that we were all blinded by the prospect of food being on offer but… well, we were all blinded by the prospect of food being on offer. It turned out this meeting was somewhat more formal and in depth than any of us had realised and arriving in a room to 9 or 10 seated individuals giving a summary of their aims for the year ahead and the ways in which they planned to involve us officers was surprising to say the least. To say that we had nothing prepared would be an understatement, and my plan to just show my face and load up on food was looking distinctly less likely, but to save the day a discreet text was sent to Marika (who fortunately was still working on international time) to bring paper and pens for all as she arrived.

You might think the situation had been regained by this point however the ground didn’t really start to open up until the end of the meeting as I closed my folder and motioned to leave, it was at this point that the chair of the meeting announced that for the next 45 mins the student officers would be presenting back to the committee...

Needless to say I didn't feel very comfortable for the next three quarters of an hour.

Its here where I usually suggest some sort of moral of the story, or at least some attempt at a witty comment but after pondering this event in depth I think all that can be said is...

45 mins of awkward conversation is outweighed by a full on free lunch anyday.