full agm 2012 papers

Queen Margaret UnionAnnual General Meeting 2012

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Queen Margaret Union - Annual General Meeting 2012 2

Contents

Appendix I: Minutes of the previous AGM 3Appendix II: Reports from Executive and Convenors 10Appendix III: Proposed Alterations to the Constitution 58Appendix IV: Strategic Plan Overview 63Appendix V: Annual Accounts July 2010-June 2011 AttachedAppendix VI: Six Month Accounts July July 2011 – December 2011 Attached


Appendix I

Minutes from the Annual General Meeting 15th May 2011

• Sederunt:

I. Smith, A. Landels, C. Chisholm, P. Hughes, E. Bainbridge, C. Fraser, K. Alcott, H. Butler, A. Johnston, E. Jewson, L. Thomas, T. Gore, K. Queen, N. McKerracher, J. Helle, C. Cook, A. MacIver, R. Caldwell, K. Fry, M. Lamont, C. Johnston, D. Callander, N. Murdoch, S. Galbraith, C. Knox, S. Wallace, K. Brims, J. Ansell , G. Stewart, O. Milne, R. Cuthbertson, R. Callaghan, E. Murphy, B. Crow, B. McBride, L. Hainey, P. Kelly, R. Brownlie, C. McGuire, C. MacInnes, M. Willing, B. Mervis, J. Barclay, N. Law, E. Zhdanov, A. Sorice, L. Laing, D. Walker, L. Porterfield, P. Betts, E. Serta, N. Ballantyne, K. Hill, P. Coyne, P .Sansom, T. Wheatley, C. Smith, C. Jones, F. Sutherland, L. Clarke, H. Davies, A. Campbell, e. Munro, J. Taylor, K. Scott, L. Gordon, S. McFadden, T. Eriksson, L. Dhillon, A. Angelesco, N. Faull, K. Robertson, E. Hill, L. Sparks, C. Owens, E. Cooper, E. Meyer-Turner.

• Apologies: A. Stearn

• Minutes from the last meeting

No questions. Proposed – J. TaylorSec – L. HaineyAgenda amendment: Item 10 and 7 be moved to the front Proposed – A. LandelsSeconded – C. Chisholm

• Report of the President

I. Smith commends the great attendance of the meeting. 1. Comments on year:Financial Position: Announces that £64,000 block grant that has been absent for the past 5 years will now be reinstated, very thankful to the SRC and GUSA for the support in securing this. Events: Has been very difficult the BOM have done the best they can to try and promote them throughout the year. The opinion is that Quids as not a failure but as a flawed event that needs to be changed for next year. Convenors: There have been a total of four resignations of Convenors this year due to varying reasons. This has by no means been an ideal situation for us as a Board and needs to be looked for next year possibly through Convenor Training. General Board: Main comment on this is that there had been a big increase in contribution from the Honorary President, the VP’s and the FSM’s. This has been very helpful through some of the tougher times this year.Cross Campus: All in all it has been a very good year with the SRC, GUSA and the GUU with only some slight issues. Closed Committee Trial: Not completed but will be by the end of the year, more people need to be asked, there has been some definite improvements in communication, dedication and attendance. No questionsVote of Thanks proposed for I. SmithProposed: A. Landels


Seconded: C. Chisholm

• Report of the Honorary Secretary

A. Landels presents:Comments: Life Membership: There have only been 30 new life members over the past years this should increase next year as there will new advertising to promote this to leaving students. Questionnaire: Motivation on this project has been lost; need to be well thought out before implemented next year. Affiliations: Increased from 33 last year to 50 clubs successfully affiliated.Clubs and Societies Quiz: Not very successful due to poor weather, around 20 people attended and around 5-6 teams competed.Discipline: This year has seen a stray away from the regular form of discipline in that a much lighter approach has been taken.Questions:F. Sutherland: Can you justify lifting bans made by previous members of the Board of Management?

- I felt that the actions made by some individuals that were banned did not merit such a harsh punishment. Discipline needs to be used to make people learn their lesson. Vote of Thanks proposed for A. LandelsProposed – I. SmithSeconded – C. Chisholm

• Report of the Honorary Assistant Secretary

O. Milne presents for the term between July 2010 – November 2011.Comments: Electronic Voting: Wasn’t able to fulfil this goal during term due to varying issues, still at the drawing board stages.Training: Proved difficult to implement due to scheduling with the rest of the BOM, apologies that this did not go better. Resignation: This was a very tough decision, thanks to everyone’s support.No questionsVote of thanks proposed for O. MilneProposed: I. SmithSeconded: C. Chisholm

C. Chisholm presents for the term between November 2011 to present.Comments:Minutes: Improvements made to minutes included, revising the quality and making then all available online and to the membership. Sport: Improvements were made regularly to promotional materials for sports promotion to try and increase turnout in Champions’ Bar. BWNPQ: Extensive work was made on this by videoing movies and collaborating with the Social Convenor on the Charles Kennedy Face Off which was a roaring success. Online/Postal Voting: Avenues have been explored and work done can hopefully carry forward into next year.Questions:


T. Queen: When will online voted be tested or used?- Can’t possibly comment on what will happen next year but most likely not used until the March election. E. Zhdanov: What do you feel that the role of the Asst. Hon Sec will be next year?- More than likely be the same, maybe some responsibilities taken away as it is a very intensive job.

• Report of the Honorary Treasurer

T. Murphy presents:Comments: External Audits accounts are from page 6-9, giving a snapshot of the years financial performance. Page 8: Shows a 6 month deficit of £65,000 from July-December and a total year deficit of £112,000 down to the Union taking in less income overall. The main problem behind this is that that usage of the building is down, the change in the academic year/ exam timetable has ensured that operational time throughout the year is also decreased. The 2006 Smoking Ban has been cause for a big loss in a lot of other areas. Another reason is possibly that the Unin is just not cool anymore, due also to increased competition and increased prices. Expenditure has been trimmed across the board everywhere and this cost cutting trend can only go so far. However we do have a relatively healthy based on previous years surplus. This surplus has decreased from £889,000 last year to £777,000 at the end of this year. The development fund that was cut 5 years ago needs to be reinstated for hopes to be running at a surplus to be a realistic goal. No questions.Vote of Thanks proposed for T. MurphyProposed – I. SmithSeconded – C. Chisholm

• Report of the Events Convenor

G. Stewart presents:Comments on events:Halloween: Around 1000 people in the building went fairly well.12 hour Christmas: Good night, although some of the decorations were not completed in time.St Patricks: The T-Shirts were sold as tickets again, went well but had the election on the same day.Spring Break: Slightly down on last year, but fairly well received. Cheesy Pop: First semester attendance is down from last year consistently. Second semester well attended for the first month but has since tailed off considerably. Quids: Hasn’t been as successful as would like, although has been performing better than Revolution. The themed Quids events have showed promise in boosting numbers. Questions:P. Coyne: Do you feel that themed events can put off some of the older students?- No, I feel they appeal to a broad range of tastes.K. Hill: What has caused lack of communication within the committee?- Various things, it is getting fixed by having more regular meetings with the events manager.P. Coyne: Do you feel that Quids will do better with a new set of first years?- Yes, people will be more aware of what’s going on every TuesdayE. Cooper: Is the closed committee structure too cliquey? - Don’t think so everybody can see what is going on, there is a good board presence in it also. There is also a good variety of opinions within the group.


Vote of Thanks proposed for G. StewartProposed: I. SmithSeconded: C. Chisholm

• Report of the Ordinary Board Convenor

L. Hainey and K. Brims present: General Comments: Good year for communication within the board, a lot of effort has been put in on various projects.No questionsVote of Thanks proposed for both L. Hainey and K. BrimsProposed: I. SmithSeconded: C. Chisholm

• Report of the Publications Convenor

E. Bainbridge presents: Comments on year: There were issues with getting enough advertising to cover the costs of the handbook, but we managed to get them in the end. The feedback from the handbook was very positive. The Wallplanners used to promote Fresher’s Week also were very well received although we ordered too much (around 5000). The fresher’s week issues were exactly the same format as last year’s using Mailboxes for the printing.Qmunicate has been strange, the biggest problem has been getting the features and the lack of research behind them and also being rather last minute. The website has been a nightmare but it is finally getting sorted with a couple members of the BOM starting to help with getting it in working order. No Questions.Vote of Thanks proposed for E. BainbridgeProposed – I. SmithSeconded – A. Landels

• Report of the Social Convenor

P. Hughes presents:Comments on events:Comedy: Has been well implemented credit goes to J. Barclay for sorting out booking acts and running it.New Theatre: Too much effort is required to do this every month, needs to be revised how often this event runs and to try and get more outsiders involved.BWNPQ: Going very well on the most part a lot of effort has been made with the format and the interactive content such as videos. Thanks go to Chizzy, James and Iain for their work.The rest of the events have been going fairly well without much incident. PR: Efforts in this have been very consistent from the ordinary board and thanks go to them and the rest of the committee. Questions:F. Sutherland: Any consideration into having more film nights like ‘The Room’?- Not my remit but is a good ideaI. Smith: How can we combat having to cancel events in the next year?- Pivotal that they are established well in Fresher’s Week and that the carry off effect stays strong throughout the year. Vote of Thanks for P. Hughes


Proposed: I. SmithSeconded: C. Chisholm

• Report of the Support and Services Convenor

J. Taylor presents:Comments:There has been a lot of change within the committee, however there has been a good amount raised throughout the year including:£ 849 for Movember£675 for Jailbreak£542 for cancer researchC-Card: Has changed, trying to streamline.Questions:L. Hainey: How will you try to increase attendance in the committee?- Try to spread the word through Fresher’s Week and word of mouth.K. Brims: Why was Jailbreak so poorly attended?- Whole organisation was a rush, just one of those things. K. Hill: How do you see the QM’s position in RAG Week improving?- Increased communication between the SRC and ourselves etc.

• Announcement of election of President, Honorary Secretary and Honorary Assistant Secretary

President July 2011 – June 2012: Kirsty HillHonorary Secretary July 2011 – June 2012: Liam HaineyHonorary Assistant Secretary July 2011 – June 2012: Colum Fraser

• Announcement of election of members of the Board of Management

Events Convenor July 2011 – June 2012: Lauren ClarkeOrdinary Board Convenor July 2011 – November 2011: Karin Brims Publications Convenor July 2011 – June 2012: Nina BallantyneSocial Convenor July 2011 – June 2012: Patrick HughesSupport and Services Convenor July 2011 – June 2012: Josh Taylor Ordinary Board Members March 2011 – March 2012: Ordinary Board Members March 2011 – November 2011: Former Student Member: Chris Hall

• Nomination and election of Honorary President

5 Nominations:C. Chisholm, A. Landels, R. MacIntyre, G. Stewart, P. CoyneVotes cast, A. Landels deem elected.

• Nomination and election of Honorary Vice-Presidents

7 Nominations: C. Chisholm, G. Stewart deemed elected.

• Nomination and election of Honorary Life Members

20 Nominations: K. Anderson, Scott the handy man and P. Black deemed elected.


• Nomination and election of Honorary Treasurer

The Executive propose Terry Murphy and Co.

Motion PASSED.

• Nomination and election of Auditors

The Executive propose Alexander Sloane Ltd

Motion PASSED.

• Nomination and election of Solicitors

The Executive propose Brunton Miller and McClure Naismith

Motion PASSED.

• Nomination and election of Bankers

The Executive propose the Royal Bank of Scotland.Direct Negative – O. Milne, N. BallantyneArguments for motion: Annoying having to change accounts, pointless argument, should have confidence in the BOM to know how to keep our assets. Arguments against motion: Issue of skipping over the ethical issues behind doing business with RBS, suggesting Co-op as a more ethical venture.

Votes cast, Motion PASSED.

• Alterations to the Constitution

1. Changing the Support and Services Convenor back to the Campaigns and Charities Convenor (Proposed by the Executive).

DN: E. MunroArguments for motion: Rebranding S+S along with the new remit, C+C is more clear about the goals of the committee. Arguments against motion: Campaigns and charities is not what the committee does, S+S needs to be at the heart of the union and this name change won’t do it.Motion PASSED

2. Removal of the majority of non-Ordinary Board voting members in the Board of Management

DN: O. Milne Arguments for motion: The voting majority currently doesn’t lie with the ordinary board, this needs to be changed as it is essential that the Ordinary Board have the main power to make decisions within Board meetingsArguments against motion: Taking the Staff Representative vote away retracts the voice of the staff. Need to look at possibly increasing the number of Ordinary Board positions instead. Motion FAILS

• Any other Competent Business


Change the Ru Mac memorial chalkboard to the Andy Davies failed Hon VP/VP Media Comms campaign chalkboard: PASSED.Change the QM theme tune to Truly Madly Deeply: PASSED.Make Fuck Tonne the official QM unit of measure: PASSEDChange QM Union to Free QM Union: FAILSChange 3rd floor Toilets to Joel McAnallen memorial wanking cabin: PASSEDBlanca can’t be used in Street Fighter 4: PASSEDChizzys’ hat must be enshrined in the Board when he leaves: PASSEDThe alley outside the QM must be renamed Chippy Alley: PASSED

Meeting Closes.


Appendix II

Queen Margaret UnionAnnual General Meeting 2012

Reports of the Executive and Convenors


1. Report of the PresidentSubmitted by K. Hill

1.0 Foreword

Being elected as the President of the Queen Margaret Union is a moment I will never forget. I have never felt so honoured to be trusted by the membership of such a fine institution. If I could do it all again would. I know I would do it so much better with everything I have learnt this year, but I doubt a president would ever say otherwise. There has not been a moment when I have not tried my best for this union and it has consumed every part of my life this year, but I really wouldn’t have had it any other way. I hope that I have done you proud.

1.1 Commercial Services

1.1.1 Shop

Our shop continues to be in decline. I often feel as a board of management we neglect it as it’s not something we need to use every day, I myself feel I may have been guilty of this. There is continuing concern over the competition posed by Tesco and Rymans. Discussion on the future of the shop continues to be on the agenda with the new executive.

1.1.2 Bars

The Bars have also shown decline this year. We saw a huge decline in Freshers Week, which I believe can partly be attributed to our £1 drink promotion for Tuesday nights affecting both Sunday and Monday’s events. This issue continued throughout the year with Quids cheap drinks needing to be discounted for 72 hours.

With the decline of attendance of some Social Events, Jim’s Bar has suffered. With no board member willing to take on the promotion of Sport in Champions bar we saw awful turn out for the majority of 6 nations games, something which was relatively successful last year and weekend football has generally been empty all year. It’s been very disappointing after Christopher Chisholm’s work last year.

1.1.3 Catering

Our catering continues to be popular amongst the majority of students on campus, as we are seen to be providing good value, quality meals. The renovation of Lacuna over summer has not majorly benefited sales during the day but we have seen an increase in sales at night with our new evening menu, which has proved popular.I am always concerned that we do not provide enough health options, but with sushi being introduced in the shop and good soup and a variety of sandwiches I’m sure we should be fine!

1.2 Events

1.2.1 Cross Campus Events

Our biggest cross campus event (out with freshers week which will be covered by Liam) was RAG week. I was really happy to work alongside Ellie, Amy and Iain to produce a successful week. The week of Challenge Kirsty proved rather successful and I really enjoyed myself! Charity Zumba and Challenge Tuesday Live also proved to be fairly successful and I hope that next year the SRC and the QMU can continue to lead the way in RAG week and build it across campus with GUSA and the GUU.

1.2.2 Issues with External Promoters


We had several options to work with external promoters on clubnight events within the union. The first – Viva la Fiesta - was an international student clubnight and the second - Sin City run by Ice Dragon Promotions - was very much your stereotypical student clubnight trying to be a little bit classier. Myself and the rest of the executive were behind working with Viva la Fiesta as we felt it would provide a new, much needed, international event on campus. However we were against working with Ice Dragon Promotions, as we felt the nature of their clubnight did not fit in with the QMU. After negotiations with the company it was decided however that we would trial the event without some of their promotional techniques – i.e. hot dancers. This meant we had to reshuffle our social event programme moving Unplugged to a Monday night.

In the end we lost both promoters. Viva la Fiesta did not want to launch their night as they did not feel they had enough opportunity during Freshers Week to promote. Ice Dragon Promotions, however, decided that Sin City would not work in our venue and offered us several other events, which were all inappropriate for our venue for various reasons. We decided not to move forward with them.

I am disappointed with my decision to trial Sin City with Ice Dragon promotions as I believe it negatively affected our Unplugged night. I hope that next year's executive and social convenor will be able to return it to a Thursday night and build its reputation once more.

1.2.3 Live Music

The executive decided at the beginning of the year to start to bring live music back to Jim's Bar. For our first event we worked with For Pete Sake. Unfortunately the numbers were poor and a second event was not scheduled. In December Tom Kelly run the first 'QM Live' event. Numbers for this event improved and I hope that next year we will move forward with this model.

On the advice of our events manager we tried a 'Battle of the Bands' event. I do not believe this went well. It did not seem to attract our members with often only a few people coming along to see their friends play. I would not recommend a similar event for next year.

In terms of external gigs we have continued only to secure a few gigs per semester from DF concerts. I do not see how we can improve on this number. Large gigs in Qudos should not be a priority for next year.

1.2.4 Quids

Again we tried to run with this cheap and cheerful model. This simply just does not work. As you will see from Lauren Clarke's report, numbers were consistently poor and therefore the decisions was made to end Quids at the end of Semester one.

While this model seems to work effectively in other student unions across the UK I believe the competition in Glasgow is simply just too high to run a night based solely on cheap drinks.

With licensing laws stipulating we must hold drinks prices the same for 72 hours, Quids also negatively affected bar takings through the whole of semester one. I would not recommend this model for next year.

1.2.5 Cheesy Pop

Again in reference to Lauren's report numbers have been slightly down on last year with the same weeks suffering, how applying for more 3am licences and producing regular themed nights proved successful. It seems with more Friday night competition our members enjoy the a variety of destinations to start their weekend these days. I believe we must continue to try and improve the quality of this event.


1.2.6 Freshers Week

While Liam Hainey will cover Freshers Week in depth there are a few issues I would like to comment upon. While the committee managed to discuss and debate ideas for weeks it became frustrating with sluggish decision making and poor communication. Decisions were made in the absence of the executive committee which I believe left us with a poorer week of events and reflected negatively on the union, and for that I am regretful. Poor event organization for some events led to us gaining a reputation for long queue times and unfortunately some of the events we had chosen just simply did not go as well as we had anticipated. I hope that next year’s committee will be able to improve on what we managed to achieve.

1.3 Board of Management & Committees

Most of the conduct and information on the board of management this year will be covered by Colum in his report, but there are just a few things I would like to say.

This year has been a year of ups and downs with the board. While I am happy that we received no resignations there have been times where some members of the board have struggled with their commitments negatively impacting the union.

1.3.1 Campaigns and Charities

I could not be happier with how Ellie and Robin have led this committee. Their remarkable dedication to fundraising and campaigning is outstanding. I am so proud that we have contributed to major campaigns this year and I am happy that we have taken a stance on major issues affecting our membership. The free condom scheme has gone from strength to strength and the first (this has to be annual) Red Ribbon Ball was great. Ellie’s communication with charitable clubs and societies has been fantastic and I’m sure this is why we have build such a good relationship with them this year. I hope that the Campaigns and Charities committee continue to grow and grow. I cannot express how proud I am of this committee and I am so happy that they flourished while I was President.

1.3.2 Events

My goal this year was to ensure that the Events Committee had much greater involvement in the running of events. With the changeover of Events Manager in October the Events Committee received much greater training in technical skills and event management, allowing individuals to learn skills in sound and lighting, for example. While there seemed to be initial teething problems, I hope that those involved in the events committee really gained a lot from learning these skills over the past year. I would like to thank Lauren for her dedication to her committee and wish Paul well in the coming year.

1.3.3 Publications

Publications has been somewhat of an ongoing struggle this year. With Colum, Iain and I taking over the handbook at short notice and continually missing deadlines we struggled to justify it place in the budget. However, qmunicate continues to be popular across campus and after Christmas Nina changed some elements of the magazine which hopefully helped to advertise QM services while keeping the majority of the same content. I would again like to thank Nina for her effort this year and I wish Tom the best of luck.

1.3.4 Social

As referred to in Paddy’s report social events have had their ups and downs this year. Paddy’s


enthusiasm was hard to miss and I thank him for continuing to attempt to drive these events forward, however I feel we were slow to change the social events which were clearly flawed and lacking interest from the membership. Pop Culture and a Piano has been exceptional and I thank Bateman and Paul for their efforts in making this a success. Similarly, I thank Jo in her efforts with Comedy. I believe James will have a big challenge on his hands next year to revive the numbers at Unplugged and the Big Wednesday Night Pub Quiz and I wish him luck.

1.3.5 FSMs and Honoraries

Unfortunately for the majority of the year we have been without active FSMs, which I feel really do support and contribute to the board of management massively. It is unfortunate that Ed, Tobi and Ruaraidh could not attend more board meetings. I do however want to thank Chris Hall, Graeme Stewart, Iain Smith and Christopher Chisholm who have continued to show an immense amount of dedication to the union. I cannot express enough how much I would like to thank them for the support the board and myself have received from them throughout this year.

1.3.6 Freshers

I am so happy with the level of involvement from first years in the board of management and committees. I hope you continue to be involved and successfully take the union forward.

1.4 Cross Campus and The University

1.4.1 Glasgow University Union

I have very much enjoyed working with both Chris and David this year.. With the discovery of the demolition of the GUUs extension at the beginning of Freshers Week, both helper teams showed little animosity toward each other or extreme negative attitudes toward either union and I was happy with how both our teams worked with each other during the week.One of the biggest challenges that faces the QMU and GUU in the coming year is the loss of their extension. It will be a challenge to ensure we do not lose the incoming freshers for the next few years to town or other venues in the west end. It is also a concern regarding the Northern Service buying group losing a large venue.

1.4.2 Glasgow University Sports Association

I believe the relationship between the QMU and GUSA has improved this year. The fundraising quiz held by GUSA in Qudos was a great success. While I have unfortunately been unable to attend any of their meetings this year, I have enjoyed working with their executive, especially Chris Millar and I wish him luck as president next year. I am pleased we are also looking to incorporate more sport into qmunicate and I believe next year we will be able to grow our relationship with GUSA even further.

1.4.3 Students Representative Council

As I'm sure we are all aware the SRC had a turbulent start to the year with the resignation of Stuart Ritchie. During the summer and the lead up to his resignation there were continuing struggles between both unions and the SRC – especially with the President - beginning with fighting for the priority of union PR and advertising space during Freshers Week and seeking feedback on any developments with the Post Grad social space. However after his resignation, I believe the relationship with the SRC and the QMU has grown. Working with Amy, Iain and James has generally been very positive. 1.4.4 Rector

I do not believe that we have had a particularly good working relationship with Charles


Kennedy this year. Having received reports about offhand negative comments he has made about the QMU to senior members of university staff I do have some concerns over his allegiance to the GUU and I do not believe he would fight for the QMU if we faced serious difficulties in the coming years. I hope next years president may be able to work on this.

1.4.5 University Staff

I have not met with University staff as much as I would have liked. This has been entirely my own fault and I would encourage next years President to work harder than I have at this. During meetings with the Principle and Secretary of Court my main agenda was to ensure that they both believed in maintaining a four student body structure. I have received assurances from them both that there are no plans to merge the four together.

1.5 Projects

1.5.1 Survey

We commissioned a survey to investigate how the students of the University of Glasgow perceive the QMU. We received 500 face to face interview responses and the majority of comments were positive. 97% believed that the QMU was a valuable part of campus life and the majority felt that our social spaces, catering and bar facilities were good. However many felt that we were lacking in our quality of entertainment. These issues have been addressed in the strategic plan.

1.5.2 Strategic Plan

I have been working on a three year strategic plan for the QMU. Establishing a small working group we identified three main areas to focus on; Events and Social Space, Our Community and Benefits to Individuals. We are very aware we can no longer stand still and need to make changes to how we run and how we represent what our membership want. We have made some poor decisions in the past few years, perhaps due to a lack of foresight and strategy. I hope that this will provide some form of vision and guide for the next few years.

As part of my report you will see a summary of the strategic plan and I hope to gain some feedback from the AGM to ensure we are heading in the right direction. I would like to thank the board of management for all their input into this and I hope I have accurately reflected how you see the union moving forward in this document.

1.5.3 Clubs & Societies

At the beginning of the year we began discussing improvements to affiliation and how we could engage more with Glasgow University's Clubs & Societies. I do however feel that we did not try hard enough to ensure we were providing the services and facilities they need.

On a positive note we continued to affiliate a large number of clubs and societies, with the majority who taking advantage of free committee room hire. Once again Free Sunday Night Hire in Jim's Bar has proved popular with the majority of Sundays in second term being booked.

I very much enjoyed working with clubs and societies this year, in particular Student Action for Refugees with their Pop Up Shop and raising money for Unity. I hope we can continue to work and fundraise together in the coming years.

Working with Lauren Hinton over the past few weeks leads to me to believe that we will be able to deliver much more for clubs and societies next year and I am hopeful that we will be able to provide a higher quality of service moving forward. I wish her the best of luck with this.


1.5.4 Life Membership

After discussions in our Strategic Planning Committee the proposed changes to life membership were developed. I took the lead on this and produced a survey to investigate how our current life membership viewed these changes. The results suggest that the proposed changes to life membership are generally being well received with some concerns over asking existing life members to begin paying annually. However, I believe this could be an opt in policy for existing life members. This, however, will be discussed greater at the AGM.

1.5.5 Website

Colum Fraser and I took the lead on producing our new wesbite. Built by BAM and content created and added by us, we have attempted to create a better online presence. I took a while to reach the point we are at, and there are many improvements still to come. I hope that next year’s executive will continue with this.

1.5.6 Social Media

Colum Fraser and I have worked to utilise twitter this year. We started our ‘Song of the Day’ posts to promote our reputation as a venue for live music and hopefully encourage greater interests in our posts. We have seen a greater number of followers this year and I hope we can continue to build on this. Facebook has continued to grow and I believe we are utilizing it well. I have some concerns over the continuity of some posts with the amount of people who have access to admin rights and I would encourage next year’s executive to review this - potentially only the president having access to admin rights with all posts for the day agreed in advance.

1.6 The End

This year has been difficult and it will continue to be difficult for the next few years. I hope that my efforts with the strategic plan will offer some words of guidance from my presidential grave and if not I’m sure Suki will be able to summon me with her gifts as an oracle. There have been so many people who have helped me this year; Colum, Iain, Chris, Robin (for the hugs) and so many more, who I will inevitably cry about at President’s Dinner in a few weeks. But to all of you, thank you so much for the dedication you’ve shown to the union and the support you’ve given me. This board has proven that – when everyone gets behind a project or an event – we can pull off something spectacular and very unique to the character of the QM and its members.

I had high hopes and some of them have been successful and some of them haven’t but... ‘The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley’. As long as we all remember that the QMU is ours and it’s our responsibility to make sure it’s always here. I have every faith in Colum Fraser and next year’s board of management, I know they will do well.

Remember to give that extra 5% and if you’re feeling tired in a board meeting it’s ok to stand up and have a wee jiggle. Without you, our board, our committees, our members we are nothing and it’s because of you that I’ve tried to work so hard this year. I love all your little faces. Work hard and do the best you can for your union, but most importantly have fun, enjoy it and what it can offer you. It’s the best time you’ll ever have.

My undying loves and huggles,

Kirsty ‘QM til I die’ HillPresident 2011/12


2. Report of the Honorary SecretarySubmitted by L. Hainey

2.1 Freshers’ Week

2.1.1 The committee

There were a number of operational issues with the structure of the Freshers’ Week Committee, and these were highlighted the board of management after Freshers’ Week was completed, and then later to the Hon Secelect who will be working on a new approach to the running of the Freshers’ week committee. There was also an initial meeting with both the incoming and outgoing Exec Cons to discuss issues and plan for the future. I will highlight some of the issues we faced and the incoming Hon Sec L.Hinton will explain how she intends to address them in the coming weeks and months.

The basic structure of the committee was that it would meet once every two weeks in full and the time in between was filled with online communication and discussion on facebook. This brings with it some inherent problems. It meant that the Committee meetings became the only point at which decisions were made, and the online communication was simply discussion and ideas. When planning a large scale event such as Freshers’ Week it is vital that it is possible to make decisions quickly. Competition for the best acts is high and things happen quickly, and on some occasions our slow response time caused us to miss out.

The fact that the vast majority of FW decision making and planning takes place in summer also bring with it some problems. Specifically some members of the committee may find themselves having to, for financial reasons, miss meetings in order to work. I was in this position and so were a number of my colleagues at various points. However poor online communication meant that members who could not attend meetings were often left out of the loop and out of the decision making process. The result of this was that there was at least one decision taken without any approval from any student member of the committee, and in fact was contrary to the wishes of at least one member of the committee. This is clearly a far from ideal situation. Therefore it was agreed in Freshers’ Week Committee post mortems that finding the balance between swift and efficient decision making to ensure that no opportunity was missed and ensuring that student members of the committee have their views heard and remain an integral part of the process.

2.1.2 Administering the week itself

One of the biggest problems I found in the admin of the week was that the teams were in some cases too large and unwieldy. This made us inflexible to events and lead some problems in getting maximum coverage for our events publicity. We also faced difficulty in having people to set up and strip down events. This meant that often people who were not meant to be helping at the end of the night were forced to do so due to a lack of manpower. I believe that the Exec did their very best to avoid this and no single person is to blame. There were in some cases helpers at fault, but there was at times a lack of clear communication coming from the Event’s Manager at the time. This resulted in confusion and difficulty at the end of the night. This was another issue addressed at the Freshers Week committee after the week and the meeting of both incoming and outgoing committee members. There is now a plan in place to have dedicated teams of helpers whose single responsibility will be to assist in this regard.

In terms of the Exec responsibilities I feel we worked particularly well together in this week, ensuring that no single member of the three of us was left over burdened and that we shared responsibilities well and evenly. This was achieved by ensuring that we rotated between the three of us as being a primary point of contact and I feel it worked well.

2.1.3 Relationship with halls


This seemed to be initially positive and the relevant University were extremely sympathetic and accommodating to our plans. Sadly however this did not universally trickle down towards staff at individual halls. This resulted in occasions where we were completely denied access, told we we were not permitted to enter any buildings and many other restrictions. There was also often no distinction made between ourselves and other external non University promoters. While I don’t feel there is any easy solution to this, communication with its staff is the University's responsibility to communicate with its own staff, it is something to be aware of. In most cases a quick and polite phone call resolved the situation and our helpers were able to carry on as normal.

2.1.4 Cross Campus

There were two key issues during cross campus preparations for Freshers’ Week. Firstly the age old problem of the QMU and GUU being sidelined in favour of other external organisations and secondly the possibility of SRC helpers being issued with wristbands for Viper for the duration of the week. The two Unions saw this second point as particularly unacceptable as it would result in another student body directly promoting the two Unions main rivals. The argument was won in the end and this did not proceed, however again I would urge caution when the SRC discuss their relationship with other nightclubs off campus.

2.2 Clubs and Societies

2.2.1 Changes to affiliation.

The relationship that I have had with Clubs and Socs since July has been varied.I began my term by pushing current incentives for affiliation as well as introducing some new ones. The key new incentive they were offered was the opportunity to sign out crates of booze at cost or reduced price for affiliated clubs. This new offer was highlighted heavily in the affiliation pack and was pointed out to a large number of non-affiliated clubs throughout the University. Sadly this offer seemed to be poorly received. As far as I am aware in the entire year not one single club has taken advantage of this offer. 2.2.2 Efforts to promote the Union to Clubs and Socs

The main way I went about this was using the SRC list of affiliated Clubs and Socs, rooting out the ones who had already affiliated to the Union and then targeting the ones who hadn’t with periodic emails. This had some success. One particular club (a year of Medical students) attempted to book Jim’s bar to host an end of term event. Unfortunately the date they were looking for was not available and it was therefor impossible to meet their requirements. However the fact that a demographic who we are traditionally poor at connecting with sought us out as a first choice venue was pleasing. This is something I would encourage the incoming Hon Sec to build on with the incoming SRC VP student support. I also revamped the outdated affiliation pack and was sure to have Freshers Helpers distribute it around all Clubs and Socs who were present at the Fresher’s Fair.

2.2.3 Sports Clubs.

At the beginning of my term I was very keen to further my involvement with GUSA affiliated clubs. To this end I selected a few, targeted them, and asked what they want from us. Sadly this was again frustrating. The answer was essentially nothing other than money which we don’t have to give. They receive sponsorship and offers from other venues which we can not compete with at the current time. Therefore the relationship with Glasgow University sports clubs remained stagnant. However I remain convinced there is an answer to be found and once again I would encourage L.Hinton to begin the process of consultation anew and try and make


this a focus. 2.2.4 General relations with Clubs and Socs.

As per CBP the Hon Sec is the first point of contact for any clubs and societies who wish to communicate with the union. There are however a number of problems with this. Primarily that, in practice, it isn’t the case. I believe that this is down mainly to the fact that the Room Bookings are all handled through the General Office of the union and so staff. Since room bookings are the life-blood of any club the General Office becomes the part of the Union that they interact with most frequently, and any enquires or discussions they have take place with the office, not the Hon Sec. This also invests a considerable degree of power into the hands of the Union staff when deciding the nature of our relationship with Clubs and Socs. This was regrettable as it denied me the opportunity to spend as much face time as possible with Clubs and Socs. It also meant that events and projects being undertaken by Clubs and Socs which I would have enjoyed being directly involved with and helped enhance and promote with board support flew under my radar. Again there is no simple answer to this problem, I recognise the practical issues with the Honorary Secretary dealing directly with room bookings, but I see this now as a large practical barrier in blocking the way forward for improving relationships with clubs and societies.

I have made a number of repeated attempts to liaise with Clubs more closely. I attempted to organise a ‘Clubs and Socs consultative meeting’ in order to try and gauge how to further their integration into the fabric of the union. This again was poorly received. These two facts lead me to believe that, at present, Clubs and Socs view us as a free place to book a room, as opposed to viewing themselves as an integral part of the community (which is how I view them). I am very keen to emphasize that this is in no way intended as a criticism of the Clubs and Socs which have chosen to affiliate themselves to the QMU. I am also aware that it is a general statement and I know that there are a number of Clubs and Societies who I am sure would consider themselves to be a ‘QM Society’, however in general I feel that our view of them as part of a community is not necessarily reciprocated.

2.2.5 C7 Church and Clubs and Societies

This is a particularly sensitive issue. This Church has proven to be controversial with Clubs and Socs, for a number of reasons. One particular Club seemed to take a moral issue with the Union hiring out their facilities to this particular organisation. However on a more practical level this church did interfere with the bookings of Clubs and Socs. Ultimately the decision to allow this organisation into the Union was a financial one. Our financial results which you will hear at this meeting would have been even more dire than they are without this injection of funds. However I understand the concerns raised by clubs in relation to this issue and the decision on how to balance our financial goals with our relationship with Clubs and Socs is one for the next, Exec, Finance Committee and Board. 2.3 The Membership

2.3.1 Changes to the membership

It has been for some time my view that rolling membership is bad for the union. I am pleased to see a move towards this system being rolled back. The advantages of the rolling system, from an administrative point of view, are admittedly considerable. But, there is a pay-off. It means that our membership figures have been difficult to accurately judge and it is also means that our membership figures are largely irrelevant as they don’t reflect the annual number of people who remain active and interested in our Union. The sacrifice is also that we lose the annual activity of people renewing their membership. This point of renewal gives us the chance to keep in touch with the members who have had a good experience of the union and want to continue to their relationship with us. It promotes a sense of loyalty amongst the members


which is vital in a time of such stiff competition from across the city. The act of joining the union is also one of the key things that mark us out as different from other similar venues. It reminds the people that come to our union that they are not simply our customers, but are instead our members. We are a not for profit organization and a registered charity. Our members are our stakeholders and this is something that it is vital we never lose sight of, and I firmly believe that moving back towards a system where members are annually reminded of their status as participants of a community as opposed to part of a target market for a company is a vital chance for us to press this fact home.

2.3.2 Life Membership

Once again this is something which is set to change. The board have been working together on proposals to move towards a subscription based system whereby in order for a life member to be ‘active’ and receive the associated benefits they must pay an annual fee determined by the board. The advantages to this system are that it forces the life members to keep in touch with the union, to speak to subsequent honorary secretaries in years to come. At the moment I feel that life membership has become little more than a novelty at the end of University, and poor records (Student flat addresses, old emails etc etc) are a barrier to communication with our Life Members. Much of my work towards the end of my term has been focussed on Life Membership and finding new ways of making sure the system enhances the union and as a whole and is of benefit to those who sign up for it. While I have not been as successful as I would wish I feel there is a renewed focus on it within the board of management, and my key piece of advice to L.Hinton would to be to begin work on Life Membership at the beginning of the term. It is a difficult process and leaving it to the latter parts of the year will, sadly, not leave enough time.

2.3.3 Discipline

Since this is part of my duties I felt it should be included in the AGM report. However I have almost nothing to report. There were a few serious incidents which were dealt with appropriately, and there was never any need to call a committee.

2.4 As a member of the Executive

As every other Hon Sec or Asst Hon Sec from the past will probably tell you, being on the executive usually means spending a lot of time doing things that aren’t explicitly in the job description. This is because the exec collectively form the the set of people responsible for the Union, as the trustees of the charity. The key way that this manifested itself this year was through the President’s baby, the strategic planning committee which the exec, and others taken from the Ordinary board were members. During my time on that committee I felt it worked well as a unit and look forward to seeing the finished product setting out a vision for a student led sustainable community. It would be impossible to list each individual issue that the Exec worked together on throughout the year (there were some particularly difficult choices at the start of our terms). The exec would meet in response to events and we worked well in the most part in constructing positive responses and keeping things going. This kind of relationship amongst an Exec I feel is vital and must continue, as the collective trustees of the union it is their responsibility to, together, set the agenda and lead the way. A positive relationship and regular communication are vital to this, and I believe the union, as having a three person team heading up the Union can only further promote student leadership and new ideas, something the union must always have.

2.5 Thankyou

It has been, in both a professional and personal sense, a challenging year for me. The job of Hon Sec has been often difficult, sometimes frustrating, but very much rewarding. I do not claim success in all my endeavours, but I hope that I have made some difference to the Union


which I care for very much. Thank you to all the board and staff members I have worked with for the last year, particularly my two Executive colleagues. I would like to end by thanking the members of the union for giving me the chance to take up this office. Good luck to the incoming team. I wish you all the best.


3. Report of the Honorary Assistant SecretarySubmitted by C. Fraser

3.1 ElectionsHaving only presided over one election this year, my direct feedback here is limited. However, this year has seen several significant changes to the Queen Margaret Union electoral process. Below is a summary of both elections, paired with breakdown of the various changes and advances to the process.

3.1.1 Autumn By-ElectionThis election, unfortunately, will be remembered as one in which only one category was contested to the Board of Management. Despite this, turnout was notable in relation to the positions being elected.

This has – arguably – two contributing factors: i) the level of contest in the one contested seat – four individuals for two positions – and the fact that this seat lay within the first year designated category may have helped, as friend networks are stronger and more motivated at this stage of both the year and overall University experience, and ii) the day of election, as result of the mere one seat being contested, was comparatively quiet outside. This, it was argued, resulted in less people being 'put off' to come in and vote, due to the relatively low and arguably less intimidating crowd of people outside. Though both of these could be – and probably were – factors, it will take similar scenarios in the future to establish the weighting of such variables. Of course, it is hoped that such low demand for seats will not occur again. I will posit ideas on this in 3.1.6.

The PR campaign that was run for the candidacy, hustings and election of this by-election was universally hailed as fun, eye-catching and entertaining for the Board and, while it seemingly did nothing to encourage people to run, may also be partially responsible for the turnout.

3.1.2 Annual General Election

Again, there was a disturbingly low number of contested seats in this election, though not as many as 2011. I was not able to partake in the running of this election, but reports from the team who did suggest it went without a hitch. The turnout for this election – just below 500 in many categories – is a pretty paltry percentage of the Union's registered membership, but this may be addressed in future by the proposed rolling membership changes to be proposed for Constitutional amendment. Again, a unique advertising campaign and theme was created for this election. Feedback was generally positive.This election also featured a notable addition – online voting.

3.1.3 Online Voting

Based upon a prototype passed onto me by I. Smith, online voting via online survey sites for absent members was tested during the Annual General Election. This was only available on a limited basis, as votes had to be transcribed and transferred by hand to the main box. For this reason, voting 'codes' were only available by application. This trial run saw a minor uptake.In its current hybrid state, rolling out online voting rights may prove impractical in both the organisation and counting stage of the election, for reasons of time, resources and supervision. The new web platform that the Queen Margaret Union has invested in possesses the capability to run a full-scale online vote at no extra charge, though identity verification may be difficult to pin down for any who choose to pursue such a transferral. On top of this, one must be wary of the practical and commercial implications of not requiring members to enter the building during election day.

3.1.4 Relevant Constitution, Policy and Bye-law changes

The process of election was subjected to several notable alterations from the Board of


Management in 2011-12. Only the Annual General elections saw the full raft of these changes – the change of Ordinary Board positions to Current Student Representative (this will be addressed in more detail in a later section) and the equalising of manifesto-length and campaign expenses cross-category. Neither of these changes made a notable dent in the way campaigns were run – perhaps more online focus and smarter campaigning – and it will be up to future Boards whether to maintain or reverse these changes.

3.1.5 ThanksOne of the principle changes that characterised elections in 2011-12 was the Returning Officer. At last year's AGM it was noted that a prominent and experienced member of the Union was blocked from this role as he had not yet graduated. This year saw no such problem, as Dr. Stewart was able to execute this role at last, and did so with enthusiasm and great expertise. He has my thanks for his constant advice and co-operation regarding this and many other aspects of the Union during the year.

As noted above, I could not preside over the Annual General Election for reasons of neutrality. My fellow Executive officers stepped up to fulfil this role in my stead and for this they have my thanks.

3.1.6 General Remarks – Candidates and Turnout

The recent years' trend of falling candidacy and turnout have not been reverse (this year there were twice as many contested convenor positions, yet half as many contested Executive as last year). It is easy to attribute these patterns to falling interest in the membership, perhaps even lack of knowledge of how the Union is run. However, it is my opinion that more effort could be made to make and maintain contact outside of the Board of Management for both primary and secondary involvement and activity within the Queen Margaret Union. The recent survey run on behalf of the QM found that just over half of University of Glasgow students interviewed were of the opinion that the organisation does enough to promote itself and the events run by its members and Board – this needs to be remedied if people are to be compelled to get involved.

Changes as little of increased presence throughout the building during events and clubnights, more personal and informal contact between the Board and membership, and – importantly – a more visible and meaningful involvement of the Board in the passive and active running of the Union may display to members the opportunities and experience available to members by getting further involved.

The advancements in areas such as involvement being recorded on academic transcripts (thanks to K. Hill) and open training in the many aspects of the Union's processes could open up new possibilities to the Union and a membership who are being increasingly encouraged to gain external 'graduate attributes' by the central University body.

Additionally, looking outside of established friend- Board- and committee-groups for potential new talent and volunteers for the Union is crucial to the development, support base and essentially future of the institution. These changes can start as early as Freshers' Helper selection, and continue through to the allocation of involvement and activity by convenors and beyond. There have been several points this year when members have expressed frustration at the seemingly impregnable nature of the Board's circle and influence, particularly when this manifests in slipping standards and – in one or two occasions – outright complacency and un-professionalism.

It is understandable, from this, how members may feel isolated – even alienated – enough on occasion to not want to use their vote, or run for a position from which it may seem a struggle to affect or alter such behaviour.


3.2 Board of Management Conduct

Counter to the tone of the conclusion of the previous section, I must stress that this is not my overall impression of the conduct of the Board for the year. Aside from one notable and regrettable Vote of No Confidence passed at the year's outset, there have been no outwardly actionable offences.

Morale has, at times, been tough to maintain and bolster in a year in which numbers have universally dropped, both in practical terms and on the balance sheet. Incidents of poor and ill-advised conduct may be few, but they continue to be – from both outside and inside – notable and memorable. It is enshrined in the documents of the Union and the precedent and convention set by decades of Boards that the members of the Board of Management must be above disciplinary repute. I doubt the Union has ever seen a perfect year, and this was not one of them. The reports that I have submitted to the Board of Management have continually stressed the distinction between being under the influence and being plain out of control, and this is a challenge faced by many Duty Board over the last eight months.

3.2.1 Alcohol

It is incredibly frustrating for myself as trainer, and – I assume – the Honorary Secretary (as recipient of Duty Reports) to see a continued pattern of unruly and – in cases – disgraceful and reprimandable conduct by members of the Board of Management. The idea of Duty Board is to look after the building and members as they use the building in the evening – to take on the responsibility attributed to the Executive Committee during the day. To see their time, instead, taken to dealing with unacceptable behaviour of those they were elected alongside is tiring, and at times infuriating.

Internal disciplinary procedure is highly confidential, and thus I can refer to no one individual case in this report. The above might preclude the members of the Board who have behaved with reserve, professionalism and dignity for the majority of the year, and – if that is the impression – I am sorry. What I will recommend to my successor is that disciplinary procedure is used more readily and explicitly in the future – hesitation to do so is one of the regrets of my year in this position. Unfortunately there is no counter-entity by which exemplary behaviour can be rewarded, aside from the satisfaction that this may entail.

Of course, alcohol is not the only case of misconduct within the year, and I will briefly summarise other circumstances now.

3.2.2 Reports

Submitting a report to an upcoming meeting of the Board of Management is a fundamental part of a convenor and executive's role within the Union. To this effect, in fact, the late- or non-submission of a report has been deemed reprimandable within the bounds of Constitution, Policy and Byelaws. Had I followed this to the letter, the comings and goings from the Board this year may have been far more numerous – unfortunately many on the Board have failed in the timely submission of the incredibly important summaries of their work to the Board of Management, an absolutely central pillar to the accountability and improvement that should characterise meetings of the Board. Again I will recommend my successor to enforce this fundamental responsibility with greater zeal, however remain wary that it may leave you the only Board Member left on the Board of Management.

3.2.3 Conduct - General Remarks

The above may paint a picture of a chaotic and unruly year for the Board of Management. It is inherent in the position of Honorary Assistant Secretary to give an honest and answerable account of the Board of Management's conduct in order to inform and advise future Boards. As I have above expressed, it is not inherent in the job to commend and congratulate Board of


Management members for outstanding achievement and exemplary conduct, but suffice to say this report would be twice as long if it were.

I have remarked in 3.1.6 how increased visibility of the Board may benefit and stimulate involvement in the times to come. It is important that, in tandem to these developments, Board Members behave with exemplary professionalism, reserve and overall willingness to engage as this is accomplished. I moderate development this year – the Board of Management clothing that Board Members are entitled to wear while off-duty, is a prime example of both the benefit and responsibility inherent in being a publicly visible member of the Board of Management.

3.3 Training

There have been several developments and setbacks in this area this year – both temporal and material – and I shall briefly outline these below. Due to the technical and particular nature of Board of Management training, the finer details shall be left out in favour of questions at the AGM.

3.3.1 General Board Training/Level 2These two headings have been somewhat rolled into one, as I have relied heavily on the experience of senior Board Members to educate newer Board Members this year. Many of the older members of the Board have rolled over from previous years and are thus very knowledgeable as to the process of duties being on the Board of Management. It has been my aim – and failure – to organise a full training session with the 2012-13 Board in the time following their election, managing only one full-afternoon introductory session. For this, fortunately, the old training pack was updated to have dates and names more relevant to, eh, now.The current duty training regimen is becoming somewhat outdated, as several of the aspects on which current training documentation is based is not up to date with current procedure and Board duties. It is my aim to review this with E. Murphy in time for the Summer and new term.My thanks go to P. Hughes and J. Ansell for organising and compiling (respectively) technical training for the Board and volunteers with the Events Manager – a member of staff who has also been central to this important process.

3.3.2 Level 1

As mentioned above, the 2011-12 Board inherited many Level 1s from the previous year, and thus only a few Board Members have been 'promoted' during this time. All of these were trained – on duty – by myself and other members of the Executive, and have more than risen to the challenges and responsibilities inherent in the position. However, as above, I have not managed to run a full-spectrum training session in the recent weeks, due to a mix of finals, elections and dissertation. Apologies.

3.3.3 Handover/Convenor Training

There has been much discussion over handover processes and periods of late, and it is the general consensus of everyone involved that this process must be solidified. I aim to use my remaining time on the Board, in tandem with E. Murphy, drawing up and compiling comprehensive handover documents with each current- and elect-convenor to aid future years. Obviously this process cannot be properly executed until the outcomes of the AGM Constitutional proposals have been voted upon.

In regards to this year's handover process, the convenors have – without exception – done a sterling job of introducing successors to the role (though perhaps with varying levels of immersion). It is this that myself and Euan will try to stimulate and replicate with the proposed handover packs in the years to come.


As to general Convenor training, I will be inheriting the documents put together by I. Smith next year in order to brief and train the 2012-13 convenors in matters of budget, reporting and otherwise.

3.3.4 Executive Training

This process falls under my remit only through the inclusion of the word 'training' in the title. Personally, I thought that both I. Smith and A. McConachie did an excellent job of preparing us for the ins, outs, quirks, strengths and weaknesses of the Union for the coming year, and I trust that K. Hill is putting together a similar package for this year's incoming Executive.

As with much of the training I aim to design, this should not only directly train Board Members for the job ahead, but stimulate and crystallise ideas and plans for the term to come. The Executive training program is a great basis from which to draw such facets.

3.4 Minutes

This has taken up an inordinate amount of my time, and I would wish it upon no human. It is perhaps my biggest and most obvious failing this year to consistently overshoot my personal goal of one week following the meeting for the distribution of minutes. All the normal academic excuses apply to an extent, though it is inherent in the responsibility of Honorary Assistant Secretary that the Board must be kept up to date. In this respect, I have failed the Board of Management repeatedly this year, and for this I can offer only my apologies.

3.5 Constitution, Byelaws & PolicyFollowing the overhaul that much of this document saw in recent sessions, the few changes that have been made this year are basic housekeeping – updating duty requirements, language, layout and adding policy derived from Board of Management meeting motions in the main part.

3.5.1 CBP committeeThis ran on a kind of as-and-when basis this year, discussing the various changes to process and electoral policy before they went to Board. Though it was recommended last year that this committee be held often, there has been little reason and – unfortunately – interest in this area of the Union from much of the Board, apart from at certain times of the year. It was a submission to this committee from the Ordinary Board Committee that was the most notable and dramatic aspect if the CBP year, and this will be outlined below.

3.5.2 Constitutional Changes

A raft of proposals for the Constitution are incoming to this AGM courtesy – in the main part – to E. Murphy, who is already making me look bad.

I will let him and the other proposers explain the details of these, but I'd appreciate the chance to introduce the concept. The Constitution is THE governing document of the Union, and that from which all other actions, activities and responsibilities within the Union are derived. Please consider fully the options being present to the AGM, for they have far-reaching implications to the most fundamental constructions of what we do here.

3.5.3 Ordinary Board/Current Student Representatives

The change of title and submission of basic Policy remit of an Ordinary Board Member was submitted in early 2012 to first the CBP committee, then the Board of Management, notably in time for the Annual General Election. This was down to bring into line the prominence,


responsibility and role of a member of the Committee that makes up the [effective] voting majority of the Board of Management, and this change to 'Current Student Representative' (for Ordinary Board) and 'Convenor of Current Student Representatives' (from Ordinary Board Convenor) was passed with little issue immediately before the Annual General Election was called.

However, it was pointed out shortly afterwards that these two new positions were neither recognised nor precedented under the fundamental governing document – the Constitution. This fact jeopardised the integrity of every member elected under that title, and perhaps the integrity of the entire electoral process itself, it was argued.

Following consultation with the Union's lawyers, the election was deemed legal so long as voters and candidates were informed that they were electing representatives to the equivalent of the Ordinary Board. The lawyers advised that this process displayed lack of regard for legal process, bordering on negligence and incompetence, though disaster was averted – the possibility of a temporary Board of under 15 members.

I am describing this incident in detail in order to display to future readers the gravity of altering our official documents without consideration for those that take precedence – notably the Constitution that may only be changed at special meeting such as the AGM.

As the supervisor of CBP, the responsibility for this incident lies entirely upon me. It should have been caught at the CBP committee stage, then the Board of Management. Hopefully this will be rectified at the AGM.

3.6 Personal/Executive Projects

As I remarked in 3.3.4 the year started out with an Executive that had crystallised visions and projects that we were looking to accomplish within the year. I will outline some of the projects that myself and the Executive team have involved ourselves in below.

3.6.1 Online: Social Media and Website

The QM's expansion into the world of social networking has been marked, with almost twice as many followings as our competitors over the road and down the hill on facebook.

We have tried to expand us further into the world of twitter by trying to keep up a 'Song of the Day' – linking this to upcoming/current events within the Union, or other relevant points of interest such as the day's menu and deals. The number of followers on twitter has almost doubled this year – due in no small part to the Jailbreak event in March, and this is a platform I would advise future Boards to expand upon.

The new website that we acquired in Autumn, following the failure of a previously guaranteed website to materialise, has presented several challenges. Myself and K. Hill have spent a lot of time designing, writing, linking and tidying the website, but there is still some way to go, as the look, theme and tone are – despite my efforts – not very coherent, in fact very much so in the latter case. I maintain that this is potentially a great way to inform, contact and attract members, and will be recommending that it is worked into the fundamentals of the 2012 Freshers' Week literature and program, as to establish it as first point of call for information regarding the Union.

3.6.2 Database Export and Implications: QM Newsletter and Mailing List

As we expand into the more interactive tech such as social networking and web presence, I advise that we should be wary of losing touch with more fundamental contact with our members. 'We'll put it on facebook' seems to be a worrying default setting for most advertising


strategy; I have above emphasised the importance of physical presence and contact.

Not far removed from this, and now regaining prominence as a new generation of mobile technology re-emphasises the medium of email, I have recently begun experimenting with the membership database that we hold.

From this, I have managed to isolate all email contact details with a view to establishing a frequent newsletter to QM members informing them of the month's events and other Union-related news and opportunities. This will also be useful in the proposed revamp of the life membership scheme. Obviously, these details need to be refined and compiled before we may use them, and sorting those who will want newsletters from those who do not will be a lengthy task considering we hold over 5000 addresses. I plan to spend a lot of time on this in the coming quiet months, and hopefully in tandem with the administration staff. I think this could be a very helpful facet of our program of contact with the Union's members.

Obviously this database is a store of confidential information, and the material central to this project will not be permitted outside of Executive level, but I remain open to all offers and ideas in relation to the contact list and possibilities.

3.6.3 Archiving

At the start of the year, I started compiling back-copies of minutes, reports, photographs, finance details and publications from recent years – both material and digital – with a view to compiling and compressing a comprehensive archive of Union material for future reference. Additionally, I have requested and received a fair number of constitutional documents from similar (non-NUS) UK Unions, and a couple NUS for reference and comparison.

Recently we have acquired a high-capacity external hard drive on which to store these files. Due to the recent move of the the Executive office from the 1st floor shop-space to the 3rd-floor cupboard, there is a lot of paper-clutter which I plan to sort through. Possession of a working scanner would aid a lot in this area, as it would be possible to preserve digital copies and clear working space in the Executive office, and perhaps elsewhere in the Union. I shall make it my mission to find such a gadget in the coming months.

3.6.4 Freshers' Week 2011

I expect this will be covered in greater depth by the other members of the Executive committee. My time on the committee was both productive and frustrating, as we worked toward a week we thought would work, experiencing organisational setbacks and the odd communication breakdown in the process. Additionally, the week did not come together as planned with dangerously low numbers in some main events. I believe this set the tone for much of the coming year.

However, I was pleased to be part of a committee in which members worked together to assist those that needed help. I found myself designing and compiling the handbook two weeks after the last minute with much help from both I. Smith and K. Hill. They had – and still have – my utmost thanks for this project.

I trust that the Honorary Secretary will be making recommendations to future Boards of Management as to the committee, organisation and timetabling of the planning that goes into the week, and I will be happy to advise on any of these aspects if need be.

3.7 The Queen Margaret Union Board of Management 2012-13

The last year I would not give up for anything. The lows have been low, but the good times remain the best times I have had at University, and I hope that the QMU can continue to bring


people together – in the way that it has brought many of us together – for decades to come.

I'm proud to say I've been a member of this Board, and I hope that we have provided a legacy – however small in the long run – and a foundation on which to build the Union back into the centre of campaigning, entertainment and community that it deserves to be.

Mushy pish over.

3.8 Honorary Assistant Secretary Murphy, 2012-13

I hope some of my advice and recommendations for my successor are fairly clear from what I have written above. On a personal note, E. Murphy is a true professional with an almost unhealthy passion for CBP and due process, and is already showing signs of being a lot better at this than I am.

He has my complete faith and full support.

Colum FraserQM Honorary Assistant Secretary 2011-12


4. Report of the Campaigns & Charities CommitteeSubmitted by E. Munro, R. Callaghan & H. Brand

4.1 Introduction

This document sets out to honestly appraise what the Campaigns and Charities Convener and Committee have done over the past year. It looks to identify and celebrate successes, highlight limitations and failings, and plan for improvements and developments in the upcoming year.

There are six main components. Campaigns and fundraising are analysed in two separate sections, which each area within these sections scrutinised for strengths and weaknesses. Recommendations for improvement are proposed for each area. In each section, there is a contact list, containing details of email addresses, websites and named contacts where available. Following this, there is a detailed account of amounts of money raised in each semester, for each charity. A review of this year's work conducted by the Committee is included next. Finally, an annual plan, with achievable targets, sets out the agenda for the coming year.

This annual plan is by no means set-in-stone, but provides a baseline from which the Convener and the Committee can work. It should be a document to guide the Convener, and to allow the Committee to hold them to account, rather than a prescriptive to-do list.

4.2 Campaigns

Campaigns has largely been focussed on the Free Condoms scheme this year. This has been very successful, and the Union is now officially the biggest distributor of free condoms, outside of the Sandyford itself, in the entire scheme, which covers the whole of Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Board members have also put on events around housing issues and domestic abuse, under the banner of and with the support of Campaigns and Charities. Additionally, some work has been done around Fair Trade. A good bank of contacts and websites has been built up, and there is a good library of leaflets, posters and other resources that can be used. The QMU also hosted a massively successful Blood Drive, with the Glasgow Blood Donor service. They are keen to come back next year and extend the event to two days.

However, these resources have been greatly under-utilised. Partly as a result of a lack of display space, both for posters and for leaflets, and partly because of a failure on the Convener’s part to organise any sustained campaigns, this area of work has been largely neglected. This is something that the next Convener and the Committee should seek to rectify.

Free Condoms and Fair Trade will be analysed for successes, failures and recommendations below in Table 1 and Table 2 respectively.

4.3 Fundraising

This year, we have raised £3,828.05 for a range of charities. This includes our two elected Charities of the Semester, WestGAP and Unity in the Community, Terrence Higgins Trust, Movember, Children and Need and Scottish Women’s Aid. Through events such as Jailbreak and RAG Week, our members have raised an additional £2,564.04 for Kenya Orphan Project, Great Ormond Street Hospital, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research and MS Society Scotland.

Key fundraising activities this year have included regular clubnight fundraising (Table 3), Freshers’ Week (Table 4), Hallowe’en (Table 5), the Red Ribbon Ball for World AIDS Day, Children in Need (Table 7), Movember (Table 6), 12-Hour Cheesy Pop, Jailbreak, RAG Week and 10-Hour Cheesy Pop. These are key pins in the calendar, and split between Campaigns and


Charities (C&C) Committee events, and Events Committee or whole-union events. Each of these will be looked at in turn to assess strengths and weaknesses. There is also a list of key contacts from the year. It is by no means an exhaustive list – plenty more can be done.

As a Committee, we have proven clearly that we can run our own events, we can raise money through sponsorship for challenges, and we can tie our fundraising in to other Union and cross-campus activities. The amount we have raised is incredible, but is very much just a beginning. Next year, with something to build on, we can certainly expect bigger and better.

4.4 Fundraising Totals according to semester:

Semester one

WestGAP totalsWestGAP Total (October) WestGAP Total (November) WestGAP Total (December)

£546.12 £252.97 £172.32Total Submitted (October) Total Submitted (November) Total Submitted (December)

£635.99 £272.27 £182.32Total Spent (October) Total Spent (November) Total Spent (December)

£89.87 £37.00 £10.00

Total Submitted £1,090.58 Total Spent £136.87 Total for WestGAP £971.41

Other totalsChildren in Need Total Movember Total Red Ribbon Ball Total

£419.92 £44.52 £730.45

Children in Need Submitted Movember Submitted Red Ribbon Ball Submitted£429.92 £72.02 £994.67

Children in Need Spent£10.00

Movember Spent£27.50

Red Ribbon Ball Spent£264.22

Samaritans (September)

Freshers Week Total RaisedNight Spent Raised £648.561 0 £59.352 £20.00 £70.65 Total Spent3 £20.00 £91.56 £166.074 £20.00 £75.125 £50.00 £178.35 Total Submitted6 £26.07 £149.10 £814.637 0 £10.00

Total £136.07 £634.13After Costs £498.06


Semester two

WestGAP Total (January) Collection Tins

£112.41 £28.50 Unity - RAG Week Spent Raised

Online £491.31WestGAP Submitted (January) Cash £673.70£132.41 Total £1195.02

WestGAP Spent (January)

Scottish Women’s Aid – RAG Week Spent Raised

£20.00 9.02Total

Unity in the Community 9.02

Unity Total (February) Unity Total (March)Kenya Orphan Project £1415.00

£210.51 £143.80Great Ormond Street Hospital £488.84Leukaemia Research £270.00

Unity Submitted (February)

Unity Submitted (March) RNLI £140.00

£250.51 £173.10 MS Society £250.20

Unity Spent (February) Unity Spent (March)

£40.00 £29.30

Queen Margaret Union - Annual General Meeting 2012 - Reports 33

Fair Trade – Year-round, Fairtrade Fortnight 27th February – 11th March 2012Strengths Weaknesses Recommendations

• Fair Trade products at the union widespread.

• Fair Trade display in shop window during the fortnight.

• Fair Trade Debate during the fortnight was intimate but enjoyed.

• Sponsorship for Debate.• Partnership working with Co-op

Scottish Fair Trade Foundation.

• Fair Trade at the union not promoted well, or at all.

• Display a bit under-utilised.• Lack of organisation, or

mobilising of committee.• Lack of PR for Debate, leading to

small turn-out.• Lack of partnership working with

University.

• Get a comprehensive list from Shop and Catering managers of Fair Trade products, and promote this.

• Work closer with University.• PR events during Fortnight more effectively, and

get Committee involved in organisation.

Table 1: Fair-Trade

Free Condoms – Monday, Wednesday 12-4, Friday 1-4.Strengths Weaknesses Recommendations

• Move down to cloakroom massively increased visibility.

• When flyering was done, made a clear difference to numbers given out.

• Freshers’ Week.• Amount of health promotion leaflets and

stock much wider than previously.• Display stands increased sense of

professionalism.• Regular volunteers – people actually want

to do it, and have fun doing it.• Built in extra time for set-up and shut-

down, meaning it’s a full 3 or 4 hours of service.

• Training happened for a second year in a row and was well attended.

• Committee members have helped design and distribute PR.

• Have more-or-less kept track of stock levels.

• PR – not done enough, and not done regularly.

• Not always the right forms/posters/condoms in the cupboard – often left in Convenors’ Office.

• It is crucial to keep track of stock levels, whether using the spreadsheet or just judging by eye, and ordering replacements at least a week before you think you are going to run out. Be aware that you will only get priority orders with next-day delivery for special events, such as Freshers’ Week. Having too many doesn’t matter. Having too few does.

• For Freshers’ Week, order more than you think you will need. This year, 500 packs of all kinds apart from Trim (due to an existing stock) were ordered. 2 priority re-orders had to go in during the week. Halos, Variety Packs and Standards will go very quickly, although you can get by without Standards if you have enough Halos. Femidoms will go relatively quickly, as with Black Velvet, because of the novelty value. 750 packs, weighted towards those top 3, should be closer to the mark.

• PR better, and PR more.• Be aware that for the first 5 weeks you will have to be

back in Committee Room 2 or Qudos with a table.

Table 2: Free Condoms


Regular clubnight fundraising- year-round.Strengths Weaknesses Recommendations

• Low-cost, high mark-up• A lot of regular, committed and

new volunteers.• Regular, relatively high income.

• Income dependent on busy-ness of clubnights.

• Difficult to get volunteers, sometimes, as activity is not fun.

• Glowsticks are tired and old.

• Find something else to sell alongside. Glowsticks are great value, but not fun.

• Think about some sort of league/reward system to encourage people to keep selling.

• Theme things as much as possible, even where there isn’t a Cheesy theme, create one of your own.

• Keep close track of spending and amounts raised. Keep clear records, and get confirmation from The Office of totals, and that money has been sent to the charities in question.

Table 3: Clubnight Fundraising

Freshers’ Week – 12th –16th September 2011. Strengths Weaknesses Recommendations

• .Hardworking and efficient volunteer fundraisers.

• Element of competition drove up amounts raised.

• Over £500 raised in single week.• Tied some nights to themes

successfully.• Relatively low cost and high

mark-ups. Mix of very low cost and slightly higher value drove up margins.

• Lack of planning time: themed fundraising often only agreed on day.

• Hit-and-miss successes: tiaras sold really well, paintbrushes didn’t.

• Planning: make sure you know what events are happening, and can discuss tying fundraising to themes far in advance.

• Have prizes for best fundraisers to drive up competition.

• Make sure you count totals on the night. Otherwise it is impossible to keep track of.

• Monitor all income and expenditure as it happens.

Table 4: Freshers' Week 2012


Hallowe’en – 31st October 2011Strengths Weaknesses Recommendations

• Planning well in advance: facepaint designs, items to sell etc.

• Enthusiastic new volunteers.• Lots of different small items to

sell.• High mark-ups on very cheap

things to balance out greater spend on a few items.

• Run on the night by a Committee Member.

• Facepainting only limited success, as people had costumes already. Some did donate, however.

• Attempts to work with Social Convener didn’t really come together. Social activities limited due to large volume of people blocking off stage, so couldn’t raise money.

• Stick to small items with high mark-ups.

• Consider facepainting, because we have the equipment, but do it in Champions.

• Make sure that Social Committee members know that they are responsible for fundraising, if they are running activities.

Table 5 :Hallowe'en

Movember – November 2011Strengths Weaknesses Recommendations

• Cross-campus event• Brought in people not normally

involved.• Raised visibility and profile of

Committee.

• Cross-campus event. Restricted freedom and made us reliant on SRC for PR, events, etc. at time when SRC had bigger fish to fry.

• Lack of planning and organisation.

• Make sure you are more involved in planning and promoting events, so that SRC do not have to take full share of responsibility.

• Push for events to be at QMU, and make sure they are organised far in advance.

Table 6: Movember

Children in Need – 18th November 2011Strengths Weaknesses Recommendations

• Clubs and Societies involvement high and effective. Individual members raised the most money.

• Generally good fun, simple event, bringing in people not normally involved.

• Committee Member responsible for event on night.

• Involve as many Clubs and Societies, through Committee Members, as possible.

Table 7: Children in Need


What Went Well? What Could’ve Gone Better? What Shall we do Next Year?Red Ribbon Ball – Big Band! More variations on glowsticks, other stuff

we could use? themed things. Swing/salsa night – lessons before dancing, boost confidence, make night better.

Condoms Red Ribbon Ball: More PR, at a time that didn’t conflict with exams etc.,We could also invite dance society, salsa, flamingo

Christmas themed charity night and carolling – lectures! Mulled wine and egg nog, sponsorship, sell in streets?

Jailbreak Condoms: Training, more PR. More training on what clinics provide and how (some are scared)

More info on health issues. Direction to support groups.

RAG Week (especially Tuesday) – All the cinnamon

Minutes being put on Facebook Silly sports day.

Jailbreak Jailbreak: PR more around the uni – posters etc.

Bigger campaigns.

So many condoms Robin’s Terrible Hair – he looks scary. Filter on Robin’s mouthRobin’s dreads. They went. Well. Organisation of silly sports day STI testing in the buildingJailbreak – Bangin’ weekend. Red Ribbon Ball – Beth more sober,

bigger PR.Find something new to sell other than glowsticks?

Committee attendance significantly increasing.

Hallowe’en face painting – people in costume, facepainter had concussion.

More campaigns and events – RRB again or something similar.

Everything being generally lovely. Fair Trade Debate was fantastic, but needed more PR.

Get Robin a wig.

Hannah. Lots of campaign material – need to get it out there.

Maybe alternative to glowsticks and sweets.

Moving condoms to cloakroom. 80s Zumba – had pretty much no 80s music.

Field trips to places of sexual interest and sexual intrigue.

Having Ellie Communication with other Committees (i.e. for 10-hour, pubs coverage, etc.)

More kissing booths.

Committee attendance/involvement (more new people and regular attendees)

Spreading the word about c&c because some people are still surprised that we do condoms.

More campaigns

That time Ciaran brought chicken to the committee.

More sweets in C&C meetings. Work with GUSA?

Red Ribbon Ball Committee night out/bonding activity Red Ribbon Ball IICondoms in the cloakroom Subcommittee attendance Training from external orgs for charity type skill things?Condom relocation = more successMore condom times

Condom subcommittees – seemed unnecessary every fortnight?

Put the fun in fundraising [no one wants to do it]

Table 8: Committee Annual Review


5. Report of the Events CommitteeSubmitted by L. Clarke

5.1 Freshers’ Week 2011

5.1.1 Saturday 10th: White T-Shirt Party

We experienced difficulty efficiently getting Freshers into the building due to The Young Guns gig arranged by DF Concerts. The gig overran resulting in a long queue outside the building for the White T-Shirt Party and a slow distribution of T-Shirts. Events, which may cause disruption to a programme of Freshers’ Week Events, should not be scheduled for these specified dates. After set up, this eventually became a very successful night as always with the t-shirts in very high demand. The only fault with the t-shirts was that they were so lovely that some of the freshers did not want to spoil them with pen.

5.1.2 Sunday 11th: Kissy Sellout

An unfortunate last minute change forced us to swap Kissy Sellout with the White T-Shirt Party. It was an extremely disappointing turnout given the cost of the act and charging entry for this event clearly encouraged a lot of people to go elsewhere.

5.1.3 Monday 12th: Scottish Showcase/Ministry of Sound

The Scottish Showcase had a reasonable turnout however, many freshers left before the headline act, Twin Atlantic. Moreover, many of the freshers left the building between the Showcase and Ministry of Sound which left the latter event not nearly as well attended as we had hoped.

5.1.4 Tuesday 13th: Abandoman/Headphone Disco

Abandoman, the Irish Comedy improv. duo, performed in Qudos, an event that had mixed reviews from the audience. Unfortunately the event was quiet due to a lack of knowledge about the act. The Headphone Disco was well attended, always proving a popular choice for Freshers’ Week. There was one slight problem concerning what happened to your headphones if you wanted to go outside to smoke which caused some confusion.

5.1.5 Wednesday 14th: Big Wednesday Night Pub Quiz/Beat-a-Maxx

The Big Wednesday Pub Quiz was held in Qudos and proved a great success, with roughly 400 people taking part. The balcony was open to seat further teams. Once the quiz had finished however, many Freshers left the building as opposed to going upstairs to the bar during the changeover to Beat-a-Maxx. This was a quiet event and was poorly advertised by the Freshers’ Helpers perhaps due to a lack of knowledge about the concept. In future it is imperative we find means of keeping freshers in the building between acts.

5.1.6 Thursday 15th: Freshers’ Ball

As always, this event was amongst the most popular. The casino on the second floor was consistently busy throughout the night and the food served was well enjoyed. A few of the helpers did a good job of keeping the queue amused as the entry system took far too long once again. Also, with such a spread around the building, Qudos floor was slow to fill up.

5.1.7 Friday 16th: Paint Party

This was a very popular event for the end of the week due to the appeal of a fun gimic. However, a lot of people felt disappointed by the lack of paint and distribution of paint fired from the cannons and there were technical problems with one of the cannons earlier in the


night that slowed down procedures even further.

5.1.8 Saturday 17th: Secret Wars

This event was poorly attended, despite being open to non-Freshers, perhaps because the concept went over people’s heads due to a lack of advertisement and the ticket price was considerably high to cover the cost of the artists.

5.2 Quids

5.2.1 Semester 1 2010-2011 / Semester 1 2011-2012

After a disappointing year, we aimed to re-launch Quids in September to a new crowd of Freshers’ and aimed to clarify the identity of the club night. Like the previous Convenor stated, numbers were surprisingly low despite the numerous drinks promotions. One problem that was encountered was how to define the type of music played at Quids. After speaking to DJ Gerry Lyons, the genre was tweaked. Yet still we did not see an increase in numbers and decided to cancel this event after Semester 1. We apologise to those members who did regularly attend the clubnight but unfortunately, it was not financially viable for this to continue into Semester 2. We did however, continue to hold “DJs in Jim’s” as this aspect of the club night seemed the most popular.

5.3 Cheesy Pop


5.3.1 2010-2011 / 2011-2012

Numbers have once again been disappointing, an even further drop on last year’ for which I am very disappointed. The graph shows some slight improvement on certain dates, for example when a themed club night was advertised as opposed to a “normal” Cheesy. On Friday 18th November 2011 for example, numbers were up on the previous years as the night was advertised as “Cheesy’s 18th Birthday”. We once again see a decline in numbers towards the end of semesters and during the examination periods. I thoroughly believe that the Events Committee’s efforts have topped last years, with the quantity of PR improving greatly, but it’s just a shame that we have not yet found a way to get more people through the QM’s front doors.

5.4 One-Off Events

5.4.1 Hallowe’en

We decided not to put a specific theme to this event (other than the general Hallowe’en theme). Qudos was well decorated, with a large, eye-catching banner above the stage, and the smoke machines added a nice effect. As always this event was very well attended and enjoyed. Due to confusion, no committee members were around to pack away at the end and this was unfairly left to duty board, a mistake we rectified for future events.

5.4.2 Cheesy’s 18th Birthday

This was a slightly last minute event, however it was fairly busy and decorations were done well. I feel with more time this event could have been made a lot bigger. A VIP area was created on the stage for those first years who were celebrating their birthdays that week which was a partial success.

5.4.3 12 Hour ‘Christmas Cheesy’

This event would have benefited from earlier planning. Ticket sales were very slow and the building did not hit capacity, compared with having a full capacity building in previous years. Activities around the building ran smoothly, however the pantomime performed in the Food Factory should have been allocated more space as both performances were full and many people missed out on the chance at seeing it. Unfortunately, the “grab a grand” booth ordered


for the food factory was taller than expected, and only fit into Jim’s. It made a rather large noise when it was running so unfortunately could not be used during Band-oke as it would drown out any vocals. Band-oke was a great idea, something a bit different from the usual. The main act, the gospel choir, seemed well enjoyed on the night despite not being a draw for people to buy tickets for the event. The Events Committee were great on the night, helping out with set-up and supervising activities throughout the evening.

5.4.4 Late, Late Hogmanay

This was a very good night with a consistently full building throughout and confetti cannons to mark the new-year. The decision to move midnight to 1am was made as there was still a queue of people outside the building just before midnight. Duty Board and the Events Committee were informed after it was too late to change this decision and so the problem could not be rectified. This was regrettable and many people did miss the 1am countdown.

5.4.5 Re-Freshers’ Week – Laser Rave

A bigger turnout was expected for this event, due to it being in Re-Freshers’ Week. However, the event went down well and the use of lasers made a welcome change to the Qudos atmosphere, an element which we should make use of more often.

5.4.6 Re-Freshers’ Week – 80s Cheesy

This event could perhaps have benefited from more 80s décor with the only 80’s elements being the karaoke and 80’s tunes in Qudos. Although a vast improvement on last year, the Re-Freshers’ Week events failed to meet expectation and the main lesson learned was to have the week planned far before the Christmas holidays, a difficult period when everybody is largely out of contact.

5.4.7 Battle Royale Screening

The film screening of Battle Royale took place on Valentine’s Day, sporting an “Anti-Valentine’s” theme. In total, 99 tickets were sold and the event ran smoothly, despite poor attendance from the Events Committee and a short PR period. It proved how film screenings can work well in Qudos and hopefully similar events will take place next year.

5.4.8 International Cheesy

This event did not boost the ever decreasing Cheesy numbers as much as we’d hoped. There were flags put up around the building and more emphasis placed on international hits at karaoke and in Qudos but overall, this was not a great event. We would have benefited greatly from more involvement from GU’s many international societies and although all societies were contacted, there was a very poor show. In addition, although it was encouraged, very few people turned up in national dress.

5.4.9 Mardi GrasThere was a surprisingly low turnout for this usually popular event. The night differed little from any regular clubnight with not much to stand it apart. Confusion with the bar also led to a great lack of beads being distributed, which should have been one of the bigger appeals of this night.

5.4.10 St Paddy’s Day CheesyThe format of this event was much the same as last year, with t-shirts being sold in advance and used as entry on the night. There were mixed opinions about the design of the t-shirt and unfortunately, these did not sell out and there were some left over.

5.4.11 St Patrick’s Day Festival (With Pelmet Nites)


An extremely disappointing night with the numbers paying in far lower than expected. There were a few issues with this event. Firstly the high entry price clearly put a lot of people off, despite the good quality of acts. Pelmet Nites also assured us they would bring a large amount of people into the building easily and did not manage this. Having two St Patrick’s day club nights in succession did not pay off for us and it seems that people want a cheap night out over anything else on this particular night.

5.4.12 Versus: A Battle of the Bands

Versus: A Battle of the Bands took place in Jim’s Bar over a two month period, with four bands competing in each of the three heats, and a live final in Qudos featuring the three bands that won the heats and a fourth, the ‘Judge’s Choice’. The heats in Jim’s pulled in an average of 70 people, not reaching our target of 100. The final was much better attended, with the bands bringing in a reasonable number between them, but in the large space of Qudos, it still seemed very empty.

5.4.13 10 Hour ‘Tribal Wars’

We realise with hindsight that the concept of Tribal Wars was far too complicated and by not having coloured tickets to ensure an even distribution of people per tribe, the competitive element was lost (in other words, 95% of the attendees were dressed in either blue or green so the pink and yellow tribes had no pull to compete). The PR this event however, was distributed well in advance to a good standard.

5.4.14 F**k it, let’s Cheesy Pop

We successfully applied for a 3am license for this event and advertised it as a “break from exams”-type relief. There were 450 people at this event, a vast improvement on the week previously, and the Qudos dance floor was generally busy throughout the night, until the 3am close. I hope we can apply for late licenses more in the future as it makes a nice change and may encourage people to come to the Union as opposed to heading into town.

5.4.15 90s Cheesy

I hope you have all purchased your tickets for the QM’s 90s themed Cheesy on Friday 18 th May (9pm-4am). Remember, the final Cheesy Pop of the year will be taking place the week after this, on Friday 25th May. I hope to see you all there and hopefully we can finish on a high!

5.5 The Committee 2011-2012

5.5.1 Things that have gone well• With a change of Events Manager in October, there was a significant increase in

communication between the aforementioned and the Events Convenor and Committee.• Events T-Shirts were purchased for Events duties and PR, both for visibility and security

purposes.• The Committee were given the opportunity to get more involved behind the scenes,

taking photographs, operating the lights, doing sound-checks for bands, etc.• A certain level of Tech Training has continually taken place during Events Duties to

ensure the Committee feel comfortable using equipment and setting up for club nights.• The Closed Committee structure ensured that those who did put in enough effort were

accountable for their contribution.• As the weeks went on, we saw regular attendance at meetings by a number of Board

Members who offered support with PR and other tasks.

5.5.2 Things that could be improved


• The Open Committee Meetings that took place on the 1st Tuesday of every month were poorly advertised and consequently, poorly attended by Non-Committee Members.

• There was not always 100% attendance at Committee Meetings by Events Committee Members. The same goes for the Events we organised; not all Committee Members supported the Events to a necessary degree.

• Choosing simpler themes for big events seems the way forward as often more complicated ideas were difficult to advertise effectively.

• The Committee need to expand their knowledge of the Glasgow club scene, of course not hindering attendance at the QM’s own events, but increasing awareness of other events for research purposes.

• The Christmas 12 Hour Event could be organised much further in advance, perhaps creating a sub-group to take on responsibilities.

• Re-Freshers’ Week, although having vastly improved on last year, could be stronger, with PR beginning before the Christmas holidays and either an Event or Social Event taking place every evening.

• Unfortunately we have seen some clashes between the Board of Management and the Events Committee this year. The Committee have felt slightly inferior, perhaps they do not always have to knowledge the Board have gained from Board Meetings and have been left slightly uninformed at some times. Being a member of the Events Committee is certainly difficult, often with blame for unsuccessful club nights falling on them. I would encourage all Board Members in the future to attend the Committee as much as possible to decrease this divide, particularly if they have complaints or suggestions, and it would be great to see a greater number of Board Members taking on a more hands-on role within the Committee. Thank you to those of you who have done so this year!

5.6 Thanks

I would like to say a big thank you to the 2011-2012 Board of Management for all your support and help over the past year, particularly to my three wonderful lieutenants: the ever-so-wonderful Paul Kelly (your Events Convenor Elect), Lauren Hinton, and Suki McFarland. Finally, a huge thank you to every member of the Events Committee who have been a pleasure to work alongside, you all know who you are. You have all been absolutely brilliant and I am incredibly proud of the things we’ve achieved this year. Paul will do an absolutely cracking job as Events Convenor 2012-2013 and I wish him all the luck for the future.

Lauren Clarke, QMU Events Convenor 2011-2012


6. Report of the Ordinary Board ConevnorsSubmitted by OBCs Alice Stearn (AS), November – March, and Laura-Anne Porterfield (LP), March onwards, sections written as indicated.

6.1 Ordinary Board participation (AS)

Throughout my time on board this year there has been a clear direction towards individual achievement and personal goals within the board structure. Each ordinary board member was asked to focus on a certain element within the union they felt deserved improvement or further promotion. This was introduced so that each individual could feel ownership of their efforts within the union. Many ordinary board members decided to combine efforts, liaising with convenors and executive which created a good atmosphere within the board of management.

I feel the fact that many Ordinary Board members reran in the bi-election meant that the board had a high level of consistency – both in goals and level of understanding. This atmosphere created a very positive space for new incoming board and I know they felt that they could efficiently do their job within the already close-nit Ordinary Board committee.

However towards the end of first semester there was a feeling amongst several committee members that some of their opinions on the union's services were not listened to, and some goals were knocked down for being unfeasible without proper explanation. However, I feel this may have been 'end of term' blues as the board came back far more productive and positive in second semester.

6.2 Interaction with Ordinary members (AS)

This first Ordinary Board committee of this presidential term decided that question of the week was an ineffective tool in gathering ordinary members' opinions and feedback, in the new first semester of 2011 term a mixture of suggestion box and weekly questionnaires, promoted in the Food Factory was put in place, but as there was no direct interaction this proved even less effective.

Interaction was key then and visibility within the union and at union events was pushed heavily. We also organised several informal open meetings for all ordinary members in Jim's Bar to promote and highlight student involvement in the board and committees. All Ordinary Board members were encouraged to engage with Ordinary members, both while on and off duty. Engagement on duty was obviously more important to promote the union's student input and garner a more official level of feedback, but personal feedback was heavily encouraged and called for during Ordinary Board Committee meetings.

At the beginning of my term as Ordinary Board Convenor in November, after discussions with the President, it was decided to move the Ordinary Board meetings from the board room to allow for more visibility and again promote student involvement. I feel this did gain some interest from ordinary members but holding meeting in public areas was inevitably disruptive.

6.3 PR (LP)

This past year has seen a change in the way PR is done by the Ordinary Board. The biggest difference has been a movement towards starting to actively create and distribute PR designed and made by the committee themselves. I believe this marks a significant change for the Ordinary Board and brings back ownership of this to them, as well as boosting morale. There has also been a push to focus in on the PR for certain aspects of the Union at certain times of the academic year, eg. shop PR for stationary at start of term, which we believe has been reasonably effective, as well as other changes, including trying to diverse where and how PR is done, focusing on other areas on campus outside of the library and experimenting with new PR


methods, including videos and postering lamposts.

6.4 Training (AS)

This year, more than in my first term on board I feel, there was a great increase in the demand for training from Ordinary Board committee members, something I feel should really be encouraged in the future.

Health and Safety training on duty was increased, particularly with regards to Qudos/club night/event set up, something I personally feel should be incorporated in to initial training duties and expanded on throughout the members' term. Similarly tech. training was a big issue for Ordinary Board members this term, with several successful small sessions taking place throughout the year, also many members took it upon themselves to learn extra tech. training in Jim's Bar and Qudos (eg. sound-checking and lights). This wide breadth of knowledge of course allowed, in turn, for our weekly events to run smoother and again should be encouraged in the future.

On top of this we were presented with basic First Aid training for the majority of the board, something everyone benefited from, particularly in improving confidence and competency on duty.

6.5 Board morale (LP)

This has been generally high this year, with no resignations, and as a result I believe the Board have been able to bond and work well. The Ordinary Board also remained steady throughout the year, with many of the same members being re-elected or continuing on after the November bi-election. I believe that it is also good to see how many of the Ordinary Board from the past year have now re-ran for convernorships or Executive positions on the Board.

6.6 Future (LP)

6.6.1 Current TermMost of the Ordinary Board in the current term are first time Board Members, so I am hopeful that this will provide a new pool of ideas and skills to build upon the strengths of the committee. I would also like to see the next election be as successful as the last, and there continues to be a full Ordinary Board committee for next term.

6.6.2 Name Change and RemitI am also hoping that the proposal of a change of name for the committee will ultimately be beneficial, as this will allow the Ordinary Board to be more easily identifiable to the membership with a title which is more descriptive of the role that they play within the Union. Along with this, I believe that the addition of a remit to the Ordinary Board is essential to keep the committee more accountable to the Board of Management and the membership.

6.6.3 Question of the WeekI aim to introduce a new scheme for Question of the Week, to ultimately try to increase the feedback and everyday interaction between the Board of Management and the ordinary members. This has already been started, and we will hopefully begin receiving feedback from a variety of mediums, including online surveys and in-person questionnaires with Duty Board. I hope that this will be the new lease of life that Question of the Week needed and this will provide us with the valuable feedback we need to be responsive to the membership.


7. Report of the Publications ConvenorSubmitted by N. Ballantyne

7.1 General Overview

There were 8 issues of the magazine published this year. These were issues 89-95, each 20 pages with a full colour cover and the rest of the issue in black and white.During this time the magazine has undergone some minor format changes. The back cover is now used as an advertising space when it was formerly a space for comic strips, ‘I Saw You’ and contact information. This decision was undertaken on the basis that the space was the most valuable in terms of advertising, the first example of this is issue 93. The content that had previously been on the back of the magazine was moved to the inside back cover, with the exception of ‘I Saw You’ which was scrapped for a few reasons, including lack of PR (particularly during clubnights) resulting in lack of interest, and also the need for more space.

We had huge success in November with the publication of a special issue (91), covering the resignation of Stuart Ritchie. The interest in the story led to views of the qmunicate website rising dramatically reaching almost 1000 views on two consecutive days following the release of the information. The qmunicate website is something we have tried to place greater emphasis on. A sub-committee responsible for online content was formed and several columns, features and videos were created with the purpose of driving views to the website with a regular schedule. We failed to make the best use of the website as a resource however due to the lack of strong leadership, organization and the poor timing of the first attempt at forming the sub-committee. However, there was some success, views to the website increased as a result even on days when nothing was published and certain posts such as picture galleries from QMU gigs proved to be very popular. This success peaked with a video interview we did with Never Shout Never! The interview has 6,449 views on YouTube. This video was also translated into Spanish and reposted for an Argentinian audience by a youtuber, their repost achieved 543 views.

Another sub-committee was also formed that would take responsibility for trying to find local advertisers to advertise in the magazine. This team covered most of the appropriate businesses that do not infringe upon QMU business in the West End. This enterprise had no success and many of the businesses stated they felt our prices were too high for them. However, these prices are as reasonable as we can make them. This will undoubtedly lead to a change in who we target for advertising next year.

In general, I found it particularly difficult to launch new ideas once term had begun as the day-to-day running of the magazine sort of took over. However, one way to remedy that in order to ensure that improvements continue to be made and standards continue to be maintained throughout the year, is to divvy up responsibilities much earlier, and empower the lieutenant, editors and committee members through appropriate training to head up particular projects/ideas.

7.2 Freshers Week (Handbook, Wallplanner, daily qmunicates)

Overview:I let down the QMU, its board and members badly during my preparation for Freshers’ Week. The result of my failings meant that the handbook was produced almost entirely by the Executive Committee and the Past President, there was a limited run of line-up posters, no advertising in FW qmunicates and no wallplanners, meaning a huge drop in advertising revenue raised through these avenues recently. For this I cannot apologise to, nor thank enough, those who did all they could to limit the damage I did. However, positively, I can ensure that the incoming convenor will not make any of the same mistakes.

Successes:


• Freshers’ Week qmunicates were successfully received. Most issues left the stands fairly quickly.

• A lot of content was organised in advance meaning a less stressful cons office than expected.

• People responded well to the secret columnist idea, creating options for reader interaction in future.

Failures & Lessons Learned:

• A strong handover and frequent communication between incoming and outgoing convenor is essential. I did not ask for help when needed, and felt somewhat detached until the 1st July, where I felt thrown in the deep end.

• There can always be more done in advance. The earlier a start on any project the better• Getting external advertising is hard. It needs strategy, dedicated time and the combined

workforce of everyone involved in Freshers’ Week.• Communication in general was poor on my part.

7.3 Online

Overview:The new website is slicker, prettier, more functional and has driven up interest in the magazine. I’m fairly proud of the difference to where we were last year. However, maintaining the high standards I hoped for proved far too much for one person on top of any other responsibilities, and the necessary consistency too much to be split between editors and I fully endorse Tom’s decision to appoint a dedicated online editor. As such, online content has improved immeasurably this year but not as much as I would have liked to and, particularly recently, has slipped up badly.

Successes:

• More traffic - not a huge amount still, but for each new piece of content (issue or online-exclusive), we generate about 100 visitors to the site. Interestingly (I thought), we’ve had regular traffic from across Europe and in America, confirmed by those I know as being from Glasgow students on exchanges or years abroad. This has big potential to make qmunicate the go to place for Glasgow updates while away.

• More content uploaded. Failing the last couple of issues, stories have been uploaded individually as well as part of the readable .pdf to encourage comments on particular issues and easily referenceable links.

• More interaction - Comments have been left, links have been shared and we’ve even had a couple of lengthy emails responding to particular features.

• Diversifying of content. There are story-specific pictures, gig photo galleries, hyperlinks, and a couple of video pieces. This is really fun because it’s obviously something we cannot literally do in the magazine and ensures we stay relevant as print becomes less popular.

• Social media usage has been improved on last year, but again has a long way to go. Worth noting that most of the website’s hits come from referrals from Twitter and Facebook, rather than people going direct to the site or using a search engine.


• Keeping the website maintained is a heap of work. It proved far too much for me, and even for me and the other editors. As mentioned, Tom’s online editor will have a crucial role in keeping the momentum of improvement going.

• Social media should probably be delegated to the lieutenant. It, and qmunicate’s online presence generally, are things that have to be handled very carefully and for that reason I’d like to see a board member (the lieutenant), with appropriate training, take a supervisory role for general online stuff.


• Columns were a good idea, but again, impossible to maintain on top of other responsibilities.

• A proper subcommittee (in the vein of C&Cs success) for the purposes of qmunicate online has the potential to improve things no end. This was attempted to a certain extent but lacked proper implementation.

Manifesto Pledges:

1. As full an archive as possible –

All content from the previous website was collated and reposted at qmunicate's new wordpress site. Probably too late to be begun properly during my term, but as an ongoing project, committee members have started to organise a way to scan and upload even older issues of qmunicate, and union publications previous to that. It is hoped that eventually a full enough archive may be produced to be shared with the Union's main website as a way of interacting with life members, and recognising our long and proud history.

2. Regular updates -This began well and I'm still pleased with our better weeks and months but definitely slipped up a lot towards the end of this term. A solid rota, clearer responsibilities and better training will ensure that this will be a simpler task next year, and therefore hopefully easier to maintain.

3. Space for extra content -This has again been something of a halfway year. We've been better this year at using what online space we have, including video and photo content, but there's still a good way to go. I overestimated how much change it was possible to implement in a year but there's a solid enough foundation for next year's team to really make sure we use the website to its full potential.

7.4 Advertising

Overview:This was much, much harder than anticipated, and I’m not entirely sure how to address this. The incoming convenor believes that in the current economic climate, while we cannot afford to get any cheaper in terms of advertising, our prices are too expensive for local small businesses. Even our black and white prices were considered too expensive when the advertising subcommittee went door to door. This leads him to believe the best advertising strategy that we can employ is to target larger businesses with subsidiaries in the area or an interest in the student market. Businesses of this size are not going to be interested in black and white advertising space. This leads him to believe we should either introduce more colour pages to the publication or, ideally, make the switch to full colour. This will increase the value of the page to advertisers and hopefully make it more appealing despite the extra price. With our lack of success trying to sell advertising to smaller businesses, we have to look at getting bigger business to buy advertising space. These companies are unlikely to buy black and white advertisements, so a move to full colour is essential in gaining these companies’ business and thus potentially instrumental in securing the future of the magazine.

Successes:

• Better use of space we have for advertising. Back cover and colour.

Failures & Lessons Learned:• Local advertising strategy was short-lived but well worth trying. Another push in the

summer, and again for the new year might prove more fruitful as many organisations plan sponsorship/advertising on an annual basis


• Failed to attract big businesses but partly through lack of experience and/or understanding as to how to approach them. This will be addressed in the remainder of the handover period and will hopefully include a more cross-committee approach.

7.5 Training

Overview

Everyone on the editing team is competent at using InDesign, Photoshop and some aspects of our online presence for qmunicate's purposes. This was achieved for most by the start of Freshers' Week, and for the rest by the end. The online training was not as full as I would have like but, again, this can be rectified for next year in the next few weeks.

Successes:

• Editor training began earlier than the previous year.

• More sections were covered by more people.

• Someone other than the convenor had knowledge and responsibility for updating online content and social media


• Was unable to run/organise as many editing workshops as I'd liked but my editing team was smaller and the responsibilities not as well delegated as I believe Tom intends next year's lot to be.

• For the same reasons, along with some unluckily timed personal and academic issues, I did not manage to train my editors in online skills as well as I'd have liked to.

Manifesto Pledges:

1. Regular workshops with media professionals – Haven't managed this so far, but I'm still hoping to organise at least one before my term ends for at least the editorial (old and new) teams.

2. Earlier and more frequent editing training – This was achieved to a certain extent. The first editing workshops began in February, where prospective editors would shadow current editors as they put together their sections. The feedback from this was good but I'd like to formalise it more. I haven't managed many formally run workshops at all but hopefully again, I can squeeze in one or two before July.

7.6 Looking forwardSubmitted by T. Kelly

Introduction of new illustrations editors should help improve the quality of the images and save time during editors weekend.

Change in cover will hopefully make the brand more recognisable and make qmunicate more prominent in the campus consciousness as a result.

Issue 100- Exciting possibility for special issue and continuing a project of looking back at old qmunicates. The plan is to show various important events in the union through the eyes of qmunicate.

125 Year Anniversary Publication - a long term project and exciting opportunity for the committee to get going with something other than the magazine. This should be started soon because of the large amount of research involved.


Sports section is exciting and something we are looking forward to. This will give us the chance to broaden the content of the magazine and hopefully appeal to a wider readership as a result.Arrangement of a strong 5 day schedule for online content, including 2 online columns, columnists for which are still to be decided.

A meaty plan for the next month and a half should have been completed by the time of the AGM, detailing training of all editors, lieutenant and incoming convenor, along with (fingers crossed) at least one session with a/some media professionals. This is one of the parts of my manifesto I'm most sorry I couldn't realise and would like to set up a couple of relationships to be in place going forward. With Tom and Andy's help, I'll also produce a fuller plan for next year, with reasonable goals, ambitions, and how to achieve them. I also hope to record a kind of vision for the years to come, as the print industry out in the real world continues to decline, and as the need to utilise every weapon in our arsenal in the fight for the QM's survival will be the greatest yet.

7.7 The End

I'm sorry for my shortcomings, but proud of my successes, committee, and successors and know they'll do themselves, the Union, and this mad magazine proud.

I wanted to end on a cheesy quote like Pad. But the most obvious choice of artist (Frank Turner) seemed entirely inappropriate for the message I wanted to convey, being the miserable git he is. So instead have an Elbert Hubbard one I wish I knew:

“The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today.”


8. Report of the Social ConvenorSubmitted by P. Hughes

8.1 Welcome

Good Afternoon one and all. I am very proud to be presenting my second AGM report on behalf of the social committee. The last year has been tough and at some points extremely frustrating but I am proud of what my committee has achieved. Right through from Freshers’ Week our social events have demanded hard work and extreme dedication from teams of people and individuals. The future of this committee lies in dedication from people like yourselves; only you can keep pub quizzes, open mic nights, theatre and comedy alive in Jim’s Bar. This year you have done a cracking job.

8.2 The Committee

The problems I had in the previous year of social was that the committee structure lacked organization and a certain level of consistency. What I mean by this is that that each event was being worked on by different people every week rather than a dedicated team of people who loved their event. I attempted to create sub teams to create this effect. For some events this worked and for some events it did not. Pop Culture and a Piano has been a massive success for the sub team structure and the two hosts have been fantastic in leading the event and leading discussions in meetings. Unplugged has also worked under this structure with the hosts heading the event and leading committee chat. However, other events such as BWNPQ struggled, as there was a lot of work to do and no really sense of ownership for the event. This was very problematic and lead to a massive dip in the quiz’s turn out. Next year it will be important to get a hard working dedicated committee in the first few weeks and give them responsibility. Without committee members and volunteers the social committee cannot run. Social committee attendance has also not been very stable this year. Up until Christmas the committee very regularly busy with numbers never lower than 20 however as the year went by the committee’s numbers started to fall and the majority of attendees were board members. I believe that we need to advertise the committee as soon as term starts next year explaining what we do and the experience you can gain from us. Cheese and wine is always a good accompaniment to this.

8.3 Events

8.3.1 Unplugged

The New Year started with new hosts and a new day. Unplugged was entering a new era. The change of day was based on the numbers from last year. Despite good turnouts the event would always fall short by 11 o clock because people would be leaving to go on a night out. Unplugged is an event where you can have a few quiet drinks and play some tunes whilst having some chat. The change to Monday seemed apt because we figured that at the very beginning of the night students want to have a few drinks with their friends but not necessarily ‘go all out’, this is what we felt Unplugged explicitly catered for. The big push started in Freshers’ Week and we had a number of high quality bands playing in Jim’s Bar throughout the day. The turn out was good throughout the day but it was not as successful as previous years. The problems I found with this event is that it does not really sell Unplugged as an event that we run. Where as it is an important visual spectacle and looks very impressive on our line up it is not an open mic night and does not sell Unplugged as an event in which anyone and everyone can play. Despite this I feel that there should be an exciting ‘new talent’ aspect to our regular open mic night but it is important to find a balance between a space for our membership to play and get involved with a space for them to watch other talent.

We also had fantastic new PR which elevated the event which had a very new feel to it. The


hosts have been dedicated and have PR’d the event all year with enthusiasm and dedication. The first half of term was very successful for Unplugged with numbers between 40 – 60 every week and a consistent stream of people wanting to play every week. We had an idea to take down the names and e mails of all the performers that played so that we could contact them personally every week and invite them to come back. This was very successful and we started to get a regular bunch of people who came into Jim’s each week and got to know the hosts. After Christmas numbers started to drop and get a lot lower. We still had people coming and playing at the event but the problem was that there was a lack of interest in people just watching. Recently we have talked in the committee about raising the standard of performance as we have had a lot of really good people this year but I don’t think the event has a reputation of being a place to watch music of a high standard. We also need to balance this with being a place that does let anyone play… It will be tough to maintain the balance. Despite this I feel that the event has gone fairly well this year, we just need to make sure that we mix the event up with themed nights and special guests.

8.3.2 DJs in Jim’s

This event has been a strange one. Unfortunately I have not got any numbers for this event as they were never recorded and is a failing on my part. However, when we started this event it was fairly busy and it became a reasonably successful feature of the late Quids. The problems that we encountered were that a lot of people were staying in Jim’s Bar for the entirety of the evening instead of heading down to Qudos thus the event looked empty and unappealing. After the closure of Quids we attempted to keep Dj’s in Jim’s going but the event never really stood on both feet. The lack of a regular DJ (due to exams, essays and other commitments) lead to a mish mash of people playing music off their iPods’ every week. I think this event would really work well if it stood alongside another club night and played a set genera of music each and every week. This event has the capacity to work as we have shown when it worked alongside a club night. However, on it’s own DJ’s in Jim’s sometimes feels like a bit of a ‘nothing event’.

8.3.3 BWNPQ

This year the life of The Big Wednesday Night Pub Quiz quiz has taken a lot of twists and turns. During Freshers’ Week we had a fantastic launch pad for the event with a wonderfully successful Big Quiz in Qudos. The quiz filled out the venue and showed that social events have a place on the big stage during freshers’ week. Despite technical difficulties and overestimations of the running times I believe this event was a complete success and gave the quiz more momentum than we could ever have dreamed of. In the first month of term numbers for BWNPQ were very high would numbers hitting 60s and 70s which we were very pleased with. However, the event lost a lot of steam and it became clear that the current hosts were not enjoying the event as much as they had and did not have enough time to focus on the quiz. After Christmas there were a few incidents that suggested to me and to the committee that it was time to change hosts and change the format of the long running Wednesday night pub quiz.So we decided to talk with the current hosts about ‘moving on’ and changing the quiz completely in order to save it. We decided to do this very publically in a ‘search for a quiz host’. It was essential to find people who were willing to give up a lot of their time to help the quiz grow and develop. The process also helped us to get more people into the building as the potential new hosts brought friends to the event and the whole search was a very entertaining aspect in the quiz. Eventually we found two new host who are very keen and very dedicated to the BWNPQ. I feel that my committee did a fantastic job in noticing a big problem and getting to work rectifying it. I believe that the BWNPQ this year has been in many ways successful but I still believe there is a lot to be worked on. At around January it looked as if there was no real way back for the event which had lost momentum and had even lost the regulars that were keeping it a float . However, the success came with members of my committee forming sub groups and taking individual quiz related roles. The new quiz hosts have been very vocal about how they want the event to run next year and I believe that this is very important for progression.


Other main problems we have encountered this year was through the rollover. I still think that it is important to have a cash amount to keep people coming back and actually wanting to win the quiz but in recent weeks it has continually built up with nobody winning. The prize fund should be a nice amount but we must also make people aware that it is winnable by giving away some money when we can. Another problem is the quizzes role in the exam period. I have now been Social convener for two exam periods and this period is a very tough period for our social events and it is the only time of year I have ever had to cancel an event. I think the presence of social and what we do in the exam period needs to be looked at so that we don’t have empty social events at any point of the year.

8.3.4 Pop Culture and A Piano

Before the term began it became clear that the late Friday Face Off was not working anymore and the decision had to be made to revamp it or completely change it. I decided that we should formulate a new quiz and after some hearty market research Pop Culture and A Piano was born. The concept was to keep in simple and to offer a different set of events from the Wednesday quiz. We purchased a piano and made the instrument the focal point in a lighthearted music film and news quiz. The success of the quiz lay in the early development and getting the word out about what the quiz was and what people were due to expect. The real driving force for this event was through the hard work and dedication of the two hosts, without their passion and enthusiasm this event would not nearly have done as well has it has. This was one of the events that actually started poorly and rapidly gained pace. I believe this is down to two elements. Firstly, the fact that we did not use Freshers’ Week as an opportunity to launch our new weekly event. Instead we had a ‘useful pub quiz’ which was very well attended and successful, however it meant that the freshers’ had no idea about the new quiz that we were launching. This is why I believe we suffered numbers-wise in the first few weeks. With this in mind we got to work developing the quiz, finding out what would attract people. We worked very hard and it paid off. For the rest of the first term Pop Culture and a Piano was one of the most successful quizzes that we were running. Once we had established PCP as a successful event we decided to see whether we could add extra elements to the way we ran it to keep it fresh and consistently entertaining. For the last PCP before Christmas I contacted the GU’s orchestra society and asked if they wanted to get involved with ‘Pop Culture and an Orchestra’. The event was a fantastic success and the variation of PCP proved very popular. Later in the year we had a similar event with a kazoo but I feel that we should have added more variation after Christmas.

I believe that this event can go from strength to strength but It is important to keep it fresh and exciting.

8.3.5 Theatre

Theatre has been a very interesting social event that has had highs and lows across the year. The theatre team started the year as a fairly tight unit with lots of good ideas. We put on a play at around November of first term and a good 40 people came at £5 a ticket. The play was written by one of the students in the New Theatre group and was very well received. At Christmas we decided to incorporate New Theatre with 12hr through a pantomime in The Food Factory. Members of the cast wrote the pantomime and the rehearsing was brutally time consuming but ultimately worth it. The pantomime attracted nearly 100 people at each show and was very well received by everyone involved.

Despite this, New Theatre never really took flight and was never really organized enough. A lot of the students involved in the group had a lot of work on and New Theatre was a very time consuming thing to get right. I believe that with a bigger group of people we could have put on more regular performances of student written and led theatre. I am still very pleased with the work that was done and it is unfortunate that there was not enough time more real motivation to have at least one NT every month.


8.3.6 Comedy

Comedy was one of the events that took up a lot of my time in the first term. We used to have a sub-team in charge of this event who contacted comedians and whom arranged the majority of the event. However, for the first half of the year I had to do a lot of the work for the comedy events. I believe that I should have delegated this role earlier and it was a mistake to try and do everything. Finally a member of the committee stepped forward and took the lead in organizing comedy events. This really elevated the event and suddenly comedy was back on its feet with 105 people turning up for one of the most successful comedy nights in my long expansive reign as social convener. The advice I would give to the incoming social convener is that if there is someone who has a passion for these sorts of events and is a hard worker then give them the responsibility and they will not let you down.

8.4 Finance

As we all know (and will continue to find out) money is very tight and at the start of my position one of the toughest parts was the writing of the budget. The only main cut that the social committee made was the rewarding of volunteers with drink vouchers. Personally this was something that I have always wanted to do and am still glad that we went through with it. Other committees such as CC had been doing just as much work as Social Committee but they were not rewarded with free drinks. I firmly believe that the reward for taking part in social is the experience and responsibility gained. I think we need to push the notion that the social committee rewards through an immense level of training with is definitely something that I have received over my years of service.

8.4.5 Numbers

2nd term

The numbers in this graph are the ones that provide most validity and interest. In first time numbers were pretty consistently high with only minor blips. Unplugged did not dip below 50 people nor did BWNPQ and PCP started low at 30 but then never went below 50 people.

These results were promising but in my opinion are not the most important figures. I believe


that second term is the most important because it is where we often fall a little short. Social this year got off to a really good start but we need the second term to be as consistent as the first in regards to numbers.

8.5 The Future

The Social elect young James Ansell will take to the stage and show his face. Good Luck, next year is going to be a tough one.

8.6 That’s All Folks

I don’t want this to ramble on but here we go…

Thank you to the three lefties I have had this year : James, Euan and Jo. You have been stars. Thank you to Pete Sansom, Bateman Mcbride and Ed for going above and beyond the call of duty. Thank you to Kenny for his stellar efforts at karaoke. Thank you to the wonderful 4 conveners who have put up with my terrible cons office chat. Thank you Scott Mcwatt for being a lad at Unplugged. Thank you to all the hosts: Cat, Stu, James, Chizz, Chris, Chris, Paul and Bateman. Thank you Mazza for sticking through New Theatre. Thank you Jo for bossing comedy like a boss and Kirsty for our super social fun days. Over the past three years this place has been a home for me and has given me more experience than anything that the University could bundle into any expensive course.

Finally I would like to thank my committee, the current board of management and those best friends that I have met in this place (you know who you are).

Good Luck to those of you who will be fighting the good fight next year and good luck to Colum who is leading the pack; it is going to be hard work but I know you will all do fantastic jobs. As the late great Tupac Shakur once said ‘The only thing that comes to a sleeping man is dreams”

See you around x


Appendix III

Queen Margaret UnionProposed Amendments to the Constitution

Submitted and proposed by E. Murphy08/05/12

Section III, Paragraph 2.1

Currently:The ‘Ex-Officio’ who shall be votingPast-PresidentPresident-ElectStaff RepresentativeSRC RepresentativeGUSA Representative

The ‘Ex-Officio’ who shall be non-voting (unless holding a position also)General ManagerHonorary Secretary – ElectHonorary Assistant Secretary – ElectEvents Convenor – ElectPublications Convenor – ElectSocial Convenor – ElectCampaigns and Charities Convenor – ElectHonorary President2 x Honorary Vice – President

Change to:The ‘Ex-Officio’ who shall be votingStaff RepresentativeSRC RepresentativeGUSA Representative

The ‘Ex-Officio’ who shall be non-voting (unless holding a position also)General ManagerPast-PresidentPresident-ElectHonorary Secretary – ElectHonorary Assistant Secretary – ElectEvents Convenor – ElectPublications Convenor – ElectSocial Convenor – ElectCampaigns and Charities Convenor – ElectHonorary President2 x Honorary Vice – President

Section III, Paragraph 2.2 9Currently:

The GUSA Representative shall be an Executive Office Bearer from the Glasgow University Sports Association, whom failing a council member.

Change to:


The GUSA Representative shall be an Executive Office Bearer from the Glasgow University Sports Association.

Section IIIAll references to Ordinary Board Member shall be changed to Current Student Representative.

Section III, Paragraph 2.2Insertion after subpoint 7"The position of Past-President is open to only the previous year's President."

Section III, Paragraph 2.2Currently:

The Executive Committee, Convenors, Honorary President and Honorary Vice-Presidents shall take office on 1st July following their election.

Change to:

The Executive Committee, Convenors, Honorary President and Honorary Vice-Presidents shall take office at the AGM following their election, with the exception of the Honorary Treasurer and occupants of sabbatical seats, who shall take office on 1st July following their election.

Section IV, Paragraph 3Insertion of:3.2 The quorum for an Annual General Meeting shall be fifty (50) Union members.

3.5 Decisions made at the AGM shall be passed by a simple majority of those attending.

Section IV, Paragraph 4Currently:

The quorum for an Extraordinary General Meeting shall be one percent (1%) of Union members, at least 50% of whom are matriculated students of the University of Glasgow. Should this not be achieved 30 minutes of the published time of the meeting, it shall be dissolved. Once a quorum has been achieved the meeting shall be deemed quorate until there be fewer than 30 members present, whereupon it shall be immediately dissolved.

Change to:

The quorum for an Extraordinary General Meeting shall be one percent (1%) of Union members. Should this not be achieved thirty (30) minutes passed the published time of the meeting, it shall be dissolved. Once a quorum has been achieved the meeting shall be deemed quorate until there is fewer than one percent (1%) of Union members present, whereupon it shall be immediately dissolved.


Section VI, 1 6Currently:

6 No person who is not a member of the Union shall have access to the Union except in the capacity of a bonafide guest of a member of the Union and shall be signed in as such upon entering the Union in a visitors book kept for that purpose in the Porters box.

Change to:

6 In the event of the Society holding a meeting within the Union in the evening, any member of the Society who is not a member of the Union shall be granted temporary membership so that they may enter the building. The Society shall act as the responsible body for its guests.

Section VI, 1 6Insertion as section VI, paragraph 4

Section II, Paragraph 2 Life Members

2.1 Persons may only become life members after they have ceased to be matriculated students. Graduation is a further requirement of Life Membership. A minimum period of three years consecutive membership is a prerequisite for a person’s eligibility for Life Membership.

2.2 [BoM waives above, providing applicant not matriculated, and has been a member from week five until last week of last term of academic year

2.3 In the case ... [life membership constituted upon payment, in 3 months after BoM approval

2.4 No person ... [membership approved by BoM; refusal for breach of CBP

2.5 Any member of the Board of Management who has completed a full term of office and has ceased to be a matriculated student of the University is entitled to become a Life Member of the Union. This shall be automatic upon application and requires no payment.

2.6 [3 Hon Life Mems at AGM annually.

Paragraph 3 Voting Rights

3.1 All Ordinary Members of the Union shall have full voting rights in the Union elections and in General Meetings of the Union.

3.2 Life and Honorary Life Members of the Union shall be subject to the Constitution and Bye-Laws of the Union, and shall have the rights and privileges of Ordinary Members of the Union saving the right to participate in elections as candidates.

3.3 Paragraph 3.2 shall not apply to Life Members standing as candidates in Former Student Member constituencies on the Board of Management.

3.4 The President of the Union shall have the right and privileges of an Ordinary Member, saving the right to sponsor or propose candidates for election.

Paragraph 5 Duration of Membership

5.1 Ordinary Membership shall subsist from its commencement until the member ceases to be a matriculated student of the University of Glasgow.


5.2 Life Membership shall subsist indefinitely.

Life MembersChange to:

2.1 Persons may only become life members after holding ordinary student membership, and ceasing to be matriculated students. Graduation is a further requirement of Life Membership.

2.3 No person ...

2.4 In the case ...

2.5 Any member of the Board of Management who has completed a full term of office and has ceased to be a matriculated student of the University is entitled to become a Life Member of the Union. This shall be automatic upon application and requires no payment for three years.

Paragraph 3 Duration of Membership

5.1 Ordinary Membership shall subsist from its commencement until the end of Week 1, Term 1 of the following year, or the member ceases to to be a matriculated student of the University of Glasgow by graduation or otherwise.

5.2 Upon acceptance by the Board of Management, Life Membership shall subsist indefinitely. Life Membership shall be divided into active and inactive categories, pending payment of annual subscription fees, set by the Board of Management from time to time. Following payment, a Life Member will be given additional privileges as afforded to them by the Board of Management, and shall be defined in Bye Laws. Active membership shall last from payment until the following 1st July.

5.3 Honorary Life Members shall be exempt from payment of fees, and shall be deemed eternally active.

Paragraph 4 Membership Cards

4.1 Every member of the Union shall receive a membership card which they must produce when called upon to do so by any member of the Board of Management or by any official duly authorised by the Board of Management for this purpose.

4.2 A membership card includes any identification card issued by the University as evidence of matriculation adopted by the Board of Management (on such conditions as outlined in the Bye-Laws and Policy) as sufficient proof of membership.

Insertion of:4.3 Life Members shall receive a card valid for five years, which shall only be deemed active

upon receipt of payment of subscription fees.

Paragraph 5 Voting Rights

3.2 Life and Honorary Life Members of the Union, regardless of active status, shall be subject to the Constitution and Bye-Laws of the Union, and shall have the rights and privileges of Ordinary Members of the Union saving the right to participate in elections as candidates.

3.3 Paragraph 3.2 shall not apply to Life Members standing as candidates in Former


Student Member constituencies on the Board of Management.


Appendix IV

Strategic Plan Overview

Events & Social Space

“The QMU will remain an independent union on campus providing social space, a variety of services and sustainable events.”

In 2012, our commissioned survey found 85% of students consider informal social space provided by a student union as a key priority. 42% rate QMUs provision of this has fairly good, with 40% stating it is very good. We will continue to make improvements to our services and open spaces to ensure we maintain and build upon this level of satisfaction for individual students. However, we must consider that 69% of students do not know if we provide good facilities for clubs & societies. We will consider how we can engage with individual societies to make the QMU the number one venue for socialising and meeting with their members.

Maintain a comfortable multipurpose environment for students to informally meet with friends.

Encourage more Clubs & Societies to use the QMU as informal meeting space and for socialising.

Provide competitively priced venue hire for a variety of functions.

The union is committed to providing a wide range of activities and events for our membership to enjoy. We understand that our market is saturated with a wide range of venues and events targeted directly at students and we must focus on providing a high quality, consistent service. We must also ensure our marketing strategy focuses on fresh, new ideas to communicate the variety of events we offer, or plan to offer, in the coming years. We will not forget our history and we will plan to reinvigorate our reputation for live music in Glasgow.

Maintain a financially stable Friday night clubnight.

Increase knowledge and awareness of our events across the University campus.

Offer live music at affordable prices, showcasing a variety of student and national talent.

Our three commercial services have been in decline for the past few years. While 79% of individuals rated our bar facilities as very or fairly good, we are seeing fewer people use the areas and use the service. The outlook is similar in our catering facilities, which were rated fairly or very good by 77% and our shop at 70%. We are setting achievable targets for growth in the coming years and will implement several action plans to ensure these targets are met. We are also considering the reputation of our services. As discussed above our history of live music can be capitalised on, promoting Jim's Bar as one of the best – and most affordable - live music venues and bars in the West End. Similarly we will promote Champions' Bar as a friendly venue to watch sport no matter what colours you are wearing. With encouraging clubs and societies to use our venues and providing a more consistent standard of events we hope this will also bring commercial success and help us to fulfil our long term goal of business sustainability

10% increase in Bar sales year on year

5% increase in Shop sales year on year

5% increase in Catering sales year on year


Our Community

“The QMU aims to enrich the student experience at Glasgow by sustaining a vibrant and supportive community of diverse students.”

Our union has always been more than just a venue. It's community is formed by a diverse group of individuals who all contribute to the QMUs unique and welcoming atmosphere. Feedback we often hear from Freshers' focuses on how inclusive the QMU is, however we often fail to sustain a feeling of ownership of the union from ordinary members, especially after their first year. We must reach out to our membership and ensure each individual feels they gain some value from being a part of our community. We will focus the encouragement of ordinary members in the decision making process. We plan to be a loud voice in key student issues to help provide leadership for local and national campaigns which directly affect our members.

Create value from actively joining the union

Encourage active participation in decision making from ordinary members

Encourage more clubs & society affiliations and events

Encourage and maintain better staff/board working relationships

Support a variety of local and national campaigns which are in the best interests of our members.

Our life members can provide much needed experience and networking opportunities for our members. By engaging with these individuals we can offer our current members a chance to explore options in their chosen careers and gain some valuable advice. Our overall aim is to engage with as many individuals as possible and learn from each other. We need to focus on working with international students, postgraduates and mature students to continue to build a rich and diverse community. Part of this focuses on improving communication with the University community as well as the QMU’s community and we have several goals related to this.

Encourage greater involvement from life members

Provide a social space for International Students and encourage them to engage with Scottish Culture.

Encourage the involvement of Post Graduate and Mature students in our community.Provide better means of communication with our membership.

There is an opportunity to reshape the board of management. To ensure each section of our community is adequately represented at board of management level we will investigate possible strategies for the implementation of 'officer' positions. The structure and job descriptions of the executive committee will be carefully considered over the coming years and be adapted to a more modern interpretation of the roles. We must focus on finding a structure which encourages effective and efficient decision making within the union and the choices made can be representative of our diverse range of members.

Restructure the Executive Committee

Provide greater direct representation with distinctive campus groups.


For the Individual

“The QMU will aim to offer training and support to all volunteer members and student staff guided by the University of Glasgow’s goals for Graduate Attributes.”

We pride ourselves in being a student run organization and we provide opportunities for individuals to gain a wide range of skills. Currently we have approximately 60 dedicated volunteers out with our board of management who take part in a variety of activities to help with all union activities and publications. The union can only benefit from a highly skilled set of volunteers and we hope to grow the number of people involved in a larger variety of activities. We are looking to provide more comprehensive training to ensure that both our volunteer Board and Committee Members can gain as much as they can from the experience. We are aiming to facilitate a Peer to Peer learning scheme for Clubs & Societies to share best practice. We must also ensure our student staff are gaining valuable skills and we will focus on developing training to meet the individual needs of our part time staff.

Provide structured training programmes for every volunteering opportunity.

Encourage more volunteers to get involved.

Create a Peer to Peer learning scheme.

full agm 2012 papers

Documents