reports meeting 10 february 9th

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Reports to the Board of Management Meeting 10 – 09/02/15 General Manager Submitted President Submitted Honorary Secretary Submitted Honorary Assistant Secretary Submitted Campaigns and Charities Submitted Current Student Representatives Submitted Events Submitted Publications Submitted Social Submitted 1. General Manager 1.1 Draft Management Accounts to 31 December 2015 We look to have incurred a deficit for the first 6 months of £27347. This is £3133 worse than last year and £42549 adrift of the budgeted surplus of £15202. Note our full year targeted surplus is £20000. I have not prepared a fully detailed analysis as Paul will be coming in on Wednesday 11th to review my figures next week in order to have the half year financial accounts for the 18 th February Finance meeting and he will look at all the relevant journals such as accruals VAT and depreciation calculations. The result is clearly disappointing and requires considerable work initiative and energy to try and stem losses and turn things around for the better. Thus on 18 th February the Finance Committee shall discuss matters including how we look to structure our future funding submission I will implement any savings I can identify as soon as possible. 1.2 Other Matters First Data who operate the ATM on behalf of the Clydesdale has offered £2500 per annum rent for the next 5 years and I have asked them to draw up the appropriate paperwork after a quick consultation with Terry and Lauren. No rent was paid from 2010 to 2014. We receive £1500 for the other ATM. £400 support has been agreed with Sheeran’s gaming to be used by Social in conjunction with any Pool or Champions Activity. 1

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Page 1: Reports Meeting 10 February 9th

Reports to the Board of Management

Meeting 10 – 09/02/15

General Manager SubmittedPresident Submitted

Honorary Secretary SubmittedHonorary Assistant Secretary Submitted

Campaigns and Charities SubmittedCurrent Student Representatives Submitted

Events SubmittedPublications Submitted

Social Submitted

1. General Manager

1.1 Draft Management Accounts to 31 December 2015

We look to have incurred a deficit for the first 6 months of £27347. This is £3133 worse than last year and £42549 adrift of the budgeted surplus of £15202. Note our full year targeted surplus is £20000.

I have not prepared a fully detailed analysis as Paul will be coming in on Wednesday 11th to review my figures next week in order to have the half year financial accounts for the 18 th February Finance meeting and he will look at all the relevant journals such as accruals VAT and depreciation calculations.

The result is clearly disappointing and requires considerable work initiative and energy to try and stem losses and turn things around for the better.

Thus on 18th February the Finance Committee shall discuss matters including how we look to structure our future funding submission I will implement any savings I can identify as soon as possible.

1.2 Other Matters

First Data who operate the ATM on behalf of the Clydesdale has offered £2500 per annum rent for the next 5 years and I have asked them to draw up the appropriate paperwork after a quick consultation with Terry and Lauren. No rent was paid from 2010 to 2014. We receive £1500 for the other ATM.

£400 support has been agreed with Sheeran’s gaming to be used by Social in conjunction with any Pool or Champions Activity.

Sub TV have agreed to pay £420 per annum for the use of our Broadband to run the system in Jim’s.

I am meeting hospitality services, at their request to see if we can assist them in providing services for some large bookings late summer. They are considering us catering for tea/coffee and other issues for 3-400 Archaeologists as the conference booked in early September which now has over 2500 attending.

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I met with Glasgow Caledonian University Students Association’s activities manager on exploring some commercial development activity including maybe them holding an away day here and also an end of term event. He also has given me some information on revenue sources re advertising etc. they have or are exploring.

I also met with the organiser of the Dundee Tattoo Convention who would be keen to bring an event here in November. Alice has supplied him the entire spec etc. and the next stage is to seek a meeting with Glasgow City Council EHO who regulate such activities in the city.

TCB have informed us that there will be a 2.5% price increase applied to all products from 1 March 2015. In total prices have risen over 8% in the last 3 years but the price of our mainstay product of Tennent’s Lager has remained static.

Please accept apologies for missing tonight’s meeting but its half term and I am at Harry Potter World maybe looking for a magic potion. I will be back on Wednesday.

Bill Blackstock General Manager 6/2/15.

2. President

2.1 CSR Projects:This has been a week of moving forward for CSR projects which is fab! It is great to see things happening from the ideas that y’all have been coming up with. It is great to start showing the membership the things that you can do as a CSR – the call for art for the building has had brilliant responses, hopefully the pool tournament will go well and now we FINALLY have a suggestion box up! The role of the CSR is to represent the views of the membership and collecting feedback is a great way to do that but we will have to make sure that we establish what we want to use this feedback for. I still have not had a chance to work out an incentive but Calum and I will work on that for both the internet and in-house surveys. It is unlikely that a suggestion box will have a huge amount of responses but it is a start – especially if we can publicise those suggestions and make them happen. For now there is the Food Factory survey in it but I worry that it will not provide too much usable information – I would recommend that we do quite a general ‘what would you like to see?’ suggestion box and hope that we can achieve some of the suggestions on a short term.

2.2 Uni-Cycle:You may remember (or not, it was ages ago) that I mentioned our support for Uni-Cycle. It is a programme encouraging cycling amongst the student population and will be led by a committee of student representatives. I am delighted that, with our support and encouragement, they were successful in the bid to the Climate Challenge Fund and it will launch in April. I am going to a meeting to see how we can be a part of its continuation, whether as hosts for events or in assisting in student engagement, at the end of February. I will keep you posted on any progress and once we establish the best way going forward it would be great if a keen volunteer from the board could take this forward.

2.3. Alumni:I had a fantastic day at the Alumni Office last week! What a lovely bunch! I spent ages going through their database and comparing against our own database of life members. Hopefully

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this means that we have more up to date and accurate email addresses and contact details for our life members. I am continuing communication with the Alumni Office and we will be working on the best way for their office to keep a record of our life members e.g. each year we will submit our list of life members and there will be a flag indicating this on their entry in to the general alumni database. This will make it sooooo much easier to carry on our life membership records as in the past it has been lost on paper and in cyber space. Having dealt with the task of compiling all of the records I could find in the building/on the computers the idea that this could be so simple makes me very very happy.

2.4 Student Finance Sub-Committee:I have been asked to put together a four page document on what the QMU does to enhance the student experience as part of our submission to the SFSC. Having completed a literature degree I have written hundreds of essays in my time so should be grand but I will be submitting drafts and snippets to the board as I have them and any feedback or criticism would be wonderful.

2.5 Microwave:The Board Flat is looking pretty damn good – Thank you to those who have helped tidying it (Kat?). Please try and keep it neat and tidy and most importantly clean – If there are spillages please clear them up as soon as they occur otherwise we will avoid them forever. The microwave needs to be PAT tested and then it will be put in the board flat (because hopefully as it is a social space it will be kept clean whereas it would be left to mould if in the kitchen, is my thoughts) but please clean it after every use and make sure you get rid of everything left behind. Also – This is for the use of duty board when on duty. Please do not start bringing in Pot Noodles for your lunch every day – they are bad for you anyway ;) This all sounds patronising but I have seen such hideous sights in that room over the years that it must be said :D

2.6 Firewalk:Not my remit but gonna say it anyhoo. There are still spaces to sign up for the Firewalk – It was chosen to be hosted here after the great reception to the idea but this has not manifested in actual sign ups. So far it is just Bill, Lesley, Sarah Ralph and myself. The target for all UofG students is just £75 so get your friends involved too! Some of you have done loads of fundraising and are already fundraising for marathons and the likes but if you are not and fancy trying something new then give it a go. What’s the worst that could happen?

2.7 Things to do:I have a fair bunch of things to do. I have let things catch up with me a bit.This is kind of an action point section for me. I have a whole list but these are the ones that are important at the moment. I am popping this here so that you can chase me up on things, suggest if I am missing things but also so you can understand if other things are slightly side-lined for a bit.

- Press release for 125- Send invitation to our life members for 125- Send text for 125 to alumni to be sent out and put on website- Report to the SFSC

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- Risk Assessments for Club and Society Activities- Reviews of First Term

Please schedule meetings with me though (I have already heard from Julie about meeting on a home students event) and then even if I can’t be super helpful we can still get a game plan in.

3. Honorary Secretary

Firstly, apologies for the brevity of this report. If anyone has any questions about anything either mentioned here or elsewhere, please do not hesitate to discuss it with me.

3.1 125

This is scarily soon. I have written emails to people we'd like to speak at it and am waiting for responses. I shall keep you updated. Please promote it to any alumni or former students you know, as ticket sales are currently sitting quite low. I plan to make some tickets available at reception rather than just online as some people would like to avoid the booking fee. Hopefully by the time of the meeting I will have the menu proposed by catering, and will be able to publish that which should drive sales. I will also be working out a way to get peoples preorders in too. I have been in touch with Bill who is approaching companies for sponsorship (water, whisky, flowers etc). My todo list for this is long and bitty, so if anyone finds themselves twiddling their thumbs and would like to help with something, then please come and see me!

3.2 Life Members

Hinton did a wonderful job of amalgamating the details from our life member database with updated details from the University's alumni information, and an email either has already gone out or will be in the next couple of days promoting dinner tickets, as well as offering people the opportunity to apply for a new life membership card.

3.3 Clubs and Societies

As expected for this time of year, affiliation requests are trailing off. As many performance based societies have shows coming up, however, requests for rooms are far exceeding demand, and due to shows and gigs being in Qudos and needing dressing rooms, I am having to shuffle people around quite a lot. This has been taking up far more of my time than it should, and I made the grave mistake of putting my mobile number on my email signature so have been inundated with texts asking for room bookings when I don't reply to an email on the same day that it was sent. People seem happy enough, though, so I am not too worried.

3.4 Election:

If any of you are interested in the position of Honorary Secretary please come and see me to have a quick chat, it's a fun job and I have no doubt that each and every one of you would excel at it should you so wish! Otherwise, get word spreading about the election as we have many seats that want filling in a month's time.

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4. Honorary Assistant Secretary4.1 First Aid Training:

Thank you to those who came along. I felt like it went well and was helpful and would suggest we do the same again. I am unsure as to how often we should do it as the Red Cross guys seem to be really busy. I would suggest that at the very least we should do it once a year after the general election for exec and convenors. If possible, then everybody should do the training and there should be some in November as well, but it all depends on scheduling and calendar space really.

4.2 CBP Committee (First Year Rep):

Again, thank you to those who came along. On Friday we tried to see if we could form the basis of a distinct first year rep seat and decided that it was a combination of not practical and not necessary. For the time being therefore we will be looking not only to increase publicity of the upcoming election but also to make a specific concentrated effort to involve first years. It was highlighted that there aren’t enough first years coming along to committees, let alone running in elections, so it’s clear that we need to up our game here. To this end we felt it would be of benefit to do more election PR (as well as all other PR) up at halls, have people go in to first year lectures and let them know the election is happening, and (looking forward) it may be worth designating somebody to work on how to engage next year’s freshers over the Summer. How this can be done is another matter but I am confident that it’s possible, and no harm can come from trying it out at least. If anybody has any first year classes/is happy to go stand up at the front of a lecture hall and go for it, that would be superb.

4.3 Election:

Today we are calling the election. Polling will be on Thursday 5th March. Nominations will be open from the 16th to the 27th of February. The President’s Debate will be on Monday 2nd March with Hustings for all candidates on Tuesday the 3rd. We have a heck of a lot of seats to fill so get telling people to run and to vote. We had an excellent election last time round and there is no reason why this one shouldn’t be better. Get pushing it and talking about it and lets have loads and loads of contested seats. Convenors in particular if there are people who regularly attend your committees that would be interested in any of the positions then lean on then a bit, tell them about the election and encourage them to get involved.

4.4 Resignations:

At the time of writing, Kat Denholm and Lucy Hornsby have indicated to me their intention to resign as of the 5th of March. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them both for all the excellent work they have done so far as members of this Board of Management.

5. Campaigns and Charities

5.1 Sederunt

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26/01/15:Board Members – PK, CBark, LHorn, LF, KD, JT, LD, RDMembers – 7

02/02/15:Board Members – EA, PK, LHorn, LD, CBark, JJMembers – 8

5.2 Upcoming Events

Danceathon:- Because I am horrendously unprepared amongst other things, this event has been pushed

back a week until the 20th of February. There is really very little else to be done. We have a poster, courtesy of the lovely Celia, and the Event should be up and running on social media by now. Please like and share, and invite as many people as you can, and encourage people to get involved!

Mini Jailbreak: - This event will be running the weekend of the 20th, with people hopefully setting off from

the union at 5pm on Friday. A plug for this has gone out in qmunicate, the packs are available from Porters box, and social media is up and running. Again, please encourage people to get involved, like, share and hype as much as you can!

Fairtrade Fortnight:- We have been approached by GUEST to get involved in a cross campus effort to promote

Fairtrade and food sustainability, and I will be attending a meeting on the 10 th February to discuss this. If anyone would like to come with me then they are welcome to.

Alzheimer Scotland- I have been emailed by the regional fundraising manager for our area who is interested in

pursuing a campaigning and potential fundraising relationship with us. If anyone is interested in meeting with her with me, please let me know.

6. Current Student Representatives

6.1 The one where I’m proudFirst of all, apologies for not having held a CSR meeting, but I have been dealing with some health issues that took up a lot of time. I am, however, really happy with the amount and the quality of everyone’s work. I’m glad everyone feels passionate enough to go above and beyond, and I trust you all lovely CSRs will transmit this enthusiasm to potential runners in the upcoming election. Keep it up.

6.2 CSR ProjectsFrom now on the dates of completion will be written next to the completed Action Points. All CSRs should notify me as soon as they can whenever they

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complete an Action Point so that it can be bolded and dated. At the time of writing, and because of it having been the holidays, not everyone has sent me updates. I would, once again, remind everyone that you should message me or post in the Facebook group in order to effectively keep track of our progress and to be able to move on to different things and keep improving.

This list has been updated as of 07/02/15.Completed Action Points in bold.

Lesley- Promoting Café Twenty2LF to investigate the logistics of PRing Café 22 to Huntarian tour groupsYL to think RE: posters in committee rooms for Café Twenty2 (and club and society meeting tea and coffee deals). LH to look to get some Café 22 flyers printed.LF to contact SRC about advertising Café 22 at the Welcome Point.- Promoting Scran.LH to produce banner for Scran opening times.LF to compile a list of food bloggers and local papers so that when Scran is all sorted we can have some reviews.LF to get email addresses for food bloggers.- Better engagement of mature students.LF to talk to MSefton about an MSA article in qmunicate.LF to chase MSA RE: article for qmunicate.

Rachel- Advertising TV room as a space to use.RD to look into this.- Improving the website.RD to chat to LH. LH to consider better links between FB and website so that people who see the FB page also know a bit more about how we are run.

- List of things to fix around the union.RD to send version 1 to LH (09/01/15).RD to look into putting pictures of past boards in the Board Room.

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- Alarm codes. LH to sort out alarm code.BB to contact alarm company/anyone who knows how it works.

Celia- International students night.CVS to consider some ideas for a promotion to encourage international students to come to Magic (rather than a specifically targeted clubnight).CVS to liaise with international society to discover if they would be interested in running a tandem event rather than having theirs in the building / us putting on an international night.CVS to develop the idea for a Scran event for international students (both local and world dishes, on a Friday so they can them come to Magic?).LH to try and find an appropriate date for Scran international event and liaise with catering department to produce a budget.- CCSRCVS to share PR guide and list of buildings to PR.CVS to make PR rota and sign out sheet.CVS to make poster for GN poster holders (13/01/15).CVS to make poster promoting members’ drinks prices (15/01/15).CVS to make poster promoting points system.CVS to make Jailbreak poster.CVS to make danceathon poster (04/02/15).CVS to make Art Project poster (04/02/15).CVS to put up toilet signs over gn toilets (04/02/15).Jack- Gender Neutral toilets.LH to order appropriate signage for the 3rd floor gender neutral toilets.JT to ask LGBTQ+ if they have any posters advertising their support services for these space.JT to contact Iain French RE: GULGBTQ+ posters.JT to obtain LGBTQ+ posters for display.

- Wall of fame.

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JT to compile a list and photos of people for the ‘QM Wall of Fame’ (to include honorary life members, Janet Galloway, bands that have performed, photocopy of the alleged Kurt footprint, information about #qmu125 and life membership) (come up with some snappy ‘be part of the QM’ line).JT to be put on duty with Hinton RE: Wall of Fame (09/01/15).

Calum- Improving feedback.CBark to produce a feedback slip for events and services.LH to find suggestion boxes and have them mounted in appropriate spaces.LH to find an appropriate date / write a budget for a beer and burger event intended to encourage those thinking of running in the election to chat to board members.LH to chat to BB RE: online survey.

Chris- Cheaper drinksCB to chat to Bill to compare sales of priced items and reasons for more expensive choices.- Expanding the reach of condom boothCB to chat to Emma RE: condom booth and consent classes.CB to chat to SRC Mental Health officer about providing material for condom stall.CB to chat to Barclay Medical about any health Campaigns we can promote.- Committee rooms (improving looks, promoting a study spaces).CB to chat to Hinton about making committee rooms more home-y CB to chat to Cat and compile a list of ítems for committee rooms- Better publicising of 3rd floor.CB to contact LGBTQ+ and SRC to include our gender neutral toilets in guides

Priya- Membership – Board communicationPK to chat to exec RE: big event to improve board-membership communication.

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PK to set a date for this event.PK to make a poster for this event.- Film showings.PK to investigate film licenses.PK to talk to Hinton RE: Film Showings.- Promoting the Board’s progressPK to design a display cabinet with info about the Board and its projects and activities.

Lukas - Working on vegetarian Meal-Deals.LH to talk to catering – must have veggie option for the deal. Meat free Monday. LD to talk to Hinton/catering RE: veggie/allergenic food. (w.Julie)- Improve communication between membership & Board.LD to talk to Exec about big event to improve board-membership communication (w.Priya)LD to talk to Celia about including info and contact with board photosLH to find email address for CSRs to be included – [email protected] Promoting 3rd floor.LD to look to publicising third floor study spaces

Lucy - Scavenger hunt.LHornsby to put together a list of things to find.LHornsby to put a rule page together.LHinton to talk to cross campus about making a joint event.[Scavenger hunt postponed to RAG Week.]- Magic feedback.LHornsby to write a list of possible questions.LHinton to add question to guestlist for Magic.- Improving committee attendance.LHornsby to design a committee board for 2nd landing.- Charity event.

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LHornsby to email Erin at Sense about a walk in March. [Possibly changing to a sponsored pyjama walk.]LHornsby to find a date for an event.

Cat

- Aloud ZineCA to promote Aloud zine to creative writing/GUAVA groups.CA to talk to Hinton RE: zine + artwork.CA to continue to support Aloud editors in the selection and production of the zine. (09/01/15).- Specific needs.CA to talk to disability services RE: what people want/need. LH to cc CA in to emails about attitude.- Displaying art in the unionLHornsby, CVS, JT to help with this.CA to create a FB group for this.CA to promote Art Project.

Jonathan

- Improving the QM website.LH to talk to Alice Chaliner about this.- Pool league.JS to make JJ admin for the FB page (15/01/15).JJ to make a poster.JJ to help run pool league w LHorn (06/02/15).- Publicising benefits of committee involvement.JJ to talk to Max RE: online 'skills' article?- Better representation of mature students.JJ to talk to Lesley RE: mature students; postgrad club RE: post-grads.

Julie - Allergenic foods.

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JZ to talk to Hinton/Catering about vegan/allergenic food (w.Lukas).JZ to email vegan and gluten-free socs RE: brands they like (14/01/15).LH to get vegan/gluten-free food.JZ to look into getting gluten-free beer.-Home student engagement.JZ to email Alison Bowitt RE: events for Home Students that the University organises (14/01/15).JJ to help organise this event.

Kat-Attitude is everything. KD to keep an eye on AIE.- Better promotion of condom service at Magic.KD to talk to Emma about condoms at Magic.KD to make a condoms poster.LH to tell cloakroom staff to put this poster up.- Improving social PR and feedback.KD to help out with social events- Last orders gongKD to find a gong for £20ish.- Food Factory salad bar.KD to Chat to Hinton RE: Food Factory salad bar.

Everyone- to consider ideas for feedback (online and/or physical.)- to share FB events.- to look into promoting weekly events (a big billboard outside?)- to approach Max if they ever need something promoted in qmunicate.- to think about pool torunament.- to take down old PR/update PR in halls.

Collective projects

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- Champs as a sports barKD and JT to compile a list of possible sporting events to show.- Making committee rooms more home-yCB and CA to chat to LH RE: improving committee rooms.- Chalkboard wall to be used to promote events.CVS to organise a social to discuss this.- PR.CVS to create a structured rota.CVS to put up a Doodle poll to find out people’s availability (19/01/15).

7. Events

7.1 Sederunts

27th January:Board Members: KD, CBarker, JJ, PK, CBarrett, JT Ordinary Members: 7

3rd February:Board Members: RD, KD, CBarker, JJ, LH, PK, CBarrett, JZ, JT, CVSOrdinary Members: 5

7.2 Magic:7.2.1 - 30/1

Numbers weren’t great this week, Qudos looked alright with people heading in early for the Professor Green Rider competition. The bars however were pretty empty all night – especially Jims’. A lot of people from the Noridc Soc dinner came down and stayed for the night which was good, however pretty much no one who attended the pre-Magic Syrian Refugee Ceilidh stayed. Society bookings before Magic seem to be a bit hit and miss in terms of whether they help to boost numbers – so whilst there’s certainly no harm in having booking before Magic (people are in the building, using the bars etc.) I feel we need to be cautious about relying on these bookings to boost numbers at Magic.

7.2.2 - 06/2:

I’ll give any updates on this at the meeting; I had a night off and have yet to speak to anyone who was there.

7.2.3 Magic Danceathon:

C&C are hosting a Danceathon (with Flourish House) on the 20/2. The sponsored dancing will begin before the club night, and then run alongside it in Qudos. If you’ve got any questions then I’m sure Emma will be able to answer them!

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7.2.4 Rainbow Magic (27/2/15):

This is only a few weeks away! It should be a lovely event and I’m really looking forward to it. We’re still firming up some of the details, but we’ll be having a drag queen hosting Karaoke and rainbows rainbows rainbows. It’s a great night to showcase the fact that we’ve got a fun, comfortable and safe environment to go out in.

7.3 Battle of the Bands:

Still in the distant future but fast approaching nonetheless. Applications should be up by the time of this meeting, if not they’ll definitely be up in the next day or so. If you know someone in a band then give them a gentle nudge in our direction .

7.4 Film Festival:

The idea of hosting a QM film festival was brought to the committee, and we all thought it would be a brilliant idea! It would be a standard format – people submit films, we chose the best to screen – and would give students/locals a great chance to exhibit there work. We’re planning long term here, choosing a date for the first semester of the next academic year, so that we have enough time to thoroughly plan the event and make a call for submissions. Hosting it this semester would also put it incredibly close to the Glasgow Film Festival, which would probably negatively affect the submissions/the event.

7.5 Battle Royal:

As I’m sure you’ve seen, we’re screening Battle Royal in Scran this Saturday (Valentine’s Day). How romantic. It’s £2 a ticket and will hopefully draw a decent crowd!

7.6 Tech training:

Thank you to everyone who came along to tech training! I hope that you all now feel a lot more comfortable with the set up in Jim’s bar, and what to do if something isn’t working. If anyone has any questions or would like to be shown anything again, then please don’t hesitate to ask. I’ll be popping a cheat sheet up on the board page in the next few days to help anyone who gets stuck.

8. Publications

8.1 Sederunts:

28/1/15 - 41 attendees including Max Sefton, Cat Acheson, Celia Varela-Sixto, Lukas Delius

4/2/15 - 36 attendees including Max Sefton, Cat Acheson, Lukas Delius

8.2 qmunicate magazine:

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Firstly, some sad news. Celia Varela Sixto has chosen to resign as Chief Designer. I would like to thank her for all her hard work on qmunicate and on the handbook and for all the great designs she has come up with in the past few months, as well as her great work as leftie. I couldn’t have done this without her.

On a happier note, Issue 113 should be back from the printers now. We interviewed the First Minister. Not really sure how we will top that. Collaboration with the Glasgow Guardian to get the most out of this was effective and it was fantastic opportunity that we seized with both hands. Sturgeon was a consummate politician, skilled at evading questions where necessary but I was particularly pleased with our focus on issues affecting students. Special thanks are also due to Louisa Burden for her hard work on this.

By the time of the board meeting, I think the Sturgeon interview will be the most popular article qmunicate has ever published. It has over 1600 likes on the Wordpress page and has been read by around 4000 people.

I have started trying out some new systems for how we edit and proof articles with the hope of making us a more efficient operation. Some of this is trial and error but I would like my legacy as convenor to not just be great content but effective systems to draw on in the future. We are also going to start a qmunicate Tumblr so that articles can be shared more easily in that format. It should link directly to the website and require minimal upkeep.

Next issue will be green themed. I have met with GUEST and we have half a dozen green related story ideas including a proposed interview with Patrick Harvie.

8.3 Other:

Distribution of the Aloud zine has been excellent, particularly with people picking up copies at the Poetry Slam. More will be distributed at Aloud on the 19th and submissions are open for volume 2.

We’re going to have a social where we go trampolining #qmusports

Jo Reid may have got us an interview with the Twilight Sad by offering the signer Ribena and a Curly Wurly.

On a more serious note, out of curiosity I had a flick through my manifesto the other day to see whether I have delivered what I set out to achieve:

Online content vastly expanded: Success (though there is still room to improve the website) More feedback to help improve writers: I have encouraged my editorial team to do this and I

think we are better than we have been in the past, though there is still always room for improvement.

Increased focus on campus/student issues: This has definitely paid off, most of our most popular articles fall into the category.

Encourage investigative journalism: In a way this is the area in which I have made least progress. Though I have encouraged people to pursue campus stories and this has been successful, writers sometimes seem to lack the confidence or ideas to independently chase a story. Gradual progress is being made through new connections at the University press office and I have gradually been getting people into the routine of seeking Glasgow academics for comment on stories such as our cover story on Assisted Dying.

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9. Social

Apologies for the length of my report, not much to talk about, social numbers have been good and all is well.

9.1 Aloud:

The first Student Slam was ridiculously successful. 125 people attended the event and the standard of the participants was very high. Taking Aloud back under the Social Banner has proven to be a success and there will be another Aloud this month and two next month. The Aloudzine was handed out at the Student Slam with over 100 given out. I’m happy to continue allowing Calum to do what he does with the booking and promoting as interest in the product is high. The plan going forward is to try and have a Student Slam per semester.

9.2 BWNQ:

Numbers for the quiz have been really good recently. The last two quizzes have drawn over 60 people with many people returning after enjoying the content. We have recently begun a concentrated effort to make the quiz rounds a little easier and teams are scoring higher as a result. The last two tie breakers have been interactive and amusing and the quiz is really gaining momentum.

We’ll also be building an archive of quiz rounds to prevent repeats of questions and to document what worked well and what didn’t.

As for FUQ, the second installment had around 40 people in attendance and dropped down to around 30 this week. I am continuing to pump out more and more PR and would appreciate it if we as a board could start taking posters when we can. I will be leaving batches of FUQ, Comedy and Weekly PR in the board flat. Help yourselves.

9.3 Valentine’s Day Massacre:

We will be running a Social event on the 16th. The name: What a Lovely Pair (It’s provisional)

It will see pairs (two people) compete in a series of quiz rounds (on their knowledge of one another) (parenthesis) and challenges that will revolve around team work. It deviates massively from my original plan for a Take Me Out spin-off and will now focus less on trying to find love for young hopefuls and will allow them to prove their friendships are strong enough to merit Scran vouchers.

9.4 Election:

So there’s an election soon to determine my successor. Social Convener is a role suited for an imaginative, enthusiastic person who wants to work with people to see their visions become reality. It’s rewarding and engaging. If it sounds like something you’d be interested in; run for it. YOLO.

Be nice to the new convener. xox

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