Society Forum minutes

Thursday 2 February 2012, 12:44pm
by Alex Chow

 

Minutes                                                  Bullet Points Denotes New Speaker and A.C Alex Chow

A.C-Introduction, Agenda, Alterations and Introductions.

1. 1.      Society Funding and Society Accounts. (views/opinions)

 

• Positive aspects of the new AAG (annual activity grant) discussed, which include the way that societies have to plan and budget. But this was pointed out that it differs for each society. 
• It was suggested that KUSU needs to manage the bids after the form is submitted and ensure money is used in the way that it was requested and therefore accepted.

A.C-requests information on the old per captia grant system WITH the new one?

• Issues raised of timing with handover throughout the year and issues with overspend by the previous committees leaving no funds.
• Suggestion of synchronising elections and handover but preferred would be a flexible system which allowed money to be available to new committees.

A.C- suggested the long and comprehensive handover process of the C.U which seems to work and eradicate these problems and asks about the form itself.

• Suggested that more help with workshops in place, but P.O.I (point of information) shown that there was a number of session, suggesting awareness of these sessions needs to be raised.
• Form is simple as it can be but the process would benefit from a base per captia grant as some societies may not apply for more and therefore reduce the amount of forms.
• This view was supported it wouldn’t waste time for societies who don’t want extra funding.

A.C- Therefore the ideal system would be a set per capita grant with the AAG used as a supplementary grant.

• Issue of accountability if AAG wasn’t used as the money was allocated?

A.C- Would therefore require V.P Finance to conduct, but these cheques that may be timely. But in the short time a review system could be implemented.

• This may be seen as controlling society spend.

A.C- Next discussion would require the per capita grant to allocated ‘free budget’ and scale down the accountable and checkable AAG. But asked for views of societies.

• Positive response from societies to combine as it removes the need for all societies to have a form only those who want/ need extra money.
• Negative view in regards to the form for AAG with new societies needing more assistance and an understanding of costs.

A.C-There is there an alternative way to provide society funding?

• Suggested that extra help would be needed in future in filling out the form, with training, workshops etc. With some training specific to training.

P.O.I (Point of Information): All societies were offered a number of sessions in regards to AAG form at the start of the academic year.

• The form itself was suggested that it was too complicated and the time scale was too unrealistic.  Would potentially need a delayed second bid OR a later initial bid.
• With the per capita grant, this would allow societies to assess needs and plans.
• Does this allow for money to be saved for larger purchases?

A.C- Money can be saved if not used and would only be recalled from inactive (3 years) societies. But, it with a review system in place this may not able to be the AAG.

• Societies raised concerns more concerns on the long term nature of funding forms. And it may create added pressure on societies to run for profit or risk having no funds at the end of the year.

A.C- So there needs to be some form of supplementary grant in place throughout the year and tweak the per captia, supplementary and annual activity grant.  This will require work, a number of drafts which can be taken to an AGM.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. 2.      Facilities

Garage:

• Unhappy with the fact that some societies fill the garage with their equipment and therefore no room for other societies. Garages are an disorganised mess and therefore people cant use them. Need a clear out
• Paintball don’t want to use the garage as they are worried about damage to their equipment. Could they have a safer secure space? The lockers are too small.
• A.C- We could look at a container but the first step will have to be clearing out the garage.
• Action: going to clear out the garage and bin whatever isn’t claimed.

Safety Bus:

• Paintball are unhappy as they can’t keep their cars on campus any longer, therefore are spending the majority of their funding on the safety bus which incurs fines for dirt etc. They are using the buses for every event and therefore are looking for a loyalty discount. They don’t want to ask people to get their own way there or to do the buses on a first come first served basis as this will reduce their numbers. Action: AC will look into a loyalty discount
• Raised that the buses are much cheaper than any external company therefore unlikely that will be able to reduce the costs.
• One idea was that the AU have a separate bid solely for mileage, and maybe something similar could be in place for societies.
• Another idea was to give societies 2 spaces, enabling societies to book these beforehand for any event where they need a car. The problem with this would be that there is nowhere to keep cars at all other times throughout the year
• Action: Get in touch with Alex if you have problems with transport/ cars/ safety buses as the more information he has the stronger the case he has to raise.

Room Booking:

• Issue: why is it not online? Its unnecessarily complicated and a waste of paper
• Film said that they have to get a room booking signed off by Joan, Entertainments, Bars and Security. This wastes a lot of time. There is no internal communication in KUSU, one department says that the room is available whilst another disagrees. This costs unnecessary expense in re-printing documents with mistakes
• It would be much easier if societies could see what is free and therefore if their preferred slot was booked what alternative dates were available.
• There are also problems with Entertainments cancelling bookings. Societies have rooms booked but then Ents cancel at the last minute as they are running their own events
• Other societies agreed, saying the 4 hands need to talk. Therefore we need one person who runs the whole thing i.e. Joan- but she is often unavailable
• Drama- things are very difficult. They need to complete a different form for each show, rehearsal etc. The 4 departments have different diaries and it’s not clear who they need to communicate with to organise an event. Too many people are involved
• What about a society intranet system. When societies book a room, an email is sent to all 4 departments and other societies are aware what is and isn’t avaliable.
• Things are hard for bar staff, they get huge piles of booking forms. They don’t know that societies want certain things until the last minute and then when they find out they don’t have enough resources i.e. staff. Too often societies don’t plan ahead, and therefore things don’t work. Whilst one diary is important, we also need paper as that is the only way the bars work satisfactorily. It’s important for societies to be aware that they are the link between the 4 departments it’s their responsibility to organise things with all involved and that they don’t miss out important departments.
• Another idea is having a weekly meeting where all 4 departments discuss the different events and room bookings, making decisions as to which events can and cant go ahead. This will ensure there is more cross referencing.
• AC Action: Need to get all people using the same diaries to make it easier to co-ordinate society events. Standardisation is key.
• Besides having one calendar for everyone, we need to open up the diaries so that everyone can see, as at present no one can see entertainments calendar but Joan. It was mentioned that all staff will soon be on googlemail, so can use googlemail diaries. All societies will be able to see them but there will only be 4 admins. AC: This is a  good proposal but cant be done until staff change over to googlemail,
• Want to have information on the KUSU website about who to speak to and when about booking rooms. AC said that this had already been done through the Student Activities’ How to Guides. Someone said the problem is that people don’t always look up the How to Guides so the contact details should be on AC’s door. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. 3.      Society Awards

P.O.I Last year (2011) society awards ran with the StARs awards in the ballroom with food provided by Maliks. Tickets were £8.

A.C-Based on last year this was pretty much at capacity so expansion would require a change. We may also need a new way to assign wards with potential bias if a Sabb chooses. This could be changed to a peer voting system.

• There could be a society forum to discuss nominations?
• However, this could just cause too many people making claims to their society without a way to check this.

A.C- But peer decisions is the fairest.

• Issues with transparency openly discussed and shows the negativity of peers not in a society and therefore not privy to all information voting.

A.C- It would also mean that winners would be aware before the evening.

• Suggestion of still the ‘Society of the Year Award’ with and additional ‘Societies Choice’.
• But there is a question of whether two awards nullify each other.

A.C- Societies could also ‘present’ there case is they feel they are worthy of an award?

• This was shown to have positives and negatives but would take so long and current system seems to work traditionally and would therefore be the best idea to continue.

A.C-And the events itself?

• Was discussed that although food may not be everyone’s taste, keeping the cost to a minimum is the important issue so a similar event to last year would be ideal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. 4.      Society Sign Up

 

• The general thought was that we should keep it in the Ballroom. As KUSU is the home of societies and it’s close to Refreshers therefore have increased footfall.
• Some societies liked the set up in September, as music societies were next to each other therefore could refer people to other more suitable societies.
• Some people felt that we shouldn’t have music as means that struggle to talk to students, causing people to have to shout over the music.
• Other people liked the music, but should keep it as background music and therefore turn it down
• Another idea is to ensure that those who are playing the music are next to it.

 

Interlinking societies/ sharing equipment

• If all equipment has a thorough inventory, societies could share and therefore societies could go to each other and say are you using X and if not they could use it.
• Once this inventory was made it would then be clearer what equipment societies need and groups of societies could meet and together make a capital grant. This would avoid the current practice whereby societies are purchasing equipment that is already available i.e. speakers. There are lots of resources available but societies don’t know what each other has and therefore the system is inefficient.
• Action: will do the inventory  when the garage is cleared out
• One idea was to do the inventory on the basis of what is freely available and what has partial constraints (i.e. another departments equipment)
• One suggestion was that when societies wanted to borrow another society’s equipment, societies could go to Alex and he would give out receipts. Others thought that people don’t need to go to Alex they just need to speak to each other.  This will help to create connections and learn what other societies do.
• AC will work towards a list but recognises that it will practically be difficult as people agree to share and then change their minds
• Action: To improve society communication, Alex will set up a Facebook group with the president and vice presidents of all societies. This will enable constant communication.
• Action: to ensure that societies think before applying for funding if they really need the equipment or if they can borrow it of someone else- write into the funding guides that societies must think before they buy.

 

 

 

 

 

A.O.B:

New Societies:

A.C- The process for a new society is: Fill in the society sign up form, create a constitution, membership (if approved by the sabbs). But what other provisions are required? Could there be a society federation that could cope with situations like this?

• Federation would be a good idea, sharing tacit knowledge.
• But are these just the roles of Finace and Activities such as approving and guiding?
• New socs seen to benefit from this concept.
• Positives outlined as shared contact, experience, knowledge, information, resources.
• Negativities surround time restraints. This view was around ‘My Time’ as socs ‘do enough’.
• Although it is a good concept, it could create issue with power and conflict of interest.

A.C-The workload of V.P Finance isn’t an issue, it’s to give power to the individuals.

• It was raised that maybe the remit of Finance and Activities needs work in regards to societies?
• It was also raised that this communication could be done via Facebook. Removing the need for a federation.
• There’s also the issue of handover? Which makes Facebook groups redundant.

Handover/Training:

A.C- On handover, what do people feel about training and guiding handovers? And having elections for societies at the same time?

• Societies want to remain independent with no compulsory training.

P.O.I (Point of Information):As of the next academic year, to have any society information accredited on the HEAR then individuals are required to attend training.

Fines:

A.C-What is the view on people not attending AGMs and other events, they should be fined or not? This couldn’t amount to more than 30% of their AAG or per captia throughout the year.

• Good idea in principle, but would require to be universal and everyone to know the issues from the start.