External Engagement Zone (4th March 2016)

Absent without apologies from Flora, Nancy, and Charlotte.

Minutes approved from last meeting.

KR asked whether procedure of how to run events through SUSU will be made available soon (if not part of student committee etc., it's difficult to know who to talk to or organise an event without knowing who can support). HT will chase Learning and Development team to see where they are on the project to make things like this more transparent.

RAG President: 

- Volunteer numbers have increased and are becoming more involved on a permanent basis. 

- LOST99 event has 9-10 volunteer helpers, who are all new to organising events. 70 people attended LOST99 Info meeting, which was very successful.

- Generic volunteer t-shirts, Dominos to pay for them and will have Dominos logo on front and back.

- International challenges - promotion finished, so will have list of how many involved in each challenge soon.

- After Easter external organisations come to pitch for next years' challenges.

- Enigma went well - raising around £1000

- The current RAG total does not include international challenges at the moment and will be added in June - currently raised over £60,000.

- KR mentioned 'thank you' to all who helped at The BIG Give and will be sending 'thank you' notes to those who helped at The BIG Give.

- RAG awards coming soon, nominations for next years' chosen charities over Easter break, and will then be shortlisted. Only students can nominate charities.

- RAG AGM in two weeks, currently looks like every position contested. May change UK Challenges Officer to Trinity Events Officer, and might have two BIG Give officers to alleviate workload.

 

Enterprise Officer:

- NACUE Conference was good and all attendees took a lot from it; taken away contacts and information for future committees etc.

- Some AGM's in enterprise student groups already happened, and others planned for the next couple of weeks. 

- JF will be working on University forum with B'mouth, Portsmouth, Solent, and Winchester when new committees established, to be able to collaborate more throughout the year.

- Issue brought up regarding Risk Assessment for Fish on Toast event (YouTech conference); EP to chase.

- HT asked whether JF was aware of a Scotland initiative called Business Gateway and asked if there was anything similar in Britain. JF suggested New Entrepreneurs Foundation, which focuses on mentoring rather than incubators or accellorators.

- JF to encourage enterprise students to stand for Enterprise Officer in next elections - will do so with new committees and at BESTI board.

 

Sabb report:

- Overview of Enterprise initiative - will be cut back from original plans as not able to invest original money earmarked for initiative. Have set smaller amount by in budget that will work more like a grant for enterprising students.

- Pop Up project coming into place but will not be as originally thought. Cannot be inclusive to all students as International students on Tier 4 visas cannot be self-employed. Cannot sell food and drink. Will be a market for crafts etc. Support, training, and skills can be provided to all students for all nature of products.

As above, current RAG total over £60,000, which is £20,000 more than this time last year.

Overview of LSE case study for Live Crowdfunding:

- £10 entry to event

- Could build into The BIG Give

- will discuss with Enterprise forum and boards

- Email LSE to find out more

- All around the table think it's a great idea and will bring zone together, but will not be possible to pull off this academic year. 

Overview of micro-volunteering. Please spread the word about the first session on Wednesday 9th March.

 

Query - what is the role of the Charities and Communities Officer, what does their role cover? BF has advised that the specification for student leader roles need to be tightened for re-elections so that whole zone understand the substance of the role.

 

Skills sessions: 

- Do student leaders and committee members want a skills session that is relevant to their volunteering and responsibilities in SUSU rather than a general one with Careers? 

- KR gave feedback from his committee that they would like more of a workshop where they could update their CV rather than a generic skills session going through time-management, delegation etc. 

- Would be good to target volunteering aspects of their roles.

- KR suggested having drop in's on Concourse as more people likely to walk past and interact - base on LinkedIn Labs

- Suggested time frame of after Easter and before exams

 

Discussion regarding student groups progress:

- Democracy Review coming in will be useful to have sabbatical officers writing an action plan that can be checked off throughout the year, and will be more transparent to students of their aims and objectives. Can student groups have similar type of action plan?

- Would be useful for VP Engagement to attend one or two committee meetings/sessions throughout the year so that student groups can put a face to a name and not feel as isolated from their sabbatical officer.

 

Communications:

- Should we continue with External Engagement Societies Facebook page? Yes, but set rules of how it's to be used. 

- Can set up a document on Facebook with name, email, student group, and position, so that people know who to direct their questions or posts to when using EE Socs FB page.

- HT suggested a LinkedIn for External Engagement Alumni for networking etc. - JF and KR agreed would be a good idea. 

AA suggested that at next society training or AGM to have Hubbub/Crowdfunding to talk, showing what other funding is available

TBC.