External Engagement Zone (7th February 2018)

Flora Noble (Union President), Samantha Higman (VP Welfare), Charlie Morris (RAG President), Neel Gunturi (Enterprise Officer) & Timothy Daulby (Open Place Member) sent apologies for the meeting.

Arun Aggarwal (Vice President Student Communities) - welcomed everyone to the first zone meeting of 2018 and explained that he would be chairing the External Engagement zone committee meetings for the remained of the academic year.

Minutes from previous zone committee meeting (13/12/17) approved and passed.

A number of sabbatical officers have taken on areas of responsibility within the External Engagement zone since new year and this will continue until the summer when the new Vice President Engagement takes post. Each sabbatical officers involvement with identified areas was explained by AA as listed below.

 - Arun Aggarwal - Vice President Student Communities - Fundraising, Volunteering, Halls and Funding

 - Sam Higman - Vice President Welfare - Halls

 - Flora Noble - Union President - Community Liaison, EVAs

 - Samuel Dedman - Vice President Education - Enterprise

 - Evie Reilly - Vice President Democracy & Creative Industries - Enterprise

 AA explained that he has spoken with all student leaders on the zone over the past month and offered his support to any ongoing projects or campaigns, he will also oversee the transition of the new Vice President Engagement during handover. Will update further on zone campaigns at the next meeting.

First Halls Committee Board took place on the 1st February. Co-opted 3 new members, which takes the overall number to around 45 students, which is roughly the same as last year.

Pizza nights almost done now, halls quiz nights planned and currently 5 film nights in partnership with Union Films, where students will be able to attend selected screenings at SUSU. 

Amsterdam trip running and being promoted at present, this will be pushed over the next few meetings. 

Looking at running a summer ball for halls, this would give committee members experience of running events before Freshers.

Final list has been produced outlining which halls need additional resources to bring common rooms up to the same standard across all sites.

Update given by Benjamin Shaw (Open place member) on behalf of Charlie Morris

Quiet over the exam period, although society fundraising events starting to pick up now. RAGs Enigma event has been postponed and will now take place during the Big Give week, unfortunately with transport difficulties, a new company could not be found in time. The Big Give will take place from Sunday 22nd April through until Sunday 29th - currently film screenings in Halls as well as RAGs signature event Lost are just a few of the events planned across the whole week. Promotional material should be released after spring elections as part of the build up to Big Give. 

Additional RAG events or supported events over the coming weeks.

Speed Dating - In partnership with SCA

Skydive with the National Autistic Society

NG sent apologies ahead of the meeting - No additional information to feedback at this point.

As a panel member, Alice Cordo Gallucci updated the committee on the recent enterprise fund process. 7 projects were shortlisted and presented on Wednesday 31st January for a chance to be allocated up to £1000 towards a student start up enterprise project. All of the shortlisted projects were excellent and of a high standard, currently panel members are finalised their decisions - 2 projects were given permission to submit their presentation via video link.

Once a decision has been made, SUSU will run an online piece on the students involved as well as linking them in with university enterprise teams.

Volunteer of the month update - Southampton HUB are assisting with the launch of this new union award. Final designs are awaiting approval and it is hoped the first announcement will be in the next month or 2, with the aim to engage students, volunteers, staff and the local community with nominations. Committee discussed the aspect of where the new volunteer of the month would be advertised and displayed, ideas were put forward such as use of existing internal TV screens, more wall space on the concourse to display winners each month and a dedicated page on the website - DW to collate ideas and investigate further.

DW has been reaching out to local community teams and recently met with Southampton City Mission about any future opportunities for students to work with the charity. The charity is always looking at taking on new volunteers but feel that as they are at working capacity at present, they are not currently looking into any future new ventures. Suggested that they could be invited to the Freshers Volunteering and Fundraising Fayre.

AA/AK - Across all the zones, by-laws are being updated and reviewed ready for this summer. For the External Engagement zone this consists of the External Engagement by-laws, Halls by-laws and the RAG by-laws. 

External Engagement by-laws were displayed in the room will all modifications from old by-laws to new. Voting members approved the new by-laws.

External Engagement Zone Objectives - 

With no current KPI's for the zone, AA led a discussion around what the committee felt should be our objectives moving forward for the academic year. A variety of topics were discussed such as the use of student ambassadors at other unions (SM) in linking in with the local community and our current liaison with local residents groups where we attend local street parties and provide society entertainment (AK). 

- Linking communication across all areas of the zone

- Engaging with our local communities here in Southampton

- Improving our offer to sites

All three objectives will be discussed in more detail at the next committee meeting.

Fundraising/Events (ACG/TV) -

Feels there needs to be more information provided after big fundraising events, such as how much was raised and where the money goes and benefits. Gunge a president, an event during Children in Need was used as an example where students were unsure what the final amount was raised by RAG/societies. AK works closely with RAG and assists with all RAG finances, explaining that there is a significant increase in student fundraising over the previous years as shown by overall student fundraising totals. BS did feel the Children in Need totals were released but admitted with so much social media traffic that this could have been missed by people and was unsure if it was reposted again.

ACG asked if this could be looked into so make sure that these successful events are communicated to properly to students and their good work doesn't get lost. 

Student Volunteering Week 2018 (ACG) -

Discussed if we would be doing any SUSU specific campaigns for SVW this year. AA/AK explained that at present there was no plans to undertake large campaigns with upcoming elections and shorter half term the worry would be that the message could get lost. SUSU are supporting Women in Business society whoa are hosting a Q&A event with speakers from a variety of charities such as No Limits, Student Hubs and Wessex Cancer Trust who will explain the benefits of volunteering and how this can help students throughout any career path they might take. 

Pens for Kids Campaign (AA) - 

The zone continues to work with the Student Communities zone in collecting disused pens which can be relocated to children around the world in need. Currently around 8,000 pens have been collected. TV/MSR felt that the campaign would be more successful if collection points were installed in additional university buildings and halls, both happy to work with societies involved and help move forward.

Led Zeppelin Charity Showcase (AK) - 

Updated the committee on the upcoming LiveSoc Led Zeppelin Charity Showcase, which celebrates the 45 year anniversary of Led Zeppelin playing at SUSU. The evening will show case students playing the original set list and raising money for Ovation Music Charity. AK asked if all committee members could help out with promotion for the event online.