12th December 2013 – Meeting Room 2                                                                            Minutes

Members present:

Claire Gilbert (Chair) (CG)         -Vice President Engagement

Alice Gray (AG)                           -RAG Officer

Jack Kanani (JK)                          -Student Enterprise Officer

Joel Young (JY)                            -Union Councillor

Josh Cox (JC)                               -Union Councillor

In attendance:

Chris Nash (CN)                          -Student Activities Coordinator (External Engagement)   

Karik Isichei (Minutes) (KI)         -Student Activities Assistant (Creative Industries and  Student Communities)

 

Apologies:

 

David Gilani (DG)                        -President

Anjali Parshotam (AP)                -Student Group Rep

Nickola Moore (NM)                  -Head of Membership and Community Engagement

Nic Eldred (NE)                           -Student Activities Manager

Guy Drury (GD)                           -Democracy Coordinator

Katie Ng (KN)                              -Democracy Assistant

 

Absent without apologies:

 

Evan Whyte (EW)                       -Vice President Sports Development

                                                   

Date	Action	Who	Status
10/10/13	ALL to keep these personal goals in mind going forwards.	Claire Gilbert Alice Gray Anjali   Parshotam	ONGOING
07/11/13	Report to include the most up-to-date RAG totals.	Alice Gray (AG)	ONGOING
07/11/13	To chase Marcus and Guy regarding moving Student Volunteering policy   to EE Zone.	Claire Gilbert (CG)	ONGOING
07/11/13	To draft amendments to ‘Union and Community Strategy’.	Claire Gilbert (CG)
07/11/13	To find out about JK being   on Student Groups Committee.	Claire Gilbert (CG)	ONGOING
12/12/13	To meet with JK to set his   personal goals.	Claire Gilbert (CG)
12/12/13	To send JK information on   how to remove someone from a committee.	Chris Nash (CN)
12/12/13	To include bullet-point details of her activity in the student led   fundraising officer report.	Claire Gilbert (CG)
12/12/13	The committee are to spread the word and ‘What is RAG?’ and encourage   anyone interested in fundraising to attend	All
12/12/13	To arrange for CG to attend   the next Student Groups Committee meeting.	Claire Gilbert (CG)
12/12/13	To talk to David Martin (VP Democracy & Creative Industries),   Nickola Moore (Head of Membership and Community Engagement) and Student   Groups Committee about logging volunteer time.	Claire Gilbert (CG)
12/12/13	To write a report on how other unions/organisations count their   volunteer hours and how we can implement this.	Claire Gilbert (CG) &   Chris Nash (CN)
12/12/13	To write a report to include residents concerns, projects, good news,   general business etc arising from Residents Association meetings.	Claire Gilbert (CG)
12/12/13	To get in contact with Residents Associations to discuss the idea of   them coming to meet and talk with students and to arrange a convenient   date/time. Also to build a communications   plan to inform students and JCRs.	Claire Gilbert (CG) &   Chris Nash (CN)
12/12/13	To circulate Residents Associations newsletter to committee.	Chris Nash (CN)
12/12/13	To draw up a report for the EE Zone, update it, and send it round to all   Councils so that it can be discussed.	Claire Gilbert (CG)
12/12/13	To create discussion about welcome brochure in the Facebook group.	Claire Gilbert (CG)
12/12/13	To read welcome brochure examples and give feedback via Facebook   group.	ALL
12/12/13	To start the plan for Enterprise and the goals for the Enterprise   committee.	Claire Gilbert (CG) &   Jack Kanani (JK)
12/12/13	To locate Jenny & Corrie’s plans to add to the RAG committee plan.	Claire Gilbert (CG)
12/12/13	To find out more about them to see who these societies fall under and CG will circulate that.	Claire Gilbert (CG) &   Chris Nash (CN)

 

1. Apologies and attendance

 

1. thanked everyone for coming and went through the attendees and apologies. JK arrived late.
2. Minutes from the last meeting

 

2. VOTE to approve the minutes from the last meeting (held 07/11/2013):

Approved

 

3. Matters arising from the last meeting

 

3. CG will meet with JK in the next few days to set his personal goals.
4. CG to chase Marcus and Guy regarding moving Student Volunteering policy to EE Zone – as policy is to lapse, this will stay in Democracy Zone. ACTION - CG to chase.
5. CG will find out about JK being on Student groups Committee.

 

4. Officer Reports
5. AG reported that the Christmas fair is the most successful event for RAG so far this year, this raised £757. Since the last meeting, RAG attended the Children in Need filming at Beaulieu. A total of £1018.27 was raised by RAG, SUSUtv & Surge. The total amount raised to date is £17655.01. The Big Give: There will be a roller-disco at The Cube. RAG is getting the halls bars, staff and Alumni involved. There will possibly be payroll giving. There are at least 2 confirmed events every evening. The volunteer numbers have been decided. Hopefully there will be mini-golf around campus. Donating online will be arranged. The dates for the Big Give have been noted on the RAG calendar.
6. JK advised that 2 of 3 goals have been received. JK advised that there have been a lot of requests for the Investment & Finance Society’s President to step down and for the Vice President to take their place. CG advised that JK is helping with running a by-election. JK advised that the President will not resign so they will have to force him to resign. Action: CN will send JK information on how to remove someone from a committee.
7. CG advised that in future, written officer reports will be requested at the same time as asking for papers for the meeting and will be circulated with the agenda to ensure that everyone can read them in advance and have a chance to comment on them or ask questions.

 

5. Student Led Fundraising

 

5. CG asked if the committee would like her to write a brief section in the officer report to detail what she has done since the last report. The committee requested to have this in bullet-point form. ACTION: CG to include bullet-point details of her activity in the officer report.
6. Totaliser: Each ball currently represents £50. This will change every time the target changes as each ball has the value of ‘the target’ divided by 400 (as the Totaliser holds approx. 400 balls). The Totaliser is good publicity for student fundraising. There will be photo opportunities for societies and individuals that raise a lot of money. If any society or individual wants to inform SUSU of how much they have raised for charity, they can email rag@susu.org to be included.
7. The date of Saturday 1st February has been pencilled in to discuss ‘What is RAG?’. This will be a day or afternoon with pizza to discuss what the concept of what RAG is, what fundraising should be included under RAG and how we choose the 3 RAG charities for the year. ACTION: The committee are to spread the word and ‘What is RAG?’ and encourage anyone interested in fundraising to attend. This includes individuals and societies as well as the charity societies.

 

6. Social Enterprise Activity

 

6. CG asked in what format would the committee like her report. The committee chose verbal.
7. CG advised that we are moving towards the Enterprise Conference and are currently picking a date. The aims are to focus towards our students and giving them skills, inspirations and employment opportunities in the local areas. Another aim is to bring the three sub societies together as they complement each other.

 

7. Community Action and Volunteering

 

7. CG advised that as there is no Community Action (CA) officer, the applications for CA funding are coming to the EE Zone Committee. CG asked if the committee are happy for applicants to pitch for funding for the for 10 minutes at the start of the committee meetings. The committee agreed to this.
8. CG advised that the full week plan for Student Volunteering Week has been written by CA and Hubs. Monday will be Good Deed Day where people can do quick, feel good deeds. On Wednesday afternoon there will be a tea dance for older community member. During the days there will be 1 hour off campus projects that will be low impact and low cost for students. CA will help with transport to make is as sustainable as possible. We will ask people who attend if they would like to continue to volunteer for 1 hour every week/month/bi-monthly. We will talk about micro-volunteering (eg, is sharing a post about a charity considered to be volunteering?). Student Volunteering Week will be in the last week of February which will clash with elections. For this week, CA will fund volunteering activities, although the correct process will need to be followed for any further funding requests. ACTION: CG to arrange to attend the next Student Groups Committee meeting. JC suggested logging time volunteered all year as this, although possible difficult to implement, could be a great way to show off. We could also issue certificates that could be shown to future employers. ACTION: CG to talk to David Martin (VP Democracy & Creative Industries), Nickola Moore (Head of Membership and Community Engagement) and Student Groups Committee about logging volunteer time. ACTION: CN & CG to write a report on how other unions/organisations count their volunteer hours and how we can implement this. The report should be submitted at the next EE Zone Committee meeting.

 

8. External Community Engagement – Working with Residents Associations

 

8. CG & CN are drafting a newsletter for release after Christmas to the Residents Associations.

 

CG conducted a discussion on how we work with the Residents Associations.

 

8. JY asked who meets with the Head of the Association. CN advised that CG does and members of staff. CG advised that the reason for the meetings is that residents have something valuable to give to students and we have something valuable to give to them. We can also anticipate their concerns and inform them of the good things that SUSU are doing. CG is hoping that her successor will push this onto Winchester equivalents of this.
9. JY requested areport on what has been going on at the Resident meetings as he does not know that the issues are. CG confirmed that this was a good idea and will do this for the next meeting. ACTION CG: To write a report to include residents concerns, projects, good news, general business etc arising from Residents Association meetings.
10. JC suggested, as an alternative to sitting on Residents Associations, we could invite the Heads to a meeting where interested students could attend possibly annually or twice a year. CG confirmed that this is a good idea and ALL agreed that mid-March would be a good time. ACTION: CG & CN to get in contact with Residents Associations to discuss the idea of them coming to meet and talk with students and to arrange a convenient date/time. Also to build a communications plan to inform students and JCRs.
11. ALL agreed that they would like the newsletter to be circulated prior to it going out. ACTION: CN to circulate newsletter.
12. JY asked if we could get a report to Council containing what residents are doing and the issues that they have as the students feel very separate to the residents. ACTION: CG to draw up a report for the EE Zone, update it, and send it round to all Councils so that it can be discussed.
13. The committee agreed that we are doing enough in this area, although this should be reviewed next year.

 

9. External Community Engagement – Welcome Brochure

 

9. CG advised that the welcome brochure is predominately aimed at 2nd year students and is a guide containing information of things you need to know when moving into a house, useful contact numbers and other information to help become valuable members of the community. CG & CN are going to scope information for the brochure which will be distributed by Residents Associations, police and other partners. A draft of the brochure should be ready by the next EE Zone meeting and it should be ready for distribution after Easter. ACTION: CG to create discussion in the Facebook group and ALL to read brochure examples and give feedback via Facebook group.

 

1. Goals Update

 

1. CG: 1. For members of the committee to understand the purpose of EE zone: The committee feel that they do understand the purpose of the EE Zone.
3. CG advised that she is 35% done which is right for this stage of the year.
4. AG: 1. To have the RAG officer election to be contested: There is currently one person running and AG is encouraging others to also run.
5. AG advised that we are on track for that to happen.
6. CG: 1. Students to be citizens – put in zone plan: That is in the Zone Plan.
9. AG: 1. Set up a team of Halls Reps – someone from each hall to attend rag meetings: The team of halls reps are up and running.
12. CG is currently working on a list to show what the money raised can do, eg how each £1 helps each charity.

 

1. External Engagement Plan
2. CG advised that the last time we went over the EE main plan, she is working on the correction although they are not complete.
3. CG & AG have started working on the first ever RAG plan. Each member of the committee has at least one target (usually 2 or 3). The goals raise aspirations, keeps the committee focused and tracks how RAG is doing.
4. ACTION: CG & JK to start the plan for Enterprise, the personal goals for JK and the goals for the Enterprise committee.
5. ACTION: CG to locate Jenny & Corrie’s plans to add to the RAG committee plan.
6. JY asked if there was anything that he could help with for the plans. CG advised that he can push the committee and hold them to account. JY & CG also agreed that if he wants to JY (& JC if he wants) could find plans with no student lead (or CV officer) and choose some he wants to do and advise CG of this.

 

2. Policy Review
3. CG advised that the union and community strategy is ten years out of date. As long as we have EE strategy and EE plan and do work on residential association then that work covers the work required by the old policy. Committee voted FOR the above statement.
4. VOTE on recommendation 1: ALL FOR
5. VOTE on recommendation 2: ALL FOR

 

3. Any other business
4. CN advised that we now have three new societies in EE: a TED society, RSPCA and African Maritime, Finance, Oil and Gas society. ACTION: CN to find out more about them to see who these societies fall under and CG will circulate that.
5. How we are going along with the strategy?

Outcomes heading:

• “Hold termly meetings with key partners to develop continual dialogue in order to implement this strategy”

CG has met with neighbourhood watch, police, colleges, external partners and various people from the council.

• “Ensure that RAG creates productive relationships with their chosen charities”

AG advised that they are a lot more productive than last year and have provided Christmas cards.

• “Create appropriate agreements with external organisations for mutual benefit” CG: Still scoping out who we want to partnership work with. As this is a two year strategy it’s something that will be more relevant in the second year.
• “Audit current Student Enterprise activities and support appropriate projects“

CG advised that it’s on its way. CN advised that it will be run in the New Year. The audit will look at what students are currently doing, what SUSU is currently doing and what external support is available. Then look at what we are doing is right and any holes that can be rectified.

• “Raise the profile of SUSU through the delivery of community events”

CG advised that we are doing joint litter picks with the outer Avenue Residents Association and we are running a Sports Relief mile. We will look into the new year about running a big scale event ie. something around the new halls in Mayflower and Swaythling.

• “Embed Community Action throughout the student community”

CG advised that we are running the volunteering week and will go to student groups committee about it.

• “Enable more students to take part in volunteering through the new community volunteering process and have access to statistical information”

CG advised that we won’t have stats until the end of the year as we are waiting for the university to provide us with these.

• “Train students in order to prepare for volunteering and enterprise projects”

CG advised that not much has been done towards that. We have Your Skills but we will need to look at this point next year.

3. CB has requested that we have a budget update in the next meeting as there is a January review of the budgets.

 

4. Date of the Next Meeting
5. Last week of January 2014.