7th November 2013 – Meeting Room 1                                                                             Minutes

Members present:

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

Evan Whyte (EW)                       -Vice President Sports Development

Josh Cox (JC)                               -Union Councillor

Alice Gray (AG)                           -RAG Officer

Jack Kanani (JK)                          -Student Enterprise Officer

 

In attendance:

Chris Nash (CN)                          -Student Activities Coordinator                                          

Ross Nation (RN)                        -RAG Student Groups Liaison

Karen Lawrence (Minutes) (KL)-Student Activities Assistant

 

Apologies:

 

David Gilani (DG)                        -President

Joel Young (JY)                            -Union Councillor

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                                                        

                                                                                                                                               

Date	Action	Who	Status
10/10/13	CG to add   residents meeting or working with residents associations to the EE plan under   ‘partnership working’.	Claire Gilbert	COMPLETED
10/10/13	CN to send   out CG Sabbatical plan (nice   council version).	Chris Nash	COMPLETED
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)
07/11/13	To chase Marcus and Guy regarding moving Student Volunteering policy   to EE Zone.	Claire Gilbert (CG)
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)

1. Apologies and attendance

 

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

 

2. AMENDMENT: CG requested that the action list be amended from ‘All to keep these goals in mind going forwards.’ to ‘All to keep these personal goals in mind going forwards.’ All agreed.

 

2. VOTE to approve the minutes from the last meeting (held 10/10/2013):

For: 5 / Against: 0 / Abstain: 0

 

3. Matters arising from the last meeting

 

3. ‘CG to add residents meeting or working with residents associations to the EE plan under ‘partnership working’’ – they will be added.
4. ‘CN to send out CG Sabbatical plan (nice council version)’ – This was not sent out, but all have seen the plan.
5. ALL to keep these goals in mind going forward’ – This is an ongoing status.

 

4. Officer Reports
5. CG advised that the Officer Reports are to be written and circulated in advance of the meetings in future.
6. AG reported that RAG have held their first two raids of the year. Neither of these was too successful in money terms, however they did succeed in getting lots of volunteers involved. RAG also organised a ‘Zombie Chase’ – we are awaiting final figures for this. On 8th November 2013, RAG are holding their ‘Children in Need’ day which will involve cake selling, leg waxing, beard shaving and bucket shaking. Pudsey will be visiting for the day and the BBC will be coming to film the fun. Looking forward, AG will be looking at the purpose of RAG, how RAG works with charities & societies. CG advised that there will be an Open Space Technology Conference about RAG, what it’s purpose is, how it works and whether it should be all about fundraising. AG advised that she is working on a RAG mini EE plan which she hopes will be ready for the next Zone Committee meeting.EWqueried if the RAG figures are accurate, CN advised that they all posted figures are correct, although RAG have received further money that is waiting to have expenses deducted before posting the figures. CG advised that the Big Give target for this year is £15,000 (£6,000 was raised last year). ACTION: In future AG’s report is to include the most up-to-date RAG totals.
7. Enterprise - JK reported that they had a training meeting last week where they went over budget allocation and how to apply. We need to find out what the enterprise societies do and why some societies do better than others due to knowing who to contact for funding etc. For example, Enactus and Fish On Toast get more support than the other societies. The University have comprehensive support but they do not know about all of the societies. Progress going slowly.

 

5. Policy Review: report from Policy Review Group

 

5. Student Volunteering Policy – this should be in EE Zone. ACTION: CG to chase Marcus and Guy regarding this.
6. Union & Community Strategy – this needs to be approved in the January Zone meeting.
7. Responsible Drinking – JC finds that the policy is oddly written.
8. Union and Community Strategy– CG advised that these are not do-able. CG is working with Student Life Zone. ACTION – CG will draft amendments (with EW & JC) and will circulate by early December. The focus needs to move away from drinking issues and focus on what we do, eg Lollipop, Safety Bus, turning down base half an hour before closing.

 

6. Zone Plan

 

6. Identify Key Stakeholders – We have started building relationships with Southampton City Council, Winchester City Council, Police and residents associations. We are continuing to build on the relationship that started last year with the Recover College, who have a different way of treating people with mental health issues by treating them as students rather than patients and teach them about their conditions. The students are treated the same as University students with ID cards etc.
7. CG ran through the Zone Plan for External Engagement 2013-2014.

 

7. How to work with other Zones – the Committee looked at all of the other Zone strategies to find areas that we can work together.

 

7. Democracy Zone – ‘will strive to increase engagement with students from non-traditional backgrounds’ - EE Zone can work to increase engagement by encouraging students to do what they enjoy.Student Groups feed back to the Student Groups Committee on what they need. ACTION: CG to find out about JK being on Student Groups Committee. EW suggested that RAG surveys its volunteers to find out backgrounds, previous fundraising and volunteering etc.
8. Sustainability Zone – ‘To improve employability skills’ – Student enterprise, volunteering and RAG can relate to this. Ethically auditing local businesses relates to Enterprise.
9. Student Life Zone – ‘Improve students’ personal management of money’ – Enterprise could run a workshop to help with this as they have transferable skills relating to incomings and outgoings.
10. Student Communities Zone – To assist with increasing engagement in students’ lives we can encourage students to fundraise/volunteer for causes that they believe in. We can help SUSU be visibly present at all campuses with Community Action projects in Winchester and RAG fundraising. There are also RAG positions in the halls.
11. Creative Industries Zone – We can help build relationships with Creative Industries groups and RAG and Community Action. We can also help to positively engage with and impact on our local neighbourhoods, this is especially important with the new halls opening near the Mayflower theatre. Student led media can cover the good work done by RAG, Community Action and Enterprise groups.
12. Sport Zone – We can help create sustainable relationships and develop projects that develop perceptions of students and sports in the community. This could be done through encouraging volunteering and fundraising.
13. Education Zone – We can build on the University’s growing opinion of SUSU by ensuring that the engagement between SUSU and the University continues. We can encourage people to do MOOC free ‘Open University’ style courses.

 

8. CV/CA Update

 

8. The University’s Community Volunteering website has been launched which includes an interactive hub/portal that can be filtered by interest.
9. Community Action organised a very successful beach clean on Sunday 13th October 2013. 48 people cleared 1.5km of beach and collected 5 bin bags full of rubbish. A litter-pick has been arranged for the Glen Eyre halls area on Saturday 9th November 2013.
10. Community Action will now be focusing on encouraging people to apply for the funding that is available and to arrange 3 projects this academic year. These will consist of one environmental, one youth and one other project. This will be reviewed in the summer of 2014.

 

9. Addition of student groups representative to Zone Committee

 

9. VOTE to approve the addition of the student groups representative to the Zone Committee.

 

For: 5 / Against: 0 / Abstain: 0

 

1. Any other business

 

1. CG gave an update of Student Volunteering Week. This is to be the last week of February 2014. The programme of events will include ‘Good Deed Day’. RN asked if this could be used as a launch-pad for Community Action projects? CG Agreed that this is a good idea.
2. EW gave an update on Sport Relief. We are working with the Solent University, Southampton City Council and other partners. This will be at the start of the Big Give and will be good for relationships. We are looking to work with local schools to promote sport. JC advised that the Student Ambassadors will have contacts at schools.
3. JK advised that getting Freshers involved is proving difficult and the JCR Officer is not responsive. CG said that she can be used to help with matters like this.
4. CN reminded that agenda items can be submitted by everyone, not just CG.
5. The funding meeting will be in 2 weeks’ time. CN will send a ‘doodle’ for available times.

 

1. Next Meeting

 

1. The next meeting will be held the w/c 6th January 2014. (This has since been changed to w/c 27th January 2014 – date to be confirmed).