Election Timeline

Elections made simple

This year there are more positions available to student than ever before thanks to the new constitution. I thought it would make sense to take some time and explain what exactly will be going on over the next 5 weeks.

The timeline is as follows:
Week 3 - nominations close on Friday.
You not be able to stand in any of the elections past this point
Week 4 - the first week of campaigning.
Tradiitionally one of the slower/quieter weeks in the election as everyone prepares for the following weeks.
Week 5 - second week of campaigning
This is the penultimate week of the election and stress levels are rising as campainging is in full swing.
Week 6 - last week of campaigning and voting opens and runs from monday to thursday.
This is the most intense week of the election. Ballot Stations will be around all the main campuses and every candidate will be postering, flyering and campaigning with renewed enthusiasm as the end is in sight.
Week 6 - Friday the counting starts and the results are announced in an evening election party usually in Morals Bar but this will be confirmed nearer the time.

For some of the positions this year, the Students' Union will be providing candidates with a budget to use for campaigning. This is aimed at improving the number of candidates as well as reducing the financial impact of standing for election.

The Positions available at this election include:
OBSU President and four Vice Presidents; Welfare and Equal Opportunties, Academic Affairs, Commercial Development and Communications, Activities and Development. These positions are full time and receive a salary. You will need to take a year out of study.
6x non-sabbatical (part time) Diversity Officers; LGBT, Women's, International Students, Mature Students, Students with Disabilities, Ethnic Minorities.
Union Council position available include:
Independent Chair - runs all the big important meetings of the Union such as Union Council
Environment Officer - does what it says on the tin! (the tin is recycled by the way)
Halls Rep - represents all student living in Halls
Sports Liason Officer - represnets all students involved in sports at Brookes
PostGrad Taught Rep - represents students on post graduate taught courses
PostGrad Research Rep - represents students on post graduate research courses
Campus reps - five students from each of the campuses represesnting students on that campus, Wheatley, Harcourt Hill, Gipsy Lane and Headington Hill (includes Marston Road)
General Reps - 5 reps from the general student body
Placement Rep - representing students on placement

There are also positions for NUS Delegate. NUS is the national version of the Students' Union. Whereas the SU represents all students at Brookes, NUS represents all the students' unions in the country. To attend Annual Conference you must be elected to the position of NUS Delegate for your SU. The President is automatically a member, and anyone can stand for these positions. There are 9 available.

This is only a really basic over view and i would encourage anybody who is interested to check out the website www.thesu.com. Click on the Representation tab and then Elections. More info as well as nominations forms will be available from the Students' Union reception in Week3. Alternatively you can email me - obsu.cdc@brookes.ac.uk for more info.

Elections and 'Apathy'?

Election Time Drawing Near!

It's almost that time of year again. The Students' Union gears up for the second busiest time in the academic calendar - Elections.

This year with the reformation of the constitution there are over 50 different positions up for grabs. However, it's really difficult to assess whether student involvement has improved on the previous year until nominations have closed at the end of week 3. After that point there is a final list of the candidates running for the various positions.

The challenge is to attract those candidates in the first place.

The Students' Union has been suffering recently from a lack of student involvement. I do not believe that this is a problem with the students themselves - the Students' Union has become irrelevant in many students lives. Therefore it is up to the SU to demonstrate why it is here. To do that it needs to win some key victories, respond to student needs and deliver consistently high quality/value services.

The Students' Union Mission Statement says that it exists to Support, Represent and Inspire students through their University experience. The mechanism for delivering on this mission statement are all in place, but the SU itself has to be making the best use of them. The Union needs to be pro-active not reactive with student engagement. This doesn't mean that everything to do with students should be left to student officers and reps 'because they are students'! Every interaction that a student has with the SU should engage them and leave them wanting to know more. A student should always get out more than they have put in!

This demands that everybody working within the SU from student staff and volunteers right through the organisation to senior management, including all the student officers and reps, need to be delivering a consistently high level of service to the students they encounter in their line of work. Everybody already involved in the Union should act as an ambassador for the Union and should know about the range of services and opportunities on offer, and more importantly be willing to talk to students about them.

This is going to sound like an excuse but previously the SU has been doing to much. Staff have been working over capacity trying to accomplish a huge range of objectives from awards and developments to new services. This has led to the basics been lost - like student involvement in the Union itself. The Student involvement that does currently exist in the form of the sabbatical officers also struggle to cope with the problems of student engagement under the weight of so many meetings and other commitments.

I would like to end on a positive...
The view is getting better. There have been significant changes, organisationally and democratically within the SU. Staff are being instructed to focus their energies and say no to anything that doesn't fall inside the criteria of 3 objectives that they have to meet. The new constitution allows for flexibility in the structures of the Union such as committees which will enable Offciers to spent more time out and about talking to students rather than stuck behind a desk. Both these things are the beginnings of an organisational shift in focus back to having 'The Student' at the absolute center of everything we do. We are heading in a very positive direction, i just hope it doesn't take too long.