Davy Jones for Guild OCM 2012/13

My name is Davy Jones and I am running for an Ordinary Committee Member position in your Societies Guild. I have been involved in societies since my very first day in UCC and I have thrown myself into committee work since then. I have served on the committee of the Philosophical society for 2 sessions, as first year representative and as external vice-auditor. In my time on committee, I have worked hard to make the most of my portfolios, innovating in a way such that I have made those positions my own. I was awarded Fresher of the Year in 2011 for my work with the Philosophical Society.

In the past week, I have met with many Auditors and committees to discuss their societies and where they see the Societies Guild going next year. The result of those incredibly helpful discussions is this manifesto. In the pages to come, you will see my ideas for the various different portfolios of the Guild Executive and how I see them being applied to the various different categories of societies.

In truth, I think I bring the most ability to the training officer portfolio. But I bring many valuable contributions to the other portfolios as well.

Finance: I have heard from many auditors that they would like an increased amount of transparency in the way that the Guild conducts financial matters.

To this end I would propose the following attainable remedies.Establish a proper set of criteria on which an app may or may not be approved. The schedule of allowances has proven insufficient in this regard and justification based on precedent has been used on a number of occasions.

Following on from the former, I would make it established policy for the finance officer to provide justification with reference to the above criteria in the case that an app is denied.

I would work with the training officer to ensure that these criteria are communicated clearly at both auditor's training and finance training.

Guild expenses should, at very least, be communicated to the finance officer electronically so that there is a paper-trail for all expenditures.

Commerical and Membership Development:Many smaller societies which I talked to expressed dissatisfaction at the difficulty of gaining sponsorship from local businesses. They often cited lack of experience as a reason as to why they found it difficult. I believe that getting sponsorship, for many societies, is often thought to be impossible because of both lack of experience but also due to lack of support from the Guild.

To remedy this I will:Contact local business and societies over the summer to increase the level of contact that societies have with local business.

Organise workshops for finance officers on the topic of getting sponsorship

Communicate to societies that Guild supports them in getting sponsorship and create an environment such that they feel empowered by the Guild to do so.

Encourage new society innovations which can be used to appropriate sponsorship [see for example the E&S Membership Card as an example of this kind of innovation].

Reward societies who do get sponorship (perhaps by looking into including this as a criteria for the STARS awards).

As membership development not only relies on getting new people to come to an event but also to sustain their involvement, I would aim to help societies by increasing the support available to social/entertainments/events officer.

To do this, I would:Work with the SU Entertainments officer to provide increased training for socials officers.

Work with the entertainments and projects officer of the Guild to establish a database of student-friendly local businesses who can be used as possible social venues.

Contact businesses to secure deals for societies. This could be something as simple as getting a line-of-credit in a local bar or getting reductions on the price of committee dinners.

Update the current list of contacts that the Guild has for local businesses as many of those relationships would since have changed.

Public Relations:The nature of societies has changed and so too must its public relations. We've seen an increasing involvement with