The VP Societies & Activities is responsible for representating Student Activities in the Union and improving extra-curricular opportunities for all students. They also liaise with Community Volunteers, help raise money for local and national charities through the RAG committee; as well as act as Lead Officer for Union extra-curricular trips.
Sports & Societies Office: SOAP Centre
Elected: March 2009
Hometown: Chester
Course Graduated In: BA Hons Media, Culture and Communications
Kayleigh was President of the Dance Society in her second year and Vice President of the Cheerleaders Society (UL Jets) in her third year.
This week, the week of the awards was literally spent doing all the last minute bit and pieces that needed to be sorted for the awards, including seating plans, food orders, entertainments, we also managed to get a compare to make the event run more smoothly. Reflecting on the event it went really well and even though there was a bit of stress before the event, the feedback so far seems to have been really good and people including myself had a really good time.
On monday of this week we had our strategy day at Riseholme to talk through everything that needed to be done for next years committee so that everything was in place and so that next year runs as smoothly as possible, with easier procedures in place for Sports and Societies and the rest of the Union. The rest of this week was spent sorting out photos and speeches for the sports and societies awards evening.
This week we were only in two days, we were catching up from being off on tour and doing preperation for the Sports and Societies Awards Evening. It was very quiet because students were on holiday, but we were trying to get prepared for when they all arrived back.
This week consisted of many more conversations about the Sports and Societies Awards Evening, in order to get as much done as possible before Chris and I went on tour. We closed the Nominations for the awards and opened the voting online for the sports and societies personalities. We also had a meeting to decide on the winners for the different categories. Also this week on the Tuesday Chris C and i went on away day to Holbeach Campus for the Board of Governors meeting. I was very interesting to see how that part of the University worked and how it differed from the different campus that we had.
Of course this week was also Varisty, in which again we were victorious and had a really good time! Fun and games. On the last friday of term we had our societies council, in which we had the last of the development fund, given to ABEAST, Islamic Society and Trampoling and we also had the Law Society granted to become an emerging society.
Again this week we were mainly pressing on with organisation for the Sports and Societies Awards Evening, looking at bands, decorations, wine and food. Tickets have now gone on sale ( after a bit of struggle with the ordering of tickets) and were going to try and make it a really good evening. Nominations are coming in thick and fast this year for the different awards. I am really hoping for a strong Society presence this year to make sure that we are make our mark on the awards and show the sports what we are made of! Next week is going to be manic but i am looking forward to Varsity and then Tour.
A number of different things occurred this week, including a discussion on this years Grad Ball, which was held in the Hub, in conjunction with the Entertainment Committee. It was a really good discussion which just highlighted how successful it was last year and how we can build on it for this years graduates. We have also been having more dicsussions over the SU volunteer awards, in which we realised that we would have to swop the dates of the Sports and Societies Awards Evening and the SU Volunteer Awards, due to the bank holiday and the fact that there were alot of BUCS competitions on the Saturday morning and many of the teams would be unable to attend and enjoy the evening. SO... now the Sports and Societies Awards is on the 23rd and SU Volunteer Awards is on the 30th. Nomination pack are now out for Volunteers and Nominations for the Sports and Societies Awards are being entered via email to sportsandsocieties@lincoln.ac.uk. It is all go in the office this week!
We also had a really successful RAG review meeting in which a numbe rof different members of staff, Rag members and the future RAG officer discussed how they would like RAG to look in the ideal world, how would it loook if it worked perfectly.
As you are probably aware, there was a load of campaigning going on this week. I am excited and intrigued to find out the winners at tonights election results from 9PM in the Tower Bars. Other activities that have been going on this week, include a very productive student council, where alot of conversations were started about different issues that are going on for students at the moment, including printing and motions that are going to national conference with regards to LGBT students and there strong feelings on the Pope and the BNP. We also had a very productive brain storming session afterwards to try and get students to talk more about how they were feeling.about the univeristy and what was going on. I have also been talking to Maryam Saghir about the success of Islamic Awareness Week and she felt that it went very well and lot of people were very curious to know about the islmaic faith. Kathryn Walker and I went along to the ladies night, in which there was food and Henna and lots of different conversations going on. There had also been conversations about the Nominations form for the SU Volunteer Awards and Freshers Helpers and applying for that.
Since starting back at the end of January, we have had alot of activites going on within the Union. The first week back in February consisted of RAG week, which with different events going on throughout the week turned out to be really successful raising just over £2000 for 6 different charities.
The week after that i had a catch up week because of how busy RAG week was, and i went to a few meetings including the Student Experience committee, where that was alot of discussion on Enterprise@ Lincoln and Opportunities@lincoln. Also Students raised issues about the space in there faculties being audites and to make sure that they were still going to have that space after it was audited. Throughout that week and the week after nominations opened for the Students' Union Elections. In the last week of February we had the Sports and Societies Council, that was extreamly successful this month, with two new societies ratified. DJ Society and the Conservation and Restoration Society. Also with two societies being awarded grants from the development fund.
THIS WEEK...
WATCH OUT FOR THE ISLAMIC AWARENESS WEEK and VOTE NOW, FOR YOUR NEW STUDENTS' UNION EXECUTIVE
All presidents this week have been actioned to come and pic up a letter this week regarding the All Student Meeting! So that everyone is aware that it is going on and everyone can come along and have there say about the students' union!
This week has been major catch up week. I have been trying to sort out the Talent Show, venue, costs etc. Which has been fun, also Amy has created a couple of really cool posters that i need to decide between, to advertise the Talent Show. Also discussions have started about the Snow Flake Ball, so this is exciting stuff. I have also had quite a few applications brought in for new societies starting to form, including socialist, Health life and social science and poker society. I have a few days holiday next week, including Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but i will be back in Thursday to sort out the remainding agenda points for societies council and other bits and pieces that i will no doubt have to tie up! But i am definatly excited for the next couple of weeks. It should be good.
This week has been trying to get people signing up for different activities going on over the next few months. For instance Alton Towers and Amsterdam, which are hopefully going to be some really good activities. Also started the preparation for Talent Show and Clothes Show Live trip. Which again I hope are going to be really successful. Bi elections pack pick ups, and NUS delegate pack pick ups are open until Monday, so we are trying to inform people and let them know how they can run for these positions. Also it is the last week of Kick it Out, a Sincil bank project and the Lincoln city football ground, so I am hoping it is the biggest and most successful one of the three.
Over the past few weeks I have been meeting up with a lot of the society presidents making sure they know all the right procedures for the year and know exactly who they need to talk to about what. Also there were a few issues with new societies and the tills because of how busy it has been in here. So sorting this out and getting this done has been a key objective, to get the new societies up and running.
This week was the first meeting of LGBT and from reports from Steven and Chris who attened and helped give out the information it was a very successful first meet.
Wednesday this week was the day of the Pep Rally, we had lots to organise and there was a bit of confusion due to the change in destination from last year, but over all I think the freshers had fun and went on to have a good night afterwards!
Thursday, we had a photoshoot, so that students’ can really get to know our faces and see how funny we can be.
The hoodies arrived this week and it was chaos, everyone was so eager to join there society or sport that they were queing out the door. It was really good, but crazy the same time. We started to talk in more detail about what we wanted to do for the pep rally and what was left to do.
I also went to my first student experience committee meeting, where I got a feel for how this committee works and what sort of platforms this has within the university. We caught the committee up on what we had been doing within the students’ union and spoke about the students that would be coming to this meeting at a later date and how they could help.
Freshers week was very successful in my opinion. It was very tiring but I had a lot of fun meeting new people and getting the societies up and running. I missed out on Playzone on the Tuesday but heard it was a lot of fun, even though our bowling turn out was minimal I still had lots of fun there. My favourite non commercial event from the week was the roller disco, skating is not as easy as I remember though, but still fun fun fun.
Also in this week we had our Sports and Societies Fayre and I felt this was very successful as we now have had a number of societies wanting to start up including a dyslexia society, lomographic, architecture and ABEAST.
We also had our sports and societies induction where the sports and societies committee members were introduced to what they have to do for the year ahead. They now know who they need to come and talk to if they have any questions.
Hi guys,
The first three weeks have been really good and I have really enjoyed myself. We started off by having quite a bit of training with in the university, learning about meetings and what all the different staff do within the student centre. I also had my handover with Maria, where she tried to go through everything that I needed to learn and needed to know about all the societies and acitivites. With the team we have been on a few trips, including an overnight stay at Belton Woods and a trip to Riseholme. Which helped all the team bond and get to know each other, while also having to learn about very important but not so exciting things like finance. Im really excited for the next year and I think we can make a lot of things happen!
Valentine.
