Hi, I’m Natalie ‘Foxy Coxy’, and I’m running to be your next Activities and Development Officer! I’m a 3rd year Classical Literature and Civilizations student, and throughout my University life I’ve been passionate about getting involved with everything the Guild has to offer!
Elected as Secretary of BACAS Departmental Society in 2014/15, and then as President 2015/16, I believe my experience running an assortment of events, from trips abroad to bar crawls and movie nights through the Guild has given me good insight into the issues that face many societies and their members.
As the next ADO I will focus on Modernising, Developing, Expanding and Promoting our student societies…
- Modernising; I’ve often wondered why I can control the rest of my life from my phone, but I can’t manage my societies. I propose the development of a free Guild of Students app, which could bring endless benefits to both student groups and their members. Allowing membership to societies to be bought via the app would increase initial sign ups since it would be a quicker and easier process, event tickets could be purchased also increasing event attendance, and the events calendar would be more visible to the wider student population. Let’s bring our Guild into the 21st Century.
- Developing; Having been frustrated many times with the admin required to run a society, I propose a keen focus on society wide issues, such as improving the room bookings system. Publishing a room bookings timetable at the start of each term will allow societies to easily view which rooms are available and when, a tool that would be easy to implement but would make the room bookings process much easier.
- Expanding; Every society has the potential for growth, and I want to support existing societies improve their membership demographics- tackling inequalities and supporting inclusion by creating a formal development plan for each society committee to follow. With termly meeting to discuss progress, this will give each committee a clear aim in their year, and will help expand existing societies to their full potential.
- Promoting; We are at University primarily to study, but graduating with much more than a degree is a far more rewarding process. I think everybody involved in societies should get the recognition they deserve for the time and skills it takes to run a society or be part of one. Therefore I suggest a push for society involvement to be published on our degree certificates, whether that’s being part of a committee or regularly attending meetings.
So, what does the fox say?? We need to modernise, develop, expand and promote our societies to make the most out of our amazing student experience! I want to work with you towards our goal of making Birmingham University societies the best they can be, improving on the great work of previous ADO’s. So vote Foxy Coxy as your next Activities and Development Officer!