Blog
Summer's Nearly Here?
I can't believe how fast this term has flown - already in the back end of week 4, and only another 6 weeks in office for me! This is my little update on what I've been up to since my last updatey-type blog and what I'm hoping to cram into the next few weeks.
Evidently, the start of term was Roses, Roses, Roses. The tournament seemed to take over my life and in a way left a bit of a void when it was all over. I had quite a few people asking if that was it for me as surely there was nothing left for me to do, but this is not the case! After the huge build-up to Roses, I find myself feeling that it was ages ago already, despite it being less than 3 weeks. We still need to have a de-brief and begin discussions with Lancaster about next year, along with Sam Asfahani and the incoming Lancaster VP Sports. Hopefully next year the date and exams won't cause such stress!
We had the club re-ratification and grant application deadline last Friday, which of course involved the usual stressing beforehand warning people not to miss the deadline and trying to help out with any queries. "Grantification" (as one club President nick-named it) is a bit of a stressful time for the clubs - if they fail to re-ratify in time they will no longer be York Sport Clubs and if they fail to submit a grant application, they will, unsurprisingly, not receive a grant for next year. This year we wanted to streamline the process so the deadline was at the same time, giving the extra incentive of linking the ratification to the grant application. This seemed to work well and we received all the documentation we were expecting. As well as keeping our current 59 clubs, we have a new club for next year - Powerlifting.
The York Sport Treasurer and myself now have the unenviable task of sitting down and going through each individual grant application and firstly checking them against the club's spending for this year and then going into the business of allocating grants. How they are going to be allocated will depend primarily on the difference between each clubs' essential expenditure and expected income, but will also take membership figures into account and Sports Centre usage. We held a grant application session after Roses to let the clubs know what we expected of them and how the grants were to be allocated. We aim to inform the clubs of their provisional grants by the end of week 6. This will of course be subject to change should the size of the overall pot change. We are hopeful that setting these provisional figures earlier will allow time for meetings to iron out any problems before the end of term, rather than having a repeat of last year where I spent a lot of time contacting clubs via email to try and work out complex financial issues.
The other big organisational thing this term for me is the York Sport Dinner on Friday week 9 (25 June) - planning has been underway for the evening for a fair bit of time now and we've got the venue booked, menus sorted, the ceilidh band booked and the evening is taking shape!
The York Sport Committee has set the criteria for Colours and Awards and I have put together forms for people to do nominations on. Nominations close on Wednesday week 6 and nomination forms for Colours can be found at:
www.surveymonkey.com/s/YorkSportColoursNominationForm
Nomination forms for the awards are at:
www.surveymonkey.com/s/YorkSportAwardsNominationForm
We've had plenty of nominations already and it looks like the awards will be hotly contested. All awards will be presented at the Dinner - don't miss out on your chance to find out who wins first and get your ticket at:
www.yusu.org/event/2682
I am also planning BUCS Sabb Training for the Yorkshire region in my capacity as BUCS Yorkshire Student Chair. Hopefully this will take place in conjunction with the North East, but at the moment dates are proving tricky! This will be a chance for all the incoming sports sabbs of the region to meet each other and have some basic training of BUCS as an organisation. This was invaluable last year, not least because of the relationships you develop with other sabbs, which proves so helpful when it comes to deadling with for example, Wednesday afternoon issues.
In terms of handover, I have begun writing up notes for Sam Asfahani (my successor) who will be taking over from me at the end of term. He has now finished his degree, so will be coming along to a lot more meetings with me and this will hopefully lead to a smooth transition between us.
The other big exciting thing left to come this term is the return of the York Sport Race Day! This is taking place on Friday week 7 (11 June) and should be a great day out. Don your posh frocks and suits and join us in the County Stand for a discounted day at the races (save £9 on normal ticket prices). Gates open at 11.15am, with the first race at 2.10pm and the last race at 5.05pm. Tickets are available at:
http://www.yusu.org/event/2753
I'm really looking forward to the rest of term and the exciting things lined up, but can't believe how quickly it's gone and that it's not long until Sam Asfahani takes over my role!
In the meantime, if you want to contact me with any queries/thoughts/comments, please do - e.scott@yusu.org.
Until next time,
Emily xo
