Blog
"Weekly Info", Spring Week 3: What I've Been Up To. Also, snow.
This week:
- WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO
- THE COURTYARD
- BATTLE OF THE BANDS
- AND FINALLY, YOUR WEATHER FORECAST
In an attempt to let folks know what, in general, the president of a student union gets up to, here's a summary of my week. I've sat on the panel for the Vice-Chancellor's Teaching Awards and on the Information Strategy Group, sorted out by-election results for colleges, spent time talking with folks from the GSA, and attended a Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony in the Guildhall in town.
Three items have been squatting like toads at the top of my to-do list: the Rent Structure Working Group, the Student Centre Working Group, and the Board of Studies Elections Review. The first is about how accommodation is charged for at the university; the second is planning what the Students' Union is going to look like in five and ten years' time (incidentally, expect some research to be done about that in the next couple of weeks); and the final one is looking back at the Board of Studies Elections from the first term and working out what we need to change next time.
That last one's interesting, because it's a review - looking back at something that's already been done. It's a job for a person who Meredith Belbin, a famous management theorist, would call a "completer/finisher". And that's a problem - and will always be a problem in a student union - because completer/finishers, on the whole, do not run for election.
THE COURTYARD
I'm fairly sure "bartender" and "table clearer" aren't anywhere in the job descriptions of the full-time officers here, but after hours, now and then, we've been helping out at the Courtyard. Business there has exceeded all expectations, and things have got a bit fraught at times - but we're coping, and as the team sort everything out it'll start running like a well-oiled machine instead of a well-oiled but massively overcranked machine that really needs some additional parts in it.
That analogy got away from me.
BATTLE OF THE BANDS
The Battle of the Bands heats are in Goodricke dining hall from 8pm 'til midnight all next week. 5 bands a night for £4, with the winners going through to the semi-finals. It's always a good show, and it's really amazing just how much talent there is in the university. Tickets are available on the YUSU website, or on the door!
AND NOW, YOUR WEATHER FORECAST
It's nearly February and, as usual, that means that it's about time for a load of snow to get dumped on York. The last few winters here have been surprisingly mild - there's barely been enough to build snowmen, let alone actually go sledging.
Anyway, as I write this the BBC forecast says that heavy snow showers are due on Sunday or Monday. Just so the freshers know: the best sledging spots on campus are on Vanbrugh Bowl outside the Music department, and just above the underpass near the new blocks of Vanbrugh. Cardboard boxes make excellent toboggans.
Don't do what I once did a few years back and attempt to slide down the hill on University Road next to the library. It is technically possible, in that gravity will ensure that you do reach the bottom of the hill, but I ended up going to A&E afterwards.
