Space offered by the union is tailored for a certain type of society; they meet once a week, they use minimal storage, perhaps they organise an annual flagship event. This is not the case for most CSPs, especially new ones. I will research what spaces are needed by current societies and develop more specialised spaces that will bring our facilities in line with other state of the art Student Unions.
Storage is an issue for almost every single society I have talked to. A lot of the time, the Union fails to provision adequate storage because they do not understand the varied needs of each society. I will give management groups the power to allocate storage for CSPs under their umbrella as they will have more awareness of their storage needs.
I will help the Union offer societies more digital services such as website hosting, server space and work with external ticketing websites to allow their usage for CSP events. Every society should have the option of a website to promote themselves in a more organic way than the Union A-Z.
Often, the most knowledgeable people regarding Union processes are other CSP leaders. I will create an informal online forum for CSP related questions where anyone can answer. This will reduce the workload of Union and helpdesk staff as well as improving response times for simple questions.
Across the three Union platforms, (union.ic.ac.uk, eactivities and SUMs) there is conflicting, outdated or missing information. This can lead to confusion when faced with multiple instructions on Union processes. I will ensure that Union processes are documented by people who have used the systems and that the correct information is the only information available.
The Union must acknowledge that there is no “one size fits all” solution for training. I will make specialised training for CSPs available:
Turnouts for leadership elections have dropped every single year since 2021 (31% → 30% → 23% → 22%). Last year a protest candidate won 43% of votes.
Our Union will not work if there is no faith in the system; I will try to restore this faith by giving weekly summaries and encourage other elected trustees to do the same.
I will also make myself available every week for an informal in-person Q&A for anyone interested in the day-to-day workings of the Union.
As it stands, meeting agendas and minutes from CSP board (CSPB) meetings are hidden away on the union website (union.ic.ac.uk → About Us → How We’re Run → Committees and Forums → CSPB → Meeting Minutes). These meetings have a tremendous impact on how CSP run but very few people take the time to trawl through each set of minutes and agendas. I will publish summaries after each CSPB and Union Council meeting to let students know exactly how these meetings affect them.