AUBSU's One-stop Guide to Writing A Damn Good Manifesto

Your Manifesto In this election, people won’t just be voting for you as a person, they’ll be voting for your ideas too. In election speak, this is called your manifesto.

Coming up with your ideas You probably have a few ideas already; after all, that’s why you want to be an Officer, to change stuff! If you want a bit more help coming up with some ideas, or some tips on really pinning down your current ones, check out our handy top tips:

Keep it specific Every candidate is going to say they want to make AUB “better” (we hope!), but what does that actually mean? Students are savvy voters: vague promises like “make AUB better” will make them ask “make WHAT better? HOW?” This is really easily avoided by telling them exactly that: WHAT will you make better about AUB, and HOW do you propose to do it?

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4 Keep it relevant

Is it something students actually want? Is it something they need?

Students are always going to vote for ideas that resonate with them.

Maybe float some of your ideas with friends and classmates to see what they think. Even better than that, ask them what it is they would like to see, and form new ideas off that.

Keep it achievable Once again, students are smart voters! They might have some questions to ask if you promise to give every student £1000, or to bring dinosaurs on to campus.

So, think about how realistic your ideas are: is it affordable? How long will it take? Which people or groups do you need to work with to make it happen?

Even if all your ideas are achievable, promising to do 20 different things if you get elected may not be! It is recommended that you stick to 3-5 main ideas.

Achievable doesn’t mean easy: you can still set challenging goals that are realistic.

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Writing Your Manifesto So, now you have some ideas, you have to think about how to explain them to people. When you nominate yourself, you will be asked to write your ideas down (in 250 words for Exec, and in 500 words for Sabbatical Officers).

So, here are some top tips for writing:

Introduce Yourself Say hello to your voters and tell them a bit about who you are. This doesn’t have to just be your name, year and course: it could be that you are an expert juggler, or you’re always seen wearing the colour pink. Give them something to remember and recognise you by.

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I Sell Yourself

As well as selling your ideas you’ll want to sell yourself. Talk (briefly) about any relevant experiences or skills you might have that will help you in the role.

Use Bullet Points Nobody likes a wall of text. Bullet points are your friend for explaining everything from your ideas to your relevant experience for the role.

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• .......

• ........

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Add a Picture As part of the nomination process, you can upload a photo or picture alongside your manifesto. This will be displayed when students look at your manifesto, and when they vote. You could use a photo of yourself, a campaign logo or even just a doodle on a napkin.