The
BIG
Picture Impact Report
2014/2015
Contents
1
Page 2
Introduction from the Presidents
Page 3
SMSU Trustee Board
Page 4
General Information
Page 5
SMSU Strategic Aims, Values, Mission and Vision
Page 8
Strategic Aim 1
Page 9
Strategic Aim 2
Page 10
Strategic Aim 3
Page 11
Strategic Aim 4
Page 12
Strategic Aim 5
Page 13
Strategic Aim 6
Your SU President Ryan Jones Being Student Union President for St Mary’s in 2014/15 has quite simply been the best year of my life. Never did I think that when I first started St Marys that I would be elected to the position of SU President and have the opportunity to represent 6000 students. It has been a pleasure to get to know students and staff at St Mary’s and work with some fantastic people and student volunteers. I have certainly been involved in a lot of activities this year and got stuck in to ensure that the St Mary’s Students had the best experience possible. I was involved heavily within the QAA Higher Education Review. This included writing a 10,000 word student submission on life at St Mary’s from a student’s point of view. The student voice also grew as we achieved our highest ever number of Programme Reps, meaning that your academic experience is being enhanced too. This year has seen the growth of awareness campaigns for students including Mental Health and Rainbow week. I hope that these will continue to grow and that all students will feel welcome and accepted in the St Mary’s Community. Furthermore it was a fantastic year for sporting achievements with our athletes performing amazingly well to achieve success for St Mary’s. The Events held by SMSU this year were a huge success and passed off incident free. Freshers’ Fortnight was a fantastic two weeks which welcomed the new students into the St Mary’s experience. RAG week helped raise over £3k for 3 different charities and held some new and different ideas such as ‘Simmies Big Brother’ and ‘Take me Out.’ This year saw the introduction of the first ever Christmas Community Festival which captured the Christmas spirit on campus and let everyone show their love for the holidays. It was a fantastic way for students, staff and the local community to mix and enjoy that Christmas Community feeling at St Marys. SIMMStock returned and was bigger and better than ever. It introduced new elements such as the food quarter and also the colour party. These added a new twist to SIMMStock and it was a perfect day to mark off the return of SIMMStock. Summer Ball was an unmissable event also, with the student acoustic performers and pop artist Becky Hill stealing the show. To finish off the year, members of S Club 7 were present at the graduation party to help send off the graduated students. It was the perfect end to a perfect year. This year also included a number of some small unheard of wins such as, priority for students in casual and part time jobs, and the infamous installation of the FREE cash machine. Finally, it was great to hear that at the very end of my term that the results of the NSS were released and that the Students Union had achieved its highest ever satisfaction result, and above the sector average. A massive thank you to everyone that has helped me through this year, and those who helped me get there. A particular mention to the entire Team SU who supported me throughout and also all the student volunteers who gave up their time for me. Finally, a big thank you to Josh Moss who, not only was the best AU President, but became one of my closest friends throughout the year.
Ryan Jones SU President and Chair of the Trustee Board 2014/15
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Your AU President Josh Moss Where do I start? What a year it has been for the SU! I really have loved every minute of it and leave the role with no regrets. After being elected by the student body I felt immense pride and an immense passion to improve the student experience at St Marys. I knew what I wanted to achieve and the handover period with Pietro gave me some good guidance on how to achieve these goals. The 1st day in the office on my own I suddenly realised that the wait was over and it was finally time to get started with my counterpart Ryan Jones. As most will have seen over the year we clicked straight away and have become great friends which only helped us achieve what we have this year, Stronger together. This year clubs and societies had an incredible 41% increase in participation. From new societies such as Equality, LGBT+, Psychology and Mature Students to also seeing new sports such as Ultimate Frisbee flourish with Lacrosse to be created as of next year. It’s been a great year for development of new activities. A great year of development has also seen some amazing performances of our teams. It was awesome to see Men’s Football, Ladies Football and Cricket share great success in winning their leagues in terrific fashion. I also can’t go without mentioning Rugby League where both teams had their best season to date, and if they can manage to get myself playing for them they must be doing something right (or wrong!). There have been many highlights from the year. A successful ski trip which saw 40 students travel to Val Thorens for a week on the slopes and to see them have such a good time was very fulfilling. Every Wednesday afternoon being out on the pitches (and out in Mclusky’s) sharing the ups and downs with the teams and watching everyone give their all really summed up the passion I, the St Mary’s Staff and most importantly the #blueandwhitearmy have for this special place. Of course another stand out moment is the West London Varsity, all of the preparation for the event and the fact we took over 700 students to Brunel made me realise the Blue and White Army isn’t just made up of our sports teams but the supporters too. Although we may not have won it this year to come so close away from home is something I and every student should be very proud of. My proudest highlight of this year happened very recently and it was the moment next year’s VPSS Hester Benham returned from a meeting and I realised everything I have pushed for this year was for a good cause and it was all worth it. I wish her, Ryan Dowsett and Zander Lavall all the luck in the world for next year. Finally I just wanted to say massive thank you to everyone who got me to the position, my honorary members Terry Docherty and Luis Beer, the SU staff for being such an incredible team to work with, Sport St Marys for all of the help with anything sport related and the Senior Management Team for allowing the SU to be part of the new corporate plan and strategic direction. Most importantly the students, without you none of this would have been possible and you’ve given me memories I’ll cherish for a lifetime and for that I can’t thank you enough, I wish everyone the best of luck. ‘Oh to be!’
Josh Moss
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SMSU Board of Trustees 2014/15 James Kehoe Student Trustee James Turnbull Student Trustee
Veronica Fulton External Trustee
Mark Griffin External Trustee
Ryan Jones Officer Trustee Chair of the Board
Josh Moss
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Officer Trustee
General Information SMSU is a not-forprofit organisation, Charity registration No: 1150328
2 Sabbatical Officers: SU President AU President
SMSU was awarded £230,000 Block Grant for 2014/15 from St Mary’s University The Executive Committee is made up of the Sabbatical Officers and 6 elected student officers (Vice-Presidents): Entertainments Communications Community
Fundraising Welfare Representation
Home of the SMSU Shop and Hub, SU Lounge and entertainments venue and SMUC Radio
4.5 Full-time Staff supporting the 5 Officers and student volunteers
Strategic Information Vision By 2018, St Mary’s will be a student-centred university and SMSU will make a positive impact on the lives of every student by providing dynamic, member-led services which deliver the best possible student experience of all the small universities
Mission To support, develop and represent students of St Mary’s, University; to make their time the best it can possibly be – a positive, self-defining era providing a firm foundation for the rest of their professional and personal lives
SMSU Strategic Aims 2013-2018 1: To create effective student representational systems across campus 2: To support students throughout their student experience and beyond 3: To encourage and build a strong community on and off campus 4: To provide effective, open communications with students and increase marketing opportunities 5: To be a professional organisation and to increase the number and quality of commercial services to students 6: To develop a diverse range of student activities that enhance personal development, skills, enterprise and the student experience
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Strategic Information Values Student -Led: SMSU is actively led by students, and student leadership at all levels is fundamental to the purpose of the organisation. Passionate: SMSU gives 100% in everything that we do to ensure students get the best from their student experience. Inclusive: SMSU strives to create an inclusive environment for our diverse student community. Supportive: SMSU will support students throughout their student experience whether it be via advice and guidance, innovative ideas or student -led activities. Unique: SMSU provides a totally unique experience for St Mary’s students that will help them to prepare for their life experiences.
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Strategic Aim 1: To create effective student representational systems across campus
1212
398
elected Programme Reps in 2014/15. An increase
votes cast in the across campus election in 1 day!
of 60% since 2013.
2 Officers and 6 Executive Committee members representing students on over 30 committees Of St Mary’s students said that they were satisfied with their Students’ Union in the 2015 NSS (68% national average) During 2014/15, the SU President became the
70%
lead student representative in the preparation for and during the QAA Review which occurred in March 2015. The SU President prepared the Student Submission Document; a student perspective on the university’s academic and enhancement status, and helped to prepare students for interviews by the review panel.
SMSU coordinated the training programme, training resources and forums (once per term) for Programme Reps and sent out monthly bulletins to ensure reps were kept up 8 to date with SU and University developments.
SMSU, the Pro Vice-Chancellor, QA Office and a Programme Director representative have continued to meet regularly to discuss developments to the university wide representative system, creating the ‘Student Representation Working
SMSU led on a review of the St Mary’s ‘Student Charter’ during 2014/15. The new document is renamed the ‘Partnership Agreement’ for 2015/16
Strategic Aim 2: To support students throughout their student experience and beyond The SU President and Head of Student Services led a campaign for Defibrillators to be placed a key points around campus including Main Reception and Sports Centre. After a 4 month campaign, 4 Defibrillators were purchased by St Mary’s University and put in key areas, with one placed in the Security Response Vehicle
The SU President held monthly meetings with Senior Residents (Halls Wardens) to learn of any issues or concerns that they had within their roles and how SMSU could help to support them more effectively within their roles
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After a 3 year campaign, a free cash machine was installed on campus
SMSU provided students with work placement opportunities throughout 2014/15 which aided with core operations throughout the year.
Strategic Aim 3: To encourage and build a strong community on and off campus SMSU introduced a new event to the academic calendar to try to strengthen the sense of community on campus and build relationships with the local community. The ‘Community Christmas Festival’ included a three day programme of events, beginning with a charity ‘Santa Dash’ around the athletics track, Christmas Carol Singing in Twickenham town centre, and a ‘Christmas Jumper Party’ on Friday, Christmas community stalls, rides, live music, children’s activities, Santa’s Grotto and Christmas lights switch on, on Saturday, and a special Christmas Community Mass including nativity by members of clubs and societies on Sunday.
£15k £3244.36
The SU and AU Presidents, Vice-President Community and General Manager are all members of the Community Partnership Committee which meets 3 times per year to build stronger relationships with the local community, in particular, residents of Strawberry Hill, the local police and local businesses. During 2014/15, there were no major issues with student behaviour in the local community and SMSU were commended for coordinating well managed events and student activities.
Raised by sports clubs and societies via ‘Friday Club’ themed nights
raised during RAG Week for Children in Need, Unicef and the RFU Injured Players Foundation
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Strategic Aim 4: To provide effective, open communications with students and increase marketing opportunities
2200 3900 likes on Facebook
Followers on Twitter SMSU developed a Marketing and Communications Strategy
SMSU implemented its own income stream via advertising and media sales
SMSU introduced the ‘SMSU Communications Guide’
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SMSU launched its new website: wwwstmaryssu.ac.uk
Strategic Aim 5: To be a professional organisation and to increase the number and quality of commercial services SMSU created Work Placements opportunities for students to aid operations in the areas of Finance/Marketing/Events SMSU in collaboration with Sport St Mary’s undertook a tender exercise for the suppliers of the student sports and academic kit for 2015-2018. After the tender process, O’Neill’s were awarded the three year contract.
SMSU introduced new policies as part of its continuous development throughout 2014/15. New adopted policies include a Social Media Policy, Grant Allocation Policy (for the allocation of funds for clubs and societies), Equality Policy and Health and Safety Policy.
SMSU invited companies to tender for a 3 year relationship for auditing services. After conducting tender presentations, SMSU awarded the contract to the London based company, Knox During 2014/15, SMSU undertook a Constitutional Review to ensure that the charity was fit for purpose, relevant and mitigated any associated risks. The new Constitution and Byelaws were ratified during the 2015 AGM.
The ‘Reboot’ included the introduction of a new identity and brand, refreshed communications (including the implementation of a Marketing and Communications Strategy), the introduction of a new Executive Committee and Officer Trustee structure (including the introduction of a third Officer Trustee) and developments to the facilities within the SU building – especially the 1st floor, which includes the creation of the Officer Trustee office and a new location for the radio station.
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Strategic Aim 6: To develop a diverse range of student activities that enhance personal development, skills, enterprise and the student experience SMSU introduced the ‘Irish Weekender’ to celebrate St Mary’s links with Ireland.
The AU President developed a mentoring programme for club and society presidents to link into the expertise of members of staff across campus. 30 club and society presidents were involved in the programme and were paired with staff from Sport St Mary’s, Drama Programme, Management Programme and SMSU.
New clubs and societies introduced: Mature/ Equality/ International/ LGBT+/ Geography/ Law/ Ultimate Frisbee Many sports teams won their or leagues or had success in competitions. The following is a breakdown of 2014/15 successes:
2nd place for Athletics Men's and Women's teams at BUCS Cross Country Event 5 medals won by St Mary’s at the BUCS Indoor Athletics Championships (3 gold, 2 silver and 1
bronze) 3 Football teams won their leagues: Women’s 1sts, Men’s 1sts and 3rds
Men’s Gaelic Football won Division 1 Rugby League got to quarter finals in the national championships Cheerleading won the BCA national championships
Sport St Mary’s and SMSU launched the intermural sports programme ’SIMMSActive’ in September 2014 which has seen over 500 students participate in a range of activities such as Touch Rugby, Glow in the Dark Dodgeball and Rounders.
2014/15 saw the highest number of students ever participating in Varsity with over 800 students travelling to Brunel University.
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Thank-you For a fantastic year! Please stay in touch: Website: www.stmaryssu.ac.uk Twitter: @stmaryssu Facebook: www.facebook.com/ stmarysstudentsunion