Secretary's Address

NATASHA LLOYD

With the role of the Secretary centering around administration, governance and support, this year has seen us make some important and significant changes to the way our society runs, whilst also exploring new and exciting opportunities that will provide ways for our members to get involved and expand their skills Notably, this year we have seen our Grievance Policy operating for the first time, providing members with information about the codes of behaviour expected at our events, and the avenues they have for redress if something goes wrong Additionally, this year will see us host the Australian Law Students’ Association Conference at our city campus, bringing hundreds of students from across the country (and even internationally) to our university where we have the chance to showcase our beautiful university and compete across a range of competitions

This is super exciting news for the UTS LSS, and will help us strengthen the relationships we have with the Faculty of Law and ActivateUTS, which the Secretary also liaises with throughout the year.

In saying this, there have been various challenges this year that have come alongside being the largest student society at UTS. As we have expanded our team and brought in new roles to serve member needs there have been difficulties with some Councillors choosing to part ways with their positions and pursue other goals I think the biggest learning from this has been how it has helped cohesion, and I have been consistently amazed by how everyone has been willing to step up and help out. Being a UTS LSS Councillor is a chance to develop leadership, event planning and effective communication skills, and getting to see others on council have the opportunity to build those skills has been so exciting and reiterates the reason why we do what we do.

I’ll let Aleks, Otylia, and Zach speak to their own events in their addresses later in this report, but to provide a quick overview of some of the fantastic initiatives our representatives have been working on:

Postgraduate Representative

Aleks Chojnacki has been working so hard this year to cultivate an amazing UTS Law postgraduate community. She has organised a speaker panel and a JD writing workshop that both received fantastic engagement and feedback, with more events to come in Semester 2.

First Year Representatives

Otylia Pilat and Zach Sullivan, our First Year Representatives have gone above and beyond to engage and welcome our First Year students, and are well underway in planning a First Year Pub Crawl. They are always there to advocate for First Year needs on the UTS LSS and can be reached to discuss any of your concerns, or if you want to know more about how to get involved.

Finally, I wanted to take this opportunity to remind everyone that my inbox is always open! I know it can feel intimidating to get involved in a society like the UTS LSS, but I want everyone to know that we are here to make your law school experience the best it can be through the events we run. Whether you just want to grab a coffee, have questions about how to get involved, or wanted to pass on feedback about what we can be doing better, I would always love to hear from you at secretary@utslss com!