Your Officers.

Hello, I’m Helen and I work full time along with 5 other Officers who have been elected to listen and represent you and your views to make the Union the best it can be! I’m also here to make sure you have the time of your life whilst studying at Hallam so please pop into The HUBS or send me an email to speak about anything.

E: uuspresident@shu.ac.uk/h.francis@shu.ac.uk

T: 0114 225 3458

M: 07809456141

HallamUnion Pres

@HallamPresident

What does your President do?

Check out my latest video explaining my role as President below…

My reports

Hi everyone! Below are the reports I produce for the Board of Governors but thought it would be good to upload them on here so you know what’s going on at the Union! Any questions, give me a shout!

Board of Governors 24th July 2012

Board of Governors 28th September 2012

Board of Governors 27th November 2012

Become an officer blog

So my blog is about becoming an officer… What skills I think you need, what skills you will gain and in generally what we do already ad what’s missing…

This blog is by me personally and I’m sure some may think different which is fine but this blog is written from my experience and knowledge of the roles and the organisation as a second year officer.

Firstly I cannot express how much I think being an officer is the best opportunity ever! Its so hard to find words to explain how great it is, not only do you learn so many new things but personally you develop so much over the course if the year. I always hear staff talk about it and how they love watching officers grow. Also, the beauty of it is that you make a difference to students whilst adapting the role to what you want it to be which can benefit you in terms of a career afterwards.

What skills do you need?

Organisation – you have so many things going on at once which is really mentally challenging. Also, depending on what position it is, you need to make time to read or prepare for meetings as well as doing your L&R as well as having your own time to organise what you want to do as well as this and that. It is tough but in a good testing way and also includes time management.

Reliability – the most annoying thing in any organisation and with any role is when you can’t rely on someone to complete a task. Whether its to achieve something individually or within a team, this skill is so important as it basically means you can achieve more if you are reliable. You might not always get the credit for it but at least you know you we’re part of it.

Communication skills – this is a skill that you think would be the easiest? But in fact it is a skill that easily gets forgotten. It’s the simple things that make a big difference… For example with everything officers do, we should always be telling staff as they support us. If we don’t tell them then not only do they not know, they can’t indenting any aspects we wouldn’t recognise such as legal implications.

These are just a few skills but I think the main ones to be the best officer you can be

Below is part of my CV reflecting on what I do as an officer for you to see..

Experience

Sheffield Hallam University Students’ Union President/Chair of Trustee Board, 2012-Present

• Elected Representative of Sheffield Hallam University’s 35,000 students locally and nationally, which is one of the top five largest UK Universities.

• Chair of the Students’ Union Trustee Board, overseeing strategy and financial accounts of the organisation with £3m+ turnover a year to ensure financial sustainability and continued growth and success.

• Oversee the day to day running of all departments in the organisation.

• Project leader for initiatives such as delivering the three year strategic implementation plan and governance structural reviews.

• Line manager for the CEO, and full time elected officer team (5 other members).

• Oversee the commercial activity, ensuring we meet demands of the student body

• Key driver of projects across the Union and Institution, lobbying for improvements to academic quality, overall student experience and employability within Sheffield Hallam University.

• Figurehead for the Students’ Union, meaning I have gained valuable experience dealing with local and national press.

• Responsible for budget of 120k

In terms of what we do and have done over the first term please see my report showing in detail what each Officer has done: Officer Report

My Blog

Hi everyone! So this is my first proper blog! In my blogs I will try write about day to day stuff about being president and also other things that affect us locally and nationally. Firstly, let me say that I have loved the past months being President but wow, never did I imagine how much responsibility there is involved! Nearer to the main elections I will post a blog about what I think this post does giving you a real insight to it

So today I’m going to talk about our iPads and how we (officers) are using them and I’m also looking to see if you think in x years, iPads will become more dominant especially in aiding students how to learn.

Below are some reasons why we have them

- we use them to collect data from students when listening and representing which we do each for at least 3 hours a week. The data is put into the iPad using google which is then sent straight over to our researcher to analyse the information. It’s a quick and efficient way of collecting data and being able to find out what you thought quickly.

- it means us officers can access our emails 24/7 (jf we choose to) meaning we can contact and communicate with you there and then. We did have our blackberrys (which we don’t have anymore) but they didn’t allow us to organise our emails e.g put certain one in folders or access our calendars.

- we now use our iPads in meetings whether it’s at the University, staff or students. This does means we don’t print half of much of what we did last year saving paper and helping the environment! For example, in trustee board sometimes there are up to about 50 pages but we now can just bring them up on our iPad.

They are the main reasons above but to conclude, personally it enables me to manage my work more effectively meaning I have more time to communicate with students especially with twitter and Facebook using the camera which I didn’t have last year.

Now do you think an iPad could benefit you as a student or do you think a laptop/computer is just as good? I do have an opinion on this but I not want to share it with you just yet as I am interested to see what you think Below are some links which may be of interest to you providing more information on them:

Apple:

http://www.apple.com/uk/education/ipad/#video-ipad-learning

Students perspective from Bristol on iPads:

http://www.epigram.org.uk/2012/03/an-ipad-2-at-university-is-it-worth-it/

Results of a pilot scheme at Oklahoma state:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20059325-17.html

York situation with iPads for staff:

http://www.nouse.co.uk/2012/06/19/university-staff-treated-to-premium-ipads-and-iphones/

Reasons why:

http://www.apple.com/uk/education/resources/

My Blog

So this is my first ever blog!!!

I have two main things to talk to you about but if there is anything you want me to speak about or to speak in person, please don’t hesitate to contact me!!

NUS affiliation

Listening and Representing

NUS affiliation

Sheffield Hallam Union have been affiliated to NUS (National Union of Students) for years and years in order to be part of
the National Organisation for the benefits of students not just for Sheffield Hallam, but on a national scale all over England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

Below are just a few reasons we are affiliated to them.

• In a tough economic climate NUS delivered a total income of £4.6 million into students’ unions. At the same time NUS significantly increased the level of support, advice, training and campaign activity we offered.
• They forced colleges and universities to commit to ensuring additional course costs were transparent and did not academically disadvantage students
• They won commitments for part-time students to be able to repay their loans a year later
• They won changes to ERASMUS students that saved circa 7000 learners £22m per annum
• NUS Scotland won £34.4m win for extra bursaries and college access
• They exposed WONGA and stopped them targeting students
• They won a freeze in tuition Fees for Northern Irish students attending universities.
• NUS Wales won £500k for research in to student sex workers
• They stopped cuts to Care to Learn which provides funding to teenage parents to keep them in education
• They won £266k for local food growing at 18 unions
• They saved students’ unions hundreds of thousands of pounds through our lobbying against changes to PPL
• They trained 2050 activists at 61 unions and additional 550 liberation activists
• Through the Come Clean Campaign students’ unions up and down the country reported securing commitments from universities ruling out hidden course costs, investing in bursaries rather than fee waivers and improving access agreements
• Over £3.5m was returned to member unions through retrospective discounts, opt in groups and co-op multi save payments
• NUS Extra gave over 470,000 students exclusive discounts whilst delivering a total of £2.3 million into the student movement
• The Innovation and Social Enterprise Academy awarded £60K in grants to students’ unions
• They accredited 102 Green Impact students’ unions and 46 Green Impact universities
• They trained students from 102 HE unions and 36 FE unions with a satisfaction rate of 84%
• They supported 106 students’ union elections

So that is just a taster of what they bring to the student movement, and more importantly to your student union. I am very pleased to sit and be part of the NUSSL (NUS Services Limited) Board where we discuss services such as purchasing in student unions e.g. alcohol and food, the NUS extra card and NUS Digital which we hope to have within the next 2 years.

Listening and Representing

One thing I have learnt over my past year as Activities Officer that wasn’t so obvious was that we have a job, but the main part of that job involved us talking to students. This is something the Union will improve on year upon year but this is something I am very passionate about and is one of my main objectives.

At the last Union Council a ‘3 hour policy’ was approved where the Officer Executive are mandated by Union Council the highest decision board in the Union to go and talk to students.

Therefore you will see officers more out and about coming to hear about you and your time at University. We will have different themes each week but we welcome any feedback whether its positive or negative.

SEE WHAT WE HAVE DONE SO FAR HERE!

Manifesto

WHAT EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS WILL I BRING TO THE ROLE?
As the current Activities Officer, I have been heavily involved with the Union over the last 6 months and my knowledge and skills will help my role as President as I know the organisation well. For example, I am very familiar with the different student groups that make Sheffield Hallam University as well as the more specific groups that make Hallam Union. Knowledge like this will help me strengthen my existing skills such as communication and people skills to engage more students over my time in office. The challenge for me is learning new skills that this role requires such as understanding strategies, finances and chairing meetings. The most important thing for me is that I have experience and skills to give to this role and others, but to also gain a more diverse range of them from this job that I hope to pass on to the next president and others throughout my career. The beauty of this job is that every individual brings something different and I believe I can bring something unique.

IN THIS ROLE I WILL ACHIEVE FOR STUDENTS

- To obtain student’s opinions and feelings about Hallam Union as the union is led by students for students
- To actively show that ideas and feedback are taken on board and to show students what changes have been made that was suggested by them
- To demonstrate greatly how students can benefit from their Union especially as the fees have increased
- To ensure that the Officer team is as strong and confident as it could be with all my support and guidance to make every student’s time here at Hallam memorable
- To implement our Strategic Plan in order to unlock the potential and enrich the lives of every student at Hallam Union

STUDENTS SHOULD VOTE FOR ME BECAUSE: KEEP IT FRESH!