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Welcome to the Union message board. Here's your opportunity to tell us what you think of what we're doing on your behalf. Enjoy! - Oli Walker, Head of Media, Marketing and Design, http://www.YourUnion.netPlease post any requests for advice (about anything) on The Sinner's ADVICE board. Ta!

Re:

Postby Rennie on Mon Sep 13, 2004 12:39 pm

Possibly munchingfoo, but I doubt it somehow. What *may* have happened is that the licensing board sent a circular out to all licenced premises in Fife say, explaining the problems with binge drinking etc... and saying that happy hours and special offers should be phased out or stopped.

The union has then jumped on this as an excuse to raise prices by 10p, which is just profiteering, especially if they use the excuse of binge drinking to do it.

And, Ethan With - the only post that has been posted by the union is one from Simon, no actual reply to my original points. Admittedly, they're busy now.
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Re:

Postby Rennie on Tue Sep 28, 2004 10:56 pm

Still busy?
Rennie
 
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Re:

Postby tintin on Wed Sep 29, 2004 6:01 pm

[s]Director of Services wrote on 07:32, 5th Sep 2004:
The Union is the best deal in town!
Always consistently good value.


Absolute rubbish.
tintin
 

Re:

Postby Steveo on Wed Sep 29, 2004 10:33 pm

[s]tintin wrote on 20:01, 29th Sep 2004:
[s]Director of Services wrote on 07:32, 5th Sep 2004:[i]
The Union is the best deal in town!
Always consistently good value.


Absolute rubbish.
[/i]

I beg to differ. The value is consistent.

[hr]
[s]What a beautiful world this will be .... what a glorious time to be free[/s]
Get off my internet.
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Re:

Postby Guest on Thu Oct 07, 2004 12:57 pm

I want good priced beer.
Why must my union consistenly increase beer prices?
To pay for a fancy new bartop??? What was wrong with the old one?
etc etc etc
Guest
 

Re:

Postby Legion on Thu Oct 07, 2004 1:03 pm

[s]Unregisted User wrote on 01:02, 5th Oct 2004:
I want good priced beer.
Why must my union consistenly increase beer prices?
To pay for a fancy new bartop??? What was wrong with the old one?
etc etc etc



The beer prices haven't increased in about three years.

Prices have probably increased because minimum wage has gone up. The old bar top was knackered - didn't you notice?
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Re:

Postby Rob on Fri Oct 08, 2004 11:49 am

evidently not....obviously too buy binge drinking
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Re:

Postby Guest on Fri Oct 08, 2004 2:22 pm

[s]Legion wrote on 15:03, 7th Oct 2004:
[s]Unregisted User wrote on 01:02, 5th Oct 2004:[i]
I want good priced beer.
Why must my union consistenly increase beer prices?
To pay for a fancy new bartop??? What was wrong with the old one?
etc etc etc



The beer prices haven't increased in about three years.

Prices have probably increased because minimum wage has gone up. The old bar top was knackered - didn't you notice?
[/i]

You sir, are mistaken. Beer prices HAVE gone up. I remember once it was £1.40 for a Tennents and £2 for a guiness.
And the old bar top was still a bar top, it did its job
Guest
 

Re:

Postby Legion on Mon Oct 11, 2004 8:31 am

please read what I write -
The prices haven't increased in about three years.

That's three years of Tennents at £1.50
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Re:

Postby Rennie on Mon Oct 11, 2004 2:17 pm

Legion, Tennants was 1.40 3 years ago, and now it's 1.60. That's an increase.
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Re:

Postby Legion on Mon Oct 11, 2004 5:01 pm

So for three years, it's stayed at the same price?
That suggests three years without an increase.

The price change to £1.60 has only happened recently (start of term), but before that - three years without an increase?
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Re:

Postby Association President on Mon Oct 11, 2004 10:03 pm

Sorry for the delay in responding, but as you can imagine the run up to pre-sesh week was a tad busy. And we've been concentrating ever since on the areas that had been overshadowed during Orientation.

As to the pricing in previous years it depends on who you talk to as to what the prices were. Taking to different people gives a different answer, the previous Sabbs I have spoken to describe the £1.40 in 2000/01 and Carlsberg discounted to £1.20 the following year the prices were kept at that level but the change was made from two beer suppliers to one, Tennants so it was £1.40 for 2001/02 then up to £1.50 for 2002/03 and 2003/04 then £1.60 for 2004/05. I cannot remember the exact prices myself but this is the recollection of previous Sabbaticals.

The wage bill is the largest cost associated with the bar the wage bill has risen at about 7%pa as a result of minimum wage legislation, this dose not include additional costs incurred through NI contributions and other legislation. The price of Tennants as rose by about 3.5%pa over that time period.

The Association lost money for the first time in 15 years last year. This is the situation. The Association spends approximately £300000 per year on representation and activities for the students here the university which is supposed to fund those activities gives a grant of £158500, nominally exactly the same as last year so a cut in real terms. As far as I can remember the situation is the same as the year before, so again a real terms cut. There was a time when the Association turned healthy surpluses which were intended to pay for expansion to the facilities. The type of expansion that is planned varies, but the intention and need for the expansion has been consistent.

The Association has in the past generated surpluses which were intended to develop the association facilities further. There was a time when the surplus in the bank was enough to pay for improvements to the current building. Some restrictions on the land held up the project, the delay resulted in the costs escalated. If the university continues to fund the Students' Association at the level it currently does, the funding to student groups will have to be cut and the SA will stay in a crumbling 70’s building, which the university continues to refuse to repair or maintain, for the rest of time.

[hr]Simon Atkins
Association President
Students' Association
St Andrews
(01334 46) 2700
Alex Yabroff
President
Students' Association
St Andrews
(01334 46) 2700
pres@st-andrews.ac.uk
Association President
 
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Re:

Postby Rennie on Tue Oct 12, 2004 12:27 am

Legion, sorry - I meant to say that Carlsberg was £1.20 a pint. And now the cheapest (and in my opinion, worse than Carlsberg) pint is £1.60.

Now, not to get myself confused, I only have an A level in Maths after all, but to me that's an increase of 40p. And, if my maths is still holding up - I'd say that was an increase of 25% over 3 years. Am I wrong?

Where the figure of 3.5% comes from, quoted by the Association President, I have no idea. Maybe he could show his workings?

As for the wage bill, the staff are paid the very minimum wage in the Union - and tips must be one of the lowest in town - so you can't really use the national wage laws as an excuse to raise prices - you should have been paying the staff an acceptable level of pay anyway. The reason you pay the minimum wage is because you feel you can get away with it because there's a plentiful supply of workers - fair enough. I think the only reason the bar staff stay is because the bar managers are actually nice and good at their jobs.

You say that the association lost money for the first time in 15 years. Was the bar takings also the lowest for 15 years? I don't know figures - so I'll have to go on what you say - but personally I felt that attendance was lower last year than I can rememeber in the past - coincidentally this is when drinks prices are raised without any noticeable changes in the union.

Has the funding for representation been increased last year? Could this be why the Union has made a loss? Surely the Union should actually turn a profit before it starts to give more money than ever before?

Surely it would make more sense to have a business plan that sets out how the Union are going to pay for the extra money spent on representation, rather than spending it first and worrying about it later?

You say that the Union will be staying in its 70's crumbling building? Well, we all know the University are not easy to get money out of, especially in the last few years with the arrival of Derek Watson and his exclusive views of how something should be run economically to its best, and fuck the morals.

So, where are the Union going to pay to move to a new building if they're making a loss? Are you seriously suggesting that you expect the University to pay for a new building, just because you're making a loss and you can't afford it? Can you not see that the Union's financial well-being is on a downward spiral, and your main source of income is the students themselves, who are just not coming into the Union any more as much as they used to?

You spend £3,000 on acts such as Tiffany and Javine. You could have paid each person who came into Javine £25, and saved her the hassle of being embarrassed at singing to an audience of under 100 people, and you still complain that you don't have enough money? Stop fucking wasting it on shite then!! Simple, no?

This surplus you speak of, and some vague mention of improving the current building. Was all the surplus spent on waiting for planning permission? Did you spent it all on legal fees? Did you piss it up the wall? I don't see what can cost a large (I assume we're talking in the region of £50,000 upwards...) amount for nothing to happen and no improvements to be made.

And, back to another point - the Gateway. I hear the University got the building for approximately £3m (if anyone knows better - post it). Where could the Union find such a place for such a price in St Andrews? Anywhere? You could have sold the Union for into double million figures, bought the Gateway, redesigned it so the acoustics weren't a problem (or just turned the volume down a bit - much cheaper in the long run...) and still had money left over to buy somewhere else to have offices in St Andrews. If the Union ever wanted to move into a new building, they would be hard pressed to find sometihng as convinient and well positioned as the Gateway, and you let that chance slip by.

And, where does the Union plan to expand to? There's no space - you're in the middle of town. Plus, it would cost a fortune to make changes to an already 'decaying' (your words) building - why waste the money?

So, I hope the collection of rants above puts across some points that you can answer for me, when you have the chance. I can't be arsed making spelling and grammatical changes - I'm sure you can all understand what I've said. Over to you.
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Re:

Postby Guest on Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:07 am

[s]Rennie wrote on 02:27, 12th Oct 2004:
Now, not to get myself confused, I only have an A level in Maths after all, but to me that's an increase of 40p. And, if my maths is still holding up - I'd say that was an increase of 25% over 3 years. Am I wrong?


no, but you're comparing two different products, so you are wrong.

(actually.. you are wrong, that aparent increase, tho between two seperate products, is 33%)

Where the figure of 3.5% comes from, quoted by the Association President, I have no idea. Maybe he could show his workings?

that would be the percentage increase in the cost of tennants per annum over the last 3/4 years. (it works out at 14.2857% over 4 years, and so 3.57% p/a)



And, where does the Union plan to expand to? There's no space -

have you seen the space of land out the back of the union? its roughly the size of V1, so, there is space.
Guest
 

Re:

Postby Rennie on Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:35 am

Hi niall,

Howcome you just don't post under your name rather than hide behind an 'unregistered user' (and this is just a guess, going off the language and content of the posting)?

Yes, sorry - I am comparing 2 different products, the cheaper one was superior (and if put to a vote of students, I'm sure it would win)

You're also right, I thought it was an increase of 33%, is that a fair increase in your opinion?
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Re:

Postby niall on Fri Oct 29, 2004 6:16 am

that wasnt me <_<


on a side note:

pint of tennants at Strathclyde union is £1.90 (they are NUS, so be happy)
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Re:

Postby Tweedle-Dum on Fri Oct 29, 2004 4:05 pm

[s]niall wrote on 08:16, 29th Oct 2004:
that wasnt me <_<


on a side note:

pint of tennants at Strathclyde union is £1.90 (they are NUS, so be happy)


Who can be happy, when the lager they provide and tout as being cheapest in town is £1.60 and Tennants.
WE should be paid at least £1.60 per pint for drinking that shit. Bring back Carlsberg

[hr]
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Tetragrammaton is a four letter word.
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Re:

Postby Tweedle-Dum on Fri Oct 29, 2004 4:06 pm

Additionally, I have on some authority that Tennants at Herriot Watt is £1.20 per pint. They are also NUS

[hr]
Live by the sword, die by the arrow.
Tetragrammaton is a four letter word.
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Re:

Postby Steveo on Fri Oct 29, 2004 4:50 pm

[s]Tweedle-Dum wrote on 18:05, 29th Oct 2004:
[s]niall wrote on 08:16, 29th Oct 2004:[i]
that wasnt me <_<


on a side note:

pint of tennants at Strathclyde union is £1.90 (they are NUS, so be happy)


Who can be happy, when the lager they provide and tout as being cheapest in town is £1.60 and Tennants.
WE should be paid at least £1.60 per pint for drinking that shit. Bring back Carlsberg

[hr]
Live by the sword, die by the arrow.
[/i]

Carlsberg is the worst lager ever. Export is alright though.

[hr]
[s]What a beautiful world this will be .... what a glorious time to be free[/s]
Get off my internet.
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