Observations about Orientation/Pre-sesh this year?

[Association President]

What did/didn't people think worked this time what would you like to see changed? Any general suggestions, or specific ones for that matter?

[munchingfoo]

Big names at big prices are a waste of money.

All people are looking for is for good music. Theres not much point in paying £3000 for a person to mime a few songs. We could have got the same sound using a CD.

Maybe we can look into getting more up and comings than old and tireds next time. Up and coming are usualy more eager to please and cost a lot less.

[Mr Comedy]

Reccomendations apart from Wogan?
That's a tough one.

[Haunted]

Need cheaper beer

[steerpike]

BAY CITY ROLLERS REUNION GIG for NEXT YEARS PRE_SESH!!!!

=)
u no u want it

[mottthehoople]

[s]munchingfoo wrote on 18:31, 10th Oct 2004:
Big names at big prices are a waste of money.

All people are looking for is for good music. Theres not much point in paying £3000 for a person to mime a few songs. We could have got the same sound using a CD.

Maybe we can look into getting more up and comings than old and tireds next time. Up and coming are usualy more eager to please and cost a lot less.







Waht big names, they must have escaped me. Creamcakes

[Ethan With]

First of all, £6 is NOT big money.

Secondly, NO-ONE mimed/lip-synched. ALL the acts were live


Cheaper beer isn't going to be an option - the union sells it as cheap as it can already.

Bay City Rollers? Are they still going?

[md25]

Why are the Union's alcohol prices so high relative to other unions? Is it just economies of scale or, for example, are the drinkers subsidising the union's other activities?

[quarterstaff]

more good classic acts like coolio,

less pishy nobodies like javine,

an ents crew that doesn't fuck up the sound for the jazz night leading to an hour less of "havana swing" than i paid for,

erdinger on tap,

thats about it.

all in all, a very good week.

well done all involved. keep up the good work.

[Director of Services]

In Ents Crew's defense, it was Havana Swing who fucked us up.

[Tweedle-Dum]

[s]md25 wrote on 22:36, 10th Oct 2004:
Why are the Union's alcohol prices so high relative to other unions? Is it just economies of scale or, for example, are the drinkers subsidising the union's other activities?




Yes, that's where all of the societies money comes for, and money for things like Debates, and no, I don't agree with it either.

[Prophet Tenebrae]

Erdinger on tap would make the Union a lot better.

[David Bean]

Of course the profits from the Unions departments are put towards the benefits we provide for our members, the students; how else are we supposed to fund them?

Moreover, that's actually a good thing from the consumer's point of view, as whenever I buy a pint in the Union, I know that the profit's going back to the students. Now, far be it from me to criticise private profit, but even a libertarian like me can see the value of ploughing our profits back into other activities that people enjoy.

[hr]"And all the people rejoiced, and said: 'God save the King! Long live the King! ...May the King live forever!'" - Handel, 'Zadok the Priest'

[Slash wannabe]

How about some fucking bands. How about the commitee that is supposed to do something about this being listened to. How about that commitee actually communicating with each other to make something happen. How about that commitee actually achieving its goals in providing for its target population. How about removing the people that are in it for personal gain.

It makes me sick.

[hr]IMAGE:www.pushposters.co.uk/new/thumbs/a/S_a06015.jpg

[Al]

How about calming down?

[hr]Life is too important to be taken seriously.

[David Bean]

That the Music Fund you're talking about? Bit harsh, aren't you being? After all, they have only just been set up.

[hr]
"And all the people rejoiced, and said: 'God save the King! Long live the King! ...May the King live forever!'" - Handel, 'Zadok the Priest'

[Rose Chambord]

Just for once I would like to see the volunteers treated with an ounce of respect by someone running the association's side of events. student support are always wonderful to the people that are helping them out, and I fail to understand why the students' association can't deliver the same level of respect to the same volunteers.

While I am under the impression that most of the events ran quite well (I must confess that I stayed well away from the building for most of the week as I didn't feel like taking bonnie's shit) I think that the Association could go along way in impressing people if they could learn to play nice.

Volunteers are doing you all a favour, they are not there to be tread on like stepping stones on your ladders to success and future election victories.

We did not ask to turn up two hours early, and 7 people sure as hell aren't in the wrong, so you must have screwed up your scheduling. We did not ask to finish your job, especially not while we are trying to do the jobs we volunteered for. And most importantly, if you leave us to do something (namely dealing with the public, freshers, parents) then trust that we have the competance to do so and don't waste your time (better spent making sure cashboxes, spreadsheets, tickets, info and the like are ready when they need to be) butting in every five minutes to do our task for us.

[David Bean]

As someone who's an Association officer (it's the Sabs you're complaining about, not the Association as a whole) but worked through the week as an unelected volunteer, I can see where you're coming from to some extent - there did seem to be a lot of volunteers' time wasted through ostensibly poor organisation.

However, do bear in mind that there was a huge number of people to manage and a lot else going on besides, so I should have thought that a certain number of mistakes was inevitable. I dread to think how I'd have handled the situation had I been in charge, bearing in mind I know the Sabs quite well so I saw the situation from both perspectives. For one thing, remember that they had to book more volunteers than were necessary at pretty much every stage, because not everyone can be relied on to do what they've said they'd do - to my discredit, I know I missed a couple of my scheduled duties because of unforseen things that cropped up, but I didn;t worry too much because I knew there would be people to cover for me.

Also, I can see that the Sabs may at times have left themselves open to accusations of interfering, but I think that they were only doing their best to get the balance right: had they been inaccessible to the frontline volunteers whilst things were happening, chaos could have reigned, because I could see for myself how miscommunication between groups of volunteers, and even between the Sabs themselves, caused confusion and bewilderment to all concerned. For instance, the Hot Pass system was quite (and perhaps overly) complex, with not everyone knowing what information they were and weren't supposed to give to the customers.

I think what I'm driving at is that errors were made, some of them by the Sabs, but those errors were always well-intentioned and human. Were I to attempt to draw lessons from the experience, they would concern the need to simplify procedures, communicate them properly (perhaps using standad instruction sheets), create a system for allowing flexibility within the volunteers' ranks whilst minimising waste and, perhaps controversially, providing volunteers with tangible rewards (such as the old staple, the volunteers' free party).

[hr]
"And all the people rejoiced, and said: 'God save the King! Long live the King! ...May the King live forever!'" - Handel, 'Zadok the Priest'

[RichZ]

[s]quarterstaff wrote on 23:13, 10th Oct 2004:
an ents crew that doesn't fuck up the sound for the jazz night leading to an hour less of "havana swing" than i paid for,

Fuck off David - we weren't told before hand that they were needing stuff, so we (Richard R & myself) had to rush to get stuff from downstairs and try to set it up. Now I was already a bit pissed off for one reason or another and setting up sound for a jazz band (they were good don't get me wrong) when I was supposed to be meeting up for drinks with people wasn't what I had planned for the night.

To set up something like that - it's always best if you know that they need stuff before the gig starts - usually helps! Cos we would have set up before hand if we'd known believe it or not!

You should know too that we work far too bloody long in that place for no money, and generally no thanks or praise just compliants when things don't quite go to plan. Why don't you try volenteering to do something like that - give up going out with your mates for a week and spend close to 100 hours in there setting rigging, setting up, running it all, de-rigging etc etc - I was supposed to be there to have a good time getting drunk with my mates, I managed to get to the party but had to leave cos we had more stuff to do untill 4:30 - 5:00 that morning!

I'm sorry that that ended up as me having a go at you but do you really think we'd left it that late on purpose!?! If I've offended you then I'm sorry but you did the same to us - we're not professionals, and it ain't easy to run a week like Fresher's Week when most people only get back a couple of days before it starts!

Anyway, I appologise to everyone who was there that night, it wasn't very proffessional of us (neither is this reply but never mind!) but I hope you all enjoyed it in the end.

[munchingfoo]

[s]Ethan With wrote on 21:36, 10th Oct 2004:
First of all, £6 is NOT big money.


Firstly, if you could actualy read you would see quite clearly that it is the big money payed to the artists themselves and not the door price to which I refered.

Secondly, NO-ONE mimed/lip-synched. ALL the acts were live


Secondly, you obviously weren't there when the Javine CD skipped when she was 'singing'


Cheaper beer isn't going to be an option - the union sells it as cheap as it can already.


Read the union's message board and perhaps your ignorance of this topic may depart for a brief while. The price was increased under a recomendation from the licensing board.

Since nothing you said was correct or relevant I must assume you are a fool.

Good day.