Hall Subs Receipts

[Guest]

I paid my hall subs on the last day that the committee was collecting them, before submitting a list of those who haven't paid to the warden(I know, it's like being in a boarding school - if you don't do this, i will tell the teacher). Anyway, I went and paid and was told that they didn't have any receipts, but would issue them and post them to us via internal mail.

I still haven't received this and quite frankly I am not very impressed with the Committee for not having the decency to issue receipts.

I think I might give the committee one last chance, before going and submitting my 'list' of concerns to the warden. If they can be so petty, then so can I.

Rant Over.

[Lumo]

I think it’s a good idea for you to report this to the warden.

How did you pay?

If I was paying cash I wouldn’t leave without a receipt or my money safely in my pocket.

Personally I think it is quite convenient of them to get the warden to come and collect from non-payers, it means I can sit in my nice cosy room and wait for him/her to come here rather than venturing out into the cold to try and find someone to pay. And of course if I’m not in my room when they come...

[tintin]

The whole issue of hall subs is extremely contentious. I seem to recall a certain previous committee a couple of years back who managed to work their way through almost the entire budget before the Hall Ball, thus having to hold it in a field halfway to Aberdeen.

There is very little accountability for the process of collection; if a receipt is issued upon coercion it is usually on a scrappy little bit of paper rather than on University notepaper, which would be far more appropriate - at least then it looks official.

Perhaps Hall Subs should be included in the cost of Residence Fees, and then there would be no problems like this occurring, and everythnig would be accounted for, as the Committee would then have to be responsible to the University itself rather than to themselves. Just a suggestion.

[Donald]

I object to hall subs althogether. I never go to the balls or events, never seen a newspaper and there is no sky TV this year. So what do I get for my £50? I suppose you could argue that I could go to the balls but I really hate them. Another point is why do we get 2 tickets? We pay for 2 yet not all of us have either boyfriends or friends we can fob these tickets off on. I think we should pay a reduced hall subs (to cover damage) and buy ball tickets if we want them. I suppose though if this happened hall balls would have more difficulty with numbers.

[Avoiding Studying]

There is sky tv in the tv room. The newspapers are available for reading in the Strachan Suite - seen copies there with my own eyes.

On the point of it being included in accommodation fees - it would be the ideal solution but there are loads of regulatory and legal issues to contend with if that did happen.

[Mr Tickle]

Hall subs, the current situation:

The university now wants to collect hall subs directly, with rent for NEXT year.

Senior students and your SRC accomadation officer are objecting to this. As there is lots on this message board suggesting this is what the majority of students want I think maybe people should speak to their senior students.

[Thackary]

I think it's a good idea - it saves lots of hassle for the committee, and will guarantee that the services funded by the subs can be budgeted more accurately.

Of course there should be a system for those who don't wish to take advantage of all the events/services to apply for a partial refund.

[Simon Atkins]

[s]Mr Tickle wrote on 08:39, 26th Nov 2003:
Hall subs, the current situation:

The university now wants to collect hall subs directly, with rent for NEXT year.

Senior students and your SRC accomadation officer are objecting to this. As there is lots on this message board suggesting this is what the majority of students want I think maybe people should speak to their senior students.


There are concerns over the damages bills which under the current system have to be justified to the members of the committee signing the cheques to make sure that the damages bill only covers legitimate damage and not other things slipped in. If the committee is paying for ware and tear (the university's responsibility) then that is money that is not going on th students in the hall.

On the issue of the person who couldn't get rid of their ball tickets there are plenty of exDRHers who each year are very keen to go to the ball. It is normally one of the best of the year, with the possible exception of the one in the field on the way to Aberdeen.

[immunodiffusion]

I think the whole concept of Hall Committees and Hall Subs needs examining. Hall Committees are not especially accountable to other members of the Halls. Everyone is forced into paying for the services the Hall Committee offers, whether they want them or not.

I think it would work much better if people who wanted to go to individual events payed directly for the events they went to - eg if you go to the Hall Ball then you can pay for a ticket for it, if you do not want to attend, then you don't need to buy a ticket. People might object that this makes it more difficult to plan for such events if you don't know how many people are going to them, but it also means the Hall Committees have to plan events that people actually want to go to if they want to recoup their costs, making them much more accountable, and it means people who aren't interested in such activities aren't subsidising those who are. This is the same way that balls for most student societies work, so I don't see why it should work any differently for Hall Committees. It would be a much fairer system than the current one.

Also, payment for damage would be much more effective if people had to pay a contribution each time something needed fixing. Eg: a fire extinguisher is set off and each person in that building has to pay a few pounds towards a new one. This would have two advantages:
(a) People would know that damage had occurred, and may be put off damaging things again if they knew that people were paying for it. At the moment, it is only the Committees that are aware if the Hall is being charged for damage, it is not public. The fact it was public that everyone would be charged may also mean that other people in Halls who knew who had damaged something might let the Warden know.
(b) Payment for damages would match the amount spent on damages. At the moment, everyone pays the same amount every year towards the cost of damage, so there is no financial incentive to not commit damage. If people knew that if no damage was caused, no-one would be charged, it might put off damage in the first place.

[Jim Brown]

The best way to make your Hall Committee acountable to the students living in that Hall is to get involved.

I was at the elections and only a handfull of people turned up, and most of them were running for one of the positions. There are lists of Committee member contact details around the hall, if you want to see a certain event undertaken or are unhappy about one that is being planned, contact the committee - you vote them in, they are your representatives so make use of your power and speak to them. If they don't know your views or what you want then they will undoubtedly end up doing things you are not happy with, despite their best intentions.

On the matter of damages, well the hall subs go towards unnatributed damages. If there is damage to a flat or a communal area to which a fixed number of people have access, then those people will be spoken to and billed. It is where the damages cannot be attributed to an individual student, or a group of students, that the repair cost is taken from hall subs. To bill 400 students individually for their contribution to a £30 repair bill would be ridiculous and hardly cost effective.

[Guest]

[s]Jim Brown wrote on 14:12, 15th Jan 2004:
The best way to make your Hall Committee acountable to the students living in that Hall is to get involved.


But what about if you're not really interested in doing communal Hall-related events? I think what people object to most is paying for events that not many people go to.

Surely, the fact that so few people went to the elections shows that most people are not really interested in Hall committee events? In which case, why have them?

[harmless loony]

[s]Unregisted User wrote on 19:50, 20th Jan 2004:
[s]Jim Brown wrote on 14:12, 15th Jan 2004:[i]
The best way to make your Hall Committee acountable to the students living in that Hall is to get involved.


But what about if you're not really interested in doing communal Hall-related events? I think what people object to most is paying for events that not many people go to.

Surely, the fact that so few people went to the elections shows that most people are not really interested in Hall committee events? In which case, why have them?
[/i]


If u applied this theory to New Hall, it would not work. Very few people turned up to the New Hall elections and yet the ball was very popular and this year the video nights have been popular too. So to be honest I dont think the argument that people don't turn up to elections therefore they do not want hall events really works.

[Guest]

As far as I can tell a lot of people are annoyed with the way the whole Committee was set up. When we applied we were asked to fill in a form and Accomodation services would contact us before the end of last academic year to organise one if there was enough interest. Nothing happened so everyone assumed that a Hall Committee would be selected when we got here as the letter stipulated (sine less than 50% of people may have shown interest in setting up a committee before the academic year 2003/3).
However, on arrival some of the committee positions had already been filled. I think it was all badly organised, but teething problems were to be expected with a new Hall coming into action. It just seemed unfair that the proper procedures were not followed, but i do congratulate the committee on what they are doing now it is up and runnung, but can also appreciate that some people may have been unhappy with the whole arrangement at the start.

[Abracadabra]

If you wanted to be on the Committee, you should have come to the elections. It wasn't ideal that some positions had already been filled but it is common practice to elect senior students etc before the dissolution of the previous committee in order to ensure that there is always someone in charge and a smooth transition occurs.

As an ex-New Hallean I have been well impressed with how much the committee does here (and I was on both for comparison). Circumstances this year have been less than ideal and I think the committee does deserve at least some recognition, so thank you! Plus, we are always open to ideas from residents, so you can still get involved if you want.

[senior student]

I'm the senior student for your hall committee. I've read some of the points on the message board and I think it is only fair that the committee addresses them.
1) reguarding the receipts, people were sent them, but these were the people who paid before the letters that the warden sent out. If peole who paid before then and did not get one, then they are now on there way. People who paid after the letter, we now have a full list of names and are currently writing them to you, but as you can imagine it is hard to get them to 230 people in dra and 210 that were in drh,when there is only two of you doing it.
2)the election for committee's are all run the same, the senior positions are elected the year before their office, so that they can have some stuff set up before you get here. At the start there was only two of us. The rest of the committee was elected at the begining of this year. There was poster up for them and quite a few showed up and now we have a full committee, if you wanted to be in the committee we would have gladly accepted your presence there.
3)Halls subs this year were lower because we felt that they were to expensive, we did not know at the begining of the year that people would be fined for not paying. but I think this was fair because the hall subs are not just for parties but for damages too. Why should some people have to pay while others dont. The halls subs this year were no where near the same amount collect as last year, partly because of the lower rate, DRH students only paying half, and that hall subs where not put in the contract. With the monney collected we have.....
*paid our damage bill which was big!!!but we went to alot of meetings about it and got some of the price taking off.
*put newspapers in drh
*held a pub crawl
*held a halloween party
*held a christmas party
*had a ball (at the old course) which I know this was at not a great time but that was not the committes fault as we had to hold it before the people in drh left and after the exams. we are sorry for the less than great timing.
*we plan to have a second ball for the appartments.

If any one wants to see the committee books just come and look we are very organised!
4) yes the university is thinking about collecting the hall subs for the committees the reason some hall committees dont want this is because they think the university we have control of the money and that we will not be able to dispute damage bills. some of the halls in town do not have problem in collecting hall subs so see no reason for changing this system. halls like new hall and drh do have problems! there are some great points to the university collecting hall subs but they will not pass it until all agree.
5) the point had we should hold ball where we sell tickets like clubs do, they have money to start with, from there member so to pay for the ball before it starts, just like we do,so we do need the hall subs at the start to have a ball.


If anyone wants to discuss any matters with committee or has any problem im glad to chat to people, we do not bite, hopefully every one knows my number or where I live, just get in contact.