Washing Machines

[munchingfoo]

I just sent this e-mail to accom serv

Hello,

As the newly elected Fife Park Senior Student I thought I should request some
information regarding current and future facilities at DRA and Fife Park.

Currently we have 12 washers in the laundry, I believe.
There are more than 1000 beds in Fife Park and DRA.
Each was takes 37 Min's.
This means that it will take 51.38 hours for every student to do one load.
Assuming that each student does a coloured and a white load this is 102.74 hours
per week.
The number of hours in a week (From 6AM to 11PM) is 119.

The figure for the number of hours the washing machines are being used is
heavily underestimated. For example, the cycle takes 37mins. This doesn't
include loading/unloading and putting in powder. It also doesn't include
people like myself who do about 3 washes a week.

Basically this means that the washing machines would be in absolute constant use
between the hours of 6AM and 11PM every day of the week. It is certain that
without some kind of management system this just won't work. ( A management
system is likely to be impractical with the varied nature of peoples' course
times)

Are there plans to provide new washing machines for the residents of DRA and
Fife Park?

There is a similar situation regarding PC's in the PC room. Any plans to modify
this?


Thanks for your time

Andy Grayland

[hr]

[s]
My entire life in boolean logic

¬emptyGlass(pint) => drinking(Andy)
emptyGlass(pint) AND ¬stomach(full) => buy(pint)
emptyGlass(pint) AND stomach(full) => buy(vodka)
emptyGlass(vodka) => buy(vodka)
¬emptyGlass(vodka) => drinking(Andy) [/s]

[hoopy froodette]

A standard wash costs £1.50 now

[hr]

Nothing succeeds like a toothless budgie.

[Haunted]

Yeah the tight gits have upped it again.
SHENANIGANS!

[The Yettoner]

£1.50????? Bloody hell.

[hr]

"Faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see." - Hebrews 11:1

[Rennie]

Good e-mail Andy. However, when I sent a similar one, I was told that students should use the pickup and deliver services that operate in St Andrews, and they actually work out quite close to teh same price as a few loads, especially with that price increase.

Good luck though. If I were you, I'd suggest that they install them in the storage rooms in Fife Park that they had the temporary one in. As for computers, you won't get any more unless they get them in teh new block somehow, as there's no room.

Also, see if you can get anywhere regarding a common room for Fife Park.

Rennie

[Rennie]

Good e-mail Andy. However, when I sent a similar one, I was told that students should use the pickup and deliver services that operate in St Andrews, and they actually work out quite close to teh same price as a few loads, especially with that price increase.

Good luck though. If I were you, I'd suggest that they install them in the storage rooms in Fife Park that they had the temporary one in. As for computers, you won't get any more unless they get them in teh new block somehow, as there's no room.

Also, see if you can get anywhere regarding a common room for Fife Park.

Rennie

[munchingfoo]

The equipment provision and increased occupancy of the combined Fife Park and David Russell sites was discussed with the company providing the service last week. At present the ratio of machines to potential users is in line with the norm of around 1:75 with a slight reduction for the scale of the laundry. We are already exploring the need for additional capacity for Phase 1C and if in the short term the usage of the machines did rise to unacceptable levels then we could advance the installation of the equipment to cope with the additional 200 students planned for 2006. It is not in anyone's interest to see the machines in constant use with people being unable to gain access. The ratio mentioned seems to work out across all their sites and has proved about right here to, but does rely on a spread of usage i.e.everyone cannot expect there to be a machine vacant whenever they,particularly if it is at a time when most people seek to visit.

Can we agree to monitor the situation in the short-term and for you to alert the Residence Management if you get reports that things are too busy. We can draw usage information from the machines to show us the level of utilisation. Other options are to discount less popular times to spread the demand. Thanks for your interest in this area.

As far as computer access is concerned our current initiative is to try to establish wireless provision within the David Russell facilities building.I will alert IT Services to your concerns about
capacity.

I am quite happy with this reply for now. What are your opinions?

Shall we just wait to see what the actual usage is?

[hr]

[s]
My entire life in boolean logic

¬emptyGlass(pint) => drinking(Andy)
emptyGlass(pint) AND ¬stomach(full) => buy(pint)
emptyGlass(pint) AND stomach(full) => buy(vodka)
emptyGlass(vodka) => buy(vodka)
¬emptyGlass(vodka) => drinking(Andy) [/s]

[munchingfoo]

Mr Smith

Thank you for your reply of Aug 16th to my question regarding washing machine
provision. I agree that monitoring the usage of machines is a good idea but it
doesn't tackle the issue that is bound to occur when term restarts.

Last year the ability to use a machine at the times which were available to
students, after academic responsibilities, was an issue. There is no doubt
that with the addition of 200 more students this issue will become urgent.

I have recently been informed that the temporary washing facilities, created in
Fife Park during the construction surrounding the current laundry, are still
operational and are open to be used by summer guests. Is there a particular
reason that these facilities cannot be opened during term time?

Following a year of discontent surrounding this situation, I feel to take no
action, apart from monitoring, to be naive. I am very interested in your idea
to have cheap times and peak times. The reason that the machines have peak
usage times is simply due to the fact that other times are inconvenient. A
financial incentive to use the facilities at these inconvenient times would be a
good idea. This would possibly resolve the entire problem of both usage and
discontent without increasing the number of machines. Does the
underlying washing machine technology support such a scheme? If so, what is
the likely hood that such a scheme would be implemented in the near future?



Again, I thank you for your time.



Andy

[hr]

[s]
My entire life in boolean logic

¬emptyGlass(pint) => drinking(Andy)
emptyGlass(pint) AND ¬stomach(full) => buy(pint)
emptyGlass(pint) AND stomach(full) => buy(vodka)
emptyGlass(vodka) => buy(vodka)
¬emptyGlass(vodka) => drinking(Andy) [/s]

[Rennie]

Seems like good old Roger Smith is up to his usual line. He sends something that looks great, makes him out to be extremely reasonable, and makes it look at though something is being sorted out for the problem, but is actually 'We're doing nothing'. He's the best PR person I've ever dealt with.

Saying that, he's the man you want to contact with problems, forget Sarah and Isobel. Sarah's so shit they won't even make her Manager, she's *still* acting manager!

I like his idea for peak time costs. As long as it doesn't mean increase them at peak times and keep them the same at off peak times. Maybe 1.20 between 10pm-10am, 1.70 between 10am-10pm. I'd be happy with that, as would other students I think. That's assuming it's 1.50 a wash now.

Oh, and something needs to be done about the lack of hot water in the wash. And the way you have to put powder directly onto your clothes, leading to powder residue still being there after you take them out (because there wasn't enough hot water). If he doesn't believe you, do a *road* test for him (make sure you put lots of powder in to emphasise the point!)

And, see if you can get wireless for Fife Park. It's not incredibly useful, but it's piss easy for them to do, cheap, and it's another thing we have.

Also, make sure Roger's maths checks out. I find that it doesn't a lot of the time. Plus, his ratio of 1:75 has gone up from his old one of 1:60. Also, machine downtime is a problem there as well.

Anything about a common room mentioned? newspaper subscriptions for the computer room paid for by ResBus? See what can be done.

Alex

[munchingfoo]

Hmm,

curious why you think we should get Newspapers paid for. Every other hall pays for it's news papers out of subs. This year we will be paying a little on top of our rents to cover such costs in the DRA facilities building, which we will have full and equal access to, including papers.

So papers, sorted, I recon.

Common room, well, we have a bar, a games room, a canteen. More than we ever have before, so sorted, I recon.

Powder directly onto clothes? When was the last time you were in the laundry? There are little compartments on all but one of the machines.

Hot water. Yes, this was an issue in my first and second year but seemed to be resolved last year. I had no problems with the laundry's machines temp. Anyone who used the machines last year care to suggest otherwise?

Do you have evidence of the 1:60 ratio statement I could have?

One issue I do have with the machines is the damp smell. I know this is because people leave their clothes in for a long time but since we have an external company in to look after them I assume it's their problem to keep them clean. When I get some conclusion to the current issue I will see what can be done about this.

Roger stated that WAPs are a current concern of ITS. I also know this to be the case myself. The intention is to have the whole uni wireless a soon as is viable taking into consideration time and money.

Anything else?

[hr]

[s]
My entire life in boolean logic

¬emptyGlass(pint) => drinking(Andy)
emptyGlass(pint) AND ¬stomach(full) => buy(pint)
emptyGlass(pint) AND stomach(full) => buy(vodka)
emptyGlass(vodka) => buy(vodka)
¬emptyGlass(vodka) => drinking(Andy) [/s]

[munchingfoo]

Also, Rennie,


Do you know where the Fife Park account records (if any) are? Is there a bank account?

We have a BBQ right? Do you know where that is?


Thanks

Andy

[hr]

[s]
My entire life in boolean logic

¬emptyGlass(pint) => drinking(Andy)
emptyGlass(pint) AND ¬stomach(full) => buy(pint)
emptyGlass(pint) AND stomach(full) => buy(vodka)
emptyGlass(vodka) => buy(vodka)
¬emptyGlass(vodka) => drinking(Andy) [/s]

[blimey]

Quoting Rennie from 21:08, 24th Aug 2005
Sarah's so shit they won't even make her Manager, she's *still* acting manager!

Rennie - you're out of the loop, and your info is wrong.

Andy - great to see some proactive management going on!! Keep it up.

A happy FP resident!

[Rennie]

1:60 ratio. No evidence, but this is what I got told by him when I complained about hte lack of washing machiens once. It seems as though he just calculates them off the top of his head and says that's the ratio. I guess the company might know.

Powder onto the clothes was something I thought happened. I used one in there that I had to do one on, but I guess that might be the one that isn;t converted.

The BBQ was bought by me and muirsy personally, not out of subs as we had it for a few months before we even collected subs. We tried to build one, that promptly got knocked down by the cunts.

No bank account, no records. The constitution doesn;t require one, plus with the low amount of subs we collected it wasn't worth opening one.

As for Sarah, she is an incompetant fuckwit. She has been acting manager for as long as I know, maybe they *had* to make her manager eventually. She certainly isn't up to the job. She was acting manager from the time Gammie left to the time I left, quite a considerable period.

[Rennie]

As for paying money out of the rents, how much exactly is it? I had an agreement with Roger Smith that Fife Park would be able to have full access to all the facilities without paying for them, in compensation for not having our own common room and the general neglect of Fife Park.

Another reason why we shouldn't pay is that if you remember back to the time of the old DRH common room and facilities, it was never used by Fife Park students, because it's too far away.

[munchingfoo]

As far as the small charge goes, I don't know exactly. You'd need to speak to Jim about it. This is a very small charge to cover expenses like news papers and sky TV. I will ask to see the incomings and outgoings regarding this when term starts. We will not be paying anything for using the building itself, as such.

I am quite concerned about the BBQ. I was informed that the BBQ was what most of the subs was spent on. I actually seem to remember a post on here, when someone questioned what you actually spent the money on, where you said it was on the BBQ. I know everyone in my house paid subs in that first year and I can't see that the amount was remarkably small. I mean, at £10 a piece only 20 people would have to pay to afford a BBQ like the one which was here. I also seem to remember a £200 subsidy from the Union, but this could be false. I'll see if they have a record of it. The fact that there are no records of any accounts makes me quite suspicious. How did you keep track of how much money you had collected, spent, and had left?

This isn't a personal attack, so please don't come back with an angry rant, you must understand that by not keeping any records you have left yourself open to criticism?

Do you not have any evidence of what you spent the money on?

I will most certainly move to ammend the constitution this year.

[hr]

[s]
My entire life in boolean logic

¬emptyGlass(pint) => drinking(Andy)
emptyGlass(pint) AND ¬stomach(full) => buy(pint)
emptyGlass(pint) AND stomach(full) => buy(vodka)
emptyGlass(vodka) => buy(vodka)
¬emptyGlass(vodka) => drinking(Andy) [/s]

Edit: Please be careful that what you write is accurate and cannot be considered slanderous/libellous.

[Rennie]

Well, Andy, I think you'll want to be re-phrasing what you said in the thread above initially, or else it will seem like you're accusing me of theft, especially with the sentence 'pocketing the difference'. I also advise you to do it pretty fucking sharpish.

I don't know who informed you that the BBQ is what most of the subs was spent on. But they're wrong. The BBQ was bought before we even had subs, by ourselves, for use over the summer. When we were part of the committee we decided that because we weren't using it, we were going to use it for committee events.

There was a subsidy from the Union, I can't rememebr exactly how much but that was spent on building the BBQ, which was then knocked down by DRH.

As said above, we didn't keep records of accounts because a) we didn't have to, b) there was no point as we didn't have enough money to keep records. To keep record of what we'd spent, we had a money box. All the money went into that, and if we needed to spend money for events, it came out of that. Simple.

And, as you should know, we had more than one event. At the start of the year, we had a pub crawl where we bought some drinks for winners etc... We then had 2 BBQ's, each catering for 150 people each night. This is not cheap to do, especially with booze there as well.

Other nights like the pub quiz, pancake making etc... all cost money, and we used up all the subs.

As for your allegations, I'm quite pissed off by them. I've explained exactly what happened to the subs previously on here, and as you're perfectly capable of using the Sinner search facility, look for them your fucking self.

Amend the constitution as you wish. Like I give a fuck anyway?

[meMeME]

[quote]Quoting Rennie from 13:24, 27th Aug 2005
.... This is not cheap to do, especially with booze there as well.

[quote]

Did the Warden not provide the booze as a substitue for an FP welcome party?

[meMeME]

Quoting Rennie from 13:24, 27th Aug 2005
We then had 2 BBQ's, each catering for 150 people each night. This is not cheap to do, especially with booze there as well.

Did the Warden not provide the booze?

[hoopy froodette]

Quoting munchingfoo from 14:49, 23rd Aug 2005

I have recently been informed that the temporary washing facilities, created in
Fife Park during the construction surrounding the current laundry, are still
operational and are open to be used by summer guests.

That's wrong. This store room is now used as a linen store and there are only two washing machines and two dryers in there, and they are not available to the public, they are used by staff to wash kitchen uniforms, cloths, mop heads and shower curtains. Summer guests use the current laundry.

[hr]

Nothing succeeds like a toothless budgie.

[Phantasm]

That would explain why the kitchen uniforms are returned in such a state then.



[hr]

"We will build our own cities in which there will be no place for humans except to serve our ends, and we shall found our own armies, our own religion, our own dynasty, and that day is upon you NOW"