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REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW

SUBU Annual Review 2011

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Students' Union at Bournemouth University Annual Review 2011

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Page 1: SUBU Annual Review 2011

REVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEW

Page 2: SUBU Annual Review 2011

CONTENTSCONTENTS

Foreword......................................Page 3The SUBU way of life........................Page 4SUBU Environment..........................Page 6SUEI.............................................Page 7Elections 2011................................Page 8Meet your new sabbs........................Page 9Your Student Shout.........................Page 12Campaigns....................................Page 14Communications............................Page 16Representation..............................Page 18You Said... We Did..........................Page 20SUBU Involvement Awards................Page 24Lansdowne...................................Page 26Volunteering.................................Page 28RAG............................................Page 29Clubs & Socs.................................Page 30Nerve.........................................Page 34The Leadership Programme.............Page 36SUBU Advice................................Page 37Partnerships..............................Page 38Funding & Money........................Page 39The Best of SUBU Entertainment....Page 40Shops, Cafes, Bars and Marketing...Page 41Thank you Exec.........................Page 42Thank you Welcome crew............Page 43

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FOREWORDFOREWORD

Welcome to this year’s Annual Review of the Students’ Union at Bournemouth University. What a year it’s been! Success is at the forefront of what our students have achieved this year & we’ve seen a bigger push for involvement than ever before.

This review will set out the main achievements over the last year from SUBU. However we couldn’t be great without the brilliant efforts of the SUBU staff, the exec committee, sabbatical officers & most importantly our students! With the struggle against education cuts & the rise in tuition fees, it’s been an eventful year to be in office, but it’s the students who have made the year worth it. From over 150 of them attending the National Demo, running volunteer projects, hitchhiking across the country for some serious fundraising or simply submitting a motion to our Your Student Shout meetings, the student voice has never been louder & guess what; it’s still shouting!

DemocracyThis year has seen a record number of student votes in our Exec elections & more people run in our sabbatical elections than ever before. Most amazingly is how vocal students have been about their academic & non-academic issues. Whether it’s through speaking to our Exec officers, attending a

Your Student Shout meeting or liaising with our student reps, more students than ever have been voicing their important views. Our ‘you said we you did’ pages prove it!

Thank YouTo put into words how truly amazing this year has been for the sabbatical team would be simply impossible, however we can try & thank the people who have made it what it is. To have been part of such a great ogranisation that has its values built around its people is such an honour & we would like to thank all the students & staff for their hard work & dedication this year. Without them the achievements set out in this review would not be possible. The Students’ Union is a truly unique organisation, which offers development & opportunity to everyone it makes contact with. Ko & I will leave with some great life

skills & even fonder memories under our belts. It’s been a pleasure to be part of such a great team of staff, to work so closely with the University & interact with the best students higher education has to offer.

Good LuckWe wish Jesse, Kate & Philli the best of luck next year. With Toby’s experience this year, it’s without a doubt that you will take SUBU to new heights & achieve even more great results for students at BU.

Thank you for electing us to be your sabbatical team this year!

With Love,

Your Sabbatical Team 2010/2011

Neneh Pepperell (VP Communications) Toby Horner (President) Ko Leech (VP Representation)

CONTENTSCONTENTS

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SUBUThe Students’ Union at Bournemouth University is here to provide ‘a little something extra’ on top of students’ academic studies. We exist to enrich the ‘student experience’, represent the student voice & aim to make everyone’s time at BU a little brighter!

Every year we compile a ‘vision’, based on feedback from students & staff which guides us on what we strive to achieve each year. We also operate through a culture based on several (brilliant) values that make us what we are today….

The SUBU Vision:

SUBU has had VISION & VALUES statements since 1996

These are considered our main focus for WHAT we wish to do for students & HOW we do it.

Every year our VISION is revisited in a day at Easter by SUBU staff, sabbaticals & executive committee members with a view to informing our annual action plans.

This year, prompted by SUEI (see page 6) we also invited fifteen

student staff members to help inform the process from a student perspective.

Our VISION is currently still under review & we hope to get further guidance from students in the academic year 2011/12.

However, themes which are emerging via our annual ‘How’s SUBU for you?’ questionnaire are:

-SUBU should be (more) accessible & approachable;

-SUBU should add (more) value to the Student Experience;

-SUBU should campaign (more) on things that matter to students at BU;

The SUBU Values:

Our values are based on how we want to do the things set out in our vision better & they influence the way we are as an organisation, whether it be as an employer or an active & supportive representative students’ union.

We expect people (staff, officers & students) to:

-Conduct themselves in an honest, open & trusting way;s

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SUBU

-Behave in a professional manner.

-Be comfortable at proposing innovative ideas, solutions & suggestions;

-Believe in working as a team at the same time as respecting people’s need for individuality;

-Care about SUBU, their University, & to be caring about those that they impact upon;

-Have fun whilst working or being involved with SUBU!

We also operate in 3 main areas:

Advice:SUBU Advice is at the core of what SUBU has to offer for students. Our advice centre provides free, independent, confidential advice to all BU students.

They cover everything from finances, health & welfare right down to accommodation & academic disputes.

Involvement: We have loads of opportunities in SUBU for students to get involved, make friends & generally make the most out of their time at BU.

From joining the Leadership programme to running a club or society, hitchhiking for charity with RAG right down to joining the Executive Committee or creating something a little bit smashing for Nerve Media, there’s something for everyone.

Representation:The core responsibility of the sabbatical officers is to represent the student voice to those who matter, the University & beyond!

Academic representation is achieved through the student rep system, which is headed by the Vice President Representation.

However, we also voice students’ non-academic opinions through our Your Student Shout meeting & annual Exec & Sabbatical Elections.

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We strive to keep things ‘green’ & aim to save the planet in our own little way, one step at a time. Find out how below:

The NUS supported Sound Impact scheme, of which SUBU is a ‘silver’ award holder, has been renamed as ‘Green Impact’.

SUBU is still committed through its representational role on BU environmental committees & working groups to helping the University improve its own ‘green’ credentials, at the same time as getting its own house in order.

However local circumstances in SUBU between June & November meant that enough focused time could not be given to entering the ‘Green Impact’ awards for 2010/11.

Nonetheless SUBU remains committed to ensuring that its activities create as small a carbon footprint as possible.

Since last year’s award there has been further activity in replacing the lighting in Dylan’s bars & the Old Fire Station.

There is still much work to be done until environmental awareness becomes second nature but SUBU believes that it has a responsibility not only to behave responsibly as an organisation but also to encourage its student members to do so as well.

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The SUEI way of life:

If Carlsberg did Students’Unions….They’d be just like ours! At least that’s what we’re striving to achieve with the help of SUEI –The Students’ Union Evaluation Initiative.

SUEI is basically a way of comparing students’ unions & what they do, notwithstanding the fact that each University & its Union can be very different..

So it’s a bit like a cross between OFSTED (which monitors the quality of education in schools & colleges up to the age of 18), a Michelin hotel or restaurant inspection, coupled with an Investors in People (IIP) audit.

There are five themes that shape how well SUBU works:

What does SUBU do about. . .

Getting students to PARTICIPATEREPRESENTING BU studentsGOVERNING the union.

How does SUBU look forward?

What is its VISION of the future for SUBU, how does it PLAN for it & were the students INVOLVED & CONSULTED when this was going on.

How does SUBU relate to its staff?

Is SUBU a ‘good’ EMPLOYER with effective HR (Human Resource) systems?

Do staff have TARGETS that are based on the students’ needs?Do elected officers & staff know WHO is doing what?

Is SUBU quality?

Does SUBU make a DIFFERENCE to student lives at BU?Does SUBU have a respected REPUTATION that allows it to influence on behalf of the students?How does SUBU connect student NEEDS with its own services?

What supports this quality?

How well does the Union COMMUNICATE to the students?Are the FINANCES of the Union sound & reviewed with the medium & long term in mind?What PARTNERSHIPS does the Union forge?

SUBU will be audited to these criteria in November 2011 and the results will be published in the 2012 Annual Review.

SUBU’s Governance

In line with our legal status and our constitution, the governance of SUBU has traditionally fallen to its elected executive committee of sabbatical (full time) & student (part time) officers.

However, with the enactment of the Charities Act 2006, SUBU will be registering as a charity with the

Charity Commission this year. A two year long review of SUBU governance has led to the development of a trustee board as follows:

The President (Chair)

4 external trustees

6 student trustees

1 exec member

1 staff member

This Board shall meet approximately four times per year and shall ensure that:

SUBU is properly administered & delivers its stated aims & purposes.

To this end they will work with the executive committee & SUBU staff to set & safeguard the vision & values of SUBU as well as overseeing its work.

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We’ve got the SUBU Factor! The success of this year’s elections reflect just how democratically engaged students are with SUBU. We saw a record number of students vote, more people run in our sabbatical elections than ever before & even more people talk about running for a position next year. What’s more, this year we shook things up a little & ran two elections instead of the traditional three….

Exec Elections 2010Our Executive Committee elections kicked off a smashing start to the year with over 300 students voting for the candidates, battling out for the 5 available positions. The initial interest in running for a position was

off the scale with over forty students taking away information packs & leaving us their contact details at the Fresher’s Fair. In the end we ended up with ten super enthusiastic candidates, with half of them ending up elected. Likewise for the first time ever, we gained a full Exec Committee

thanks to our Post Graduate Research & International Officer positions becoming filled! Following the success of this year’s election engagement, we opted to extend their time in position until November 2011. This will ensure that the sabbaticals have maximum support during the fresher’s period, & hopefully will increase student engagement during next year’s elections.

Sabbatical Elections 2011After the success of the Exec elections, we wanted to achieve bigger & better things for the Sabbatical elections in February. We created a new Sabbatical position (VP Lansdowne Representation), which for the first time ever will give students at Lansdowne Campus full time representation, 5 days a week.

We also decided to refresh our Election branding & opted for an X factor theme, eventually settling with “Have You Got The SUBU Factor?” inspired branding. With this came months of promotional preparation, which made sure that

students had NO CHOICE but to notice that the important week of voting was just around the corner! We also introduced the ‘I’ve voted wrist bands’, which allowed students to prove to the candidates that they’d voted, whilst also picking up a few rewards in Dylan’s during the week.

We had 12 brilliant candidates come forward & the competition was tough. The campaign tactics creatively ranged from the likes of live performances, busking, cake baking, sweet taking & chalk writing right down to good old-fashioned canvassing. We even saw our first (and last) goldfish mascots! The candidates gained a total of 1500 votes between them, electing in next years full time team.

The votes were counted & verified now…

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Toby Horner (SU President) Elected with 1373 votes “The next academic year is set to be just as successful as 10/11, with a number of fresh faces to the SUBU sabbatical team & a variety of bright ideas already on the table.I myself am delighted to be in office for another year & I’m confident that the huge amounts I’ve learnt this year alongside Ko & Neneh, will help guide the team to the next stages. With increased fees imminent & student expectations always rising, it is my particular focus next year to take things back to basics, ensuring that SUBU is communicating clearly the day to day representation that we provide for students, whilst ensuring that these processes are as open & clear as possible.”

Jesse Banovic (VP Communications) Elected with 782 votes “Hey, Jesse here! I cannot wait to get involved with SUBU & start implementing new ideas for freshers with a contemporary edge, I don’t want to reveal too much as yet but some little ideas are bubbling away already. Voicing your voice is the priority, so new creative ways of doing that are top of my list! The aim is for as much face2face contact as possible, being around the atrium & also at lansdowne to see all the new & existing faces & hear all your issues. Another key thing is to keep unity between all of the partnership colleges so everyone feels involved especially with BUnique Week! Enjoy your summer & see you in September.”

Kate Jones ( VP Education) Elected with 694 votes “Hi, I’m Kate Jones, your new VP EDUCATION. I will be here to represent you on all education issues that you face during your time at BU. I intend to improve the current REP system & ensure students have more regular training & contact with me throughout the whole year. I will also be here to ensure that postgraduates, mature students, international students & partnership institutions feel included in all things SUBU related. I will be here to bridge the gap for those students as well as support all undergraduates. I very much look forward to seeing you all next year & working to improve your education at BU.”

Philli Hodgson ( VP Lansdowne Rep) Elected with 1297 votes “Hi, I’m Philli Hodgson, bridging the gap for Lansdowne Students!! I am so excited about starting this new position and I have lots of new, refreshing, & exciting ideas! As part of this new role I intend to be the spokesperson for post-graduate, mature & international students, as well as all those freshers who are based at Lansdowne campus! To name a few of my ideas. . . I plan to hold a mini Freshers Fair for the School of Health and Social Care, specific mature & international student events along with a ‘How’s SUBU 4 U’ day to get everyone at Lansdowne involved! See you all in September!”

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TOBY JESSETOBY JESSE KATEKATE PHILLIPHILLI

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A major part of the student voice, the “Your Student Shout!” meetings happen three times a year & are the main open forums for all students to raise the big issues affecting BU student life.

SUBU has always had the method of having big open meetings for students to voice their opinion; in the past they have been called general meetings or Big & Little Student Meetings.

This year we ramped the branding & the marketing up a notch & tried to simplify the message.

The development of the “Your Student Shout!” brand with the chattering teeth character has undoubtedly raised awareness of these meetings this year.

Not only did we have 2 quorate meetings for only the second time in SUBU’s history, but the issues & quality of debate stepped up a level this year. First term Your Student Shout!A packed lecture theatre, with even standing room being a squashed affair, saw 12 motions being debated at length.

The issued ranged from demands for better facilities for students at the Lansdowne campus, to motions asking for the creation of a new student centre at BU.

The most important issue debated, however, was the motion calling for action in response to the government proposals to change education funding in England.

After much debate, it was agreed by an overwhelming majority to support the NUS action opposing the proposed government changes. This motion effectively launched the huge “SUBU against Education Cuts” campaign.

Second term Your Student Shout!A quorate meeting once again saw a heated debate on the ethical standards employed by SUBU in their advertising. There was good debate over whether the policies of SUBU needed to be strengthened & tightened, or whether the standard was already sufficient.

Ultimately the meeting decided that SUBU currently has satisfactory processes & considerations in place, but the debate raised interesting questions over perception of how things are done in SUBU.

Other important issues debated at this meeting included a motion to push the university to improve the

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training of PhD teaching students in how to teach. The debate extended out to discuss the general standard of teaching across the university.

It was agreed that SUBU should push the university to develop a better approach to trying to achieve teaching excellence at BU, which ultimately might mean that all teaching staff should aim to get a Certificate of Education in time.

This motion has led to SUBU proposing & getting agreement from the Vice Chancellor on a set of core principles that should be adopted by BU as a basic commitment to the development of teaching excellence at BU. This is a significant result for the student experience at BU.

Third term Your Student Shout!The final term is always a hard time

to engage students in democratic meetings; notwithstanding the fact that focus is firmly on the end of the academic year for everyone, time is more precious in May than at any other time in the calendar.

This meant that attendance was significantly down for our final meeting, but the issues & debate continued at a high level despite this.

Motions included discussion & proposals to work against recent activity from fascist & racist groups in the Dorset area, & proposals

to support the development of Residents Associations for students from next year.

There was significant discussion in Any Other Business on the proposals announced that day from the government on allowing wealthy students to buy additional places at universities at a higher rate than currently proposed. There was universal agreement to monitor this & oppose these ideas at a local level if they began to become a reality.

Overall this year, the ‘Your Student Shout’ meetings have continued to debate the issues right at the heart of the student experience, & led to motions being passed that have forced action & positive change. We are very much heartened by this, & SUBU remains committed to developing this in future years.

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It’s been an eventful year for campaigns. Thanks to two quorate Your Student Shout meetings & tonnes of student’s feedback, we’ve had a lot to campaign on!

Winton Carnival: As part of our Community Engagement campaign, the Winton Carnival was the first major planned project the Sabbs worked on. Armed with the objective of gaining 300 comments from local residents about students in the community, we planned a super fun stall for the carnival, complete with children’s face painting & games. The free attractions were brilliant for getting residents to talk to us & as a result we got a over 200 different

perspectives on students (not all bad either). The feedback helped to shape our first campaign of the year & really strengthened the sabbatical team.

Meet your neighbour campaign: Through our involvement with the Winton Carnival we launched a

large-scale community campaign at the beginning of September. Working closely with the local police & council we created handy contact cards for students & neighbours to fill in alike, providing them

with the chance to get to know & respect each other! We distributed hundreds of them in key streets around Winton & Charminster. We also created a Bafta worthy DVD, starring BU & AUCB students, which aimed to highlight the consequences of anti social behaviour. The short film was screened to all first & second year students, whilst we hosted a special screening for members of the community & press. The Mayor even attended!

World AIDS day: In a bid to raise awareness of World Aids day we decided to host a scrumptious ‘red themed’ cake stall to help raise money for local charity Body Positive Dorset. The charity works with Aids victims, providing them with support, guidance & place

of solitude. Alongside the cakes, we also let our ‘condom fairies’ loose around campus. They gave out free condoms & sold ribbons to students everywhere, even in the library. In the end, we sold over 100 yummy cakes & red ribbons to staff & students alike & as a result raised £230 for Body Positive!

BUnique week:At the beginning of the year we decided to launch a campaign centering on how important extra curricular activities are for your CV. With the job market becoming increasingly competitive, we wanted students to ask themselves, what makes you unique to potential employers & placement providers? With this in mind, we came up with the idea of BUnique, which focused

on celebrating student involvement & giving students the chance to try out new activities. Developing this idea further we launched two

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BUinque weeks, which offered a full week of scheduled events each term organised by clubs & societies. From dancing to martial arts there was something for everyone to get involved with!

SUBU Against Education Cuts – The National Demo:With the possibility of tuition fees rising to over £6k a year, we were encouraged by NUS to bring students up to London for the National Demo. To encourage students to attend, we created a visual display in one of the high footfall areas of the University. We filled this Perspex box with fake money, coloured Blue, Pink & Orange to represent SUBU & Bournemouth University debt. Likewise we also gave out cheque style flyers asking students to question how much their education is worth. The display stayed up for 3 weeks & we ended up taking 120 students to London. We also threw a joint banner making party with students from AUCB, where students came along to make banners for the day.

All SUBU wants for Xmas is a Fairer Education: In the aftermath of the National Demo, we decided that we wanted to focus on lobbying Dorset’s local MPs in a bid to sway their vote on the upcoming tuition fees debate. In the first week of December we came up with the “All SUBU wants for Xmas is a Fairer Education” campaign. We got students to sign pre written letters & not so nice Christmas cards describing how higher tuition fees would affect them. The response was outstanding with us collecting over 600 letters that we personally delivered to our

MP’s on ‘vote day’. Likewise the campaign also gained extensive coverage in the media, with articles in the Daily Echo & a news feature on ITV news!

Recycling the student pound:Having had the current Profit with Principles campaign in place for two years, it was decided to rework the campaign & freshen it up. Following market research it was apparent that students didn’t understand the brand or the message, or indeed that we ran the shop! We decided to look at other Unions & how they communicate their message. Subsequently September 2011 will see the launch of ‘Recycling the

Student £’ an interactive campaign will see a new brand & logo created. Using a variety of methods including print media, outlet based advertising & a revised web content to communicate to the students.

Students with Disabilities lift priority awareness campaign: At our first Your Student Shout of the year, disabled student Lisa Marshall put forward a motion concerning students’ use of lifts

on campus. She asked us to create an awareness campaign to help highlight the priority of lifts for disabled students. The motion was passed with over 100 students voting in Lisa’s favour. Working closely with Lisa & our Students with Disabilities Officer Chris Nash, we came up with a poster, which has been placed next to every lift on Talbot Campus & the many lifts in the Executive Business Centre.

Drink spiking awareness:When our first year experience officer Nicola, reported a worrying increase in reports of drink spiking in Bournemouth night clubs, we decided to launch an awareness campaign about drink spiking. Timed perfectly with SHAG week, we attended the Sex Ed ball armed with hundreds of glow in the dark cocktail stirrers. The stirrers were labeled with thought provoking stickers, with statements such as “Easy target” & “watch your drinks”. Thanks to the help of some super enthusiastic volunteers we dropped them into students’ unattended drinks, the response was very interesting to say the least!

SHAG Week:As part of a national campaign, we came over all saucy in February in order to raise awareness about Sexual Health. Between the 14th-18th of Feb we tackled all things sexual, giving out 2000 condoms & over a 1000 packets of lubricant to every student we came into contact with! What’s more F-risky set up camp in the Atrium all week giving out free goodies in exchange for students taking Chlamydia tests, while Body Positive Dorset came down & did a range of talks on sexual health & AIDS. To top it all off, we even held a sexual health themed pub quiz & the outrageously fun Sex Ed ball!

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It’s been a pretty good year for our union communications with rebranding, redesigning, & rejuvenating at the forefront for increasing student awareness of SUBU events news & campaigns.

The SUBU brand SUBU has responded to feedback from students & other stakeholders & begun improving our brand. This is ‘work in progress’ & is taking the form of an ‘organic’ development of our collective family of brands over a few years. This process is allowing us to keep our strong brand identities that already exist, whilst simultaneously strengthening those that need it.

The SUBU brand is more than ‘just a logo’. The SUBU brand stands

for trust, openness, innovation, teamwork, professionalism, supporting each other & having fun.

It stands for involving students in everything we do, being responsive to their needs, & having a positive impact on their lives. Finally, it stands for the fact that we do all this in a responsible way that minimises our impact on the environment.SUBU has a logo & a tag & has a

brand colour which we call ‘SUBU blue’ (cyan). These exist in order to help increase the awareness of the values & aims of SUBU in all our services & work. It is therefore important to SUBU that the logo & the tag are used abundantly & appropriately across all the services & work of SUBU. Where there is the SUBU logo or tag, the SUBU brand values exist. Where there is no SUBU logo or tag, there is no SUBU.

SUBU is a diverse & multi-service organisation that extends trust & responsibility both internally & to others when the above brand values are acknowledged, respected & communicated. All our services are therefore strong services in their own right, but all are very much part of the SUBU brand.

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We have developed a brand style for our all services that brings our family of brands together. Most notably, all our brands are now presented in the same size ‘SUBU square’ shape. A new generic logo for SUBU has been developed in this style that will increase in use & presence next year.

The SUBU PublicationsThis year we decided to refresh the branding of our fortnightly publication, firstly changing its name from ‘The Word’ to ‘The Little SUBU Update’.

The newsletter was also redesigned & the content structure changed to include more detailed news stories & a topical feature every two weeks. We’ve also worked closely with our Commercial Services featuring more of their stories & events in the newsletter than ever before.

Likewise, we’ve worked with them to improve the newsletter’s distribution, increasing it from 500 to 750 copies & getting it delivered into the Halls of Residence.

Online CommunicationsFollowing last year’s HTML developments with the Weekly SUBU Update (all student email), we took this further & started using the HTML host Mail Chimp to send out our weekly communication.

This not only made the email more aesthetically pleasing, but also for the first time ever allowed us to input pictures & PDF’s alongside the text of the email, therefore making it far more interesting for students to read.

What’s more, through using Mail Chimp, we’ve also been able to distribute the email via social media, making it more accessible to students who may not check their email regularly.

Our presence on Social Media has gone from strength to strength, with us gaining over a 1000 ‘friends’ on Facebook , bringing our total up to 4079 members. We’ve also

strengthened our use of Twitter with daily posts & currently have 860 followers on the website.

Furthermore, we’ve increased student awareness of SUBU’s Twitter through on offline poster campaign, highlighting our key department’s accounts. We are now looking into the use of interactive social media screens around campus to engage with students further.

What our Students say:From the data taken from our most recent ‘How’s SUBU 4 You?’ survey, the following statistics show the extent to which students are engaged with our events, campaigns & communication channels:

• Nearly 66% of our students think that we communicate ‘well’ or ‘very well’. • 33% more students thought the Little SUBU Update was more effective this year at communicating than the Word was last year.• In our first year of asking, nearly 18% of our students now see Twitter as an effective way for us to communicate with them.• 75.8% of students were aware of our “SUBU Against Education Cuts” campaign.• 77.1% of students were aware or our “SUBU Factor” Elections.

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The student representation system is vital to ensure that each student on any course can put across their opinions of their experience. Whether they are good or not so good, the rep system provides a feedback outlet to get voices heard.

Rebranding Student feedback highlighted that the majority were not aware of what the rep system does, & who their rep is.

In response to this feedback at the beginning of the year the main focus was to concentrate on rebranding the rep system & increase the awareness. A vodcast was created & sent to all staff to help raise their knowledge on how the reps work & explain the change in branding. New poster designs & changes to

the online branding were made to introduce the new logo. The biggest change in raising awareness was the introduction of the Student Rep branded hoodies. Once trained all student reps were able to claim their very own student rep hoodie. Not only did this give them a great new hoodie, it also helped to raise the profile of the rep system. Reps wear them to lectures so that the students they represent can easily find them to give feedback to. From being spotted around uni, Winton & even at airports, these hoodies have helped to make the amazing student reps stand out more this year.

Student voice tabOn myBU the new ‘Student Voice tab’ has the list of all student reps, so that if you are having any problems, or things you wish to

bring up at the course meetings you will be able to find & email your rep easily.

Rep training! This year over 475 reps have been trained, a huge increase from last year’s 250 reps. This year the training was more focused on the resources that the reps can use to support the students they represent, as well as providing them with a greater understanding of their role

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as a rep & the structure of the system.

The first training for this year was run as a conference to increase the amount of reps that could be trained in one day, 180 reps were trained on this day, followed by another 15 sessions for those who could not make this day, & an online version of the training for distance learners plus the final few students who could not make the planned sessions.

Success through new resources:Survey monkey (the online survey tool) has given the student reps an easy place to collect data from their course.

Having captured data showing statistics of how their students are feeling, reps have made a huge difference on presenting opinion & getting things changed. Using the data to support opinions has influenced some big course changes; unit material & layout of myBU has been improved, more books in the library.

One example of how this data has been used successfully was on the Music Technology course: the student rep joined the VP Rep to meet with the Dean of Design, Engineering & Computing to discuss extra areas of the programme where they needed more revision sessions due to unavailable staff. All requests made by the students were achieved.

In total, 54 student rep generated surveys were launched on survey monkey this year, with 952 respondents in total to all surveys. This is much more than we thought would use the tool at the start of the year, so we will be refining & improving this service next year.

The new Facebook group, BU Student Reps 2011, has given the reps a new place to interact, asking me & other reps for information. At the moment there are 200 members but it is rising every week! The results from the student rep survey in 2010 highlighted

that 90.3% would like to be communicated through emails. In reaction to this data the new ‘student rep update’ via email was introduced to keep the reps in the know about events, changes in the union, information on involvement & resources available for the reps.

Student rep forumsNew this year, the forums are there to bring forward any student experience opinions. Held each term in each school, these meetings mean that reps can bring up any issues from the library, equipment & resources. From the student feedback, lecture theatres have been improved, timetables improved, assessment feedback improved & lots more!

‘You’re Brilliant!’ award New this year we have introduced an award to show the positive contribution that BU staff make to the students time at Bournemouth; the ‘You’re Brilliant!’ award.

The student reps were simply asked to nominate any staff member at BU that they believe are ‘Brilliant’! No

other criteria was necessary.We had 19 nominations put forward with some fantastic comments from reps. The staff members were presented with a certificate that states ‘You’re Brilliant!’ with the student comment for them to see, as well as an ‘I’m Brilliant! My students say so!’ mug to use!

From the 19 awards we received three outstandingly brilliant staff were selected to win the ‘Most Outstandingly Brilliant Staff Member 2011’ which was presented at the Vice Chancellor awards. The three fantastic staff put forward to win

the ‘Most Outstandingly Brilliant’ award were:Mandy Lenihan (Business School)Clare Taylor (Health & Social Care)Laura Backley (Applied Science- now Business School)

The winner of this award went to the staff member that was nominated 4 times by 4 different students; Clare Taylor from HSC.The award has been a great success, with lots of positive feedback from those involved as the nominations come directly from the students. This award will carry on next year where we will hopefully see more & more staff around BU with ‘I’m Brilliant!’ mugs!

Student reps on myBU 80%of the student reps surveyed last year thought that ‘it would be easier for them to have the rep information on myBU’. After negotiating with the university it has been agreed that the student reps will have their very own student rep section on myBU. This is currently being created & will be available to the reps by next academic year.

Rep socialsThe rep survey highlighted that the students would like to have more social opportunities. This year we held our first Christmas social which, although only attended by a few, was very much enjoyed as a chance to share experiences of the first term with each other.

The student rep system is vital for the students at BU, and focusing on this important area has been a great experience. I hope that the foundations that have been put in place - the refreshed branding & introduction of resources for the reps - the system will continue to grow.

BU will undoubtedly be a better place for students with a strong focus on student opinions of their experience. The rep system is the way to do this. I wish Kate all the best with developing the rep system this year; I am positive that she will help it excel.

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It is an important part of SUBU’s work – in fact the most important – to listen to students views about issues affecting their lives & to take some action to improve things. We hear the student voice through a number of channels, but always at one of the following levels:-1. The individual voice – this is heard through us:-a. Going Out & Talking to students (GOATing!)b. ‘The Chair’ that gives students

the opportunity to tell us their opinion on anything they want!c. Your Student Shout – our once a term meeting open to all students d. Our annual ‘How’s SUBU for you?’ survey of all students.2. Student Reps – over 600 reps trained & facilitated by SUBU on issues & opinions relating to groups of students.3. SUBU Executive Committee – where broad issues affecting all students at BU are debated & acted on.

Here are just some of the many things that were raised this year that we have acted on…1. The individual voice…

“Adult nursing students at Yeovil have to travel to Bournemouth to return books to the Library.”SUBU has worked on this with a view to facilitating book loans from Bournemouth being returned without cost from Yeovil to Bournemouth. We will continue to drive this forward.

“PhD students teaching undergrads should have more training on teaching.”SUBU first raised this at Senate in February 2010, SUBU is still pressing BU for clarification as to what level of training lecturers are given before they can teach. In the ideal world SUBU believes that a Cert Ed should be the minimum standard for anyone being employed to teach at BU. So far, SUBU has proposed & had accepted some core statements on a commitment to teaching development at BU.

“The cash machines have gone with Barclays! We need more access to cash at Talbot campus!”SUBU immediately increased its advertising & facility to offer cashback through the shop & Dylan’s. We also lobbied the

university & received a commitment to ask any new bank contractor to provide more ATMs.

“SUBU should have more of a presence at Lansdowne.”SUBU opened an office in Studland House in September 2010 with a new staff position of ‘Lansdowne Campus Manager’. In February 2011 SUBU agreed the creation of a new full time officer position of Vice President Lansdowne Representation that will start in September 2011.

“It would be good if students could have more choice on their housing options when coming to BU, so that more choice can be made on quiet or social halls.”SUBU is currently seeking further clarity from accommodation in their advertisements, particularly for halls, so that students have as much

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detail as possible.“We want to do something about the threats from our education being proposed by this government.”SUBU sent 3 coaches to the NUS National Demonstration in November 2010, & a coach to the Day of Action in December 2010. SUBU also lobbied all our local MPs.

“The U3 bus service is poor!”The removal of the service from Westbourne to Talbot via the town centre has been a constant thorn in SUBU’s side for a couple of years. Despite presenting petitions with over 400 signatures in 2009, there has been only marginal improvement in the service- an additional three times a day service (U4) was introduced as was a 7 day value for money ticket & an extension of the student discount to include the M1 & M2 routes. SUBU will continue campaigning on this matter.The U3 is a service that is primarily to prevent students from Ensbury Park having to walk through the woods at Slades Farm & also to service parts of Winton that students (in particular UCB students) live in. Passenger numbers would suggest that this route cannot realistically be increased beyond the once an hour service it is already, however it is the pick up at Talbot for some parts of the day at 55 mins past & dropping off at Talbot at 04 minutes past that frustrate students most. SUBU will continue to campaign on this matter.

2. Student Reps “Bunching assessments together does not help make life easy for us”SUBU constantly raised this at Senate & Academic Standards Committee. Some schools are better than others. Frameworks are believed to add in a layer of complexity with this. SUBU has raised the idea of setting hand in periods rather than one off dates so that students can work more flexibly & that more communication between lecturers to create an assignment timetable to make sure that the assignments are not all set at the same time is vital.“3 week turnaround of assessments is not always great. Some

assessments seem to be set to just comply with this deadline rather than help learning.”This was raised & discussed at Senate by SUBU. SUBU’s view is that assessments should be flexible & timely according to the lecturer & the piece of work as long as the students were informed in the first instance, & that the aim is to maximise learning development. SUBU is pushing for a solution that ensures the focus is on maximising learning for the student & not necessary the ease of turn around. We have suggested a matrix including the numbers of students & type of assignment is taken into consideration to determine the appropriate reasonable turnaround time.

“Some lectures have bad quality AV teaching equipment & broken blinds. Lecture rooms are too small for the number of students, & some students even have to have their lecture through a video link.”There has been much action from the University Estates department about these comments & the state of repair of teaching facilities was raised at Senate in November 2010. SUBU will continue to chase these issues until an acceptable standard has been reached for the teaching environment across the university.

“The students highlighted that there had been complaints about the cleanliness & condition of the computers in the library” This complaint was highlighted to the Student Academic Services to improve this area.

“The Music technology course students believed that they had not received the right amount of contact hours due to staff sickness.”The student rep on the course & VP Rep met with the Dean to address these issue. It was agreed that these students would receive more teaching sessions on the areas that they felt they had missed out on.

3. SUBU Executive Committee Student feedback highlighted annoyance with external promoters flyering at the back BU gate. Letters were sent to licensed bars & clubs in Bournemouth, in partnership with

BU & Bournemouth Borough Council, warning them that we would be monitoring the situation with a view to reducing litter & harassment of students.

A focus group was held in Corfe House Halls of residence following concerns from first year students about feeling isolated. A group of ‘Corfe Reps’ were identified as a result to inform SUBU of specific issues & ideas were raised on how to improve things for 11/12. SUBU exec also approved a social bus to take residents to the Halls War event at TOFS.

Following concerns from students studying at the Lansdowne campus about feeling neglected, SUBU exec approved the position of a new VP for Lansdowne campus to focus primarily on representation at Lansdowne campus with a focus on equality & diversity.

The results of ‘How’s Subu for you 10/11’ informed a re-vamp of the current SUBU Exec officer roles. New positions include an ‘Equal opportunities officer’ an ‘Activities officer’ & an ‘Accommodation & Transport officer’, all aimed to tackle specific areas currently under represented. SUBU President pushing to see more student artwork displayed around the university.

SUBU facilitated a ‘Question Time with the Vice-Chancellor’ event for students to ask John Vinney in person. We anticipate this becoming a regular event.

SUBU used student feedback on camera to inform the Graduate Employment Service of how they could improve their service to students.

SU President & SU VP Representation presented to the University Board on current & future student expectations & how these might affect the student experience. The content was regarded highly & the presentation was asked to be repeated to both the Estates & I.T team, & Marketing & Communications team.

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This year’s SUBU involvement awards evening at the delightfully swish Cumberland Hotel, with students & staff coming together to celebrate the best of Clubs & Societies, Volunteering, Nerve Media & Exec.

It was a smashing night, which scrumptious food & even better company. More importantly it gave SUBU staff the opportunity to congratulate & thank students for their hard work this year. A humongous thank you & pat on the back goes out to all students for their effort & commitments. You’re all superstars!

This year’s winners:

Clubs & Societies Best newcomer for Clubs & Socs: Ballroom & Latin Society Club of the Year: Forensic SocietyClubs & Socs Special Achievement: The Alternative Performance Society/ The Writers SocietyClubs & Socs Safety award: RAG

Outstanding Contribution award: Phillip Clark (Climbing Club), Chris Holly (Photography Society), Tears (Sign Language / Bournemouth Africa Caribbean Society, Street Dance) , Andy Haigh (Tchoukball Club)

Outstanding Contribution – RAG

Nerve MediaBest Newcomer: Josh SaundersBest TV Contributor: Scott PayneBest Magazine Contributor: Jack HyomBest Radio Contributor: Jess BraceyOutstanding Contributors: Dan Duke & Freddie Harrison

ExecCampaign of the year: Nicola Aspell (First year experience officer), Anti Drink Spiking Campaign Outstanding Exec member of the year award: Steven Driscoll

“It has been a pleasure to work with Steven & he has gone above & beyond his duties on a regular basis. His support has been second to none & he thoroughly deserves to be recognised. Steven is a shining example of what exec officers can achieve as part time volunteers.”(Toby Horner, SUBU President) “I think he has been the most outstanding member of exec this

year, he has thrown himself into everything he has done & has always been there to help with other peoples campaigns & projects. His commitment to SUBU is incredible.” (Chris Nash SU SWD Officer)

VolunteeringProject of the Year: Shu Ting FungCommunity Volunteer of the Year: Lisa MarshallStaff Volunteer of the Year: Louise TuckerUniversity Lifetime Achievement: Chris Nash & Steven DriscollVolunteer of the Year: Lauren Ellis

Leadership Programme certificates J. Matthew Harvey: Bronze & SilverAna Georgieva: BronzeLisa Marshall: Bronze

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Check out this years greatest student success stories, just another reason we’re proud of the students involved with our clubs, societies, volunteering, fundraising, representation & media! A big thank goes out to them for helping to raise a positive profile of the student body.

• The community action team got into the Daily Echo in October for picking up 12 hours bags of rubbish in just 2 hours around the University & Winton Area.

• The American Pool Club kicked off their year by winning the first ever Pool Tournament they entered. The competitors were treated to over two & half hours of pool excitement, the highlight being a thrilling match between members Dan Whitmarsh & George Corden.

• The Bournemouth University Boat Club were extremely successful at the BUCS Indoor Rowing Championships, particularly medal winners Richard Henderson (Silver Openweight men), Alex RatCliffe (Bronze Openweight men), Joe Watson (Bronze Lightweight men), Annie McBain (Silver Lightweight women).

• The BU snow riders taught five people to snowboard as a result of the Fresher’s Lessons course

• Star of last years BBC Apprentice, Kimberly Davies gave a special talk to Business Mania members. Davies was the 5th contestant to be kicked off the show by Sir Alan Sugar.

• In November the Writer’s Society had a guest talk from Danny Stack, a scriptwriter for CITV’s Bafta Winning ‘The Amazing Adrenalini Brothers’, CBBC ‘Roy’, Eastenders and Doctors.

• In September, the Writers’ Society held a competition for 3-minute scripts or 1,500 word short stories. It was won by Sam Caine for his short story ‘Richars Corey JR”

• In February Ultimate Frisbee got through to Nationals, coming 6th out of 18 teams at Regionals on the 19th & 20th February.

• The Ballroom & Latin Dance society entered & did fantastically well in the UK Nationals, placing 4th in the Waltz & 2nd in Chaca in the finals out of roughly 200 couples all over the UK.

• The launch of a brand new Nerve website incorporating mag, radio & tv with all new online content, achieved half a million hits in its first two weeks.

• Nerve Radio gained interviews with NUS president Aaron Porter, TV & Radio presenters Iain Lee & Dave Berry, & football commentating legend Clive Tyldesley during a two week FM broadcast run for the first time by the students.

• Creation of an online TV channel for Nerve TV luanched with a 3 hour live special featuring music, interviews, comedy & news.

• Nerve Magazine has been redesigned & refocused with more journalistic content, interviews with stars such as Tinie Tempah, Foals, You Me at Six & Beardyman & great sport coverage on a university, local & national level.

• Highest level of interest & involvement ever for Nerve, with well over 100 people registering & taking part in all three areas of Nerve’s output.

• 151 students took part in RAG’s charity hitchhike Leggit & 113 took part in Lost.

• Claire Briars personally raised £1,670 for Huntington’s disease

research by participating in RAG’s Lost & Leggit Charity hitch hikes.

• Jo Jo Fung did a great project for her Silver award getting people to make a pledge to save energy & giving out energy saving light bulbs. Her pledge was very successful & caught the attention of many students & staff around the university so much so that she was asked if the pledge poster could be displayed on the wall in the atrium & her project was also featured in one of the news bulletins at the University.

• Cameron Johnson organised a ‘Big Picture’ event for his Silver Leadership Award, the picture was for the Wessex Autistic Society & is something they can display & feature every year for World Autism Day. He recruited friends & other members of the Leadership Group to help with the painting & they managed to complete the 12 canvases in an afternoon. Cameron will be taking the finished picture to Wessex Autistic Society where it will be presented to the manager & he is also keen to learn more about the Society & find out other ways to be involved.

• Lisa Marshall is a Reading volunteer at Canford Heath First school. Lisa has been committed, proactive & reliable since joining us in October. The children look forward to working with her & she has established good relations with the children & staff in the school. She has been flexible throughout & has independently adapted the environment to accommodate her wheel chair when necessary. The class teacher has been extremely grateful for her help.

• Louise Tucker is a member of BU staff & has been regularly attending Make a Difference days over the past 5 years. She has taken part in painting murals for local primary schools & working with the National Trust on Conservation work. It is brilliant to have such a dedicated volunteer who juggles a hectic career, social life & who makes time to volunteer.

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Some background information- The School of Health & Social Care (HSC) & the post graduate business school are based at Lansdowne Campus, approximately three miles from Talbot campus.

The students enrolled on health & social care courses study (in the main) at either Studland House or Bournemouth House located in Christchurch Road & the Executive Business Centre in Holdenhurst Road (EBC) houses the post graduate students many of whom are international students.

Historically the Students’ Union has found it a challenging student demographic to engage with as

the students based here have traditionally more teaching hours & mini placements throughout their courses which can interrupt their own social & extra curricula activities due to the varying nature & structure of their course.

Many HSC students have children & so their priorities after University are family responsibilities & consequently they have not previously considered involvement with the Students’ Union & we feel miss out on important personal development opportunities as well as their own feeling of not being connected to University life.

Like wise the post graduates based at EBC often struggle to build any

external communities due to the intense nature of their programmes & location of their course being

detached from a large campus & easy opportunities to mix with undergraduates in their field.

The Challenge:To provide opportunities for students to have easier access to Students’ Union activities & be able to speak with a member of staff about

anything that may result in a more positive student experience whether course related or an idea they have for a volunteer activity, charity fund raising idea, campaign or democratic involvement by being involved as a student rep or as a part time elected officer.

It is also important to have a presence through advertising at the sites through the Students’ Union fortnightly & monthly publications i.e. The Little Student Update & NERVE magazine as well as other

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publications & marketing by other SU areas.

The Opportunity: The placement of a member of SU staff (Ally Hanks) in a prominent ground floor office at Studland House three days a week & the continuation of an Advice Centre service operated from Bournemouth House for at least four hours during the term time every week day.

It was also approved by the Students’ Union executive committee to include a fourth full time sabbatical officer for 2010/11 who will help bridge the gap between Talbot & Lansdowne Campus with the aptly named title of Vice President Lansdowne Representative & Philli Hodgson was elected in March of this year with 1407 votes.

The progress: Having a dedicated staff member based at Lansdowne campus has resulted in progressive networking

with HSC professional services & academic staff & also with the managers of the local student accommodation at Lyme Regis House & Purbeck House & Ally has been able to represent the Students’ Union at the following forums & meetings –

• Student experience forum for HSC students• Halls meeting (discussing student accommodation)• Part of Dignity Diversity & Equality steering group• Wellness Across the Lifespan network• Presence at HSC freshers’ fair • Presence at HSC open days• Supporting Post graduate open days

Positive influences:Being able to dedicate consistent staff time & effort to a project has helped the following positive outcomes –

• The first Diversity Day held at the EBC organised by post graduate international students• Influencing the Estates Department to widen use of “staff only” secure bike compounds at EBC• Influencing Estates to allow a student to have a long term locker key at Bournemouth House

• A new student society was formed named “Parents r Us”• BUnique presence through the Nutrition Society & Drawing & International Art Society• Notice board presence at Studland House• Easier payment to join RAG or clubs/socs events through payment facility in Bournemouth House SU shop• Influence on community police campaigns held at Studland House• Promotion & support for the election week • Supporting induction talks to new students with the sabbatical officers

The future: • To continue to support growth & development of the Lansdowne campus community while raising the profile of the SU while aiming to engage with even more cohorts & hard to reach groups. The journey has only just begun…

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This year has been an amazing year with more volunteers getting involved than ever & participating in lots of exciting projects.

Hub-tastic!Over the academic year we have seen an increase in volunteers with 1010 students registered on the site & over 164 active volunteers taking part in the 278 opportunities available.

MAD days‘Make a Difference’ days have been great this year & have included National Trust days, beach cleans & Christmas decorating as well as some fantastic new ones. MAD days have mostly been fully booked this year & the most popular being the mural at Canford Heath First School & conservation work with the RSPB.

Student Volunteer week launched in February with an activity being run on every day. The week kicked off with Five Minute volunteering, with local charities providing a

short & simple volunteering activity for students to get involved in. Activities included card making, designing a poster & giving feedback on ‘why I love Bournemouth’. The week continued with reusable bag making, a knitted garden & the handprint pledge.

thehub Goes GlobalA major project this year has been thehub Goes Global. 6 students have been fundraising throughout the year to go to Bulgaria where they will be working at an orphanage in the city of Rousse. The project involves the volunteers teaching 50 children all aged between 3-7years old English & renovating the orphanage itself. The massive task of raising the mammoth £7,000 has seen volunteers do a wide range of fundraising activities. They have been washing cars, baking cakes, holding fundraising meals & generally fundraising their socks off!

What our Volunteers say! ‘I feel so proud that I helped the local community’A good day out!! – Lovely weather & location’‘Met some nice new people’, ‘Great team of people to work with’‘Making a difference to improve & save the environment’‘Activity associated with my course –

Ecology & Wildlife Conservation’“To increase decision-making skills & time management” “I could really use my skills (designing etc)” “Good to know you’re making a difference”

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The year has seen a change in SUBU Rag, with a new committee & a new vision for effective fundraising. The team has mainly focused on large scale events, ranging from charity hitchhikes to overseas adventures & have also included some events at the Firestation.

With four core charities; Meningitis Research Foundation, Wessex Autistic Society, Dorset ME Support group & Victim Support, & some great new ideas, the team were determined to hit £30,000 & be named as the best rag Bournemouth has seen!

The response from Bournemouth university students has been better than ever! The first event, LEGGIT saw 151 students attempting to travel as far away from Bournemouth as possible in 36 hours, without spending a penny! The event raised a staggering £10,828.95 for rag’s core charities & the winning team found themselves sunbathing in Egypt!

Following this success, the idea of LOST was introduced. As many referred to it as ‘leggit but backwards’ 113 students found themselves on blacked out coaches heading to three mystery locations in a race against the clock to get back to Bournemouth, without spending a penny. As blagging skills were put to the test, the fastest

team arrived back in 4 hours & 13 minutes & the whole event raised an amazing £5198.13 for charity.

In light of reaching more students, rag teamed up with BU sports teams to hold its first annual Christmas ball in December. This was later followed by the Sex Ed Ball in February, both events were small but successful & rag hopes they will only increase in following years.

Another first for SUBU rag was the introduction of two overseas charity adventures. 15 brave students have signed up to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in September 2011. With a target amount of £2440 per person, the team will raise an astounding £36,600 for Childreach International. In addition to this, 12 more students are hopping on two wheels to cycle from London to Paris in three days in July 2011. With a target amount of £750 per person, the group will raise £9000 for Breast cancer campaign, hope for children & practical action.

Amongst many new changes, the tradition of Raids has still stuck. With the dedication of a few key individuals, raids have raised £6379.29 for 5 different charities, & Bournemouth Rag has made it in to the top 10 fundraisers for Breast Cancer Campaign.

On top of all these events rag with help of many students has also focused on various appeals. The first was Comic Relief, which raised £886.70 & secondly the Macmillan pot collection which raised £590.49. Finally, with the tremendous effort from the Japanese students of BU, rag also raised £4229.38 for the British Red Cross Japan Tsunami appeal.

All in all, it has been a fantastic year for rag with £73,800 raised for many different charities & a huge amount of participation from students. A huge thank you to everyone who has taken part, volunteered, donated or supported rag throughout the year. Also a huge thank you to everyone at SUBU for their continual support & the rag committee: Lauren Ellis, Richard Frame, Ruby Limbrick, Grace Dean & Chris Nash.

Finally, Good luck to next year’s committee lets hit that £100,000!!

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A brilliant year for Clubs & SocsSo we have seen another eventful year with an increased involvement throughout clubs & societies.

Our first success stories come from the arrival of the Freshers… we saw hundreds of students using the tasters sessions to try some of the clubs on offer

The Forensic Society organised their first Crime scene event & were

overwhelmed by the success with them showing Freshers the basics of gathering & processing evidence on a mock crime scene

We had our biggest ever Freshers Fair with many clubs inviting new members; one club in particular, The Beach BBQ Society, had over 800 new members sign up on this one day alone!

With the introduction of 15 brand new clubs, including Amore Mio- Italian culture, Assassins Guild & the

Parents R Us clubs to name a few, this year we have raised our total number of clubs to over 70!!

With thanks to the introduction of two successful BUnique weeks we have seen even more people getting involved in a wide variety of events.

The first week saw Kimberly Davis from the Apprentice giving a guest lecture, RAG running a very very successful first Leggit with two teams getting to Egypt and CAT picking up over 40 bags of litter.With the second week starting with RAG’s LOST at the weekend, which has raised over £4,500 for good causes, the week started with

a real bang! Nutrition had their yummy food tasting on both Talbot & Lansdowne campus, bringing a real buzz to Lansdowne. Anime made a big impression by dressing in character from their favorite films & series.The performances in the atrium often brought the atrium to a stand still showing the talent of Ballroom & Latin, Dance, PARTS & Alternative Writers Society.

Sign Language made a huge impression signing to popular songs & well known Christmas carols in the Atrium, while Nerve took over Dylan’s Bar.The most shocking of events had

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to be the “Mass incident” by the Forensic society, who really made a “scene” in the atrium! Not only was it a great chance for many students to practice key skills, but it was also an enjoyable event! They took it so seriously that they chased the Students’ Union photographer off the scene!

Talks from Business Mania & Writers Society also took place, while Ultimate Frisbee played a friendly against Bournemouth & Poole College students.

Sailing club have had a brilliant turn out for their taster session for Sailing, & we can’t wait to see the photos soon!The Oriental culture & Drawing societies provided some culture & diversity by hosting a Poole House exhibition & creating an initiative, the Chinese-English language exchange programme

All about the arts now…PARTS hit the Pier Theatre with their rendition of RENT, a first for the Society to hit the stage off campus. Amazing reviews came back, so a massive congratulations!

BUST followed in their steps producing the famous Vagina Monologues raising money for the Women of Haiti & Butterfly foundation Charities along the way…well done!!!

Writers Society & Alternative performance joined forces to produce As Happy As Can Be & following that success are bringing us Killing Bill Gates in June, which has been accepted at the Edinburgh Fringe festival…an amazing achievement

The Latin & Ballroom guys & girls made their way to Bath & then to the dazzling heights of the Blackpool

Ballrooms to compete in a National Competition placing 4th in Waltz & 2nd in Cha-cha

The Boat club have seen us through the winter months by producing their naked calendar this year to raise money for the club. They also did a non stop simulated row from Dover to Calais, then to Nottingham raising money for charity & for their training camp.

Ultimate Frisbee spun their way to 6th place in February in the Nationals.But this is just a small taste of the talent & enthusiasm shown by Clubs & Societies this term… there are so many more things to mention…but alas we have no more space. More successes will be available on our website or Facebook “SUBU Clubs & Socieities”.

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NERVE

In a year where more responsibility over SUBU’s student media, Nerve, was given to the students than ever before, it is no coincidence that it has been perhaps one of its most successful. We launched a new website – www.nervemedia.org.uk - which proved to be a huge success, bringing our Magazine, Radio & TV together & reaching half a million (yes – half a million!) hits in just two weeks.

Nerve magazine went from strength to strength, undertaking a design overhaul that suited its regular mix of great interviews, fascinating features, fashion tips & national, local & varsity sports reporting. Some highlights of the year include interviews with stars such as Tinie Tempah, You Me At 6, Beardyman & The Vaccines. We investigated

everything from student fees, homelessness & the highs & lows of strip clubs to Chatroulette, Facebook & Twitter & the Sports team gave us regular updates on AFC Bournemouth & BU’s Varsity teams & monthly interviews with some of the biggest names. Overall a year to be proud of & some exciting prospects for next year.

Over at Nerve TV, control was given over to a committee of students for the first time & an online channel was set up. This gave us the opportunity to broadcast live & the channel was launched with a 3 hour live spectacular with interviews, sketches & live music. Elsewhere, some great shows were made throughout the year, including a three part special following one

team’s Leggit adventures. All this along with live coverage of the Students’ Union election results & a

one off takeover broadcast live on Radio & TV simultaneously makes for a very encouraging year at Nerve TV.

Handing control to the students at Nerve Radio turned out to be perhaps the best decision of the year. The 10-strong committee, along with every single student who presented, produced or helped out in any other way were hugely impressive all year. Bringing more variety & quality to the schedule than ever before & managing to increase the live presented hours from 9am to 9pm during term time took a huge level of commitment & set the team up for a fantastic 2 weeks of FM Radio. Broadcasting live on 87.7FM for two weeks in March everyone involved gave everything

to help make this FM one of the best ever & we welcomed big names such as Clive Tyldesley, Iain Lee, Dave Berry & NUS President Aaron Porter (pictured above) to our radio station.

It would takes far to long to thank every single Nerve volunteer who deserves a mention, so a huge collective thank you must go to them all, & next year is sure to be even better!

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LEADERSHIPLEADERSHIP“It’s the kind of leadership we want for ourselves so we provide it to others”

It’s been another great year for the SUBU Leadership Programme, with over 200 students actively involved in the activities, interactive workshops & volunteering sessions designed to help students develop their leadership skills & potential in a practical way.

Led by Jane De Vekey & Sophie Dadd the programme consists of Bronze, Silver & Gold levels. Achieving Silver & Bronze can be a challenge,

requiring attendance at more sessions & a greater commitment to volunteering but is well worth it, looking great on any CV & preparing people for their careers with some invaluable leadership & management advice.

The workshop sessions are designed to cover 5 key topics across bronze, silver & gold with Leadership, Communication, Teams, Management

& Cultural & Environmental Leadership included. Run either alongside SUBU’s Volunteering Department & thehub or as individual projects the Leadership Programme’s volunteering section requires Bronze participants to take part in at least one activity, Silver to lead an activity & Gold must develop & manage a project, or take part in the training of other students at Bronze level.

With it’s motto of ‘the best example of leadership is leadership

by example’ this was one of the Leadership Programme’s most successful years with 143 students achieving the Bronze award, 53 receiving Silver & 9 students going all the way to Gold.

After such a great year there are high hopes for the next & the Leadership Programme’s sure to be helping students along the path to great leadership skills, boosting their CVs & providing essential skills whatever path they choose for a long time yet.

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We feel that we’ve had a successful start to the year, particularly considering the fact that two out of our three staff were new at the start of the academic year. We’ve been off doing some detailed training, delivered by Advice UK & other umbrella organisations within our sector. We’ve also formed relationships with the advice services at other Students’ Unions, from whom we can learn tips & together with whom we can develop best practice.

We have been routinely developing our skills & knowledge base through CPD & collaborative working with Advice Workers (Paul & Keith) internal & external to BU.

But we’ve also been focusing on the core issues facing BU students – we’ve successfully represented a

number of students at academic/disciplinary hearings, & negotiated robustly with creditors to save many students money on their debts. We’ve begun the process of increasing the awareness of our services amongst students at partnership institutions by working more closely with Sam Neaves, SUBU’s Partnerships Co-ordinator. We’re also delivering on our commitment to be open five days a week during term-time at Lansdowne Campus, & looking forward to working closely with the new VP Lansdowne, Philli.

On 17 March in Talbot Campus & the following week at both Lansdowne Campus & Bournemouth & Poole College we held an ‘Advice Fair’, which were organised by marketing students from the School of Tourism. It’s really important to us to get the

student perspective on the issues that we handle, so we’re looking at working more closely with past clients – their experiences can benefit students who are facing difficulties for the first time.

We’re working with BU staff to ensure that the communication you receive from them is as clear as possible. Whether you’ve been called to an Academic Offences hearing, owe BU money, or are looking at the terms & conditions for borrowing equipment, we think that you’re entitled to an absolutely clear understanding of the situation.

We’ve invested a small amount of money & a large amount of love in redecorating the main SUBU Advice offices in Poole House, so that they can be seen as a welcoming place where you can receive reliable advice & support on the key issues that are causing you problems.

We’ll be working closely with all the Sabbatical officers next year to ensure that we’re delivering effective campaigns at appropriate times of the academic year.

Finally, we’ve recently launched our own Twitter feed, @subuadvice, which will help us become even more accessible to BU students.

David Stock, Alexis Drayson & Barbara Fletcher – the SUBU Advice Team.

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Bournemouth University has a number of relationships with partnership institutions that allow students to study towards Bournemouth University qualifications. The institutions are certainly varied, ranging from The Military Royal School of Signals to The Guernsey Training Agency & as far field as China!

That said, there are six conventional partnership colleges that the majority of partnerships students’ study at, although there is a still a massive amount of variety in the subjects offered. A major advantage of partnership institutions is they allow people to study closer to their homes, thus potentially removing a number of barriers to Higher Education. For students who study in their home towns there are many advantages of not having to uproot & move, lack of home sickness & no pressing need to create new support networks (Which is especially important to parents & other carers)That said two of the colleges have in the region of 50 students in halls of residences & also attract international students, so they really have the full spectrum of modern student backgrounds!Students at partnership institutions often benefit from lower fees & extra bursaries, with many colleges

having lower entry requirements which again opens up the higher education experience to people with diverse backgrounds. Students at partnership institutions are able to take advantage of resources not available on the main BU campuses, such as the fantastic facilities for architectural stone work, & the beautiful rural settings of Kingston Maurward & Cannington campuses, this can lead to real success with some ex students of Weymouth recently getting to work for The Queen!

It follows that any student studying towards a Bournemouth University qualification is automatically a member of the The Students Union at Bournemouth University, & therefore SUBU rightly sees partnerships students as a core part of its memberships. There are around 2,000 students studying at partnerships colleges out of a total of 17,000 BU Students.

Since 2007, SUBU has employed a partnership coordinator to facilitate communication between institutions & to respond ‘On the shop floor’ to partnership students needs & desires. A common bugbear is the perceived lack in resources & social activities, some times justified & sometimes a case of misunderstanding or bad

communication on the part of either BU, SUBU or a college. To this end SUBU offers the opportunity for students to start up clubs & societies, helps create freshers events, gets students involved in national issues such as the anti fees demonstrations, helps create better social resources such as putting in pool tables & TV systems into common rooms, as well as helping students to have a cheap lunch by providing microwaves & kettles, we are also helping students to raise money & get fit by supporting their efforts to take on the Three Peaks challenge!

All this alongside the core work of supporting students reps with training & opportunities to represent the students views and concerns, to share good practice & to participate in making their learning experiences excellent for them and the following cohorts.

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SUBU Figures from Audited Accounts July 2010 – March 2011

A. Our Income – Where the money came from

SUBU Commercial & Fundraising - £448614University - £432000

TOTAL - £880614

B. Our Expenses – What we spent it on

Executive, Representation & Partnerships - £ 123,802Learning & Development - £ 43,401Volunteering- £ 92,486Communications - £22,441Nerve Media- £101,146Staff Development/Conference- £18,435Affiliations - £21,034SUBU Advice- £68,741Clubs & Societies-£69,372Minibus expenses- £12,348Admin Staff & Office Running- £142,587Legal, Professional & Insurance -£25,456

TOTAL- £741,249

C. Capital Expenditure – Refurbishments & Equipment

Offices - £2,951 Dylan’s Bar- £6,406 Shops- £2,407 The Old Fire Station- £19,351 Entertainments - £4,482

TOTAL - £ 35,597

D. Cash movement at end of the year Income- £880,614Expenses-£-741,249Capital -£-35,597

What’s left to go back into reserve account -£103,768

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Learning & DevelopmentVolunteeringCommunicationsNerve MediaStaff Development & Conference

AffiliationsAdvice CentreClubs & SocietiesMinibus ExpensesAdmin Staff & Office RunningLegal, Professional & Insurance

Page 40: SUBU Annual Review 2011

The Old Fire Station is one of the country’s most highly acclaimed Students’ Union nightclubs. We bring the very best in live music with the likes of Marina & the Diamonds, Example, Chase & Status & Calvin Harris gracing our stage over the year. Weekly student events from some of the south’s biggest promoters include the sensory assault that is We Are Your Friends, bellowing bass & beat from Beat

Redemption & animalistic antics with the mischievously messy Hall Wars, to name but a few.

An exclusive end of the week mash up for BU students, Lollipop is a Bournemouth student institution as one of the most successful & long running student nights. Full of feel good frivolity & Friday flirtatiousness!

Born & bred brilliance from Bournemouth town, We Are Your Friends is an award winning melting pot of the very best in cutting edge

dance music & with enough venue visuals to make your eyes water & brain hurt, this is an event you would kick yourself for missing.

Another incredible event that after spreading its wings to the

scenes of Brighton & London, still comes back to hang its hat in its sunny hometown, Bournemouth. Showcasing some of the most diverse, forward thinking & innovative beat-driven acts to be found anywhere, Beat Redemption is set to dominate 2011.

After starting 3 years ago, DUBNIUM has soared to success in 2010. With several of their resident DJ’s securing UK tours, as well as vinyl releases & BBC Radio 1 airplay, the event’s success has also been targeted by some major national venues. Having just hosted the largest Outlook launch in the UK right here in Bournemouth, big things are set for DUBNIUM this summer as they run a 2-day festival in June as well as being invited by ANIMAL clothing for the 2nd year

running to launch their infamous extreme sports festival- ANIMAL WINDFEST- Sandbanks! Catch DUBNIUM back at the Old Fire Station in October!

Hall WarsFor too long banter has festered between the Bournemouth Uni. halls of residence. In an attempt to combat this, the good people of the Old Fire Station play home to Hall Wars, the gateway for students to release their competitive nature to achieve victory over the other halls.

After its conception Hall Wars has moved from strength to strength & is set to be even more explosive with the introduction of a whole new generation of fierce Freshers ready & raring to rep their hall & next year will endeavour to improve, including more students in unilets & alternative accommodation.

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Union shopsThe two Union shops in The Atrium - Talbot Campus and at Bournemouth House – Bournemouth Campus, have this year seen an encouraging sales increase fueled by strong demand for sandwiches. Furthermore new BU branded product lines have been added alongside the successful BU clothing range.

Future plans include a new shop layout, an in-house/online shop merchandise brand and expansion in the Hoodies product range.

The loft cafeThis year the Union has continued to support its successful Loft Café placement student programme started in 2009, however the café product offering is under much review with a direction planned to focus on the lucrative coffee market.

New furniture and a cosier theme are also in development in preparation for next year.

Dylan’s barTalbot Campus’ longest standing refreshment venue has boasted strong food sales this year, contrasting with a further decline in beer. Evening events have been challenging however private hire bookings are still important and the refreshed Sports TV coverage is in demand and growing.

The old fire station2010/2011 has been a lively time at Bournemouth’s main Student venue and having formed a partnership with Academy Music Group mid 2010, the venue has since seen many more stars pass through its doors.

Two new managers have also joined the ranks and trading is up a very positive 20% year on year. A rolling refurbishment investment will soon bring a daytime bar offering for the burgeoning number of Halls residents.

Marketing & sponsorship

The old ‘Sales’ department has this year been re-vamped as MARKETING & SPONSORSHIP; three staff now offer much needed marketing resource to SU departments, advertising sales to local/national companies and event sponsorship support. 2010 began with a much refreshed Fresher’ Fair successfully laying the groundwork for further growth at this important event in 2011.

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Chris NashStudents’ with Disabilities [email protected]

Ana GeorgievaInternational Students

[email protected]

Emma KinsleyEnvironment & Community

[email protected]

Ruby LimbrickEducation & Wellbeing

[email protected]

Ryan SpiresLGBT

[email protected]

Steven DriscollPR & Campaignssuprcampaigns@

bournemouth.ac.uk

Amy RalphMature Students

[email protected]

Sonia Travalglini Postgraduate Research

[email protected]

Lauren EllisLansdowne Officer

[email protected]

Kate JonesPost Graduate [email protected]

Nicola AspellFirst Year Experience

[email protected]

Will BurstowUnion Developmentsudevelopment@

bournemouth.ac.uk

Neneh PepperellSU VP Communications

[email protected]

Toby HornerSU President

[email protected]

Ko LeechVP Representation

[email protected]

Sarach Woodbridge: Observer, Murray Simpson: Observer

Page 43: SUBU Annual Review 2011

Welcome Crew 2010 consisted of 40 super enthusiastic students who gave up around 40 hours of their time to help make Freshers feel a little more welcomed!

Over the two-week period, the crew helped complete a long list of tasks ranging from moving students in

their accommodation, meeting students at Heathrow airport, & queue control at enrollment sessions, right through to simply being lovely & answering student

queries. A big thank you goes out to every one of you for your hard work. Without you it would have been more than incredibly difficult! We hope to see you in

2011’s Welcome Crew!

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REVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEW

Thanks!Thanks!The Students’ Union at Bournemouth University (SUBU) has had this document produced using 100% recycled paper stock approved by the Forestry Stewardship Council. Always look out for this stamp of approval on our other printed publications such as Nerve Magazine, The SUBU Update and Freshers’

Arrivals Guide for proof of origin, and our commitment to conservation of the environment.