Last week, we met with the candidates standing for Activities and Development Officer; Anna Campbell, Riley Gibson and Fred Baker. Here’s what they had to say.
Keep an eye out for further coverage on the other positions throughout the week, and be sure to check online for candidates’ full manifestoes. Voting starts Monday 13th at 10am and closes Thursday 16th at 5pm, and we’ll bring you the results on Friday night!
Firstly, what should we know about you? Is there anything you’re proud of, any experience you’ve had, or skills that might help you in this position?
Anna Campbell: So this year I am president of the brass band SoC so been in charge of that overseeing our rehearsals our concerts Overseeing, I guess it’s a trip, a university brass band contest, brass bands from all across the country come and compete against each other. Last year I was treasurer for the music society and I organised a ball and for all of the music societies, it was incredibly stressful. I’ve organised tours last year – we went to Germany, this year we’re going to Belgium. I work in new leaf, in the salad bar, so people might recognise me – made many a salad. I do a lot of music. I play French horn, tenor horn and piano so a lot of music. I’m in the big band for the next show which is Sweeney Todd. As music students we do rush hour concerts in Firth also at lunch times we have to play there, yeah perform lots of concerts coming up after Easter for all of the different university societies. But I also try and go and watch concerts as well that I’m not in so went to the big band gig on Monday.
Riley Gibson: Academically, I graduated from an undergrad degree in History and Politics last year, that was a big thing I was proud of, getting to the end of my degree finally and then deciding to another one after that. I think more broadly, I like that I’ve able to pursue more ‘out there’ interests, like I’ve done some performances with the drag society last year, which were very fun. You know, generally getting out there, doing things out of my comfort zone, but that are fun.
Fred Baker: So over the past couple of years I have been involved in a lot of different societies, I have been involved in the theatre company, performing arts SoC, forge radio. I’ve been involved with politics SoC and model United Nations society so I’ve done quite a lot with societies and working committees which I’m very proud of. The thing that I’m quite proud of is for the past year I’ve been the station manager at forge radio – it’s been just the most brilliant experience and it’s been so exciting to watch. We have quite a new committee, it’s been so exciting to kind of watch everybody develop and become really great – they were already fantastic at what they did, but just become to even better it’s just been so great to see.
The big one is working with people, working collaboratively with people as part of a team, as station manager at forge radio I’ve had to do this lots. We actually at the minute have a relatively large committee, I’ve had to manage people, make sure that people know what they’re doing, make sure that people are comfortable in their role, offer people sign posting, direction assistance, as is needed, and the other thing about forge radio as it is quite technical it can be quite intimidating thing so there is an aspect of bringing people in, making sure they’re comfortable, making sure everybody gets along, making sure that everybody is able to work together professionally and be friends and be friendly with one another as well and fostering a collaborative and very well-being oriented environment on this team. The skills that I’ve learned there, particularly with the sort of prioritisation of peoples well-being, looking after people, making sure people are OK and know what they’re doing, that’s an experience that I can really bring into this to help foster collaboration and teamwork, and I suppose just bringing people together through societies and working committees is in everything that I do
Do you have any previous experience in a management or leadership role?
Anna: Answered previously.
Riley: I was the Events and Publicity Officer in Sheffield Labour Students, from my first year into my second year, and as a part of that there was a lot of engaging with students, a lot of publicity and social media stuff. I’ve also spent the last year on the Societies Committee as their Publicity and Engagement Officer, so as part of that I’ve been able to support, fund, and approve various different societies in the Students’ Union. I’ve been able to liaise with a lot of different ones, get a lot of different perspectives from different societies and society members. I have a lot of experience in political campaigning and SU politics.
Fred: Previously answered.
Tell us about your manifesto…
Anna: So main Point of my campaign is making easier to join societies run societies that it’s easier to be part of like the Sheffield Society of the uni basically so trying to encourage more free events across the year so not just in refreshes and fresher season more free events so people to join and find out what SoC to doing more SoC collaboration I’d love to have like a place on the website or a calendar or a platform where all the societies can advertise what they’re doing so that students can see what’s going on but also societies themselves can see what other societies are doing and goes to point each other from running society’s perspective there are some technical issues with room bookings and storage I would like to work with the facilities team too make accessible on the website when you’ve booked a room to see who’s booked what so that you can get touch with other societies to then coordinate that way rather than having to go through the union I’d like to increase access to keys societies can access their storage their equipment in storage more easily I’d like to look at changing how give it a goes a run and see if we can rebrand it is open for all events that might appeal more to the post grad am mature students community who aren’t maybe as involved in societies They could be I also like to tackle funding I know that quite a few societies are buying supplies and then it takes ages to get reimbursed which obviously isn’t fair on those committee members who were then in their overdrafts so I’d love to find a way to make getting payments back into peoples personal accounts smoother and quicker. I have a lot of ideas.
Riley: As for my policies, I’ll say here right now, I’m running as part of the solidarity slate this year, so a slate of six different candidates running for different positions on a platform of shared pledges. I’ll get to some of those shared pledges in a second, as for my pledges, I think the big ones are doubling the optional annual grant for societies from £50 to £100 so that societies that want more money, need more money early on in the year, can get it for say publicity and events and what have you without having to go through SU bureaucracy so early in the year. It came to my attention not too long ago that there are no provisions or facilities on campus for non-music students to store their instruments, and I think with the amount of musical based societies that we have at the SU, it’s important that those students are taken care of as well, that they’re not lugging their instruments around the city or the campus because there’s nowhere for them to store them because they’re not strictly a music student. Moving on to the slate pledges, we’re trying to focus on supporting students in ways that the University has let them down. So, like, through the Cost of Living Crisis by demanding that the University lower rent, by organising another rent strike, and by demanding that the University give cash payments to students struggling through the Cost of Living Crisis because lots of students’ maintenance loans just aren’t cutting it for them, especially with high rent really dragging them down. Beyond that, opening up the SU, making it more open, publishing Officer’s minutes, and fighting racism on campus.
Supporting students, creating a student-led SU by publishing Officer’s minutes and bringing back general meetings so students have more of a say in SU Officer activities and how the SU is run. And by fighting bigotry and racism on campus by fighting the prevalence of Prevent on campus which unfairly discriminates against international and non-white students, and by fighting the Home Office’s involvement on campus, which again unfairly discriminates unfairly against international students by giving them fewer rights than home students. International students don’t have the same protections for not wanting to cross a picket line that home students do, they could be punished with potentially deportation if they don’t want to cross a picket line, for example, or if they do that too many times. We’re campaigning together, a lot of social media is slate focused but at the same time it’s important to make a stand as individual candidates as well, it’s just getting it across that we’re trying to act like something of a political party in the SU, trying to get each other elected.
Fred: So one big point that I want to emphasise it’s something that’s brought up every year is the room booking system the room booking system does need improving I’ve spoken to quite a few societies quite a few society members about this and they’ve all got their gripes and their iinssues and there is work to be done there what I want to do is look at what they’re doing at other students unions see what we can learn from that what’s going well what’s not going so well what can we do to make sure that we have a room booking system that is clear and intuitive and accessible for everybody that is the first point that I really want it’s a kind of hammer home the next point that I really want to hammer home is the creation of an activities calendar this was an idea that was given to me by somebody who done study abroad and at their study abroad university they produced an activities calendar that documented these students unions activities on a monthly basis creating something along those lines that displays upcoming activities in a intuitive easy to read easy to access format I mean that would that would really bounce to participation in in my thinking society activity participation it has ebbed a bit since COVID-19 and that’s a real shame we can bring it back when we gotta make it clear what people can get involved in the third and final .5 really wanna emphasise here is the creation of inclusion sorry inclusive activity consultations inclusive event consultations this is something that I’d love to do with the incoming liberation officer I think it’s really important yeah societies working committees they provide a support group for everybody they can provide support groups that everybody through all the trials tribulations difficulties of being at university I want to make sure everybody has access to those support spaces to those support networks so that nobody feels alone and everybody feels like they can throw themselves in and gets and get involved and in doing that I want to speak to people who feel like they have ideas or recommendations for how events societies working committees could be made more inclusive and just sit down speak to them and say how can we go about this what can we do about this
ABOUT THE SOC CALANDER -> My thinking of it is it something that societies can participate in if they would like to obviously it it’s not something that you say you have to do this every time you put forward then but it will be one of those things that I think it offer a really great opportunity to societies my vision of it and this is of course just my initial vision of it is some kind of interactive calendar people can click and they can see what is happening at particular times on a particular day throughout that day societies could submit an activity that is happening on a particular day and say hey I really like this on the activities calendar then course students union could pop it on this interactive calendar where everybody can see right what’s happening as my vision for at the minute and of course that would then be promoted through social media outlets
What’s your take on last year’s Activities and Development Officer?
Anna: Already done quite a lot of work on storage I know that she’s opened new storage lockers in the uni for students to store things and I would like to publicise that more and make students more aware especially from a music perspective I know there are a lot of students who have instruments but don’t have anywhere to store them so I’d like to make the provision that rose is put in place more signposted I know she’s done a lot for things like refreshers and freshers fairs and it’s been working quite closely with those teams so i’d love to like continue that cause that links to my idea of having more events so I would love to bounce off of that. Yeah I think Rose’s started to implement quite a few things and I just like to take what she’s done and take it further
Riley: Working with Rose has been great. Through the Societies Committee, I’ve sort of had to converse with her on a few different things, and she’s always been a good and active member and offered good support. In terms of the policies she’s been able to enact, she’s done a good job at least being there for societies. When I take over the role, I’d love to continue being vocal, if not more vocal, more apparent for these students and being an active supporter of all of the causes and everything that they do.
Fred: To Say what I’ve admired about activities and development this year is is the commitment to getting people involved there have been society showcases on I believe it was earlier this semester society showcase which just showed people what our societies offering there have been actually really well publicised I refreshes events with refreshes I thought the subtitle get involved was a really effective call to action for bringing people into these things but getting people involved. It strikes me that there’s been a real commitment to renewing SoC engagement after that ebb during over covid 19 now what I wanna see is that continued furthered and strengthen coz I think it’s it’s a really important course of action great.
Do you have anything to add?
Anna: I would say that I’m quite a people person I I like being around people and working with people and if I got the role I’d like society committees but also just any student who’s interested in societies to feel like they could approach me and talk to me about it because I’m very happy to have conversations with anybody I would also say I’ve had the opportunity to gain a lot of experience from my committee roles and from working in the issue I feel like I have quite a good understanding of what has already been implemented and what needs implementing because of the Connections I’ve made from being on committees and working with people like Tim bowell and rose to tackle things. I feel that I I’m very connected to the music societies but I feel like other societies do you know who I am as a president and I have some Connexions within the uni that I could use not to my advantage in the role but if I was in the role I have already established Connexions with people who would support me and what the policies and points I’d wanna work on I think so
Riley: I’d just like to reiterate that I have a lot of experience in a various different societies, like Societies Committee this last year where I’ve been in a position where I’ve been able to liaise with societies in the Uni and students that are a big part of those societies, and the experience that I’ve got from that, especially working alongside Rose Franchi, the current Activities and Development Officer who is a part of Societies Committee. I think that I’ve got really good experience to take on the role of Activities and Development Officer and I think that I’d really enjoy being able to support societies and students even more. As for our slate more generally, all of our members are really experienced campaigners and political activists who truly do care about students and student wellbeing, and I think that’s really well reflected in the policies we’ve pledged. We are as a whole just an incredibly experienced group of people who do well taking over in these positions in the SU and societies.
Fred: I’d like to say is that I understand how important the support networks offered by societies are I was diagnosed with ADHD while at university and there was a period where I was I was really struggling and I wasn’t sure can I finish my degree you know I was really going through a period of question whether I could continue my studies and the thing that brought me back was not the course was the societies it was the people I met it was the people I’d interacted with and got to know it was the commitments I’ve been a part of they offered me something to come back to that I love Support me and the people I’ve met also do I put this they were people that really cared about me they were people I’ve really got to know and stuff like that just draws you back in it’s so important to just keeping students going that societies and activities are the absolute best they can be and that’s something I’d emphasise.
In short, why should people vote for you?
Anna: Like kind of overaction sentence on my campaign poster is I wanna make it easier to join a SoC, easier to run a SoC, and easier to be part of society and I think that sums up my campaign and what I’d want to do if I got the role as well just make a lot of things more accessible and smoother for everyone involved without joining a SoC or already involved in one.
Riley: People should vote for me because I am experienced in supporting societies and students, and I’m a very dedicated student and activist and political campaigner myself who wants to do the absolute best for students and societies, and through my policies and personal qualities, I’d be the absolute best in supporting them.
Fred: More accessible, better organised and clearly signposted societies and society support – that’s how I’d summarise it. I want again just very briefly say that what I want to do is, I want to strengthen the publicity efforts we have here at the university, I want to make sure societies and working committees have the support they need and I wanna make sure societies are places that everybody feels that they can get involved and have a great time.
What’s a fun fact about you?
Anna: I fell off my bike and my elbow is permanently wonky or I cut my face with a breadstick. I am very clumsy. Breadstick was the day I finished my a levels. prophase with that I am quite clumsy.
Riley: I went to a pub quiz hosted by Ed Miliband, and I got to meet him. I lost horribly, but it was fun and- big up meme Labour Party activities!
Fred: Fun fact about me is that I play the guitar. I really enjoy it!