Questionable Spending by UCC Societies' Guild

rebel girl 15 · 23-02-2012 12:10am

Heliocentrist - take 5 days off from the UCC thread for deliberate flaming. If you have a problem with a poster, take it up with a moderator via PM rather than posting it on thread.

Warning to you all, keep it on topic

Aodan83 · 23-02-2012 4:16pm

Motley have released a statement.
http://issuu.com/motleymag/docs/clarification_in_by_motley_magazine_in_light_of_uc

Brethitmanhart · 23-02-2012 8:50pm

I find it surprising that only a few days after the piece did someone claim it was not a 200 euro bottle of champagne but a 69 euro one. I find it amusing that some people just accept this as fact, I remember their being a photo of said 200 euro champagne bottle (edit: well to clarify I dont know the exact price) on facebook that was taken down, some of my friends were tagged in the photo. So basically show a receipt or I call bullsh*t (well I call bullsh*t already because I remember seeing that photo).

Edit: I might as well pre empt the inevitable "you're a liar, why didn't you post this about the champagne straight away" post, I thought it would be better to disprove the claims by retrieving the picture and posting it here but couldn't find it on facebook, asked a few friends and several also remember it so obviously it was taken down.

Haven't had time to respond to the other response as I've been doing an assignment for tomorrow but anyway
1. No I didn't suggest that a non student was misappropriating funds, I was just pointing out that all you did was explain the procedure for ordering a taxi through the guild (for genuine guild reasons) which doesn't mean that a receipt couldn't have been claimed back if it was kept (and whether it would be sniffed out by people is another story)

The Lightening Strike · 16-03-2014 10:16pm

The common student in UCC is being ripped off by these Mickey Mouse societies

magicianz · 02-04-2014 3:09pm

These 'Mickey Mouse' societies won the most awards at the national level versus the other colleges in Ireland. The people who have a problem with societies are the people who don't get involved and see the rewards. Information regarding budgets for UCC Societies are available on page 12 here http://issuu.com/uccexpress/docs/issue2.

Reiver · 03-04-2014 12:53am

Is there any sense of accountability with these cowboy outfits?

In UL there appears to be an excellently constructed system to ensure abuses like this don't happen. Please say the culprits have been brought to justice.

sheep-go-baa · 03-04-2014 1:16am

This thread is based on stories from years ago. This year there have been three articles in the Express where all the Guild finances were explained. A finance report was available for all to see at the AGM last Thursday.

It is offensive to call people who put in hours of their free time cowboys. With only 1 paid position there are over 700 people not remunerated and putting in hours of work every week to create a great student experience for all students. Societies and an excellent student experience are what make UCC so highly ranked worldwide.

Reiver · 03-04-2014 12:37pm

200e for a bottle of champagne is a bit **** though. I mean they could have gotten a few slabs of beer for that, let everyone had a really good time instead of some Dom Periginon.

I dunno...bit dubious. Smells of a coverup. Somethang ain't right.

Cian92 · 04-04-2014 12:26am

magicianz wrote: »

These 'Mickey Mouse' societies won the most awards at the national level versus the other colleges in Ireland. The people who have a problem with societies are the people who don't get involved and see the rewards. Information regarding budgets for UCC Societies are available on page 12 here http://issuu.com/uccexpress/docs/issue2.

Just reading that article there. "While the Clubs Executive declined to make their accounts available to us" - The article then brushes over this.

I really don't think you should be in receipt of public funding if you don't publish your accounts for all to see.

I'd love to see a proper set of accounts for both Clubs & Societies not the half figures published in the Express.

magicianz · 05-04-2014 1:45am

@Reiver: Yeah, the 'abuses' talked about earlier in this thread were trumped up. It was 69 euro on a bottle of something like charlemagne for the folks who manage all of the societies in UCC. The value they provide (6/7 of them are unpaid in college) far outweighs this.

All of the accounts, including a breakdown of what societies got from UCC are readily available. They were published at the Guild AGM last week and are available upon request to anyone who wants them. Even at the start of the year, the budgeted allowances for each individual society were published.

Please, if you don't know anything about this subject apart from browsing over what is 99% an uninformed thread, then don't add to the lies and libel.

And as for calling them cowboys, you do realise how many hours these people put in to make college a lot more enjoyable for a vast amount of people right? This isn't just a few hours here and there, there are meetings throughout the week with people from the society committees, the exec itself and various committees in the university, all while doing degrees. The people who get involved in actual student life and activities are the people who actually enjoy college. Without these people, UCC would be a dull, dreary and lifeless university.

keepkeyyellow · 13-04-2014 2:58am

Cian92 wrote: »

Just reading that article there. "While the Clubs Executive declined to make their accounts available to us" - The article then brushes over this.

I really don't think you should be in receipt of public funding if you don't publish your accounts for all to see.

I'd love to see a proper set of accounts for both Clubs & Societies not the half figures published in the Express.

Well if that's the case I had to jump through loops to get the students' union budget for last year - might as well open another can of warms while we're at it.

magicianz · 13-04-2014 12:57pm

Unions budget this year is kept locked up tight by the President. As far as I'm aware, the rest of the sabbats don't even know what things are being spent on apart from the money that they spend on their own areas...

Note before people get angry, there are long serving UCC staff members who have seen all the bull****ters come and go who are actually in control of the accounts. The president doesn't have supreme power...

Corkgirl18 · 24-04-2014 8:17pm

Its crazy the amount of people who are posting here who are obviously not involved in any societies and have no idea what they're talking about.

Bubbaclaus · 25-04-2014 3:12pm

After what an outgoing auditor of a society told me recently, the title of 'Questionable Spending' on this thread is putting it very lightly.

There needs to be a better system put in place that doesn't allow senior members of clubs/societies pocket free money.

magicianz · 25-04-2014 8:50pm

Given your knowledge of the current system, please inform the thread of how it can be improved.

Bubbaclaus · 26-04-2014 10:20am

magicianz wrote: »

Given your knowledge of the current system, please inform the thread of how it can be improved.

I have no knowledge of the system itself, just that it clearly isn't working in whatever it's current form is.

magicianz · 26-04-2014 2:19pm

So based on your complete lack of knowledge, no actual examples of how it isn't working and lack of evidence, it should be changed.

Gotcha.

Bubbaclaus · 26-04-2014 2:42pm

magicianz wrote: »

So based on your complete lack of knowledge, no actual examples of how it isn't working and lack of evidence, it should be changed.

Gotcha.

Despite replying to it, it is apparent you didn't read my original post, so I will post it again.

Bubbaclaus wrote: »

After what an outgoing auditor of a society told me recently, the title of 'Questionable Spending' on this thread is putting it very lightly.

There needs to be a better system put in place that doesn't allow senior members of clubs/societies pocket free money.

magicianz · 26-04-2014 5:04pm

Yeah I read that. Nice to know your friend thinks they could spend money given to them questionably. How do they know if they haven't tried?

FrStone · 27-04-2014 3:11pm

Corkgirl18 wrote: »

Its crazy the amount of people who are posting here who are obviously not involved in any societies and have no idea what they're talking about.

Do you know what's actually crazy? The fact that the likes of the SU who are in receipt of public funding and the Societies Guild do not publish a set of audited accounts.

The real surprise in this thread is the amount of people defending the societies. It stinks of low level corruption.

It doesn't matter whether people are involved in clubs or societies they are forced to contribute by way of the student contribution. A bit of transparency as to the use of our money is essential.

The antics of the Societies Guild a few years ago were an absolute disgrace and the members that year should have been asked to repay the price of the champagne.

Nothing has changed their is no more transparency. It's very rare that people would be against transparency and openness with public money and the fact that so many involved with various societies are coming out with a list of excuses as to why they shouldn't be held accountable only encourages suspicion about the goings on behind closed doors.

Reiver · 28-04-2014 7:37pm

The International Society seemed to enjoy the rake of free drink they got last Friday.

Going about "the value of their unpaid work" is pointless. You shouldn't be doing it for the perks, you should do it because you like it and want your club or society to prosper. 69e for a bottle of bubbly? Buy 3 slabs with that and spread the love a bit more to their members if they feel alcohol is how they want to spend it. My club would have loved that bit of cash, could have gotten some great new gear.

Byron85 · 29-04-2014 5:55pm

Fraud on the part of at least one society has been discovered in the past, and was subsequently kept quiet by the authorities. I know this as I was told by someone who was on the committee of the society in question but wasn't involved in the fraud. The fraud involved a lot of money being "diverted".

I was a pretty active member myself of a small society for two years and to be quite honest, I don't think the vetting of expenses is vigorous enough.

Questionable Spending by UCC Societies' Guild

Comments