SU Officer of the Year

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

So, who is the best SU officer of the year?

They do what they do for little promotion, so lets 'big up' the person who contributed most.

The (many) posters on Boards.tcd.ie who have graduated don't count.

My vote is for Stephanie o'Brien. She seems to have come from not being liked by the 'inside crew' to being liked by all. Although, i have never met her. Her work seems worthy, despite a few hiccups along the way....

Second in line is Donal (edumyth). He has consistently informed us of what he is doing, but (imho) fails a bit on actual achievements.

Mannion and Dillon are irrelevant gimps.

Niall Hughes has the Trinity Ball to confirm, or deny, his destiny, although i like what he has done so far....

any other opinions?

MaxBax

Roundtower2 wrote:

So, who is the best looking SU officer of the year?

My vote is for Stephanie o'Brien.

mannion isn't a gimp. seems nice anyway.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

true - nice, but IMHO (note caps) ineffective...

MaxBax

Remind me who you are RoundTower please. Are you an SU person or Publications person?

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

check out my signature and my Boards-Wiki - nothing to hide here!

MaxBax

Ah yes I remember now. I suppose you must be familar with previous SU presidents and be able to compare them better than I can. I'm judging them based on how sound they are.

asl means age/sex/location.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

MaxBax wrote:

Ah yes I remember now. I suppose you must be familar with previous SU presidents and be able to compare them better than I can. I'm judging them based on how sound they are.

asl means age/sex/location.

sure, i'm just compsring them with each other - seriously don't know any better than the other - just putting the question out there for consideration....

shay_562

From what I've been told, Stephanie has done a class job with welfare, but I've gotta go for Donal, given that he's the only officer to have helped me personally since I got to college (and thus the only one I can fairly judge), by making sure I wasn't lost as I drunkenly circled the GMB looking for recycling bins. The other three seem kinda nondescript.

MaxBax

Hmm, donal helped you find the recycling bins behind the gmb? I'll have to vote for donal too. That's top quality service.

shay_562

That's top quality service.

My point exactly. I'm not sure how it falls within his remit as Education officer, but still...

MaxBax

Mannion should know he lives there. GG edumyth.

cuckoo

Ronan, the part-time lgbtro, always looks incredibly sharply dressed.

Nietzschean

Must go with donal too, only one that i've gained anything from......

europerson

I'm voting for Donal.

ApeXaviour

Added poll

wheresthebeef

i voted for Steph. I think her work definitely gets out there to the most students.

Mannion is dead sound. Always willing to help with anything he can. Don't think that gimp comment is fair.

Awayindahils

Yep gotta be Donal, but i havn't actually spoken to stephanie or mannion ever.

Plunky

Steph's got my vote... Not only has she become universally loved, from being the underdog, but she's also delivered on all her manifesto promises, and has done above and beyond what she's required to with regards to student welfare!

MaxBax

It appears a lot of people are voting for X because they had experience of X and it was positive. I would imagine a lot of people here would have reason to seek advice from education - exams, timetables, stuff like that, and little reason to contact steph, because, well, they're not pregant or in need of WBL.

GG su officers, i love you all, except that tom guy, he don't seem so rawking.

cuckoo

MaxBax wrote:

It appears a lot of people are voting for X because they had experience of X and it was positive. I would imagine a lot of people here would have reason to seek advice from education - exams, timetables, stuff like that, and little reason to contact steph, because, well, they're not pregant or in need of WBL.

GG su officers, i love you all, except that tom guy, he don't seem so rawking.

i think tom rawks in a quiet, restrained way, but dropped the ball on the su website.

Max's right about the fact that different people have different experiences of the SU officers, and will possibly have only ever come into contact with 1 or 2 of them. And, then there's the old hack brigade (there should be a hoodie), we've seen so many officers pass through that it's tempting to discuss the relative performances of this year's crop like one would wine, 'well, he demonstrates some of the tenacity of 00-01's holder of the position, but without the charm of 03', etc.

MaxBax

or we could mix and match and come up with the ultimate team.

Boston

Donal all the way. Though I've nothing against steph, and could never understand why so many people hated her.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

LiouVille wrote:

Donal all the way. Though I've nothing against steph, and could never understand why so many people hated her.

...because they liked her hack opponent...

Time Magazine

wheresthebeef wrote:

i voted for Steph. I think her work definitely gets out there

It had to be said, didn't it?

Dónal gan aon amhras ar bith.

xeduCat

Roundtower2 wrote:

...because they liked her hack opponent...

Not entirely. It wasn't the cleanest campaign ever; a lot of mud was hurled, and both candidates complained about each other's actions constantly, so neither of them seemed very well fairy by the end of it. In a presidental race it might seem tough and effective, but for welfare, it's terrifying.

MaxBax

MaxBax wrote:

It appears a lot of people are voting for X because they had experience of X and it was positive.

Plus I'm a regular poster on boards.ie, and this is a boards.ie poll...

Nietzschean

MaxBax wrote:

It appears a lot of people are voting for X because they had experience of X and it was positive. I would imagine a lot of people here would have reason to seek advice from education - exams, timetables, stuff like that, and little reason to contact steph, because, well, they're not pregant or in need of WBL.

Well whatever one that served our needs, does it maybe illustrate the relative need maybe of the different su officers?(ooo controversial..)

D&#243 wrote: »

Plus I'm a regular poster on boards.ie, and this is a boards.ie poll...

There's also all the helpfull educational things(scholls/grants/etc..) you've posted on here, so its not just that we all know you(or well nearly all of us do..)

Agent Smith

wheresthebeef wrote:

i voted for Steph. I think her work definitely gets out there to the most students.

Mannion is dead sound. Always willing to help with anything he can. Don't think that gimp comment is fair.

have you guys set a date for the Wedding in your head? Just wondering... Who will be Best man??

TheVan

John Mannion is one of the soundest, smartest and most genuine people I have ever met!

Dónal's a great guy as well!....i vote for both of them!

snorlax

Donal gave me a cereal bar just before an exam when i was hungry, steph is cool too and has been there for the PSN:)

Boston

xeduCat wrote:

Not entirely. It wasn't the cleanest campaign ever; a lot of mud was hurled, and both candidates complained about each other's actions constantly, so neither of them seemed very well fairy by the end of it. In a presidental race it might seem tough and effective, but for welfare, it's terrifying.

Tom never came near the east end, steph did.

Comhra....

what does the winner of the pole get? A nice dinner for two would be great!

Shay it was nice to meet you that night when you were circling the gmb with the wine bottles. I have to clear something up though, Dónal wasn't trying to help you, he thought the bottles were full and was hoping that you were so drunk you would give us one or two.

Seriously think the winner should get a prize, dinner for two or a nice bottle of wine. And a really good characteristic of a good sabbat is that they know how to share

rsynnott

Voted for Donal. As far as I can see, Donal and Stephanie were the only ones who did anything much...

Nietzschean

Comhra wrote:

what does the winner of the pole get? A nice dinner for two would be great!

Shay it was nice to meet you that night when you were circling the gmb with the wine bottles. I have to clear something up though, Dónal wasn't trying to help you, he thought the bottles were full and was hoping that you were so drunk you would give us one or two.

Seriously think the winner should get a prize, dinner for two or a nice bottle of wine. And a really good characteristic of a good sabbat is that they know how to share

So your then implying dónal(assuming he wins) takes steph out for dinner and wine?

bbrazil

rsynnott wrote:

Voted for Donal. As far as I can see, Donal and Stephanie were the only ones who did anything much...

I'm unsure if borrowing my cups counts as doing something.

rsynnott

bbrazil wrote:

I'm unsure if borrowing my cups counts as doing something.

I'm moderately certain it's not in the job description.

Agent Smith

Only smarties have the answers....

rsynnott

Somehow I always picture him wearing that cat tshirt, as in SU propaganda. It's a bit like those pictures of Lenin and Stalin people had to hang on their walls, those SU "these are your leaders" posters

wheresthebeef

agent smith wrote:

have you guys set a date for the Wedding in your head? Just wondering... Who will be Best man??

we were thinking of spring 2007. spring weddings are always nice.

on the issue of best man, well to be honest, we were wondering if you would do us the honour agent^smith????

To be honest, i'm not sure who smith is implying i am going to marry, mannion or steph, either way....

wheresthebeef

wheresthebeef wrote:

we were thinking of spring 2007. spring weddings are always nice.

on the issue of best man, well to be honest, we were wondering if you would do us the honour agent^smith????

To be honest, i'm not sure who smith is implying i am going to marry, mannion or steph, either way....

I call Bridesmaid......

[edit] Again, that was joe.

Agent Smith

Thats a Blantent lie....

shay_562

Shay it was nice to meet you that night when you were circling the gmb with the wine bottles. I have to clear something up though, Dónal wasn't trying to help you, he thought the bottles were full and was hoping that you were so drunk you would give us one or two.

Well, this changes everything...actually, no, it really doesn't, since he's still three pens and a bottle of water over Stephanie on the "What has he done for me?" scale. Shallow? Self-centred? Me? Of course.

Awayindahils

shay_562 wrote:

Well, this changes everything...actually, no, it really doesn't, since he's still three pens and a bottle of water over Stephanie on the "What has he done for me?" scale. Shallow? Self-centred? Me? Of course.

we almost love you anyway.

Steph seems to have done a really good job her campains were quite high profile and raised neccessary awarness etc, but as shay says among self centred self interested students, who barely give a damn about the su anyway, actually who in general don't give a damn about the su, its the what have they done for me personally factor which is going to, and forgive the turn of phrase, win votes.

Nietzschean

thats how all votes work Hilary, yer never going to win by doing some great stuff for 'other' people....

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

that's why Sinn Fein get so many votes in the constituencies they target - they spend five years helping people out (funded by 'whatever' source of money), and then when it comes to election time, who are you going to give your vote to? Not the hard-working TD who has spent his time trying to make the country better, but the local SF guy who has been helping you in small things for five years.

It's the shame about the Irish politics scene, but also what makes it great imho

Probably the reason why Tom Parlon is predicted to lose his seat, despite doing a great job in the Office of Public Works... but, thats a bit off topic

MaxBax

ah only a bit OT.

i still don't know who to vote for. i don't want to burn all bridges with the welfare officer by voting for donal.

shay_562

Originally Posted by shay_562
Well, this changes everything...actually, no, it really doesn't, since he's still three pens and a bottle of water over Stephanie on the "What has he done for me?" scale. Shallow? Self-centred? Me? Of course.

we almost love you anyway.

...I'm deeply moved.

Awayindahils

*feels like sticking out her tongue and sulking 'cos shes knows he pointed out the obvious to be annoying like a little kid saying na-nana-na-na*

but is mature so may actually salvage an argument.

Yes people recieve votes because they do stuff for people, but in the national politics, it is impossible for one person to do something for everyone who votes for them. If we take this poll to be the equivalent of running for reelection, in terms of if the public feel you have done a good job they will vote for you again, or in this case give you their su officer of the year vote.

So take your avergae politcian, when first elected chances are they were part of a ticket and voted for because of party lines, in college for su elections there is only one party, or alternately a load of independents. Sabbats or not previosuly elceted canidates are not elected for on what they have done for you individually, they are voted for because of what they stand for, particularily if they are an independent candidate, and what their party stands for.

When it comes to relection, its what they have done for the country which gets them reelected. Their work in the health system, their budget, their efforts to improve the transport system, whether or not they have increased spending on education etc etc etc.These are all things that affect you personally in a manner which you can evaluate within in sphere of your day to day existance. These are not things which have bee done for you personally, but they have had rammifications for you.

For su officers it is not the same. The welfare campains while they raise important issues are not felt to effect everyone directly. The grants campain is not going to effect every student in trinity. Not everyone is going to read the record. Some people may never go to a students union nights out. So if someone had a grant and was able to get help from Donal with regard to that, it is the same as someone getting help from their health board as a result of governement action. Unlike in the realm of national politics, the decisions made by the sabbats and the council do not affect students as directly as decisions made by government affect citizens.

So to bring these together.

Nietzschean wrote:

thats how all votes work Hilary, yer never going to win by doing some great stuff for 'other' people....

Yes people vote people because of things which have been done for them directly, but it is only incidental that the decisions of many politicians effect eveyone directly. They are getting relected as a result of the policies of the governement as a whole doing something for individual citizens.

In this thread people are getting votes, for doing far more persoanl things than any politician could ever be expected to do. So yes people do get elected because they do things for people, but not things like pointing out where a bin is, or something along those lines. They get electd because something which they worked on in the time as a TD had an impact on you, but that is not to say it did not have an effect on other people. Infact it probably had an impact of thousands of other people. It was a not a personal gesture as most of the reasons for giving votes seem to be here.

I once had a sound chat with Tom and he told me some stuff to do with first year BESS which was quite helpful, still ain't no way i'd vote for him. Its not just the personal efforts which recieve votes, people give votes becuase they feel that the person has done a good job. Many of us will never truelly see the effects of all the meetings donal went to all year but we know that he was working hard for the students of the college as whole, so he is getting a fair few of the votes.

*cross fingers, ignores spelling mistakes,and hopes that there was a point*

MaxBax

that was a big post.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

Take your point awayindahills. Think you are essentially saying that it is more than just doing something for someone - we are a bit more intelligent than that.

Had an interesting chat in the pub tonight with a friend. We were discussing a Sinn Fein councillor he had met. (hence my slightly off-topic post on Sinn Fein). Essentially this guy had got some great publicity for something he knew wasn't true. It's not really to do with my earlier post, but the basic connundrum we came up with was:

If you were running for national office, and a chance came up to get huge publicity for some 'scandal' in the national papers, yet it would be discovered 5 days later to be false - would you do it?

Basically, our thinking was: you get huge publicity, which is a rare occasion for a mere councillor, so it probably means future votes, and when it is found to be false it'll probably only be published on page 7 of the Irish Times.

Real example (unrelated to the Sinn Fein councillor mentioned earlier): do you remember that issue over the leaking of the Dublin Port Tunnel? It was seen as a scandal, as it showed the government wasting money on something that didn't work. There were a few politicians who got great publicity hyping it in the papers (not too great though, because i can't remember their names!).

It was only a few days later that tunnel experts pointed out that every single underwater tunnel in the world leaks, and underwater tunnels are designed to take account of this fact. So, a complete non-story.

But, this fact was published in the inner pages of the Irish Times, while the 'scandal' itself was published on the front page of just about every newspaper.

Why wouldn't you take the opportunity to get publicity from something, even if you knew it was false?

(Massively off-topic (even to my previous post), but thought it would get lost in the politics forum, and i've been thinking about it since earlier!)

wheresthebeef

its not really surprising though that The Education Officer is in the lead, as i think its safe to say that we are all being educated. Not all of us have welfare issues, or want to write something for the record, or organise nights out etc....

Donals job is the one that probably relates to almost everyone.

The other guys are still cool, but just the job of education officer offers more to a wider range of the student population, if ya get me.

God i'm so hungover.