Centre Club Committee - Cans??

padser

I see that there was a motion in the body posing as our Students Unions council the other week about selling cans in the centre club. I'm on the committee for the centre club and was wondering if that got passed or not as its something I wouldnt mind getting??

Scraggs

AFAIK the motion to support the campaign to sell cans in the Centre Club was passed, what happens now I don't know...

Steak

that would actually be very good. was it for both bars or just the student centre bar?

Chakar

Both bars actually.We've a mandate to try and get the cans in the bars and so we'll do our best.

Oh yeah it got passed.

Btw why are you posting here instead of the newswire?

hullaballoo

Does the SU own the bars?

Chakar

hullaballoo wrote:

Does the SU own the bars?

Yeah they do.The bars are managed overall by the Union Management Committee, and the Bar Committees of both bars.I'm on the Student Club Bar Committee.

UCD won't allow people to drink cans in the bar, you can get a takeaway but not drink them in the bar.

Steak

Chakar wrote:

Both bars actually.We've a mandate to try and get the cans in the bars and so we'll do our best.

Oh yeah it got passed.

Btw why are you posting here instead of the newswire?

you talking to me?

The_Minister

Steak wrote:

you talking to me?

Well there's no-one else here, so I must be talking to you.

The motion was passed unanimously.

Steak

oh.

Chakar

Steak wrote:

you talking to me?

No to Padser.

Stabshauptmann

padser wrote:

I see that there was a motion in the body posing as our Students Unions council the other week about selling cans in the centre club. I'm on the committee for the centre club and was wondering if that got passed or not as its something I wouldnt mind getting??

Hi, Im Paddy and I proposed the motion.

Im on the centre club management committee and I put the idea forward at our last meeting. They rejected the idea out of hand primarily for economic reasons.
What the motion called on was for the SU class reps to forward a petition to their class showing support for the idea.

As for what happens next,
If you think this is a worthwhile campaign please lend you support by signing the petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/cans/

The next meeting of the Centre Club management committee is Friday. Ill be putting the arguement forward again, with more support and more research done.

padser

Can you tell me what time and where on Friday?

How many members are on the committee? Who are these members?

If the SU owns the bar, and has passed a motion calling for the sale of cans in the bar, why would the committee refuse on economic reasons?

TheVan

Well...here are 2 arguments for cans to help you out.

1. The profit on cans for the bar would be roughly similar to the pint. The money in would be less gross but for the bar the profit would be equal. It works for the Pav

2. The bars are empty this year and the bars need a new business model to survive...they could test it for a couple of weeks at the start of semester 2 and see how it went?

Stabshauptmann

Does the SU own the centre club?

If the SU does own it, it doesnt run it! The management committee of the bar meets once a month. Next meeting is upstairs in the student centre, 1pm, next friday.

I dont know the exact make up of the committee but I think its somthing like this
*edit*
Students
Two students elected by direct franchise,
Two Reps from the Students Consultative Forum (societies and sports clubs),
The SU President
Staff
The vice president for students,
The Union Financial Administrator
Someone from the sports centre.
The manager of the bar.
A professor of accountancy up in the quinn school (?).

How were you elected Padser?

mloc

its about time really, the pav has been raping our bars in terms of viability for a while now. the ability to drink cans, drink outside around the bar and its location are something ucd will struggle to compete against. the pav is undoubtably the best friday pre-drinking venue there is.

singingstranger

I think the SU owns the premises but leases out the contracts or something like that. I dunno.

zap

the two directly elected students even though they are both members of Union council do not have to support this motion as they got elected as a student not from their positions as 4th Sci class rep and Comms and IT Officer.

Stabshauptmann

nobody said or implied they did, infact the phrase direct franchise means the student body not the Su council.

Malmedicine

well in addition to cans any chance of a couple of decent benches maybe a heater or two, belfield can be cold in the winter!!!!!!

Stabshauptmann

I did some checking and apparently the SU does not own the forum bar. The students own it and it is managed on their behalf by the management committee.

The committe has 5 Students and 4 members of one staff - one of which is the SU Financial Administrator who I suppose is supposed to be on our side.

Also after talking in more depth about the cans thing some new facts have come to my attention. They would not be new facts if I had been presented with proper financial figures at the last meeting but meh...

I think forcing the bar to stock and sell cans is very possible, so long as there is sufficient demand.
And TBH, there has been very poor response to the http://www.petitiononline.com/cans/ petition.

mloc

perhaps another example of something somewhere causing a disconnect between the student population and the SU...

singingstranger

Kaptain, maybe if the petition isn't getting the momentum you thought, an idea might be to slyly put stickers on the back of the toilet doors in there or to have some A4's photocopied and stuck on the concourse?

humbert

Kaptain Redeye wrote:

I did some checking and apparently the SU does not own the forum bar. The students own it and it is managed on their behalf by the management committee.

The committe has 5 Students and 4 members of one staff - one of which is the SU Financial Administrator who I suppose is supposed to be on our side.

Also after talking in more depth about the cans thing some new facts have come to my attention. They would not be new facts if I had been presented with proper financial figures at the last meeting but meh...

I think forcing the bar to stock and sell cans is very possible, so long as there is sufficient demand.
And TBH, there has been very poor response to the http://www.petitiononline.com/cans/ petition.

I'm sure the poor response is purely due to a lack of publicity, if you did something completely inane like dress up as duff man and went around collecting signatures I'm sure you could get the majority of the college to support it.

The_Minister

I kept meaning to sign that, finally did.

beanyb

It definitely needs more publicity. I'd never even heard of it until just now.

cast_iron

beanyb wrote:

It definitely needs more publicity. I'd never even heard of it until just now.

Me too.

Though to me, online petitions mean damn all. I would say a petition that everyone signs (with a pen) is a bit more credible.

Stabshauptmann

Unfortunatly as much as I would like to I just dont have the time as a final year student to go around collecting sigs for this petition. The class reps should all have told their class - they obviously havent and the union refused to put it in their fornightly emails on the grounds that the college would deem it unacceptable.

However, if I can convince the manager of the bar, a very reasonable person, of the economic validity of the venture everything is hunky doory.
The profit margins on selling cans is higher than pints, but the nominal profit per unit sale is lower. The only way this idea will get off the ground is if I can convince him that turnover will substantially increase as a result.

A series of meetings are taking place this week, more than just me is working very hard on this and I'll have a good bit to report by next week progress wise.
My own target would be to have cans on sale for the start of next term

Chakar

I'm on the Bar Committee of the Student Club and frankly it hasn't met YET.It should be meeting in the next few weeks and so I guess I will be pushing for cans in the Student Bar too.I would like you to put up a synopsis of your argument in relation to the economics of it.

Stabshauptmann

Ive submitted my arguments in writing

Ive presented Qualitative arguments which Dan has tweaked a little, Quantitative (economic) which have to be further researched and a meeting has been arranged with the guys in the Pav and The Plan - price list, promotion, system of phased introduction etc

This is a working document, constantly being updated after each meeting.
Id be happy to show it to you, but in its current form it will probably be outdated before your first meeting, or hopefully the issue will be settled. Pm me when you have a date confirmed for the first meeting.

There are a few problems however.
If we cant get the manager to agree to the plan (for economic reasons) then Dan wont support it.

Dan refuses to go ahead with only one bar, its both bars or none.

Though students hold the majority of seats on the committee, we cant force the issue as the college holds a veto.

PS As part of a grander scheme Im working on changing the College Alcohol Policy. Ive written up a fairly detailed policy document (as opposed to the 9 sentence existing one).
The only problem with both these initiatives is that Ive to let the appropriate Sabbat do the final negotiations. Id like to be able to pitch and defend both documents myself considering I wrote the bulk of both of them

poobum

wellthis is the first time i heard it....

Stabshauptmann

hullaballo wrote:

Does the SU own the bars?

singingstranger wrote:

I think the SU owns the premises but leases out the contracts or something like that. I dunno.

No the SU does not own the bars or the premises. They do however have a seat on the management committee and the SU financial advisor has a seat too.

I got clarification on this at the meeting.
A company was created for tax reasons to own the student centre. Its not part of the college, but effectively it is (because of who has what positions etc)

This company leases the space to the centre bar, which hold an alcohol license in the universities name.

So, the centre bar pays rent to UCD and relies on UCD to operate.
The student bar has a similar arrangement.

zap wrote:

the two directly elected students even though they are both members of Union council do not have to support this motion as they got elected as a student not from their positions as 4th Sci class rep and Comms and IT Officer.

It doesnt matter how they were elected if they dont bother going to meetings.
No other student rep showed up on Friday, it was just me and 4 members of staff.

zap, just a hunch, but are you gary redmond? Just the way you wrote that post, I was gonna ask garry on friday, but he never showed

the van wrote:

they could test it for a couple of weeks at the start of semester 2 and see how it went?

This has been part of my plan since the beginning, a phased introduction/trial period.
They claim they ran a drinks promotion thing in the student bar every tuesday for a month last year in jan or feb, and that this showed no increase in demand (a key part of my argument).
Does anyone remember this promotion last year, I never heard of it?!

Things that were agreed at the meeting
Agreement in principal to stock free trade beer and wine, (mongoza exotic beer). They say they'll buy a crate or two and see how well it sells.

A fact finding mission to the Pav to get the financial details and regulations I was unable to get.

The issue isnt dead, but unless I can guarantee a large increase in demand, >50-60% then its not economically viable.

Maybe confined to one bar we could get that increase in demand, but that would just be stealing ppl from the other bar and I dont want that.

Any ideas?

Blush_01

This might be really stupid, but how about a poll? Advertise it through one of the campus papers, get something like the petition set up so people literally have to click a button, tell people the poll will be open until x time on x date. That way anyone who reads the paper knows about the issue (and might even know about the petition through it?) and can spread the word to friends too. It's not getting about quickly enough or going far enough from just Boards and what little word of mouth is spreading it at the moment. Just a thought. Also, Kap, I'm pretty sure that's who Zap is alright.

Red Alert

^^^ maybe if the SU talked to computing services about putting a channel on connect they might be able to help

Stabshauptmann

The SU has refused to advertise the campaign through ucdconnect / mass email

Chakar

If you just get that fella Brendan Doyle do a small piece on the campaign and the petition then it should be just grand and you can get publicity.He has wrote about the alcohol policy and the motion that was passed so I would say he would be eager.

Just email observer.editor@ucd.ie to get his email address.

panda100

Kaptain Redeye wrote:

s.

There are a few problems however.
If we cant get the manager to agree to the plan (for economic reasons) then Dan wont support it.

.

I dont understand this?I presume by Dan you mean the Su president so surely he should be supporting the plan regardless of what the manager thinks since the motion was passed at council and it what students want?

Out of intrest KRE is the forum bar making profit at the moment or is it struggling?Its empty whenever I go in there

Stabshauptmann

Honestly I dont know what the bars net figures are.

I have estimates of certain fixed costs, why they are estimates if they are the same as last year I dont know.
I have sales revenue figures, but these figures for the same period change on different pages of the accounts for no apparent reason. Eg when used in calculating margins.

And "average margin" isnt a ratio Ive come across in accounting before, and its not on google either.
When I ask accounting questions I get round about answers. They wont tell me whether figures are gross or net.

All I can tell you is that the meetings give me the impression that the bar is doing well.
UCD ents on the other hand isnt.