Discontinuation of the role of Student Activities Officer

gizmo

Split from McClave '08 thread...

StickyMcGinty wrote: »

pardon my ignorance, but what has any Student Activities Officer actually achieved??

I think it's safe to say she's been instrumental to the continued growth and success of societies around campus. Not only that be she's lovely to deal with, extremely helpful with anything you brought to her and always made time for any of us that needed a chat.

ghostdancer

i presume he was looking for specifics, not some wishy-washy b.s. praise....

StickyMcGinty

gizmo wrote: »

I think it's safe to say she's been instrumental to the continued growth and success of societies around campus. Not only that be she's lovely to deal with, extremely helpful with anything you brought to her and always made time for any of us that needed a chat.

ghostdancer wrote: »

i presume he was looking for specifics, not some wishy-washy b.s. praise....

yea something a little more specific would be useful, that sounds like something straight off her CV.

lil_cain

StickyMcGinty wrote: »

yea something a little more specific would be useful, that sounds like something straight off her CV.

She handles new societies, so goes through the proccess of setting up with them, helps them with what's wanted for their grant app., what has to be in a constitution, all the kind of stuff. She pretty much runs the clubs & socs bit of the open day. She's one of the few people in the university that any of the clubs and socs committees can go to for help organising things, or to know how in the university to go annoy about things. She also sit's on the SPC & SCC and probably does a pile of other things I don't know about/have forgotten about.

rugbug86

lil_cain wrote: »

She handles new societies, so goes through the proccess of setting up with them, helps them with what's wanted for their grant app., what has to be in a constitution, all the kind of stuff. She pretty much runs the clubs & socs bit of the open day. She's one of the few people in the university that any of the clubs and socs committees can go to for help organising things, or to know how in the university to go annoy about things. She also sit's on the SPC & SCC and probably does a pile of other things I don't know about/have forgotten about.

She's also the module co-ordinator for the Uaneen Module and as the college have no plans for someone to take over the administration of the module, the module is in doubt which would be a major step backwards and goes against all that the previous SU's, and other members of staff, have worked so hard to achieve.

gizmo

All of the above is what the role itself entails, however what she has acheived is carrying out the duties of this role role with a degree of professionalism, commitment and enthusiasm that has had a huge bearing on the success of societies today. This is not "wishy-washy b.s. praise" this is a statement of fact.

It's clear to see that many people who work in DCU simply do their jobs with what appears to be minimum amounts of these traits, the registry is one department that springs to mind. Lisa, however, is clearly not one of these people and this should be even more evident if you look at the reactions of anyone who has had dealings with her during her tenure.

On the other hand, you could argue that this outcry is more a refection of people not wanting to lose Lisa herself however this is not the case. What we have here is a role whose potential has been fulfilled by this person, because of their hard work we have been able to see how valuable this position can be to the running of societies and if it were to be abolished we would not only be losing said position but also someone who has carried it out with such success.

Further testaments to this fact can be found over on the Life thread here.

sunnyjim

As an aside, someone says she's the coordinator of the Uaneen module.

Seriously, what's so important about keeping it? Why do people need recognition for something thats outside college hours, for their own recreation?

ghostdancer

gizmo wrote: »

All of the above is what the role itself entails, however what she has acheived is carrying out the duties of this role role with a degree of professionalism, commitment and enthusiasm that has had a huge bearing on the success of societies today. This is not "wishy-washy b.s. praise" this is a statement of fact.

well no, it isn't, it's just your opinion, and was some vague praise, in the absence of pin-pointing any specifics. It may be correct, but it certainly isn't a fact.

ghostdancer

lil_cain wrote: »

She handles new societies, so goes through the proccess of setting up with them, helps them with what's wanted for their grant app., what has to be in a constitution, all the kind of stuff. She pretty much runs the clubs & socs bit of the open day. She's one of the few people in the university that any of the clubs and socs committees can go to for help organising things, or to know how in the university to go annoy about things.

can I ask how this differs from the Clubs and Socs Officer so?

I mean, I'm sure whoever the SAO is does all this aswell, I just would have thought that the Clubs and Socs Officer (no idea who that is either), would do all that stuff.

what exactly do you mean by "handles new societies"?
how does the SAO "helps them with what's wanted for their grant app."? One of my friends is the head of a soc and says he's never had any interaction with the SAO to the best of his knowledge.
"what has to be in a constitution"? could you elaborate on this please? what kind of constitution? and how it has bearing on students.

as for "She pretty much runs the clubs & socs bit of the open day.", I was under the impression that there were several people involved in running the Clubs and Socs day, unless you're talking about something else that happens on the Open Days?
again, I would have thought the Clubs and Socs Officer would have been the person in charge of the day, running around organising things, or at least the person to go to within the SU?

as I said, I don't know who the SAO is, so I'm not having a go at her, I'm sure she does whatever she does very well, I'm just trying to understand what the position of SAO actually entails, and how half of the things you have mentioned differ from what I would perceive as the duties of the Clubs and Socs Officer, or at least tasks that could be handled by the CSO, and thus removed most of the need for an SAO.


from a quick discussion amongst classmates and some in other courses, none of us had a clue who the SAO was, or what they do. I have little doubt that the same could be said for the majority of students. I know all the people who post in here who have their own involvement in the SU and various clubs and socs probably know, but this isn't remotely representative of most students.

again, not having a go at the person, so no need to come back with "oh Lisa is a lovely person, very competent, enthusiastic, blah blah". I'm sure she is, she probably wouldn't have wanted or gotten the job otherwise, I'm more interested in the position itself, than whover is filling it this year, which is really the crux of the issue, and the reason for any plans to "remove our Student Activities Officer."

rugbug86

sunnyjim wrote: »

As an aside, someone says she's the coordinator of the Uaneen module.

Seriously, what's so important about keeping it? Why do people need recognition for something thats outside college hours, for their own recreation?

Why shouldn't people get recognition for all of their work?

sunnyjim

Is it academic work?

ECTS credits go for academic work completed and marked.

I don't see how recreational activities are academic work.

Recognition - fair enough, it can be given... That's why we have trophies, medals, certificates and other awards. But whats the big deal for people to get credits for it? Especially since they don't actually count towards a degree

sunnyjim

Winters wrote: »

Comment deleted.

rugbug86

They count for some degrees - humanities and business and sports science.

I'm doing it as an optional, non-contributing module because it's something that I want to do, personal achievement and all that jazz.

rugbug86

ghostdancer wrote: »

well no, it isn't, it's just your opinion, and was some vague praise, in the absence of pin-pointing any specifics. It may be correct, but it certainly isn't a fact.

http://www.dcu.ie/students/activities/index.shtml

ghostdancer

Winters wrote: »

Comment deleted

eh, right, good man.

rugbug86 wrote: »

http://www.dcu.ie/students/activities/index.shtml

well that has nothing to do with my reply, but thanks for this.
although a lot of it is short on specifics of what exactly it is that the SAO does (eg. "giving support" isn't a specific....), there's some useful info on how and when to join/set-up a club.

so again, is this not something that the Clubs and Socs Officer can do, and thus, reduce the need for a SAO? i mean, bar a mention of the Uaneen module, and some Clubs and Socs info, there's nothing but a load of waffle on that page....

Winters

Clubs and Socs Officer is a student who will in their spare time do what they can, if they are available, to give information to people running societies and clubs amongst other things such as taking part in meetings about c&s etc.. This person is voted to the position and changed anually.

The Student Activities Officer was someone employed by the college who's job it was to provide services, information, support, guidance to people in clubs and societies. They also activly take part in working on the large events, funding etc. This person does (well did) not change on an annual basis and was a much loved and hard working employee of DCU.

lil_cain

ghostdancer wrote: »

can I ask how this differs from the Clubs and Socs Officer so?

I mean, I'm sure whoever the SAO is does all this aswell, I just would have thought that the Clubs and Socs Officer (no idea who that is either), would do all that stuff.

As winters pointed out, clubs and socs officer is a student. They have a quite limited amount of time, and generally, their position is more to make sure the SU, SPC and SCC are all reading from the same hymn sheet, or at least have some idea what each other are doing. [quote=ghostdancer;55518865what exactly do you mean by "handles new societies"?
how does the SAO "helps them with what's wanted for their grant app."? One of my friends is the head of a soc and says he's never had any interaction with the SAO to the best of his knowledge.
"what has to be in a constitution"? could you elaborate on this please? what kind of constitution? and how it has bearing on students.

[/quote] If you go to set up a new society, the clubs & socs officer is the person you deal with. She'll go through what the SPC require in the society(or I assume club, not really involved in that side of things) constitution, what they're going to need to put in their grant app. (note I say *new* society. Older societies has reps on the SPC to help them out when necessary, but are generally assumed to have built up some experience so that they have some idea how the grant app. system works), point out what help they can get from people within the SPC/SU etc. I don't think most of the societies that were added this year would ever have been approved if it wasn't for the work Lisa put in with them.

ghostdancer wrote: »

as for "She pretty much runs the clubs & socs bit of the open day.", I was under the impression that there were several people involved in running the Clubs and Socs day, unless you're talking about something else that happens on the Open Days?
again, I would have thought the Clubs and Socs Officer would have been the person in charge of the day, running around organising things, or at least the person to go to within the SU?

Nope. Open Day is a *DCU* thing, not an SU thing. And again, the Clubs and Socs officer is a student, and has a very limited amount of time. And yes, there were several people involved in organising things on the Open Days. Lisa is however the one who generally co-ordinates things. Also, at this point, it's worth pointing out that clubs and socs and the SU are almost entirely separate. The SPC & SCC look after societies and clubs respectively, they go through grant apps, they deal with problems societies have, all that kind of stuff. Lisa sits on both of these committees. The SU don't have *anything* to do with either (bar the fact that the Clubs and Socs officer sits on them as well)

ghostdancer wrote: »

as I said, I don't know who the SAO is, so I'm not having a go at her, I'm sure she does whatever she does very well, I'm just trying to understand what the position of SAO actually entails, and how half of the things you have mentioned differ from what I would perceive as the duties of the Clubs and Socs Officer, or at least tasks that could be handled by the CSO, and thus removed most of the need for an SAO.


from a quick discussion amongst classmates and some in other courses, none of us had a clue who the SAO was, or what they do. I have little doubt that the same could be said for the majority of students. I know all the people who post in here who have their own involvement in the SU and various clubs and socs probably know, but this isn't remotely representative of most students.

To be perfectly honest, it's one of the positions you won't ever come into contact with (bar her speech at the start of first year) if you're not involved in clubs and socs. You'll never come into contact with the Societies Finance officer if you're not heavily involved either though, and she's fairly vital. The life handbook, the Open day organisation, helping out with new societies, most of the stuff that the SAO does is behind the scenes work. Those heavily involved in Clubs and Socs get to know her fairly well, because we're the ones doing stuff. If she went, lots of stuff wouldn't happen, but I don't think the average person would know why.

ghostdancer wrote: »

again, not having a go at the person, so no need to come back with "oh Lisa is a lovely person, very competent, enthusiastic, blah blah". I'm sure she is, she probably wouldn't have wanted or gotten the job otherwise, I'm more interested in the position itself, than whover is filling it this year, which is really the crux of the issue, and the reason for any plans to "remove our Student Activities Officer."

I think, to a certain extent, you're coming at this from the wrong angle in this case. I'd say you could probably be Student Activites Officer, and never do anything useful. From talking to Rebrick's associates though, it would seem that we've had several over the years, and they've *all* done similar amounts. I don't think it's the kind of job that people who weren't going to do stuff would really go for.

rugbug86

@ ghostdancer - have you ever been active in a club/society at a committee level or have you ever had any dealings with the current, or any previous, student activity officers in DCU?

LeixlipRed

It seems to me that it's pretty common sense to have someone in a role like this. And if it's true that she does her job well then she has to be kept on. In my short time in this college I've been astounded by the sheer incompetence and apathy of the non-academic staff (and some of those too). DCU is a joke of a college tbh and the more honest, hard working student friendly people working here the better