SU Communication Problems

Bored Accountant

I have heard complaints on 2 occasions this semester where people have been complaining about the way the SU advertises events / meetings etc.

1) It was brought up at the EGM that people hadn't heard about it in advance, and that the SU hadn't publicised it properly.

2) I was talking to a number of Post Grads yesterday who didn't even realise that the PSU President, their Student Union representative was being elected yesterday, never mind that nominations had to be submitted a week previous.


The SU send out emails, advertise these items on the SU facebook. What other ways do people want to be notified about these events? Is the problem just that people don't read their emails and then complain they weren't told something was happening?

I know someone suggested when asked for ideas at the EGM for the SU to hold a press conference. Not sure how the SU are going to tell ppl the press conference is being held in the first place!!!


I'm only asking this because with the EGM that is meant to be held in Week 8 is approaching. Maybe some ideas can be thrown around to help the SU to publicise the meeting so that the full student population hears about it, so that quorum will be reached and students come along and have their voice heard.

OhMSGlive

To be honest, there's really not that much else that can be done aside from what is already being done. Messages are being sent out to all email accounts, Facebook and Twitter (I think) are being constantly updated, and the sabbats are reminding their friends about it too, I believe. I personally don't see what else can be done. Am open to corrections and ideas as always though!

cambridge

Daly essentially said what else can they do other than email and facebook?

the problem is so much spam comes down the student email that people don't read it/ check it every day. important (ish) emails about egms and elections will get hidden by things about the gym and surveys.

using facebook is fairly unprofessional method of communication, how many current postgrads 'liked' the psu page?

cambridge

as i said the problem with email is that it's abused.

OhMSGlive

cambridge wrote: »

as i said the problem with email is that it's abused.

Hit the nail on the head here. Do we really need to know about the great rates in the SU or the surveys? I don't think so.

Bored Accountant

cambridge wrote: »

using facebook is fairly unprofessional method of communication, how many current postgrads 'liked' the psu page?

well there's almost 800 'likes' out of a community of post grads of about 2100 but who knows how many are current post grads.

Also with no up to date website either there's no point of reference for the PSU for whats going on.

Are people just ignorant of what's going on and don't care cause they feel it doesn't affect them?

shabouwcaw

the problem with the EGM specifically was that it seemed like the organisation of it was rushed. The all student email announcing it was going ahead was literally as late as it could possibly be. That's awful from an organisational point of view.

To my mind, since there's definitely going to be a UGM in the near future, there should be concerted campaigns to raise awareness for it already. While I understand that there are other campaigns and charity week coming up, there should be more mentioning of it, there should be constant communication. The email that went out this week with the draft constitution did mention the UGM in week 8, so that's a good start.

In terms of the emails, there is a certain Market for Lemons problem going on, where such a massive proportion of the email is utter crap meaning people ignore everything.

In fairness though, with An Focal, AnFocal.ie, ULFM, information screens that have fallen into disuse and a pretty big building with lots of footfall, using all of those in a concerted effort to make people aware of whats going on would be a help. Banners, ads, reminders etc would go a long way.

cambridge

you have to wonder if the su sabbats want the student body to know what's going on? they wanted their quorum for that egm nothing more, they wanted to fill it with their friends and friends of friends to make sure their little stunt got carried through.

can anyone at all say they were canvassed by any sabbatical officer about anything?

Bored Accountant

Well the EGM being on was all across the front of the front page of An Focal the previous week and ppl were still complaining that they didn't know about it!!

cambridge

who reads an focal though?

shabouwcaw

Well the EGM being on was all across the front of the front page of An Focal the previous week and ppl were still complaining that they didn't know about it!!

There's a reason there's a 2 week minimum notice period though. Because it takes time for people to get informed on issues.

Particularly when the exact wording of the motions wasn't decided until the night before, which was just insane. I honestly don't know how they expected people to vote on the "spirit" of a motion, when the actuality and impact of what was being proposed can only be ascertained by the actual technical language used in the proposal.

The EGM being on the front page of An Focal did probably help the event make quorum, but I think the point at which the headline is not explicitly about the EGM and the EGM is only mentioned twice in a pretty long piece, to many people presented the impression it was a fait accompli. It also didnt raise awareness of the EGM that I think such a prominent placing would usually generate.

wnolan1992

OhMSGlive wrote: »

Hit the nail on the head here. Do we really need to know about the great rates in the SU or the surveys? I don't think so.

Rates at the shop: No, should be a facebook page set up for stuff like that so as to avoid spam.
Surveys: Yes. I've posted at length about this in other threads.




Taking the EGM specifically, it was a huge spread in An Focal, all over the SU Facebook page, ULFM, and about 5 seperate all student emails. And still there were only 240 people there from a student body of what, 13000? Majority of people don't care about the SU, so no matter how well it's communicated to them, they'll still take no notice.

I really don't see what else they could do bar sitting in the Plaza shouting at people, and if they were doing that we'd no doubt have a thread entitled "Pushy Nature of the SU".

OhMSGlive

wnolan1992 wrote: »

Surveys: Yes. I've posted at length about this in other threads.

FYP surveys? Yes. Marketing surveys from the Faculty? No.

wnolan1992

OhMSGlive wrote: »

FYP surveys? Yes. Marketing surveys from the Faculty? No.

Apologies for the misunderstanding.

OhMSGlive

wnolan1992 wrote: »

Apologies for the misunderstanding.

S'all good, I could've been clearer.

J_E

wnolan1992 wrote: »

Taking the EGM specifically, it was a huge spread in An Focal, all over the SU Facebook page, ULFM, and about 5 seperate all student emails. And still there were only 240 people there from a student body of what, 13000? Majority of people don't care about the SU, so no matter how well it's communicated to them, they'll still take no notice.

You're not taking into account anyone who was on co-op, Erasmus, sick, or in class. I had a 4 hour lab that day I couldn't get out of.

wnolan1992

Cydoniac wrote: »

You're not taking into account anyone who was on co-op, Erasmus, sick, or in class. I had a 4 hour lab that day I couldn't get out of.

True, but I have to believe that there were more than 240 people on campus at that time that could've come to the EGM if they cared.

yuppy700

I think you lads should cut the communications office some slack.

The CO's average work week is around 90 hours

How many of you can say that you put in that much effort ?

Polar Ice

Where's the roflcopter smiley face?

Quoting directly from the C&S Council minutes, Tuesday week 5 (She is referring to herself in the quote)

Kelly O&#8217 wrote: »

Her average work week is around 90hrs.

Is the CO claiming that she spends 12+ hours per day working, 7 days a week?!?

J_E

That was definitely an overstatement but I have no doubt she does do well and beyond 40 hours a week.

shabouwcaw

in fairness to Kelly, I've been in the main building doing essays until 4am a few times and she's been in the Comms Office when I've been walking home. so the 90 hours was probably an overstatement, but not a large one.

Good few jobs would require 80 hour weeks, but since she's not currently a New York trial lawyer on 250k a year, she does deserve some slack.

OhMSGlive

shabouwcaw wrote: »

Good few jobs would require 80 hour weeks, but since she's not currently a New York trial lawyer on 250k a year, she does deserve some slack.

Hear hear!

colon

A lot of the su are quick to jump to their own defence by spouting the good old "but I work 80, 90, whatever hours a week" line. How do ye quantify your working day? By adding up the hours of the week that you're awake? Ye are paid for 44 hours per week. Maybe if ye made a conscientious decision to actually WORK for these hours instead of lolling around on the campus, facebook and Boards, then the students ye represent might be better served.

wnolan1992

colon wrote: »

A lot of the su are quick to jump to their own defence by spouting the good old "but I work 80, 90, whatever hours a week" line. How do ye quantify your working day? By adding up the hours of the week that you're awake? Ye are paid for 44 hours per week. Maybe if ye made a conscientious decision to actually WORK for these hours instead of lolling around on the campus, facebook and Boards, then the students ye represent might be better served.

Speaking about the CO specifically, I think I can safely say that that description is about as far off the mark as possible.