Ents Referendum 25th/26th of February

ataRi_

Hey all,

I'm campaigning for a "Yes" vote in the Ents referendum and I'm just looking to spark some discussion on the topic.

Essentially it's an Ents referendum to bring back the student Ents Officer for next year!

SparkySpitfire

What good is the Ents officer? As far as I can see, from my point of view as a first year, ents is useless.

I bet a lot of you are friends with UCD Ents on Facebook, so you'll know the only thing they're good for is spamming your notifications with invites to clubs. It seems to be the only thing they do.
I know they also organise the UCD ball but so far all I've experienced is an inundation of notifications for going out to various nightclubs. Why no UCD-specific events? Why no original events? Or events on campus?

All the good social events seem to happen through societies like mystery tours, various balls, and all kinds of social events.

It seems ents crews are more important in ITs as they organise most of the events as societies aren't as important in that aspect.

kilrush

In fairness it has not been a good year for ents. They found out during the summer the bar was to close down and until now that had been the main venue for on campus Ents events.

At the same time there has been great efforts to have Ents events on campus such as Des Bishop and Neil Deilamare who both sold out the astra hall and David o Doherthy is coming this week. As well as that The Fashion Show was run last thursday by Ents which is in my opinion slightly original if not my cup of tea!

A large part of the Ents officers job this year has been working to get the Bar back and while the solution they have reached at the moment isnt perfect its still better than nothing at all and they are still working to improve the conditions and bring back the bar which is something that really should be commended.

Finally on the UCD Ball it was one of the best days ive had as a UCD student and if its half as good this year it will be epic!

I'd just like to point out that i'm not on the Ents crew or anything like that but i do value the work that they do so I personally think voting yes in the Ents referendum is a good idea.

SparkySpitfire

I'm not full out saying they're crap at what they're supposed to be doing, it's just I haven't really experienced anything otherwise if you understand.

I can appreciate that, and I don't mean to argue with you and froth at the mouth over this :P But is there really a need for an ents crew when societies get on with it well enough?

Maybe a committees set up to organise the Ball and bar would suffice? Or limit Ents to just that, because frankly, they don't do much else.

kilrush

I'm not meaning to be argumentative so excuse me if that appears in that way i'm just trying to answer your questions to the best of my ability!

The main problem with societies is that by nature they are exclusive for example the L+H are bringing in Jenna Marbles this wednesday but unless you are a member of their society you are unable to attend. (You can still still sign up on the day but i hope you get the point) Ents is meant to be inclusive of everyone and its also meant to draw peoples attention to the Student Union as a whole.The large majority of students will not need to deal with the welfare or education officer during the course of their degree but most students do enjoy a night out or comedy event or whatever so its ents job to provide these events and make students aware that the union exists should they ever have any welfare or academic problems.

The ball is an awful amount of work dealing with the gardaí,the university, getting acts etc. with out the ents officer and crew pushing hard to get it all done i don't believe a ball of anywhere near the quality would be possible!

SparkySpitfire

No, no, you're coming off grand! Hope you don't think I'm being pig-headed haha

I get where you're coming from and I'll admit that it is good in the sense that it's non-exclusive. Maybe as you said they are having a bad year. It's not like I've anything to compare it to being in first year, but having said that as a first year it's easy to see them as useless if you get me? Since we haven't really seen Ents do much at all, how are we to know that they're normally better than this.

I dunno, hopefully I can talk to more people before the referendum and get more points of view on the matter - I might even give ents the benefit of the doubt :P Thanks for sharing your views

Offside

It's a job far more suited to a professional imo. Especially looking at the mess that seems to be the UCD ball this year, I'm hearing that it won't be the UCD ball as we know it due to venue/licensing issues, talk of a scaled down 3 day event now in a tent. I'm sure MCD or any other promoter would have far more expertise in organizing a license.

reno123

I'm on the ents crew so obviously pro ents.

I think a student elected Ents officer is important to this campus. Will a professional be as interested in helping out with small class parties etc? Backing things like An Seo Faisin, C&E Superbowl Party and other such events. I know Heffo's main aim was to bring ents back to Campus and was dealt a huge blow when finding out in the summer that the bar would be closed.

So far Des Bishop, Neil Delamare and David O' Doherty have or/will play the Astra Hall to over 600 students. An Seo Faisin sold out in The Student Centre Atrium. As did the Freshers Ball this year in September.Also there was a Preview screening of The Campaign in UCD Cinema. Mystery tour was another very strong event. Also I believe there are plans for many sport based leagues/tournaments as we enter the spring (and,fingers crossed, good weather)

The whole professional ents manager thing I feel is flawed. He'll have certain boxes to tick but will he be as helpful in organising small class parties, birthdays or the like? I'm not so sure.

With no bar any big music event or night out comes with increased costs e.g much higher break even points! So in a time when the Union needs financial stability more than anything I feel Heffo has played it very smart. He's moved away from alcohol driven events and made events much more open to drinkers or non drinkers, comedy buffs or film enthusiasts.

The bar will be back in September and needs an interested, committed student to lead it. One who can relate to students and views it as a passion rather than someone after a career.

Finally The Professional Manager position wouldn't be someone from MCD. That would stop Ents using MCD artists and venues such as The Academy.

WoollyRedHat

IMO the best solution would be something from both worlds, a student officer but with a professional supervisor, to basically ensure corporate responsibility as well as lending some business acumen... I'd extend this to most things where students have to head things tbh.. look at how the bar ended, from most profitable bar in its heyday, with not much competition owing to its location, to bankruptcy, having to be bailed out by the college.

kilrush

The Student Union will have a long term general manager soon so i presume they will be able to provide the professional supervision and responsibility to look over the ents officer!

WoollyRedHat

kilrush wrote: »

The Student Union will have a long term general manager soon so i presume they will be able to provide the professional supervision and responsibility to look over the ents officer!

Good, then that's what is the best solution is,, have the general manager provide both advise and a general oversight, but still allow the ents officer a reasonable amount of flexibiltiy so that he is not too restricted in carrying out his duties.. balance will be key.

ETA: OP what exactly is the wording of this referendum... what Killrush has posted above is the optimal solution, does this referdum simply wish to reverse the decision made in Semester 2 of 2012, and return the position to the way things were, or is it something different. Please elaborate.

Foxtrol

From the outside this seems like a very self serving referendum. I would be shocked if a number of people running this do not have a desire to be Ents officer in the future and if this is the case then it's disgracefully self centered.

There is simply no need for an Ents officer if there is a professional in the role. They will take their orders from the President/Sabats/Exec etc but would be accountable for their actions ie if they do not perform their job they'll be sacked. The previous situation is that the most popular candidate wins and if they don't bother their arse/aren't capable of doing the job there's realistically nothing that can be done and there goes a year of ents.

I would however be shocked if this didn't pass as I can see people having much more to gain to selfishly support it than to try to fight it for the good of the student body in general.