The last part of the Analysis is in the Unions, sitting at the bottom of the ballot paper. With three distinct categories, there were three very interesting results.
In the Senior Member battle, Ben McNab took home the bacon, polling over half the votes in the first round, and winning by a clear majority. I'm sure that Ben will do a good job, but I am disappointed he got elected. Paul is a good friend of mine, so I would have loved to see him on the Committee, especially as he heavily uses the Unions, and was until the end of the last festival one of the senior staff in the Pleasance (the proper Pleasance, not Pleasance at Potterrow). Iain has been doing a damn good job for the previous three years and I think he too would have been a great continuance in the role.
What however annoys me the most - and why I gave Ben the lowest preference - is that he wants to "resign" at the end of each year to fight his seat again, in a John Major-esque put up and shut up. The point of the Senior Member is that they are there for three years to provide continuity and a guiding hand in a Committee which has its membership change annually. Ben's rather odd decision is jepoardising the stability of the committee, which isn't big, isn't smart and really isn't rather clever. Also by resigning each year (something he would have to do well before nominations open), would mean that Committee of Management would be short of a Senior Member for upto 3 of its 8 annual meetings.
Looking at the Union Executive, and again, it is full of the returners - not a single new person elected; although at least this year the members of UnionExec have a mandate, after the 3 being returned unopposed last year. Ellie Price's "upgrade" from 1st Year Union Exec member is to be congratulated, and gives the Green's a continued voice. Pete Harris makes his return from Canada - although I'm wondering if we can keep our Moose, and if that will keep him there (see his website for more info): he's not caused us any trouble this year, and I quite would like that to continue. James Wallace also makes a return for a 3rd Year on Union Exec - quite an impressive run of results, and something that rivals the Senior Members for continuity. However, with James possibly off to Texas for 2007-2008, will his stay be a short one to the end of May, with the seat coming available again in the October Elections. If so, expect it to be highly contested, and a chance for the losers to get in.
Commitee of Management was a much tighter election with the final two positions being elected at the death, in a battle that looked to go any way depending on who was dropping out. With Tom French "elected elsewhere" (and how many of those in the room wish he wasn't) and James Wallace elected above, the field was cut to 10. It was a surprise that the polling numbers came in as they did. Rosy's excellent performance in the first round is testament to a good clean campaign, a good facebook group, an excellent website - which related to what she was standing for (unlike Nick & Katherine) - and probably because she asked lots of people to vote for her for this position, rather than spending time asking them to vote for other people or vote for other positions: I'm guessing this is what happened to Katherine, Nick, Stewart, Stephen, Ondrej and Alasdair.
All suffered really quite badly, and peformed a lot worse than expected. Tim Goodwin was in the lead from the start, and to be honest that is what you expect from a Sabbatical, so Tim Gee polling lower numbers than Rosy is surprising - no doubt this is in part due to the Green vote being split between himself & Alasdair. Having a total of 3 Sabbaticals on the CoM will be tough next year, and having two former VPSs as well as the current one will also be interesting - especially as Pete & Tim Gee both "supported" Tom this year. It is therefore upto the rest of the Committee to ensure that he does not get away with blue murder or just putting things through. Of the 6 ordinary members who will make up the Committee until after the October elections, only Rosy is the complete new comer to EUSA politics, and Commitee of Management: best of luck, because it's going to be a tough year.
Showing posts with label Ondrej Nenadl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ondrej Nenadl. Show all posts
Saturday, 3 March 2007
Post Race Analysis - SRC
So, with the Exec/Officers covered, who else was elected to the SRC. And how could they affect the policy outcomes. With many more school reps & ordinary members the situation is slightly different, but I'll take a look at who might be shaping the decisions.
Looking across the schools, its great to see that all schools bar one have members filling seats, and are therefore represented - I hope that the October election see a top up with the remaining seats filled. In amongst the mix are a number of returning members, and it is good to see continued involvement - the likes of Adam Apostoli in ACE, Stephen McFadden in Chemistry, Stewart Martin in GeoSci, Ben P in History, Bruce Golding in Maths, Ondrej Nenadl in Physics to name some.
Equally pleasing is the number of new names in the school seats, many of whom stood on manifestos which obviously really engaged with students and got people in their respective schools to vote for them; people like Rosy Burgess in BioSci, Karen Apitzch in Management or Gabriel Arafa in PPLS (even if Gabriel has been on the fringes for a while).
Going onto the Ordinary Members, this is a bit of an old hacks convention. With Tim Goodwin, Tim Gee & Tash Shotton all making the cut in the first two rounds, and Pete Harris joining them after a 14 round slog (surely he should have done better?), this part of the ballot really doesn't have too much new. The first round however did bring the surprise of the massive total for Hannah Critchlow, who's only campaign credentials seem to be her green-ness. Also elected in this round was Adam Ramsay. On the night, I'm sure that this didn't seem like an important win, but this gives Adam the chance to put something back into the SRC, and to what extent he does, depends on how much he feels like re-involving himself, as I noted below. So after 5 candidates being elected in Rounds 1 & 2, it took 'til round 11 before another, and I'm sure Stephen Allinson's fairtrade stance no doubt won him a few votes along the way - as well as being top of the ballot paper; a similar sentiment can probably be attributed to Ellie Price's victory a couple of rounds later. Also joining Pete in the final round were George Thomas and Anne Clark.
So who are these "ordinary" people? Well - the majority seem to be Green or Labour, with only a couple of independents thrown in. Most are hack, and are heavily involved in EUSA. What it may mean is that the debates in SRC are going to be heavily polarised. It could also be highly "intelligent" debate. We'll wait and see.
Looking across the schools, its great to see that all schools bar one have members filling seats, and are therefore represented - I hope that the October election see a top up with the remaining seats filled. In amongst the mix are a number of returning members, and it is good to see continued involvement - the likes of Adam Apostoli in ACE, Stephen McFadden in Chemistry, Stewart Martin in GeoSci, Ben P in History, Bruce Golding in Maths, Ondrej Nenadl in Physics to name some.
Equally pleasing is the number of new names in the school seats, many of whom stood on manifestos which obviously really engaged with students and got people in their respective schools to vote for them; people like Rosy Burgess in BioSci, Karen Apitzch in Management or Gabriel Arafa in PPLS (even if Gabriel has been on the fringes for a while).
Going onto the Ordinary Members, this is a bit of an old hacks convention. With Tim Goodwin, Tim Gee & Tash Shotton all making the cut in the first two rounds, and Pete Harris joining them after a 14 round slog (surely he should have done better?), this part of the ballot really doesn't have too much new. The first round however did bring the surprise of the massive total for Hannah Critchlow, who's only campaign credentials seem to be her green-ness. Also elected in this round was Adam Ramsay. On the night, I'm sure that this didn't seem like an important win, but this gives Adam the chance to put something back into the SRC, and to what extent he does, depends on how much he feels like re-involving himself, as I noted below. So after 5 candidates being elected in Rounds 1 & 2, it took 'til round 11 before another, and I'm sure Stephen Allinson's fairtrade stance no doubt won him a few votes along the way - as well as being top of the ballot paper; a similar sentiment can probably be attributed to Ellie Price's victory a couple of rounds later. Also joining Pete in the final round were George Thomas and Anne Clark.
So who are these "ordinary" people? Well - the majority seem to be Green or Labour, with only a couple of independents thrown in. Most are hack, and are heavily involved in EUSA. What it may mean is that the debates in SRC are going to be heavily polarised. It could also be highly "intelligent" debate. We'll wait and see.
Post Race Analysis - SRC Exec/Officers
Having taken a look at the results from the top of ballot paper, tonight's results look elsewhere and take a look (albeit briefly at times) into what it might mean for the year ahead. First up is the top of the SRC - the Executive and the SRC Officers.
With three convenerships returned unopposed, we've had three candidates who we (as an electorate) don't really know what they stand about or stand for. Laura & Thomas are as red as they come, and I'd be surprised if they weren't actually card carrying members of the Labour Party. Laura's behaviour towards some of the other candidates in this elections means that I'm very sceptical of her, and what she might do. She's also a first year currently and I wonder how much influence she will be able to have over others as External Convener - I also wonder what her leadership skills are like. As I said before - if I wasn't a final year student, I'd have relished taking on Laura in battle for External Convener. Thomas, as I've already said, I'm not totally convinced has the character to do the job in hand. Jonathan's problem as PG Convener, is that currently he is a Committee of 1. But knowing Jonathan, I'm sure he'll make something of it.
That leaves us with three other elected members of the Exec.
First off, SRC Editor. In what could be the last person in the role, Guy Bromley took the election by some margin from Ross Cullen. Guy is, of course, a member of the Labour Club, which can't have done him any harm, but to be honest this won't have single handedly won him the election. My best guess, is that he had a website, whilst his opponent didn't, although Ross did have some interesting posters. Either way, Guy's in the job. The SRC Editor appears to do bugger all these days, and I'd be interested to see what Guy makes of the role - he can't be any worse in the job than the current incumbent. Guy has given us some results as Academic Services Convener, so maybe that will continue as SRC Editor.
Welfare Convener also went to a Labour Club man, but the race between Nick & Adam was more a microcosm of the election as a whole: Labour man against a man put up by the Greens. Well, it was close to that. Adam & Nick are apparently good mates, so maybe Adam'll contribute ideas to Nick, but either way this could be interesting. Nick has - in some circles - been described as a man who is just "a brain dead lump", which I feel is slightly harsh. I hope that Nick remembers that he has a whole University of students to represent and that welfare is a universal issue, not one based on any of the usual discriminants. However, what is interesting is that he has loyalty to both Tom & Josh: so is he really going to be independent on the Exec, or will he take orders from one, the other, or both?
Teaching & Learning Convener had originally 5 candidates, which dropped to 4 after Stewart Martin's withdrawn papers. Leaving 4 candidates, all of whom stood on similar issues, the decision for voters was always going to be a tough one. I was surprised Leah polled as few votes as she did - proving looks aren't everything, and proving I can be wrong; I do think her poor showing was down to her effectively withdrawing from competing in the race. Leaving three candidates, Emma's re-election posters no doubt didn't do anything but help her; although the last person to ask for re-election was Josh MacAlister in the External Convenor elections last year ... and he lost. As it was, Emma romped to victory, leaving Stephen & Ondrej in her wake. I expect Emma to do more of the same as this year - although hopefully a few more appearances at SRC won't go a miss.
That leaves the 6 non-Assoc Exec members of the SRC Exec, being a 4 Labour, 2 Independent split. More of which in a later post.
So the officers. Matt Mole was returned unopposed, and Schools & Induction Officer is a position I hope he really gets involved in.
Accommodation Officer saw a tight battle between Sam Hansford and Greta Dargie. I'm personally disappointed that Greta didn't get in: she's further along in her Uni career, and has clearly shown her involvement and wanting to get involved in the issues after her General Meeting Motion on Grant Management - something that took a lot of balls and hard work. Sam, it seems, is a P&P/Green leaning lackey, and has been elected after a very good leafleting campaign.
Community Officer saw a win Jude Harrison by some margin. As I said in earlier posts, I did not think it was right to re-elect Joe after doing bugger all this year. I honestly cannot think what impact he has had, and I hope that this fresh set of ideas will have some impact on the role. Jude's victory was a surprise in only so far as how large it had been. Again, this could be down to a good Facebook group, and his Labour party support. Either way, his manifesto did look good, and this may well have caused his win.
Finally, in this section, there is the Equal Ops Officer. Nahuel beat Kiril by a comfortable margin. I can't claim to know anything about either of these guys, but like Guy, this could be the last year for the position, so I wonder what they will do with the job. With Tom French in the VPS seat, he will no doubt push for reforms to the Liberation Groups, which Nahuel will be heavily involved with. Time will tell to see how far these reforms go.
With three convenerships returned unopposed, we've had three candidates who we (as an electorate) don't really know what they stand about or stand for. Laura & Thomas are as red as they come, and I'd be surprised if they weren't actually card carrying members of the Labour Party. Laura's behaviour towards some of the other candidates in this elections means that I'm very sceptical of her, and what she might do. She's also a first year currently and I wonder how much influence she will be able to have over others as External Convener - I also wonder what her leadership skills are like. As I said before - if I wasn't a final year student, I'd have relished taking on Laura in battle for External Convener. Thomas, as I've already said, I'm not totally convinced has the character to do the job in hand. Jonathan's problem as PG Convener, is that currently he is a Committee of 1. But knowing Jonathan, I'm sure he'll make something of it.
That leaves us with three other elected members of the Exec.
First off, SRC Editor. In what could be the last person in the role, Guy Bromley took the election by some margin from Ross Cullen. Guy is, of course, a member of the Labour Club, which can't have done him any harm, but to be honest this won't have single handedly won him the election. My best guess, is that he had a website, whilst his opponent didn't, although Ross did have some interesting posters. Either way, Guy's in the job. The SRC Editor appears to do bugger all these days, and I'd be interested to see what Guy makes of the role - he can't be any worse in the job than the current incumbent. Guy has given us some results as Academic Services Convener, so maybe that will continue as SRC Editor.
Welfare Convener also went to a Labour Club man, but the race between Nick & Adam was more a microcosm of the election as a whole: Labour man against a man put up by the Greens. Well, it was close to that. Adam & Nick are apparently good mates, so maybe Adam'll contribute ideas to Nick, but either way this could be interesting. Nick has - in some circles - been described as a man who is just "a brain dead lump", which I feel is slightly harsh. I hope that Nick remembers that he has a whole University of students to represent and that welfare is a universal issue, not one based on any of the usual discriminants. However, what is interesting is that he has loyalty to both Tom & Josh: so is he really going to be independent on the Exec, or will he take orders from one, the other, or both?
Teaching & Learning Convener had originally 5 candidates, which dropped to 4 after Stewart Martin's withdrawn papers. Leaving 4 candidates, all of whom stood on similar issues, the decision for voters was always going to be a tough one. I was surprised Leah polled as few votes as she did - proving looks aren't everything, and proving I can be wrong; I do think her poor showing was down to her effectively withdrawing from competing in the race. Leaving three candidates, Emma's re-election posters no doubt didn't do anything but help her; although the last person to ask for re-election was Josh MacAlister in the External Convenor elections last year ... and he lost. As it was, Emma romped to victory, leaving Stephen & Ondrej in her wake. I expect Emma to do more of the same as this year - although hopefully a few more appearances at SRC won't go a miss.
That leaves the 6 non-Assoc Exec members of the SRC Exec, being a 4 Labour, 2 Independent split. More of which in a later post.
So the officers. Matt Mole was returned unopposed, and Schools & Induction Officer is a position I hope he really gets involved in.
Accommodation Officer saw a tight battle between Sam Hansford and Greta Dargie. I'm personally disappointed that Greta didn't get in: she's further along in her Uni career, and has clearly shown her involvement and wanting to get involved in the issues after her General Meeting Motion on Grant Management - something that took a lot of balls and hard work. Sam, it seems, is a P&P/Green leaning lackey, and has been elected after a very good leafleting campaign.
Community Officer saw a win Jude Harrison by some margin. As I said in earlier posts, I did not think it was right to re-elect Joe after doing bugger all this year. I honestly cannot think what impact he has had, and I hope that this fresh set of ideas will have some impact on the role. Jude's victory was a surprise in only so far as how large it had been. Again, this could be down to a good Facebook group, and his Labour party support. Either way, his manifesto did look good, and this may well have caused his win.
Finally, in this section, there is the Equal Ops Officer. Nahuel beat Kiril by a comfortable margin. I can't claim to know anything about either of these guys, but like Guy, this could be the last year for the position, so I wonder what they will do with the job. With Tom French in the VPS seat, he will no doubt push for reforms to the Liberation Groups, which Nahuel will be heavily involved with. Time will tell to see how far these reforms go.
Friday, 2 March 2007
Live Results - CoM and Finance
So, whilst the Tom French debacle rumbles on in the debating hall, more results have been announced.
Union Exec sees the return of James Wallace (maybe he will put some sense in to Mr French), Ellie Price gets upgraded from 1st Year Rep to full member and also Pete Harris in his return appearance from Canada.
Next up are the "junior" positions on Finance for full time students. Winning this are Guy Bromely on a massive first preference lead, followed by Monisha and completing the trio is Jonathan Hogg who had a massive battle with Ondrej Nenadl, with the 3rd position swapping between them.
And then comes Committee of Management. Winning here, with the largest first preference vote is Tim Goodwin, followed by Rosy Burgess and then Tim Gee - although the process was quite slow with a small amount of transfers each time. I'm thrilled Rosy is on CoM, and I know that as Bar Staff she'll make a great impact.
Still to come SRC Ordinary and VPSA.
Union Exec sees the return of James Wallace (maybe he will put some sense in to Mr French), Ellie Price gets upgraded from 1st Year Rep to full member and also Pete Harris in his return appearance from Canada.
Next up are the "junior" positions on Finance for full time students. Winning this are Guy Bromely on a massive first preference lead, followed by Monisha and completing the trio is Jonathan Hogg who had a massive battle with Ondrej Nenadl, with the 3rd position swapping between them.
And then comes Committee of Management. Winning here, with the largest first preference vote is Tim Goodwin, followed by Rosy Burgess and then Tim Gee - although the process was quite slow with a small amount of transfers each time. I'm thrilled Rosy is on CoM, and I know that as Bar Staff she'll make a great impact.
Still to come SRC Ordinary and VPSA.
Wednesday, 21 February 2007
Looking at ... The Unions
After a three day hiatus in the posting on this blog (for which I apologise, but hey, this is my blog...), I'm back with more comment. Continuing the final bit of the triple post from Saturday, I'll take a look at the Unions - I'm not going to look at Manifestos in this post, that'll come later.
First up is the Senior Member. After last year's interesting race between Steven Hill and Peter McColl (8 more votes anyone?!), this year sees a three way race. Ben McNab is a regular to the Unions having spent much time in the last few years working on nights such as the Indie Club's Something for the Weekend in Teviot Underground. Up against him is the current incumbent Iain Murray. Iain's been on Committee of Management for the last three years, and apparently he was involved in the Unions before that. A stalwart of the Committee, Iain has seen it all before and maybe this will provide the crucial edge with the electorate. The third candidate is Paul O'Neill - his simple no nonsense approach to a website is very refreshing and might actually engage the voters. Paul comes with hands on Union experience as a bar staff in Pleasance and has worked two festivals. Each candidate has an edge - what makes it difficult is to work out which one will win.
Union Executive is a really quite tight battle. With originally 8 candidates going for 3 seats, the field has been slimmed down to 6, with Nick Ward & Ondrej Nenadl withdrawing. The 6 who remain will be involved in a slug fest: top of the ballot is Pete Harris - returning Sabb from Canada, who apparently wants your votes to secure his release from the mounties. If anyone has any sense, they'll give the mounties an award and leave him locked up! Stewart Martin is a perennial candidate, and his website isn't up as yet - my best guess would be more of the same.
Take out Ondrej, and you have Ellie Price - a returning candidate, elected as the first year representative in the by-elections: she's got a strong P&P background, which may explain why she is allegedly the founder of the paraody of this blog. Katherine Sellar - the newly returned Societies Convenor - also provides for an interesting element in the election: as President of FilmSoc she no doubt has some name recognition, which can't hinder her. George Thomas steps up to the plate as a first year and as the new Freshers' Week Co-ordinator ... rumours are abound about why he chose to stand, especially as his forms went in so late in the day. Completing the revised line up is James Wallace. As has been noted before, the much touted VPS campaign was pulled, and James is standing on what will no doubt be a mini-VPS ticket. Nick Ward has also decided to downsize, and is no longer contesting this one.
Committee of Management is a larger beast - 12 candidates, 3 positions. With Stewart Martin, Katherine Sellar & James Wallace both double ticketing (standing for this position & the one above), the field begins to shrink. I've said before that I'm not a fan of the current Sabbaticals returning to give the new Sabbs hell, and I'm also concerned about the possibility of them limiting the other candidates to even fewer seats and a smaller chance of election: Tim & Tim (Gee & Goodwin) obviously have a higher than normal chance with the name recognition alone. Tom French too will have a very large VPS campaign to support him in this in case he loses - but then I lost the CoM race in the final transfer despite being a Presidential candidate.
That leaves us with 6 candidates - topping them is Rosy Burgess. A very good friend of mine, Rosy is bar staff in Potterrow, and could bring a different spin to the 'politik' of the members of CoM that has taken place over the recent years - the amount of arguments I've lost with her over things, means she'd be no push over and the variety of different views means that it'd shake up the Committee. Stephen McFadden's candidature is an interesting man - also standing for T&L Convenor (like Ondrej) means that there could be a claim against them all of splitting their energies and focus. I can't claim to have heard of John McQuade and look forward to reading any interesting policies he has. The remaining two candidates are both "EUSA hacks" - Alasdair Thompson (taking the step down from Union Exec) and Nick Ward. As if tipifying the elections - one is Green and from the Adam Ramsay camp (Alasdair) and the other is Labour and from Josh's camp (Nick). Maybe that's where the battle will play out.
Rounding off the Unions are two elections in the Debates world. The staff can't remember the last time Debates Convenor was contested and the contest between the two - Ed James and Silviu Tanasie - could be a hard one to call. In the Debates Committee its 7 into 5, so election addresses will be the key point, as none have websites.
More commentary to follow.
First up is the Senior Member. After last year's interesting race between Steven Hill and Peter McColl (8 more votes anyone?!), this year sees a three way race. Ben McNab is a regular to the Unions having spent much time in the last few years working on nights such as the Indie Club's Something for the Weekend in Teviot Underground. Up against him is the current incumbent Iain Murray. Iain's been on Committee of Management for the last three years, and apparently he was involved in the Unions before that. A stalwart of the Committee, Iain has seen it all before and maybe this will provide the crucial edge with the electorate. The third candidate is Paul O'Neill - his simple no nonsense approach to a website is very refreshing and might actually engage the voters. Paul comes with hands on Union experience as a bar staff in Pleasance and has worked two festivals. Each candidate has an edge - what makes it difficult is to work out which one will win.
Union Executive is a really quite tight battle. With originally 8 candidates going for 3 seats, the field has been slimmed down to 6, with Nick Ward & Ondrej Nenadl withdrawing. The 6 who remain will be involved in a slug fest: top of the ballot is Pete Harris - returning Sabb from Canada, who apparently wants your votes to secure his release from the mounties. If anyone has any sense, they'll give the mounties an award and leave him locked up! Stewart Martin is a perennial candidate, and his website isn't up as yet - my best guess would be more of the same.
Take out Ondrej, and you have Ellie Price - a returning candidate, elected as the first year representative in the by-elections: she's got a strong P&P background, which may explain why she is allegedly the founder of the paraody of this blog. Katherine Sellar - the newly returned Societies Convenor - also provides for an interesting element in the election: as President of FilmSoc she no doubt has some name recognition, which can't hinder her. George Thomas steps up to the plate as a first year and as the new Freshers' Week Co-ordinator ... rumours are abound about why he chose to stand, especially as his forms went in so late in the day. Completing the revised line up is James Wallace. As has been noted before, the much touted VPS campaign was pulled, and James is standing on what will no doubt be a mini-VPS ticket. Nick Ward has also decided to downsize, and is no longer contesting this one.
Committee of Management is a larger beast - 12 candidates, 3 positions. With Stewart Martin, Katherine Sellar & James Wallace both double ticketing (standing for this position & the one above), the field begins to shrink. I've said before that I'm not a fan of the current Sabbaticals returning to give the new Sabbs hell, and I'm also concerned about the possibility of them limiting the other candidates to even fewer seats and a smaller chance of election: Tim & Tim (Gee & Goodwin) obviously have a higher than normal chance with the name recognition alone. Tom French too will have a very large VPS campaign to support him in this in case he loses - but then I lost the CoM race in the final transfer despite being a Presidential candidate.
That leaves us with 6 candidates - topping them is Rosy Burgess. A very good friend of mine, Rosy is bar staff in Potterrow, and could bring a different spin to the 'politik' of the members of CoM that has taken place over the recent years - the amount of arguments I've lost with her over things, means she'd be no push over and the variety of different views means that it'd shake up the Committee. Stephen McFadden's candidature is an interesting man - also standing for T&L Convenor (like Ondrej) means that there could be a claim against them all of splitting their energies and focus. I can't claim to have heard of John McQuade and look forward to reading any interesting policies he has. The remaining two candidates are both "EUSA hacks" - Alasdair Thompson (taking the step down from Union Exec) and Nick Ward. As if tipifying the elections - one is Green and from the Adam Ramsay camp (Alasdair) and the other is Labour and from Josh's camp (Nick). Maybe that's where the battle will play out.
Rounding off the Unions are two elections in the Debates world. The staff can't remember the last time Debates Convenor was contested and the contest between the two - Ed James and Silviu Tanasie - could be a hard one to call. In the Debates Committee its 7 into 5, so election addresses will be the key point, as none have websites.
More commentary to follow.
Saturday, 17 February 2007
Looking at ... The SRC
Continuing on the theme of looking at the bits of the Students' Association, next on the ballot paper is the Students' Representative Council. Starting on a very poor note is the fact that three of the convenorships are uncontested.
Whilst I'm not surprised that Postgraduate Convenor (or the Maggie Chapman Memorial Seat as I've called it before) is uncontested. The fact that External and Academic Services are unchallenged bothers me. Had I not been graduating, Laura Baker would have faced a fight on her hands from me. I also struggle to believe that AS has no competition, whereas Teaching & Learning has 5 people standing - I realise the two are not equal, but it is a shame that possibly so many good candidates may miss out. I'm disappointed that Thomas Graham has got the job. As far as I'm concerned, he has shown a great deal of arrogance at the SRC this year (not least with his very personal attack on me in January - both uncalled for and unnecessary) and I worry how this will translate onto a role on the Executive of the SRC. Both Thomas & Laura are 1st years, and so how this will translate to a stable SRC Executive waits to be seen - and both (interestingly) are aligned with the Labour Students group: it's a point I'll come back to later.
The Teaching & Learning race is surely going to be very interesting. Emma Chapman (the current incumbent) who has done a job this year that was always going to be hard in the wake of Ross Neilson and Tim Cobbett, takes on four young pretenders. Leah Volger - despite only being a candidate for two days - is the one I have heard the most chat about. And despite us all wanting to be an issue about the issues, all I have heard so far is about her looks - even Emma commented that this what she had heard. Clearly it is going to be a vote winner with the men, and noting how few female candidates there are this year, this could be a focal point. Still looking beyond Emma & Leah, the three candidates are all well versed in EUSA. Stephen's (also coming from the Labour camp) website is straight to the point, as is Ondrej, whereas Stewart's site is still to come. With so much at stake, one of these candidates will be looking to step forward soon.
Welfare Convenor is also looking like a very messy race. On the EUSA Forums there is plenty of discussion and mud slinging going on. It appears that Nick (Labour camp) and Adam are taking pot shots at each other through the medium of their supporters. I can't claim to have read either websites in detail or the forum thread, but Adam's simple snappy website (complete with requisite puns) takes on a very airy fairy website from Nick - he seems to be more interested in photos that policy. SRC Editor is an election between SRC stalwart, Guy Bromley (Labour camp) and Ross Cullen. I don't know anything about Ross, and the lack of website plays very well for Guy - although his site is just a shell currently. It'll need more progress from both candidates before people will really care.
In the officers section, Accommodation is a three-way battle and includes Greta Dargie who went up against Grant Management. Simple name recognition could do the trick here, although it has to be noted that her two opponents - Sam Hansford and Fiona Jarvie - both have websites to help their support and campaign.
Community Officer - well I've mentioned that I think Joe Calvert's candidacy is a joke, because people who haven't done anything shouldn't be re-elected. Joe hasn't done anything and it beggars belief that he's standing again. With both Jude Harrison & Sarah Nash, I simply don't know enough about them. I've heard that Jude either sits in the Tom/Adam camp or the Josh/Labour camp, but I'm not qualified enough to say which - although I think it may be the later, as Joe seems to be supporting Tom, and I doubt Tom/Adam would allow two of "their people" to stand against each other. Either way, manifestos will be important.
Equal Ops Officer - a position that was to be done away with in the Constitutional Amendments that have twice not been passed by a quorate General Meeting - is also a three-way contest. All seem to be supporting the same sort of ideals and I'd be interested in anything any of them can say which is fresh and new.
Down the School Reps list, elections are taking place in Biological Sciences (only two candidates have website, but all are in the same year), History & Classics (with Ben Politowski putting in his parachute here), Law (with a massive 5 candidates), Management & Economics (with an even more massive 6 candidates), "Philosophy, Psychology & Language" (with 5 candidates) and Social & Politics studies (with Josh MacAllister also putting in his parachute). Pleasingly, every school bar one has a representative.
The real battle will be in the Ordinary member elections - inevitably with such a large field (some 30 candidates), there is a lot of double ticketing. A quick glance of the candidates show that something like a third of them are standing elsewhere on the SRC ballot, which dramatically shrinks the voting field (obviously something we will only find out post election). Also in the mix are four current/past sabbaticals, which will have its own dynamic on the electoral result.
With so many elections, Thursday 1st March's count looks to stretch long into the night.
Monday, 12 February 2007
Busy Monday
The Second week of nominations seems to have opened with a big bang, with 20 candidatures from 10 candidates going in for a variety of positions across the scale. This first post will cover the new additions to the runners and riders (makes me sound a bit like Peter O'Sullivan before the Grand National - its an analogy I'm sure I can work in many times in the next three weeks).
First up, at the 'top of the ballot' Will Searle (VPSA Candidate) has a Website up - http://www.willsearle.110mb.com/ - although its currently a holding page, with the interesting slogan of Give EUSA the Searle of Approval. Opposite him in the 'red corner' is Gordon, whose Facebook Group (this year's must have accessory) tells us that his website is "nearing completion". More on Facebook Groups later.
Also near the top of the ballot is the first Finance Committee candidates. Traditionally a hot contest, this year its been a slow start but now there are two candidates - Jonathan Hogg (also standing for PG Convenor) and Ondrej Nenadl who's involved in a busy T&L race within the SRC seats. As we get closer to the close of nominations, I'd expect this race to become very crowded with Sabb candidates and other EUSA Hacks filling the spaces.
SRC Executive hasn't really moved on from last week, with the exception of Jonathan Hogg taking over the Maggie Chapman Memorial Seat as PG Convenor - I don't expect there to be a fight for this seat, but stranger things have happened. Time will tell, I suppose. Across on the EUSA Forums Tim Gee seems to have issued a flat denial that he will stand for SRC Editor, and I await with interest if that is the case when the fat lady sings at noon on Thursday.
SRC itself has a slew of nominations - with Rosy Burgess in Bio Science Rep & Ordinary Member, Stephen Allison in Law Rep & Ordinary Member, Hannah Crichlow for Ordinary Member. What is most interesting however is that Tash Shotton and Tim Gee have both decided to stand for Ordinary Rep. With the rumour on the grapevine that Tim Goodwin will be joining them in standing, the three Sabbs look likely to be returned to the SRC next year: and the debate continues to rage about Sabbs continuing to get involved post-term in Office. I'm more concerned that if they take 3 of the Ordinary Member seats, it leaves only 7 for other students, which is not ideal at all. Having said that, looking as things currently stand a number of the candidates would be returned elsewhere. With the number standing at 13, what's the latest in the sweepstake?
In many people's eyes they are the minor elections, and currently the School Councils have only attacted 4 candidatures from 3 candidates - whether this will pick up waits to be seen.
Down at the bottom of the ballot is the Unions, and here there is also looking likely to be more 'old-Sabb' involvement, because Peter Harris is back from his year in Canada (don't you wish they just kept him there?) and is standing for UnionExec. Rumour is that his 'election agent' is Tim Gee (conspiracy, anyone?), who is standing for CoM. I get the feeling that whoever next year's VPS is will have a tough time of it. Also standing for CoM is Rosy Burgess (who works at Potterrow) and for both CoM and Union Exec, James Wallace is throwing his hat into the ring. It is interesting to see how many people are 'double ticketing' for CoM and Union Exec, a point covered before and on the EUSA forums.
With 2.5 days left, its cetainly becoming more interesting.
First up, at the 'top of the ballot' Will Searle (VPSA Candidate) has a Website up - http://www.willsearle.110mb.com/ - although its currently a holding page, with the interesting slogan of Give EUSA the Searle of Approval. Opposite him in the 'red corner' is Gordon, whose Facebook Group (this year's must have accessory) tells us that his website is "nearing completion". More on Facebook Groups later.
Also near the top of the ballot is the first Finance Committee candidates. Traditionally a hot contest, this year its been a slow start but now there are two candidates - Jonathan Hogg (also standing for PG Convenor) and Ondrej Nenadl who's involved in a busy T&L race within the SRC seats. As we get closer to the close of nominations, I'd expect this race to become very crowded with Sabb candidates and other EUSA Hacks filling the spaces.
SRC Executive hasn't really moved on from last week, with the exception of Jonathan Hogg taking over the Maggie Chapman Memorial Seat as PG Convenor - I don't expect there to be a fight for this seat, but stranger things have happened. Time will tell, I suppose. Across on the EUSA Forums Tim Gee seems to have issued a flat denial that he will stand for SRC Editor, and I await with interest if that is the case when the fat lady sings at noon on Thursday.
SRC itself has a slew of nominations - with Rosy Burgess in Bio Science Rep & Ordinary Member, Stephen Allison in Law Rep & Ordinary Member, Hannah Crichlow for Ordinary Member. What is most interesting however is that Tash Shotton and Tim Gee have both decided to stand for Ordinary Rep. With the rumour on the grapevine that Tim Goodwin will be joining them in standing, the three Sabbs look likely to be returned to the SRC next year: and the debate continues to rage about Sabbs continuing to get involved post-term in Office. I'm more concerned that if they take 3 of the Ordinary Member seats, it leaves only 7 for other students, which is not ideal at all. Having said that, looking as things currently stand a number of the candidates would be returned elsewhere. With the number standing at 13, what's the latest in the sweepstake?
In many people's eyes they are the minor elections, and currently the School Councils have only attacted 4 candidatures from 3 candidates - whether this will pick up waits to be seen.
Down at the bottom of the ballot is the Unions, and here there is also looking likely to be more 'old-Sabb' involvement, because Peter Harris is back from his year in Canada (don't you wish they just kept him there?) and is standing for UnionExec. Rumour is that his 'election agent' is Tim Gee (conspiracy, anyone?), who is standing for CoM. I get the feeling that whoever next year's VPS is will have a tough time of it. Also standing for CoM is Rosy Burgess (who works at Potterrow) and for both CoM and Union Exec, James Wallace is throwing his hat into the ring. It is interesting to see how many people are 'double ticketing' for CoM and Union Exec, a point covered before and on the EUSA forums.
With 2.5 days left, its cetainly becoming more interesting.
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