VISION 2012

Areas for the Students' Union to focus on 2011 - 2012

The review, however, did throw up a number of areas that need to be prioritised to keep the plan on track. These areas were discussed by the Steering Group, and subsequently the Senior Management Team, and the following priorities for action were agreed:

• Recruitment and Training – It was agreed that a recruitment and training forum needed to be set up as a priority, and this will be progressed post-Easter.
• A draft training strategy is in the pipeline and will be presented to Staffing Committee by mid March – this will be finalised by June 2011.
• A separate recruitment strategy will be developed and agreed by August.
• A review of the induction process for permanent and casual staff needs to be completed. Some work has been progressed on this and Lucy Pritchard will review the current position ahead of setting up a group to consider this further.
• Feedback System – The feedback system is specified , however progression with the current intended supplier depends on the University, as the software being used is in partnership with them. It was recommended we may need an alternative provider if the University cannot confirm it is progressing in the near future, which may have a budget implication. Lisa Scanlon is investigating this point and will report to SMT as soon as possible.
• Loyalty/Membership Card Research – Year 2 of the plan required research to be carried out on the possible benefits and operational details of a membership/loyalty card. Marketing have specified this work and this has subsequently been agreed and will be progressed in this academic year.
• Communication Plan Implementation – The communication plan has been agreed but the delays to this, and lack of implementation, has proved to be a barrier for some actions to progress. Steve Hubbard and Lisa Scanlon will review this and ensure suitable information is available ahead of the business planning process.
• Environment – There are a number of issues with departments progressing environmental goals and there was a general feeling that a number of the actions already agreed were possibly not well thought out or sufficient, although the key objective of appointing an Environmental Co-ordinator had been achieved. It was agreed that the Environmental Co-ordinator would complete the new Environmental Code of Practice and be available to suggest new actions for people to potentially substitute into their action plans.
• Pricing and Values Survey/Value of Membership – Work had progressed in the area of investigating the value of membership, but this was mainly as a result of Tom Hasting’s work on his individual objective, rather than departments fulfilling their action plans. A survey of members’ attitudes to pricing and values was originally timetabled for year three of the Strategic Plan. It was agreed to progress with the value of membership work but that various groups working on this needed to be pulled together and their purpose clarified. Tom Hastings and Steve Hubbard would look at the various groups’ work and revisit the objectives to progress these actions more effectively. The original research was estimated to cost £6k and at this stage, this cost should ideally be included in the budget for next year.
• Rooms and Spaces – It was agreed that we need to continue with the review of rooms and spaces and an early conclusion to that work would aid departments to progress with their actions in year three. It was also agreed that the Activities Department could drop their action relating to encouraging local communities to use spaces, at least until after the spaces review had been completed.