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WAIKATO STUDENTS’ UNIONANNUAL PLAN 2015
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INTRODUCTION
We believe that the Waikato Students’ Union offers value for our members and that we must retain the capacity to effectively and efficiently deliver the services that are required of us. Because our resources are limited it is vital that we use them well to remain relevant to the members of our organisation, the student body, and the University of Waikato. This Annual Plan, read alongside our 2013 – 2016 Strategic Plan, will be our guiding document in 2015.
WSU Constitution
In 2014 the WSU Constitution was reviewed and a number of amendments were made to improve the organisations function and clarify provisions that were deemed out of date in our current voluntary environment. These changes did not alter our clear constitutional objectives which still provide a framework for us to assess our strategies and operations against. These objectives are:
• To act as an independent, informed and principled representative group on issues affecting members, considering educational matters, student welfare and social reform to be amongst its areas of primary concern;
• To advocate for the rights of the members of the Association;
• To enhance the well-being of the members of the Association;
These objectives compliment the Universities own vision to:
• deliver a world-class education and research portfolio
• provide a full and dynamic university experience which is distinctive in character
• pursue strong international linkages to advance knowledge.
Process
This annual plan is the result of a combination of factors. In 2013 the organisation consulted widely using face-to-face and online surveys, focus groups, a referendum, and interviews to craft a long-term strategic plan. While the consultation in 2014 has by no means been as extensive we have carried out a short online survey and consulted with our clubs network to put together a plan that fits within our long-term focus.
Strategic Plan
The organisations long-term strategic Plan (2013 – 2016) identifies four key focuses that we believe will help meet the needs of our current membership while ensuring our services and finances are responsibly managed so that they will be available for future generations. These key focuses are:
Focus 1 – Sustainability and Growth
Ensuring that the organisation maintains its current funding and develops new revenue streams to enable it to continue to operate effectively and efficiently into the future.
Focus 2 – Involvement
Ensuring that the organisation is included and involved in the provision of student welfare, activities and other support services on campus.
Focus 3 – Partnership
Ensuring that the organisation effectively uses its relationships, encouraging and supporting other parties to provide high quality services to students.
Focus 4 – Impact
Ensuring that the organisation measures and assesses our impact across all areas of service and activity.
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WAIKATO STUDENTS’ UNION ANNUAL PLAN 2015
The Board (Representation)
Directors Honoraria
The Waikato Students’ Union is an Incorporated Society and is registered with the Charities Commission. Each year the membership of the organisation elects a Board of eleven to represent them. These elected members are the governance of the organisation. This representative function is extremely important and our student surveys consistently rate the existence of “someone to fight for my rights” as a high priority. Student surveys have consistently shown that our membership feel that honoraria are set at a realistic and acceptable level. Taking this information into account, but wishing to be financially prudent, the WSU recommends that honoraria be retained at similar levels to 2014. The budget for honoraria is therefore allocated as follows:
President: $35,000 gross
Vice President: $15,500 gross
Vice President Maori: $15,500 gross
Directors: Minimum of $1,500 gross and maximum of $2,500 gross
National Bodies
Over the years WSU has held membership of several National student bodies, including
• NZUSA – New Zealand Union of Student Associations
• USNZ – University Sport New Zealand
• SJS – Student Job Search
• Other – Uni Q, Achieve etc
Our strategic plan requires us to regularly review membership of these bodies to ensure they are adding value to our students through, for example, keeping us informed on important issues, giving us connections to important political bodies, and providing a channel to advocate strongly for student rights.
In the 2015 budget we have allowed $10,000 for membership of national bodies at the Boards discretion. No membership levies have been allocated to NZUSA.
Scholarships
The WSU provides several Scholarships to the student community.
• John Houston Memorial
• Cultural Contribution
• Sole care-givers
• First in family
These scholarships promote and highlight some issues of student life which may otherwise go unnoticed. The University has provided funding for them and it is expected that WSU will continue to offer the scholarships in 2015. A review has now been done of the timing of applications and selections to streamline the process.
Elections
Each year an election is held among the members for officers of the organisation. This is a critical requirement of our status as an incorporated society, and budget has been allocated towards an election.
Marketing and branding
The Waikato Students’ Union is a great organisation, but we need to tell our story better. An extensive student consultation in 2013 showed significant support for the idea of a mascot being incorporated into our branding. Although we have put work into delivering this concept we by no means feel this will be a “silver bullet”. The organisation should be simplifying our message and taking bold steps into the digital age to expand our reach. Marketing should be a key focus of the organisation in 2015.
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Student Experience Survey
The organisation will examine and evaluate the ways in which we engage with our membership throughout the duration of the year, with a special focus on students who reside on campus. We intend to introduce a comprehensive Student Experience Survey that looks at student lifestyles and experiences to help us better understand the issues our members are facing. We will investigate the most effective way to deliver this survey including the possibility of engaging an independent consultant.
Cow-Shed Development
The WSU recently had a proposal accepted by the Student Campus Building Fund Trust to investigate the renovation and re-development of the student precinct around what is known as the “Cow-Shed”. This will include “Gurus” and the Student Union Building, and could involve hospitality, social and retail outlets, performance and rehearsal spaces, workshops and storage rooms. We will continue to drive this project forward in 2015.
Tauranga Campus
The WSU recognises that students studying on our Tauranga campus are an important part of our constituency. While we already offer many of our services there such as advocacy, some events and distribution of Nexus Magazine the organisation believes we should aspire to deliver more. The WSU will actively seek ways to engage with Tauranga students and provide better support on their campus including, but not limited to, investigating an 0800ADVOCACY phone line.
Service Level Agreement
The budget for 2015 is based on the assumption that we will be able to negotiate a service level agreement with the University of Waikato to a sum of around $500,000, as we did in 2014. This will allow us to retain our existing Advocacy Service, support for Clubs on campus, a Communications Plan which includes ongoing publication of Nexus magazine, and a reasonable level of sporting, cultural and recreational activities on campus. Other services will be investigated on a cost-recovery basis, for example a student shuttle. We will also investigate setting up WSU C.A.R.E which we hope will be a more coordinated approach to delivering services.
Clubs
The WSU coordinates and manages a network of affiliated clubs. There are currently over 50 affiliated clubs involving over 3500 student members. Clubs make a strong contribution to our organisational objectives through keeping us independently informed of student issues, providing interesting activities and events, and providing us with opportunities to engage with significant groups of students.
The budget for 2015 proposes to allocate increased funding to support affiliated clubs through financial grants, from $10,000 to $20,000 for the year. This would allow an increase in the affiliation grant from $30 per club to $50 per club per year, and would see the organisation offer four rounds of club funding as opposed to two.
Sporting, cultural and recreational activities
The WSU provides and supports a wide variety of activities and events on campus. These activities are aimed at enhancing the enjoyment of time spent on campus. Student surveys consistently rate WSU activities as being among the things they are most aware of and get the highest value from. The University also places a value on “campus culture” and the “student experience” and have previously provided funding for them through the Services Agreement. WSU will look carefully at its suite of events to ensure that time and resources are spent effectively. This budget allocates a similar level of funding to last year.
Orientation
Orientation is a flagship event for WSU. It gives us the opportunity to welcome our students to our vibrant and entertaining campus, provide information and support, and to gently acclimatise new-
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WAIKATO STUDENTS’ UNION ANNUAL PLAN 2015
comers to University life. It is self-funding through advertising and sponsorship agreements and no other funding is allocated to it.
Sports
WSU engages U Leisure to provide some sports services on Campus including the Tertiary Challenge Sports Tournament and Waikato Invitational. This helps us facilitate stronger relationships with ULeisure and the University. A similar level of funding to this year is proposed (up to $10,000).
Media
The WSU invests in a communications strategy to ensure effective engagement with the student body. This includes the publication of Nexus, surveys, other newsletters and publications. It also involves an online strategy with two websites, facebook and twitter pages. Through these media channels we are able to advocate for student issues both to the University and the wider community. And by disseminating information to the student body we are helping to keep them informed of important issues relating to them. We will investigate how we can improve the quality and coverage of the magazine, and look into establishing a Nexus radio channel. A similar level of funding to this year is proposed.
Advocacy
The WSU provides free, confidential Advocacy support to our members. By assisting members with problems they actually face we gather important and relevant data about the issues that affect them. The work of the Advocates also directly enhances our relationship with the University, and brings a strong element of credibility to our organisation. The existence of an Advocacy service is consistently highly rated in student surveys, even if the member has never had need of our assistance. In 2014 WSU also introduced a student budgeting service and an emergency food-bank to the Advocacy service. A similar level of funding to this year is proposed.
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WSU Budget 2015
Expected Revenue: Service Agreement $515,000 (As per 2014 inflation adjusted)
$676,000 Interest (Term Deposit and WSU Trust) $47,000
Advertising $80,000
Sponsorship $15,000
Orientation activities $15,000
Sundry $4,000
Expected Expenses:
$676,000
Labour and related: Honoraria $86,000
$473,000 Salaries and Wages $370,000
Other costs $18,000
(ACC levies, Amenities, Training and Recruitment, Wardrobe, etc)
Consumables: Activities and events $5,000
$9,000 Clubs $4,000
Promotion: Nexus, diary and wall-planner printing $86,000
$86,000
Communications: Telephones $6,000
$23,000 Printing and photocopy $6,000
Computer maintenance and internet charges $7,000
Stationery $3,000
Postage $1,000
Fees and Subscriptions: National Bodies $10,000
$30,000 Accounting and Audit fees $12,000
Legal Fees $8,000
Grants: Clubs $20,000
$33,000 Hardship $5,000
Sports $7,000
Other: Cleaning and Maintenance $2,000
$22,000 Entertainment $3,000
Vehicle and Travel $5,000
Sundry expenses $4,000
Depreciation $8,000
Deficit (shortfall):
$0
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