Deputy President (Clubs & Societies) - Candidate Eric Lai
Manifesto
Vote for me and you'll be getting someone who's experienced and competent. As ACC Chair, I've overseen and represented more than 45 clubs, giving me a good knowledge of some of the difficulties clubs are facing.
I've also been involved in the Clubs & Societies Review, investigating the problems with current structures, which is due to be implemented next year.
I'll continue looking at integrating on-line forms. Others in the past have promised this and have failed, already as part of my final year project I am building a system to tackle the problems regarding documentation and poor communication.
Clubs are facing increasing costs and I'll continue to fight for more money for clubs. I'll also focus on making more effective use of the money we have, like tackling budgeting to prevent the current situation of an overall £60K club under spend whilst individual clubs struggle to survive. Vote Eric!
How well do you feel Clubs and Societies have been run this year?
It's been pretty good. There have been a few issues, such as the closure of Southside Gym, but we have worked hard to find adequate space. Simon's got a very good team, which helped.
Do you feel there's too much paperwork in setting up and running a club or society?
There is a lot of work, but unfortunately it's needed for health and safety reasons, and so forth. I do plan to move to on-line forms, and this year we've decided that you don't have to hand in any forms if you haven't made any changes.
You're the ACC Chair. Do you have enough interest in other clubs to represent them all?
I've been very involved in social and overseas clubs as well, being overseas myself. I've helped out in running shows, so I have a broad knowledge of what else is going on.
You say clubs underspend by £60K. Does this cause a problem?
There are clubs, especially social clubs, which do struggle for money. Social clubs have £3,000 to spend between 40 clubs. That seems pretty stupid. If we have £60K that we're not using, we need to make better use of it.
Do you have plans to ensure this money is put to use?
We need to review the budgeting process, which is coming up. The way we're budgeting at the moment lacks flexibility that is required in the world of clubs and societies.
What difficulties do clubs and societies face?
One of the biggest issues is ground hire. Though it affects only sporting clubs, they are a huge proportion of the total number of clubs we have. We worked out that moving into the sports centre will cost us £50K more a year.
We do need to find the money. Space is another problem; the Union Gym is totally packed. We need to make better use of the facilities we have.
What help will you give to smaller, newer clubs?
Help is available, for example if it requires equipment, there's the Harlington Trust from College. The union can also give them money. We have to assess what the club needs; we're not going to hand out money to keep the club going.
