Candidate 1
If elected I wish to improve:
Awareness
- Despite the large choice of sport at Loughborough, some students don’t find the right opportunities. To minimise this, I would look to increase promotion of all sport through LSU Media, Hall Sport Coordinators, AU Newsletters and WoW magazine.
- Increased awareness and coverage will likely increase spectatorship. To encourage this, I would look to expand IMS Allstars and implement a D-Day type series across other universities.
Support
- Volunteers and coaches are key to success in Loughborough Sport. I would support them by improving the training and resources offered, building on the Club Development Programme and encouraging cross sharing of knowledge between strand and club committees.
- I would also work alongside the CVA and SDC to help clubs recruit coaches and volunteers, offering performance-enhancing support.
Inclusivity
- The current sporting offer spans all levels, however does not visibly include Disability Sport. To change this, I would promote current accessible opportunities in My Lifestyle, IMS and the AU and provide inclusivity training to coaches and volunteers.
- I would also look to increase the opportunities outside term times for postgraduate students and better support those running sport at the London Campus and College.
Finance
- As AU Clubs are now predominantly self-sustainable, grant funding and ‘Club of the Week’ schemes have been implemented. I would continue these schemes.
- However, costs across sport constantly rise. I wish to implement a financial review of the AU, seeking ways to minimise costs, whilst continuing to raise funds through sponsorship and alumni donations.
R.O.N.
In the elections process there is always an opportunity to vote to Re-Open Nominations and here is why you should vote to RON for Sport:
The manifesto provided has good foundations but offers little creativity for moving the student sport offer or the Athletic Union forward. Much centres around continuing processes already in place but little stands out as having a significant effect on the average sporting student.
The first point centres on awareness. The candidate rightfully mentions difficulties in helping students find the right sporting opportunities, suggesting an increase in current promotional methods. Given that a number of student’s miss opportunities with these channels already in place, shouldn’t the real question be “are these the right channels in the first place?” Perhaps time spent re-evaluating, rather than simply increasing, would be more beneficial. Furthermore, spectatorship has been a manifesto point of the last 4 Sport EO’s and none have achieved it successfully, despite heavy awareness and coverage. Is this just a vote attracter and not something that can be accomplished?
Support for volunteers could certainly be improved, and the candidate makes valid points around training, resources and the future of the Club Development programme. An interesting point arises around recruitment of coaches. Will they really have capacity to add that time heavy component to an expansive workload and is that taking away from the developmental opportunities of a committee?
Of course we want all students to have the opportunity to take part in sport, and currently there are a limited number of disability sport offered, but we also have very limited numbers of students in need of disability sport. Is this adding something for which there is little demand, and should it be a top priority given this? Additionally, the college sport programme is run by full-time college staff, and the London campus is over 100 miles away, is major impact in these areas likely?
A minimising cost exercise is a strong idea but is cutting costs to the Athletic Union going to come at the expense of Student experience?
This manifesto is solid with strong elements throughout, but on the whole is very safe. If you want a more ambitious set of aims for the World’s best Sporting University, vote RON.
