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and a number of amendments were made to improve the organisations function and clarify provisions that were deemed out of date in our current voluntary environment.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