Candidate for the position of Vice President Societies and Communication
Thomas Layton - #VPSocsAndToms - Working with Societies for Societies
My name is Thomas Layton and I’m a 3rd year History student. I’m also President of Poker Society, and through my time at UWE have been a member of a dozen different societies: from Board Games to Mental Health Campaign, Sci-Fi to History. I’ve been involved in societies since the day after arriving at UWE, and can honestly say that being involved with The Students’ Union has created the majority of my opportunities and experiences during my studies here. Societies meant everything to my time at University, and I’m eager to have the opportunity to represent and support them as Vice-President of Societies and Communications.
NEW WAY TO PROMOTE SOCIETIES: I want to ensure that everyone has equal opportunities to either get involved with an existing society or feel confident enough to create something new. To do this the existence of societies need to be promoted more regularly throughout the year, instead of being allowed to fade into obscurity after Freshers’ Fair. If elected my top priority will be to change the way societies are promoted to students throughout the year, either reinvigorating the “Refreshers” model or abandoning it in favour of frequent individual society promotion.
IMPROVE EMPLOYABILITY OF SOCIETY MEMBERSHIP: Societies also need to offer more opportunities, both at University and afterwards. Membership of a society can look amazing on a CV, and I want to investigate how to make society membership equal improved employability prospects post-Uni. This applies especially to the academic societies, which boast the highest memberships of the entire Students’ Union.
MORE INTER-SOCIETY AND INTER-UNI EVENTS: Societies allow you to meet people you’d never normally have the opportunity to meet, and the same is true for meeting people from outside UWE with the same interests or friendly people within UWE in different societies. As VP, I’d push for more inter-society events to encourage people to try new activities and more inter-Uni events to meet people who share the same interests.
NEW WAYS OF CREATING SOCIETIES: Creating a society without knowing people with similar interests can be impossible, so another policy would be to allow people to list interests with the Union, and if enough people with similar interests turn up they can be put into contact with each other and develop their interest together.
This and much more is possible and is what UWE deserves, so vote for me to bring these ideas to reality!