Tom's Goals

In August 2017, I went on a two-day residential workshop with the rest of the Officer Trustees, Imperial College Union's senior managers, and members of its Board of Trustees. There, each Officer Trustee used our manifestos, experience and the views of our peers to generate our own individual goals for the year, as well as a set of shared goals we would work towards as a team.

The next Deputy President (Clubs & Societies) is James Medler.
James will take up his role on 1 August 2018. Read his manifesto here.

My goals for 2017/18

Goal #1: Volunteer training

Similarly to Chippy's goal regarding the development of our senior volunteers, I want to see better training and resources for all of the students who have an Imperial College Union role. I intend to change how training is offered in-person, as well as have online resources redesigned and presented in better formats.

Progress we've made:
  • August - October
    • I joined the interview panel for our student trainers
    • The syllabus for these courses has been reviewed
    • Sixty students joined the first Officer Academy, a new style of in-person training
  • November
    • We offered new training to Management Group leaders
  • December
    • Began discussions with Student Development and Systems staff teams about upgrading our online training resources, with the aim of creating a 'one-stop shop' for all volunteer training and support needs
  • January
    • The 'Training Hub' - the new online resource - is in soft launch and is being populated with training content to replace the existing PDF handbooks
  • Next steps
    • Populate the Training Hub
    • Work with Student Development to review and improve all training material
    • Work with various teams to prepare an upgraded welcome and induction process for the successful candidates of the Leadership Elections 2018
Status: Excellent Progress

Goal #2: Room booking improvements

This was one of my big campaigning issues - too many times were our Clubs, Societies & Projects being let down by failures of the room booking system. We are also pressed for resources with an expanding number of student activities and a fixed set of spaces to host them in. I aim to tackle these problems by reforming the room booking system

Progress we've made:
  • August - November
    • We have been discussing this issue with College and established that it is a significant challenge for the entire institution, not just Imperial College Union
  • December
    • We have begun to engage with the College Room Booking team on this issue - they have recently appointed an Associate Provost (Space) to tackle this institution-wide problem
  • January
    • We have joined the pilot group for College's new room booking system, to be launched later this year
  • Next steps
    • Formalise the current room booking procedure and disseminate to Clubs, Societies & Projects
    • Participate in the pilot group of the new College system
Status: Good Progress

Goal #3: Accessibility & openness

One of my goals was to make Imperial College Union more transparent, so its members can understand what it is doing and why. This objective is quite widespread, acting more as a principle for my work rather than a discrete project.

Progress we've made:
  • August - October
    • The new design for the Imperial College Union website was launched, making it significantly more accessible for visually-impaired users and those on mobile devices
    • The menu structure was simplified to help members navigate to the information or activities they were looking for
  • November - January
    • I intend to work with Finance on making the Annual Report more student-friendly as it is currently mostly a lengthy financial document (much of which is a legal requirement)
  • Next steps
    • Work with the Marketing & Communication staff to discuss which bits of communication can be simplified to become more accessible and effective
Status: Adequate Progress

My reports to Union Council

Each Officer Trustee is expected to send an update of their work and achievements to Union Council, the representative body made up of Imperial's student leaders. 

The next Deputy President (Clubs & Societies) is James Medler.
James will take up his role on 1 August 2018. Read his manifesto here.