Exec Reports

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Strategic plan update

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It's that time of year again.....

The middle of term is fast approaching and as the last throws of autumn are succumbing to

the chilly winter gales it is again time to set the years budgets here at LSU.

Now you might expect this to be a fairly traumatic affair but so far it’s been enjoyable!! That

may say more about me than the task itself, but you can make your own judgement. In writing

this I thought it would be a good idea to let you know how the process of budget setting works and how LSU spends the money that it generates.

It is useful at this point to note that LSU is a not for profit organisation and any surplus that is generated is ploughed directly back into endeavours that better student life!!

The Union Gets its income from 2 sources, just under half comes from the university in the form of a block grant and just over half is generated from our commercial areas like the shop and the venue where you go for your nights out.

This capital is then split across 6 distinct areas:

Support Services: This encompasses the cost of the building, cleaning, management, finance, student services and a few other key areas that actually facilitate the smooth running of the building and its activities.

Representation: Within this lies fees we pay to NUS for their representation on a national level, it includes the VP Education's and the VP Democracy's money that they use for projects to fulfil their strategic plan

Student Services: This includes services like the nightbus and the Nursery and much of the money reserved for putting on a fantastic freshers week.

Communications: The money that is used to publish Label and fund all the other student media outlets which LSU run is piped into this subsection of the budget. In this section there is also capital allocated to the marketing of LSU.

Student Activities: This is one of the largest areas of expenditure that LSU has, however it is unsurprising when you look what it covers >>>> The Athletic union and all its sports clubs, Student Voice, Rag, Action, E+E and Student Resources. Basically it includes everything that you can get involved in as a student here at LSU!!!

Development Reserves and Loans: The final piece of the jigsaw in terms of expenditure includes repayment of loans for building development, contingency money and pensions.

Now the separate areas have been identified the amount of money allocated must be distributed across them in a way that allows the financial health of LSU to be maintained. As a rough guide I look at trading in the few first weeks of term post freshers and extrapolate the trend for the rest of the year. With this you can get a good idea of commercial revenue and therefore and idea of how much we have to spend on the rest of the building and activities.

The amount given to individual section is largely based on last years actual spend and the amount of money available to that particular sub section. Decisions then need to be made as to where surplus capital is distributed or should the need for cuts occur where savings can be made.

In essence putting together the budget is like putting together a big imaginary jigsaw, but one with hundreds of little pieces that sometimes may or may not exist!!

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Post-Freshers Update

Wow what a few weeks it has been!! with one of the busiest freshers weeks the union has ever seen more have you have come here to experience what we offer than ever!!

And as stavros's belly has stopped wobbling, most of the foam has been swept out of room 1 and your pack of Alka-seltzer is empty you are all probably settling down into the routine of lectures (or not!!) I thought it would be a good time to have a quick flick back at what you thought the best night in freshers was!!

If you have anything else to say or comments questions or anything drop me an email @ vpfinance@lborosu.org.uk

But freshers isn't the end of the good nights here at the Union, there is loads more happening over the next few weeks!! everything from the depart-MENTAL warm-up to Chase and Status live!!.

For full details of all the great entertainments lined up for you check out the entertainments page at http://www.lufbra.net/ents/ or pop down to the union and pick up an events planner from the union reception!!!

VP: Finance & Commercial Services is a full-time elected sabbatical officer of the Union and is a member of the Executive

Hi Guys as you have seen above I'm Henry Chambers and I'm LSU's VP Finance and Commercial services.

A little bit about me: I graduated last academic year (June 2009) with a 2.1 in economics

which I was well chuffed with! I enjoy going to the gym with the other guys from exec

(look out for us all in powerbase!!), playing squash and rugby and I also play a little bit of Guitar.

I ran for an exec position to give back to Lufbra what I got out of it through my time here and this

is the best possible way to give back on a grand scale!

While on exec here we have to complete exec reports, they detail what we have been up to over a fortnightly period! I will upload these as I complete them so you can see what I have been up to!!

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Below are the main roles that I have to fulfill while undertaking the role of

VP Finance and Commercial Services:

• The Unions Finances including setting and monitoring the Annual Budget and adapting accordingly to changes within it.

• The Union Building and the land we own.

• Upholding the Union’ Discipline Structure.

• In charge of all Commercial Departments and their Commercial strategy: (Bars, Ents, Catering, Shops, Marketing and Commercial Media).

• Responsible for upholding the unions Financial strategy.

• NUSSL Liaison Officer- Attend NUSSL events.

• Officer responsible for Capital Projects.

• Fresher’s week (Commercial) and working with the President to ensure the LSU Executive team is kept informed.

• Transport.