BULS Inside returns for another segment of campuswatch this month, we can report with confidence that conservative future have been de-recognised by the Guild of Students.
The future of BUCF has been shakey in the past month but many colleagues had hoped that the group would remain on its feet. Unfortunately though, all its assets have now been frozen, which will cast doubt on whether the group can continue in its current form.
The Tory chair (38) has apparently gone into hiding but BULS Inside were able to get in contact with a senior member of the groups, 30 strong legal team. He said “I understand everyones concerns, who else on campus is going to represent the voice of change back to conservatism? Don’t be too worried, all our money is in off-shore accounts with Ashcroft Ltd.”
BUCF have been derecognised for not having enough members to form a society, which makes sense, currently you need 20. Also they’ve not done risk assessments, nor have they democratically elected a committee. Tom Guise, BULS chair cast his explanations on these problems.
“No one likes BUCF, so I’m not surprised at their lack of members, in the past they’ve said the forms are too long. After our AGM we had to sit down with someone from the Guild who explained the need for a form and helped us fill it out, it took a whole half hour. Having not done this form, it looks like they don’t have a committee. Risk assessments take all of 10 minutes so I’m not surprised they haven’t done any. They probably don’t know that they can re-submit the same form for similar events.”
In the past Tom Guise (42) has been an unlikely voice of support for BUCF at Guild Council, so it remains to see if he stands up and defends them again. “Last time it was a thankless task. Being a society isn’t difficult, we’ve all got to play by the same rules. We’ll see what happens this Thursday, but I can’t really be bothered.”
Currently I have already spoken to the guild about this matter. But I ill make a few things clear
1) I will be in to see them when I decide not when summoned 2) We refuse any funding on principle 3) Our membership details are currently with the local
Currently I have already spoken to the guild about this matter. But I ill make a few things clear
1) I will be in to see the Guild and its officials when I decide not when summoned
) with just under 50 paid up members. So the society is doing well.
2) We refuse any funding on principle so disaffiliation (which if you will recall we contemplated anyway) will mean nothing to us
3) Our membership details are currently with the local assosciation who incidently are our main source of income and thus our loyalties must lie with them
4) Our membership actually stands at around 100-30 signed up supporters (the fb membership group alone has a higher number than the BULS group
You don’t have to worry about us lol. We are one of the more successful groups on campus and are more than capable of matching BULS whether in the guild or outside of it. The Guild is a sham and if they want to flex their muscles, id rather call them bingo-wings, then let them. Weve been here before. Its tiresome.
you are right there dan, bucf has 77 people in their facebook group whereas BULS only has 72. it is a terrible statistic that haunts me daily.
i want diversity in our guild, that’s why i’m considering helping to set up a guild society. i was looking forward to debating with BUCF and the lib dems in january about what party/group is better as a showcase for normal students, interested in politics. that can’t happen now because of your utter ineptitude at wanting to sustain the future of your club.
i am completely dissapointed at what has happened, i want a strong tory presence in the guild, it makes for healthy debate. Bring back Brewer!!
Tom the Guild has contacted me ONCE. They asked me to come in sign some forms and hand over our membership forms. Now I informed them I could not do this. For as start the membership forms arent even in my possession they are with the local assosciation who are taking down the details for their own database! Although I did say I would be in contact as soon as I had them. Not once did they say this was an urgent matter!
But to be honest with you tom the Guild is so far in Labours pocket it can’t see the light of day. Noone on campus has any respect for it. It is elected by a pitiful portion of the university electorate so much so that its very future was under threat. It will come in to threat again in the non too distant future im sure. I have never hidden my distaste for the guild and its politics. As far as I am concerned it is not a demi-government. It should be there to speak for students… not coerce them.
BUCF is one of many socieities that have been pushed around by an organisation that is supposed to represent fee paying students. Instead they have manipulated their position and some of their officers have used their election speeches or guild motions as political platforms for your precious labour party.
Incidently as much respect as I have for Joe the society is alot stronger today. As you rightly indicate our membership is at its highest levels, the blog is booming as we have just recorded our best month state wise ever, we are regarded as one of the most successful CF’s in the country, the societies funds are healthy and our relations with the local assosciations have never been better so much so we have had to create local oficers positions on our committee.
This christmas and in the coming year we will also be doing something that has never been done before… we will be hosting charity events. I sincerely hope that despite the problems with the guild the BULS/BUCF Charity football match will be able to continue. Or will your love of the guild come before charity?
last night we had a charity event. raising money for charity/campaigning for charitable causes is not new for us.
i want the football to go ahead.
i am the chair of labour and i don’t know how to exercise the influence i’m supposed to hold – strongbow prices are still the same as they were before i became chair – if i had any sway at all they would be lowered!! trust me!!
labour were on the derec list for not doing risk assessments, despite me actually doing them. we were contact 4 times and i had to explain that we had done them 4 times. i know how unprofessional and disorganised the student development department is.
i don’t love the guild, as a unionist i respect its presence. but i desperately want to change it. i, and many others, have been working so hard to do that. please acknowledge our efforts, not just insult them.
i have three motions this month, one about removing the cash machine that charges students, one to get paper copies of all motions distributed for guild council attendees and one to make it easier for societies to hire-out mini-vans. not one of them is labour i think.
please give examples of the guild motions that are used FOR the labour party?
Tom, as I have stated many times before despite our ideological differences I do admire the fact you have deeply held convictions. I disagree but I do respect them. I have found some of the attitudes and individuals in the guild to be incredibly anti tory which has perhaps pushed me in to (perhaps incorrectly) assume they were labour sympathisers. I certainly know of one or two who used their victory speeches as political platforms for Labour.
Ultimately the guilds unapproachable and unreasonable nature, combined with its poor communication skills has meant there has been alot of cross wires.It is clear the guild needs to reform and fine tune its procedures and how it gets in to contact with its socieites. Admittedly I wanted BUCF to leave the guild however if you recall the referendum I held in July to determine whether or not we should remain a part of the guild was much closer than I had anticipated.
As such despite my personal differences with the guild I did all I could to ensure relations improved. However this seems to have fallen flat. If they had made it clear to me BUCF was to be derecognised I would have been in and sorted thing out. They didnt. Thet wanted the forms. I told them we didnt have them. What more can I do?! Their overly bureaucratic, demanding, cliquey nature is tiresome. Believe it or not I will still attempt to rectify this situation. I do wish BUCF to remain a part of the guild.
As much as I personally cannot bear the idea of ‘unionism’ I recognise that the guild has alot of potential and admire the notion of better working relations between socieites. However I believe the guild shouldnt be a ‘mini government’ it should respect the autonomy of individual societies. Which I do not believe is currently the case. So I will, perhaps vainly, attempt to sort this mess out! If you really do wish for a ‘tory presence in the guild’ perhaps you will make good your word and be of assistance in helping make BUCF a more active part of the guild…. or was that merely rhetoric?
Incidently… I will back your campaign for lower prices for strongbow lol
Say what you want but don’t you dare call the guild cliquey. You and countless others only think its a clique because you’re on the outside, which is because you can’t be arsed to get to know the pepole working so hard on the inside to make things different.
And yeah I did offer to help you “play a more active part in the Guild”… want to come along to GC to discuss your disaffiliation?
Very well… let me know when it is and I’ll come.
this thursday at 6pm in guild council chambers…meet me at 5.30pm in joes bar and we’ll walk there together. there’s often a queue for voting cards!!
This is the most ridiculous petty blog I have read in a long time. I genuinely thought better of this society.
There is no political merit, or even a large amount of truth, in this. I pride myself on being a lot more in touch and in harmony with the student body and more left wing political parties than most of the rest of the BUCF committee. So this really upsets me.
There’s rather a lot of truth here: The fact is you ARE about to be derecognised for failure to complete “members, finance, risk assessment, committee date”. The fact is you did vote to leave the Guild a few months ago so the relationship has been turbulent (what did happen with that in the end?); and the fact is BULS did stick up for you at Guild Council and say it was a sad indictment on the Guild that you’d decided to go; the fact is that if you have any assets with the Guild, they will have been frozen.
The rest… BULSinside is our satirical wing written by an unknown author, I’m afraid you’ll have to take it up with him or her.
BORING. Change the record!
Arse
” (what did happen with that in the end?); ”
What happened was I looked at the result, which yes was largely supportive of the committees ‘leave’ position, however the margin was around 70%-30% now call me nuts but I actually believed 30% was too large a portion of the membership to be ignored. So I decided that the referendum backed the committee in which ever approach it decided to take and as chairman I decided to try to push for a more moderate relationship with the guild because believe it or not I do believe the Guild could work well. I just dont think in its current form it does.
There is clearly a huge breakdown in the Guilds ability to communicate to its membership and this needs to be addressed. As I say if it had been made clear to me we faced derecognition I would have been in to sort it out. I was not made aware that it was that serious. Incidently I have yet to recieve ONE email or phonecall this term telling me when Guild Council is actually being held and have yet to hear from the ‘powers that be’ that we have been derecognised. They must assume Im pshycic.
i don’t really see what’s boring about a society being let down by their union “Toby Z”, or should I say TM?
What an accusation…
you have your chance to prove innocence!!
or were you calling the BULSInsides boring? I agree – they bloody well are, whoever writes them needs a grammar handbook and some actual WIT!
The Guild really has gotten under your skin, in a way that you cannot seem to shake. Considering “disaffiliation (which if you will recall we contemplated anyway) will mean nothing to us” you do seem very annoyed.
“I will be in to see the Guild and its officials when I decide not when summoned” seems to be your way of expressing some form of moral outrage. So, one of your tactics to achieve your aims is not being present? Forgive my criticism, but it doesn’t sound … a good strategy.
Although! You have “choosen” to be present! An honour for the Guild; I’m sure (plus a decent start, for you, I suppose).
Don’t take too much offence at the article – it is satire, after all.
Finally, does anyone outside the Guild Committe really know what’s going on? Bad communication seems to be the hallmark of the Guild. However societies should make the same efforts to transfer information, regardless of the serverity of the situation. In a general sense, people’s own deadlines arn’t always fit for purpose. The communication system of the Guild is poor: that much is clear. It needs to be reformed, but if things are bad, no one should ever just walk away.
Vote tony E
[...] (BUCF) was derecognised yesterday. This isn’t the first time the BUCF has been derecognised (http://bulsonline.org/2008/12/06/buls-inside-i-didnt-recognise-bucf/). However, this time little is known (on my part at least) what were the reasons for this. From [...]