MT Week 7 Newsletter: *Election Special*

ORD LOH?? this is the 2nd last newsletter that will be sent out from our EXCO (the proudly women-majority, overwhelming non-econs one) to the Society and it has been an incredibly amazing (more words will come in the last newsletter or on the scrawlings on our FB walls) for all of us. :) With old people stepping down, it means new people stepping up so in this newsletter we shall have (in the spirit of the US elections) an ELECTION SPECIAL.

1. A few words from people in the different roles

CONFUSED AS TO WHAT EACH OF US DO? Fret no more :)

PRESIDENT: Nina

Beyond the supposed glamour and recognition as the "Singsoc boss", being President definitely comes with hard work. As President, you’re the contact point for external organisations like the Overseas Singaporean Unit (OSU) and other UK Singsocs, as well as the supervisor of Singsoc’s internal events. The best part about being President is that you choose how to define your role (together with the VP)! You make the final decisions on how you want the Exco to be run and what initiatives to introduce. Personally, I enjoy leading and managing events with the aim of serving the Singaporean community. The learning curve may be steep but that’s what I feel makes the role all the more rewarding. As long as you’re ready to serve and be challenged, then go for it!!

VP: Bev

Before I begin on my spiel, I think it’s good to take note that every exco will do things differently. As such, my spiel will give you a good overview, but definitely isn’t wholly representative:D I will be discussing my role in comparison to the P’s responsibilities.

I remember Alvin (the previous VP) mentioned that his role was more execution less ideation (correct me if I’m wrong!). I didn’t find this to be true in my experience. I was given a lot of space to initiate and discuss ideas to improve the society (e.g. Family System, Hall Guide, welfare events, new website and fb page, etc.). Nina and I also jointly discussed about the direction of initiatives most of the time. Tldr, both VP an P have roughly the same autonomy wrt ideation and society direction. Ninzxter please confirm.

Singsoc also operates on an events basis, as with many other societies. Our exco delegates work based on events, and everyone has a chance to lead. While Nina and I organised different events, we also oversaw different projects delegated to our team members. Another difference: Nina handled most of the $$ issues with efficient treasurer Ben (A&F represent). I mostly stayed out of that. Nina also handled most of the external relations with OSU, other London Singsocs, etc. In this light, Nina’s workload was definitely more than mine.

Ultimately, the VP’s role depends quite a bit on (i) the dynamics between the P and VP (ii) how much the P is willing to collaborate and share the workload, and (iii) how proactive you are in making the society better for your members<3

Secretary: Kim

Besides the general Exco job of planning events throughout the year, the Secretary has two main roles: taking minutes at meetings and compiling, editing and publishing the annual yearbook. Doing the yearbook involves working closely with the Pubs Officer, who usually handles the design aspect, and liaising with the article writers and the printing company. It requires heavier commitment from June to August/September, though we do the members' portraits phototaking around the CNY period.

One of the best things about this position is that no particular skills are required! For me, I didn’t mind admin work and the prospect of doing the yearbook was quite exciting, and I wanted to help organise some events too. If you’re keen on joining the committee but find the other roles don’t suit you, do think about this one. All you need is some powers of organisation, adequate editing skills, and good relations with people.

Treasurer: Ben

Even though Treasurer is normally not the most exciting role (unless you love AC100), it is absolutely essential as no event can be successfully executed without proper financing. Besides ensuring that our accounts are perfectly balanced, a treasurer serves as the “chief financial officer” by ensuring that funds are properly budgeted for (includes begging Overseas Singapore Unit for more money to subsidies the cost of our events). If you have integrity, systematic logic and ‘enjoy’ monitoring cashflows, being treasurer is a fulfilling role as you get to work with essentially the entire exco (everyone wants money).

Events: Sarah and Gabriel

In hindsight, the job of the Events Officer is pretty vague since nearly every other thing SingSoc does is technically an event. Each exco works differently on this, but our experience was everyone chipping in and making the whole job more manageable. Orientation, however, is one of the events that the Events officers do play the biggest role in. Be it designing graphics or brainstorming for games, or just settling logistics so things run smoothly, qplanning events are a good way to be creative and escape the mundanity of essays & problem sets. Personally, what was most satisfying was seeing the smiles on everyone’s faces and knowing that these events can sometimes make someone’s day.

Publicity: Kyi

The publicity officer’s job scope mainly involves the publishing of newsletters, the creation of the yearbook and also serves concurrently as a pseudo-webmaster. If you love design/want to be creative/ have artistic talent/ want to serve but don’t know how even though you can art then this position is FOR YOU. The yearbook can be a mentally exhausting process and is very time-consuming so please do evaluate your other commitments before jumping onboard the Singsoc ship :)

Also, as per tradition successors get free coffee/tea ~

In any case, do feel free to drop me a PM on FB if you do wish to run and/or find out more and yes, everything is in-confidence. :)

Corporate Relations and Careers: Jes and ZH

The Corporate Relations Officer (Jeslyn) secures partnerships and sponsorship for SingSoc. This means being in constant communication with partners, collaborating with them to organise their events, and sourcing their help to pull off ours. The Careers Officer (ZhiHao) helps to develop the careers of our members, organising workshops, posting regular updates about career opportunities, and linking members up with people with the right expertise. Although these are distinctly separate roles, we work closely together because they both require good rapport with external partners. In our year, we secured two sponsorships, helping the society secure additional funding, goodies and partnership opportunities. Some of the key events we organised include the Alternative Careers Networking Session, the Seniors’ Careers Advice Session, and Springboard Singapore 2016 (in collaboration with ACS).

Jeslyn: The best (also most challenging) part of my role was communicating with sponsors. I’ve grown to be more confident and comfortable with speaking to important people. It can be frustrating at times when they ignore my emails and calls but it forces me to tailor my approach and be extremely relentless.

ZhiHao: For me, my favourite part of my time in the ExCo was when we were planning big events - the most enjoyable of which is Orientation. It was a blast thinking about how to make the incoming freshmen have fun and feel excited about London, and I really enjoyed making it happen and being part of the welcome party for all of you (:

Sports Officer: Alayna

Key responsibilities include organising friendlies with other universities, recreational basketball/netball/frisbee sessions for our members, as well as taking charge of the LSE contingent for Warwick Summer Games (August) and Nottingham Winter Games (November). You’ll also be lending a hand in other Singsoc events such as Orientation, Chinese New Year, S Factor etc. Best part of the job is working together with your other lovely exco members, as well as the satisfaction of reminding our more hardcore members that there is so much more to life than just Spring Weeks/Internships, e.g. enjoying a game of captain’s ball in Regent’s Park!

Constitutional officer: Rohan

The year spent working with this Exco was wonderful. The constitutional officer post is a bit different since your formal role is actually something quite theoretical. You become very important if there are big divisions within the society, if a lot of the Exco don't like the president or other disputes. This is surprisingly common in many societies in Lse, but of course unheard of in my year because the Exco was .

In practice, the constitutional officer also helps out in the many events that singsoc runs. For me that meant chopping fish, being the emcee for some events and carrying stuff around. You also get to help out the new law students with their settling in, although that isn't strictly part of the role as the constitution describes it.

2. The Constitution

This is the long-awaited??? announcement for the Singapore society Executive Committee elections, going to be held at 5pm at CLM 5.02 on 16th November 2016. Here are some important points to note:

1. Only people at the AGM can vote. In addition to your presence, voting requires buying Singsoc membership. Please do so via the LSESU page by Friday 12 November 2016 (orders from Nina, your president).

2. To run for a position, you need someone to nominate you for that particular position or you can nominate yourself and have someone second your self-nomination.

3. Constitutionally, you are entitled to speak for 3 minutes, but in the interest of expediency, each nominee’s speech will be limited to 90s. Following all speeches for that particular position, the members will have the option to pose questions to the nominees.

4. Campaigning is optional; you are welcome to campaign, but equally entitled to nominate yourself on the day itself. If you are not elected for your position of choice, you are entitled to run for other positions instead; the only constraint is point 2 as described above. (for eg. If you run for president and don’t get elected, you can choose to run for vice-president also)

5. Agenda for the day:

a) President welcome / report of events in Academic year 2015/16 b) Treasurer to present financial report of Academic year 2015/16 c) Ratification of Singapore Society constitution for Academic year 2016/17. d) Explanation of voting procedure e) Voting for the new Exco for Academic year 2016/17.

6. I attach the draft constitution which will be ratified on 16th November.

DRAFT CAN BE FOUND AT THE SIDEBAR.