Dear all
Here are the details of our upcoming election to be House Manager of the ISC:
When and Where?
On Tuesday the 7th of February at 6pm at the International Student Centre (22b Buccleuch Place).
Who can vote?
Anyone that turns up, provided you are a student at the University of Edinburgh - I.e. have a UoE Student Card.
How will it work?
Once we are all gathered each of the candidates will in turn get a chance to tell you why they wish to be House Manager - aka why you should vote for them. They will have 5 minutes MAX each. Afterwards we will have a vote which will be by secret ballot. Whoever gets a majority wins.
Afterwards we will have a short Q/A session regarding the new ISC Constitution.
Who's the candiates?
Glad you asked, we have 5 (!) candidates: Jessie, Clemens, Xuebin, Kerttu and Clara. Please see below for a short statement of intent from each:
Jessie Holbek:
Hello,
I already spend quite a bit of time at the ISC, and am familiar with the core committee members and how the ISC works. Being an exchange student, this would be my one chance to be part of the core committee at ISC. Oh, and I would make sure the ISC is always fully stocked - including fresh milk! ;)
Xuebin Lu (aka Leo):
As one of the student representatives in the department, I often listen to students about their concerns for the quality of teaching, and resolve conflicts between teachers and students by using my interpersonal skills. This role allows me to be more responsible.
The reason why I want to take this role is that I regard this is a opportunity to be more involved in ISC's operation. This may enhance my problems solving skills in different situations. And I am willing to learn more from ISC, such as event organization, by participating the meeting and activities in ISC event organization and improve myself.
If I can take this role, I am willing to make sure the sufficiency of food and office supplies and they are well-organised. Also I am willing to study about different tastes of the tea or biscuits, and ensure maximum of the value of money as my obligation, and try to keep the total cost and expense down.
Best wishes,
Leo
Clemens Wolff:
Why do I want to be House Manager?
1. I love the ISC and would enjoy being more involved/giving back.
2. I am well organized and rigorous to the point of being
obsessive-compulsive (call it 'German', for short) and thus well
suited for a janitorial/inventory-management position.
3. I generally have fairly strong ideas about a lot of things and will
thus add another perspective and active discussion element to the
core-committee.
4. I tend to be fairly approachable and like to think that I am a
decent ambassador for the ISC - I should thus be a decent ambassador
for the core-committee too.
5. I have been asked to run for the position.
What do I intend to do if I get the position?
1. I will represent the liberal/green/hippie vote on the committee,
supporting stances such as (but not limited to):
1.a) Encouraging more recycling/reducing waste by not buying
over-packaged products and by making recycling easier (larger/more
bins, add a third bin for packaging alongside the existing bins for
paper and landfill).
1.b) Exploring how interested people would be in switching the ICS's
offerings to organic/fair trade/ethical produce.
1.c) Possibly offering healthy alternatives at Coffee Evening (fruit,
hummous with veggie dippers, etc.).
1.d) Possibly offering special dietary requirement alternatives at
coffee evening (vegan, gluten-free...) - can easily be made to overlap
with point 1.c) above.
2. I will encourage more diversity at Coffee Evening by not buying the
same(ish) biscuits, sweets and cheese every week.
3. I will promote volunteer participation in the running of Coffee
Evening by encouraging volunteers with baking skills to step forward
and create stuff for Coffee Evening instead of only buying commercial
produce all the time. The cost of ingredients (but only the cost of
ingredients) will be reimbursed from the Coffee Evening budget - but
considering how ridiculously cheap it is to bake cakes and pastry,
there should still be plenty money left for cheese/commercial produce.
I'd be happy to kick-start this initiative myself but I am fairly
optimistic that something along these lines could gain traction.
4. I will initiate a discussion of considering the ISC's budget as one
entity rather than keeping separate books for events/trips/house. This
would allow for possible surpluses from trips/events to be used to
make Coffee Evening and the Lounge even more awesome (e.g. buying more
games/fancy coffee machine, possibly having Coffee Evening more than
once per week, etc.) all while eliminating the small-change-problem
from ticket sales due to not having to feel guilty about rounding to
the next reasonable number any more.
Clara Sophie Kantner:
Why I am really interested in becoming the new House Manager
The ISC has definitely become something of a second home to me during the last semester.
Obviously, I am there during my “official” volunteer shift, fulfilling all my duties and trying to
be welcoming for everyone who comes in. But I also spend a lot of my free time there – after
lectures and tutorials, when I am supposed to be studying, and generally, to relax and find
some peace.
So if I took up the position of House Manager and joined the Committee, I feel like the time
I sit around and drink coffee could be spent slightly more productive. I generally like to keep
the place clean – or at least cleared of dishes and trash – and organize the kitchen area. I
have done stocking before and once I know where to find all the necessary things like coffee,
tee, filters, milk etc, I am sure that I would have no problems keeping an eye on the stock
and buying supplies, within the given budget.
I would generally love to be more involved in pub nights, events and whatever necessary
since I feel like I should give something back to the ISC. Without it, I would never enjoyed my
first semester here so much.
One last thing: I am a huge caffeine addict, so I have a strong personal interest that there is
always coffee. Also, I now know where the recycling is.
Clara
Kerttu Kaikkonen:
I would like to state my intent of running for the position of House Manager in the International Student Centre. I am an active user of the ISC services (lounge, events and trips) and a member of the events sub-committee as well as a lounge volunteer, but I would very much like to become even more involved in running the ISC. This is my only chance of doing so, since I am unfortunately going back to Finland in June to finish my degree.
I believe I would make a good House Manager for the ISC. I am reliable and honest, and I already have an idea of how the ISC works as well as what is required of the House Manager. As House Manager, I would take care the lounge never runs out of things and, since I already am at the lounge on a daily basis, keeping an eye on the stock would be easy for me to do. I would look into getting a working recycling system to the lounge, listen to what people want for the coffee evenings and make an effort to provide accordingly.
I feel I have something to give for the ISC with my prior experience in being a member of the board of a society and it would be easy for me to get on top of things. I was just before Christmas re-elected as Information Coordinator for our student organisation back in Finland, making this my third consecutive year as a board member. Also, as a visiting student, I could provide the Committee with a valuable visiting student’s point of view on things.
Kerttu Kaikkonen
Good luck to all the candidates and thanks for the overwhelming interest!
Hope to see a lot of you there!
Rasmus Dall
- President
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