Daniel O'Driscoll for Societies Guild OCM 2015-16

Daniel O’Driscoll

Societies Guild OCM

2015-16

Daniel O’Driscoll for Societies Guild OCM 2015-16

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Who am I?

Hello! My name is Daniel O’Driscoll, I’m twenty years old in in my final year of a B.A. in

English and History. I am currently the auditor of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society and I

would like to put myself forward for an OCM position on the Societies Guild Executive for

2015-16.

My experience

I have been involved in societies since the day I set foot into the wonderful bubble that is

UCC, first year consisted of me throwing myself into every society I could see and amongst

the many free pens and countless packets of jellies I found my niche; charity societies! Prior

to becoming auditor of SVP I held two committee positions as an activities leader and then

PRO. Along with sitting on the committee I continue to be an active volunteer within the

society from Homework Clubs to Homeless Hostels and the COPE Foundation.

This past year I have really discovered the inner workings of society life both in and outside

of UCC. Within college all manner of things have been thrown at me, from organising Child

Protection and Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults training sessions, to directly working with

the people that avail of SVP services throughout Cork each day. To having countless

numbers of meetings with schools, clubs, hostels, nursing homes and foundations on a

weekly basis, to walking around campus in a monkey costume for five hours shaking a

collection bucket. SVP is also linked to a national organisation meaning that I represent the

society on both a regional and national level by sitting on the SVP National Youth Executive

and the Area Council.

Along with the day to day running of SVP I also headed up a number of social action and

charity campaigns during the year. The society’s annual Homeless Week saw myself and the

SVP committee sleep outside the Boole Library for 48 hours to raise money and awareness

for the homeless population throughout Cork. Along with the Sleepout there was an

extensive timetable of events run throughout the week on main campus and satellite

campuses working alongside other societies, ranging from Simon to Sci-Fi and all

culminating in over €1,000 being raised for Anglsea Street Homeless Hostel.


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Jailbreak is a national charity campaign between all

major third level institutions in Ireland in a race to a

mystery finish line somewhere in the world. I sat on

the Jailbreak Executive this year as the UCC Rep,

along with Amnesty International, co-ordinating and

organising the ten UCC teams. The entire weekend

was a ball of stress but proved a huge success with

over €60,000 being raised for both SVP and Amnesty

International as well as a UCC team taking third place.

In a nut shell, I really have given all that I have to SVP

over the past few years, and especially over the last

year. I have continued to build on the strong

traditions of the society laid down by countless

auditors before me along with developing new ways to reach out to the local community

such as delivering exam workshops for Leaving Cert students and the first ever community

engagement day for the COPE Foundation on campus.


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Training

Training is one of the most vital parts of societies, this last year seeing an extended portfolio. There is no doubt that a lot of things are going well, however there are some things I would like to add.

Bring more of an interactive element to training sessions by the means of

role-playing and scenario-based instruction, as well as practical tours of the

Hub and ASA office.

Develop OCM training into ‘Socs 101’ a simplistic and practical training

session covering all major aspects of society work such as the events wall and

the online portal.

Facilitate society-specific sessions for the different repping groups, e.g. the

auditor of an academic society will not need to know the same things as the

auditor of a creative society and vice versa.

Develop new distinguishable sessions for specific positions such as vice

auditor trainings.

Offer an anti-bullying and harassment workshop to complement the Anti-

Bullying and Harassment Policy implemented by this year’s Guild

Place greater emphasis on semester two trainings as well as delivering short

informal re-fresher sessions.

Consolidate the position of the UCC Works Award with regards to societies,

although good work has been done this year there is still definite room for

improvement. This would include making communication as simple and as

straight-forward as possible as well as establishing an informed and

consistent advice network around the award.

Offer Child Protection Training and Garda Vetting to all committee members.

(This will tie in with my ideas for Community Engagement).

Community Engagement

This is an area I am passionate about and the Guild have made great efforts to reach out to

the local community throughout Cork with things such as the Societies Summer Camp.

However I still believe this to be an under developed area with massive potential.

I would endeavour to develop an entire brand around community engagement through a

programme called ‘Guild Gives Back’ this would include the following;

Develop greater links with local primary and secondary schools, delivering exam

workshops, society workshops and campus tours.

Help establish a school version of societies, this would help maintain links between

the schools and societies.

Run a one week ‘Mini Guild’ in which each member of the Guild Executive has a

young person (TY students perhaps) helping them with their job for the week.


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Run a ‘Socs in Schools Week’ in which the Guild Executive and societies themselves

are challenged to reach out to as many schools as they can within one week.

Offer a number of OAP days throughout the year whether by ways of a simple coffee

morning or a specific society event or workshop.

Encourage every society to hold at least one community-focused event throughout

the year.

Society Engagement & Development

Engagement is a highly important element in fostering a healthy and pro-active atmosphere

around campus. I would consistently and to the absolute best of my ability:

Continue to lobby the university on behalf of societies for greater access to campus

buildings and facilities.

Ensure that socieites needs and wants remain an integeral part of the Student Hub

Project.

Establish or strengthen links between academic societies and their corresponding

school or department.

Develop and/or strengthen the relationship between societies that are linked to an

outside organisation.

Develop and maintain the strong links that have been formed with the SU over the

past number of years.

I would encourage Dr Michael Murphy to attend at least one society event of his

choice during the year.

Encourage each repping group to hold one mass collaborative event during the year.

Continue to ensure that all societies whether they be large or small, social or

academic are treated equally.


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PR & Media

PR and media is one of the most important aspect of society life, you need people to know

what you’re up to for your society to reach its full potential.

Guerrilla marketing strategies to develop a distinct, highly visible societies brand on

campus similar to the recent UCC Ents branding.

Introduce a societies mascot (run an online competition to pick the best one).

Run repping group weeks on social media, e.g. ‘Political & Debating Societies Week’

this not only gives each society an equal platform to showcase their society but also

fosters a more positive and inclusive atmosphere.

Work with the Express and/or Motley to have a ‘Socs Pull Out’ in each edition.

Utilize the Societies Guild YouTube page a lot more than it is currently, so many

societies do amazing work that should be showcased more.

Establish links with outside organisations, not only obvious media outlets but things

like local shops in which they would showcase or advertise your event for you.

Lobby to get a noticeboard/tv in the ORB and the Main Rest.

Ensure regular and frequent updates to the closed noticeboards around both main

and satellite campuses.

Archives

Societies currently have a rich and extensive archives. Work has been done over the past

year or so to correctly chronicle all of this material however there are more practical ways

of doing so.

Instead of the archives project being left to one or two people an archives group or

sub-committee made up of different people responsible for different aspects of the

archives project would ensure a greater amount of work is completed in a shorter

amount of time.

Develop an online archives, streaming all of the material online and making it

available to all society members and the wider public.

Endeavour to hold an event during the year to celebrate the rich history of societies,

showcasing the archives project as well as reaching out to alumni.


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Social & Entertainments

The social aspect of societies is at the very heart of the Guild, there is not much I would

change here but I would work towards;

Having officer-specific coffee mornings e.g. Finance Officers Coffee Morning, it gives

likeminded society people a chance to socialise and share experiences and ideas

Holding a onesie day in the Hub.

Creating more non-alcohol social events, many past manifestos have stated this

point with very little follow up, I will ensure that this will occur.

Having an all-societies day out at the end of the year.

Run ‘Socs Swap’ in which certain committee members such as First Year Reps swap

societies with one another for one week.

Explore the option of opening up the decision of the theme of the Clubs & Socs Ball

to a vote by Clubs and Socs.

The Hub

The Hub is almost like a second home to people involved in societies. It is the day to day

heart of society life.

Ensuring that the Hub is kept in a clean, working order. Many manifestos of years

past have said this and then time after time the Hub has become a tip. I will remain

consistent in ensuring that the Hub is respected by all who use it and that it remains

in good working order.

Fostering a warm, welcoming and inclusive atmosphere within the Hub for all,

ensuring that it is a positive and encouraging place of work for everybody.

Update the photographs around the Hub as well as create a ‘Wall of Fame’.


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Why choose me?

2012-13

SVP volunteer

Academic Rep for History and English.

Tutor for UCC PLUS+ Programme.

Trained to work with children, including those with special needs.

2013-14

SVP PRO and Activities Co-ordinator.

SVP volunteer

Trained to work with vulnerable adults,

Tutor for UCC PLUS+ Programme.

Peer Support Leader.

Arts & Literature Reviewer for Motley.

Academic Rep for English and History.

2014-15

SVP Auditor.

Volunteer and co-ordinator for two SVP activities.

Chairperson of UCC Jailbreak ‘15 Organising Committee.

UCC Rep on Jailbreak Executive.

UCC Rep on SVP Area Council.

UCC Rep on SVP National Youth Executive

Qualified NYCI Child Protection trainer.


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Wrapping up

I by no means have all the answers, I don’t know everything and I can’t and won’t promise

you the sun, moon and stars but what I am promising you is that if elected I will work to the

absolute best of my ability every single day that I am in the job. I am a hard-working,

consistent, friendly and driven individual who will simply do his best for you and your

society.

If you would like any more information or if you wish to speak to me about anything set out

above then please do feel free to get in touch. I would be more than happy to meet up for a

chat.

Thank you for taking the time to read and I hope that I can count on your vote.

Daniel

Ph: 086 8962573

Em: [email protected]


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Some of the best jokes you’re ever going to hear. Ever.*

- How does NASA organize their company parties? They planet.

- Why does Snoop Dogg carry an umbrella? Fo’ drizzle.

- My friend recently got crushed by a pile of books, but he’s only got him

shelf to blame.

- What do you call a man with no shins? Toe-nee.

- I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.

- Why can’t a bike stand on its own? It’s two tired.

- If seagulls flew over the bay they’d be called bagels.

- What happens to a frogs car when it breaks down? It gets toad away.

- Why was the computer sick? It got a virus because it didn’t close its windows.

- How do you count cows? With a cowculator.

- Why does Humpty Dumpty like autumn? Because he had a great fall?

- If you ever get cold just stand in the corner of the room. They’re normally 90 degrees.

- Why did the girl bring a pencil to bed with her? Because she wanted to draw the curtains.

- How do tress access the internet? They log in.

- What do you call two Mexicans playing basketball? Juan on Juan.

*Not guaranteed.

Documents

Daniel O'Driscoll for Societies Guild OCM 2015-16