Welcome back to the Guild Catch-Up series! As your Guild Executives are elected by students into a paid role, we find it important to provide as much clarity as possible to students and created this series to show you what your elected students have been up to. This is a monthly series, so stick around and hold your QUT Guild Executive accountable and keep in the loop with what’s going on with our organisation.
All executives (including Glass editors) are required to submit a report to council, outlining what they have been working on since the previous council meeting*. These reports are then uploaded to the publicly available SharePoint so that any student can read them. To make things a little easier, we compile them in these Catch Up articles. Keep reading to find out what your elected officers have been up to.
President – Aaron Bui
- Attended many meetings: including with Director of Graduate Research Centre regarding HDR students, Guild Board, QUT Council, QRSnet Coordinator, QUT’s Career Development team, Finance and Education Subcommittee, SSAF review, Director of International Student Identity Card Australia & New Zealand, QUT Sexual Assault Sexual Harm Operational working group.
- Attended various Guild events: including VISA workshop, Meet Your SRC, Block Party.
- Management catch-ups.
- Attended HR workshops.
- Completed inductions for new members of the SRC.
- Attended the University Academic Board induction and meeting.
Secretary – Juliet Veskova
- Helped with Welcome Week stalls and attended the Meet Your SRC event.
- Attended Block Party.
- Created a video snapshot.
- Worked on Board brief.
- Completed REACH profile workshop.
- Completed inductions for new members of the SRC.
- Attended and minuted Finance Subcommittee meeting.
- Met with James Nicholson from Student Services and Wellbeing regarding QUT Guild leases.
- Meeting with QLD Public Transport Concession in collaboration with UQ regarding FaresFair campaign.
- Met with John Byron, Principal Policy Advisor, regarding Postgraduate advocacy at QUT.
- Introduced HDR to SRC at the university’s HDR Meet & Greet.
- Reviewed the Universities Accords Final Report: took notes to present the relevant union findings to the SRC, Guild Professional Staff and Board.
- Preparation of Board papers: including committee/subcommittee reports and 2023 Regulation Updates.
- Updated the Secretary Handover Guide.
- Worked on a Student Concerns survey.
Treasurer – Archer Skinner
- General Governance work.
- Presented Guild financial reports to QUT Council.
- Helped out at the Block Party.
- Completed inductions for new members of the SRC.
- Attended a SSAF review meeting and Subcommittee meeting.
- Working through the Guild’s SSAF allocation.
- Attended the Clubs Funding round meeting.
- Attended the University Academic Board induction and meeting.
- Started up the Finance Subcommittee.
- Worked with the Guild Finance Manager to look over the organisation’s financial position.
- Helped SRC members with their funding applications.
- Worked with the Board to prepare financial presentations.
Education Officer – Callissa Leyden
- Attended induction with Governance team.
- Attended a REACH meeting with Student Assist Manager and Welfare Officer to discuss working styles.
- Went over University Accords to identify areas of improvement for QUT regarding education and how to incorporate that into my portfolio proposal.
- Attended meeting with Student Assist Manager to go over my current proposals and identify points of contact, as well as discussing the Education Subcommittee procedurals.
- Planned, attended and chaired Education Subcommittee meeting.
- Attended national Education Officer conference.
- Wrote a profile for Glass.
Welfare Officer – Paulina Luisce
- Worked a the Guild stall for Welcome Week.
- Attended the Meet Your SRC event and talked to students about the role of the Guild.
- Met with UQ Union at the launch of the End Student Poverty Campaign.
- Prepared food bags for the Foodbank for Welcome Week period.
- Worked at the Guild stall and helped with set up for Block Party.
- Attended Reach Profile meeting with Education Officer and the Student Assist Manager.
- Met with Sam McGeown from Village Mosaix to seek possible partnership to source the Guild’s Foodbank at a lower cost.
- Attended Clean Up Australia Day event in Botanical Gardens.
- Had a meeting with UQ and Griffith’s student unions to discuss FaresFair campaign.
- Had a meeting with the National Union of Students about Change the Age and End Student Poverty campaign.
Engagement Officer – Deepika Sharma
- Attended Guild events: O’Week, Meet the SRC and Block Party
- Student Engagement: attended ongoing events to increase awareness of the Guild, attended QUT event Community of Practice to connect with students and network with the organiser, executed Women’s Day post.
- HDR meet and greet: attending a session to meet new HDR students with the aim of increasing awareness of the Guil.
- Meetings: SSAF subcommittee, Clubs and Societies, SAPP meeting to engage with students across Australia and participate in the Students Against Placement Poverty campaign, reporting status of portfolio.
- VISA initiative: connected with stakeholders to finalise the format of the workshop.
- Shared ideas with Glass to increase student interaction.
Clubs & Societies Officer – Hong Le
- Attended induction with Governance team to discuss my role and expectations.
- Create REACH portfolio for HR: Scheduled a meeting with the General Manager to discuss the results and to establish working relationships
- Organised the Clubs and Societies email inbox, updating email signature
- Discussed important dates with Clubs Officer to ensure proper recording and preparation.
- responding to emails flagged by Clubs Officer to action on her behalf.
- Coordinated with Clubs Officer to establish consistent office hours throughout the semester.
Environment Officer – Milani Rawlinson
- Attended multiple days of Welcome Week
- Attended February council meeting
- Attended various Guild events: including under 18’s party, Block Party, Toga party, Clubs and Societies party.
- Spent time going admin tasks, like emailing and organising meetings.
- Attended Student Misconduct committee meeting.
- Organised and held Clean Up Australia day event.
- Met with GPS to discuss projects.
Women’s Officer – Lauren Cuthbert
- Assisted with Welcome Week stall.
- Attended February Council meeting.
- Assisted the Collectives with their Block Party stalls.
- Liaised with the Guild Professional Staff regarding beginning stages for some initiatives and fleshed out action plans for portfolio items.
- Liaised with the Women’s Collective regarding initial ideas for the Gardens Point Women’s Room, and contacted Guild Professional Staff to start sorting elements of this plan out.
- Assisted the Women’s Collective with preparation for their elections.
Queer Officer – Eli Spencer
- I attended the first LGBTQIAP+ Working Party meeting of the year. The Working Party of the university is essentially a team of queer people who work at QUT, each person is a representative of different faculties and teams across both the Kelvin Grove and Gardens Point campuses. The undertake many projects across the uni and work very hard to introduce new policies and procedures that better life for both queer students and staff. Essentially the first meeting of the year is for establishing our goals for the year, minutes from the previous meeting and welcoming new members.
- I’ve attended numerous meetings with different people of the university, beginning conversations on how we can better queer life at uni and how we can make our health services more efficient and safe for students to utilise.
- I have been spending quite a bit of time in the Kelvin Grove Queer room! During time I spend there, I introduce myself as the Queer Officer and provide students with a background of who the Guild is and what services we offer. I also inform students of the Collectives and Clubs available to them, as many are first years. It has been a lovely experience meeting all the new students and I look forward to further supporting the queer community.
First Nations Officer – AJ Lee
Newly elected at March council meeting
Postgraduate Students Officer – Mal Fituch
- Attended meeting with Lyndelle Gunton (Coordinator, Information Research Skills, Office for Scholarly Communication) with regards to the project of Research Advancement Expo where we discussed possible training options and tutors that could be involved.
- Attended meeting with Andrew Kerslake (Director of GRC) where we discussed the project of establishing an umbrella association for postgraduate students and the matter of different categories of scholarships for research students. Also outlined further steps that should be taken with regards to aligning different categories of scholarships.
- Attended meeting with representatives of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Association.
- Prepared questions for the survey which will be distributed among research students with regards to their software training needs.
- Organisational planning regarding the proposed initiatives: timeline, funding strategies, required human resources and next steps that need to be taken.
- Met with international HDR students to discuss concerns related to the upcoming migration strategy.
- Met with GPS regarding my portfolio.
- Participated in Welcome Week activities and Guild engagement.
- Participated in organising Guild’s engagement among HDR students: including HDR meet and greet.
- Other administrative duties, including emails.
Disability Officer – Ethan Johnstone
- Followed up with Facilities regarding a list of spaces for the Disability Collective room: Meeting was organised by cancelled.
- Attended Block Party: There were serious issues with accessibility. Pro flooring was placed in a way where students couldn’t access the stalls, which were placed in areas only accessible via stairs or bumpy grassed areas.
- On leave from 22/02/2024 to 27/02/2024
- Held portfolio meeting
- Continued a personal audit of QUT spaces regarding professed vs actual accessibility.
- Worked towards creation of Australian Disability Network workshop: this included discussions regarding SSAF, booking a space, and liaising with external vendors (ADN representative and AUSLAN interpreter)
International Students Officer – Jovan Fersando
- Attended a meeting regarding VISA initiatives catch up, what could be improved from the recent event and what the next steps should be.
- Drafted a project proposal containing three initiatives surrounding international students, regarding their wellbeing, knowledge and rights.
- Drafted profile for Glass.
- Joined the Education Subcommittee.
- Liaised with Welfare Officer regarding a potential free health navigation for international students.
- Planning to help with execution of Harmany Day on KG campus.
Media team – Celeste Muller, Ben Steele, Jacinta Rossetto, Tione Zylstra, Jess Morgan
- Published 28 articles on the website during March. This includes copyediting, liaising with writers, sourcing submissions, preparing articles on WordPress, designing graphics and promoting articles on social media.
- Working on unSEXpected special print edition in preparation for QUT’s Respect week. 40 page magazine design, copyedited and artwork created. Liaising with QUT alum, Konstanz Muller Hering, to create magazine, including copyediting two new articles. Liaised with Marketing to reprint the Intimacy Card Game.
- Regular distribution of print magazines across Gardens Point and Kelvin Grove campus: at minimum weekly but increased drops at high traffic locations.
- Attended Block Party and hosted stall.
- Summer edition launch party event.
- Editor-in-Chief attending Executive meetings.
- Attending Council meetings, taking notes and preparing council report to publish online. At least two editors attended each meeting.
- Working on creating Glass podcast: including planning, sourcing music and editing stings, planning episodes, creating graphics.
- Regularly managing website.
- Administration: including emails, tracking editor hours, working on budget.
*The motion requiring executives report to Council was passed at a previous meeting but has yet to be approved by the Board. Once this is approved, the Regulations will be updated to indicate the official change.
