QUT Guild Executive Catchup: February

The Guild Catch Up series is back for another year! This series was started by Glass in 2020 as an accountability measure for the QUT Guild Executives. As 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!

Olivia Brumm: President

This executive did not submit an update.

Liam Blair: Treasurer

This executive did not submit an update.

Cameron Mackie: Secretary

A lot had happened during the first three months of my 2021 term as Guild Secretary, so I will use this space to give a (hopefully) brief summary of the projects I have worked on and am currently working on. Since December, my portfolio has worked on several projects, some of which have been finalised, and the remainder of which are ongoing.  

1. Induction  

At the very beginning of the current Guild team’s term of office, all elected executives attended a two-day induction session. At this session, I both presented an in-depth presentation about the new accountability and productivity measures expected of executives and participated in the induction myself.  

1. Guild Council  

This year a goal of mine was to preschedule and organise all Guild Council meetings well in advance and work closely with the elected Guild Chairperson to ensure that the meetings are improved on from last year and run significantly smoother. So far, we have held one Council meeting, with the Annual General Meeting to take place at the end of this month.  

1. Accountability and Transparency Processes  

Following on from the presentation I prepared and gave at the induction, a large portion of my role so far has been working closely with the Guild’s Membership Services Manager to create and implement policies to improve the productivity of each executive. These new policies and procedures are slowly being rolled out within the office.  

1. Constitution and Regulations review 

This year the Governance Team embarks on another attempt to enact constitutional and regulatory change. Currently, we are in the process of reviewing all old documents and forming working parties to begin work in the coming weeks.  

1. O’Week and Guild Week  

This week and last week have been insanely busy. I’ve worked the Guild stall three times (as well as my own club stall once) talking to new and old students, distributing our very cool new merch and plugging all of the Guild services.  

1. Report on face-to-face learning survey  

Over the past three weeks the Guild has been encouraging as many students as possible to participate in a survey regarding face-to-face versus only learning options at QUT. A working party within the Guild is now currently working on formulating the data we received in to a report to present to the university. 

Em Readman, Ella Brumm, Tom Loudon, Christina Simonoski: Glass

Glass has been a whirlwind lately! Let us catch you up. Unfortunately, we have recently seen the departure of editors Anahita and Alexander, as they both have moved on to jobs in the legal profession. We offer them our congratulations and wish them all the very best for the future.

However! Their departure left Em and Ella without any co-workers, so we called a casual vacancy for election at Guild Council. The Guild Council elected students Tom Loudon and Christina Simonoski to the team. For the past few weeks we have been getting them up to speed and it has been amazing to see them grow in the role so quickly.

Immediately after joining the team, Glass got zucced by Facebook, and our page was taken down in response to the news media bargaining code. Thankfully, it seems to be back for the time being! Thankfully, so many of you moved over to our Instagram, which we are working on building up as a more reliable sharing platform in the wake of our Facebook news ban.

Beyond this, we have been working on submissions and curating our first issue of the year, Reset, which is on the way to publication! We provided a Glass presence at O-Week, handing out copies of Glass to new students to introduce them to our publication. We published a QUT Phonebook, which is a collection of resources for students on how to get the most out of university, which has garnered thousands of views. Additionally, Em is working on a campaign on Academic Misconduct awareness with Glass, and we have an ongoing stream of content on our online site. As always, if you would like to submit a piece to Glass, or tip us off about something you think needs reporting on in the QUT community, let us know.

Cassandra Grey: Abilities Officer

I was elected to this role on February 1. In this short period, I’ve been busy learning everything there is to about the role including the past work done in the Abilities area, my responsibilities and setting up a routine before the semester starts.

James, the Abilities Collective convenor, and I have been talking, getting everything ready for O Week and plans for the Collective in 2021. We’re planning to work very closely together to ensure that students with disabilities, chronic illness and mental health needs are being heard and represented. At the Abilities Collective AGM I spoke to a few students who raised issues around parking, Access Equity Plans and accommodations being provided to students with the return to on-campus classes this semester. I’m going to follow up on these issues.

Once I get my head around how everything in the Guild works I’m going to start working towards some of my goals for this year. I’m very excited to be in this role and to hopefully make 2021 the best year yet for students with disabilities, health conditions and mental health needs.

Genevieve Hitzke: Women’s Officer

This year we’ve hit the ground running with planning and booking some exciting events and campaigns for this year. To start us off we have Southeast Auto Mechanicals hosting a FREE event on Thursday 4/03 called ‘Women on the Move’. This event aims to educate and empower women in servicing their cars, as well as what to do if you happen to break down while alone. I wanted to host this event as I feel women aren’t given the opportunity to learn these essential skills as much as their counterparts. I’m hoping this can be the beginning of a series of events focused on ‘Things They Don’t Teach You’ which, if successful, could be broadened to more than just the Women’s Portfolio. You can check out the details of ‘Women on the Move’ through QUT Guild’s Facebook event here: https://fb.me/e/27m2SR9Zb  

Since our last update, the Little Emergencies campaign has begun to stock Emergency Underwear in select bathrooms to further aid those unexpected emergencies we experience with periods. We are also working toward using only sustainable products, hopefully by the end of the year! But first we need to make sure we use all our current stock, so be on the lookout for freebies stations coming soon! 

The Women’s Collective have also been doing a lot of brainstorming and networking to create some awesome events. After a successful and fun week at OWeek, the Collective executives will also be attending the Guild run Club’s Mixer events during week 1. We have some super exciting collaborations lined up with an array of clubs, so keep an eye out on our Facebook page for updates and announcement coming soon! 

Amy Sargeant: Queer Officer

Coming up in Week 3 is a unique and new event – the first ever QUT Guild Queer & Women’s Caucus. At 4PM on Thursday, 18th March in KG Z2-226, Gen (your Women’s Officer) and I are hosting an open forum to set the agenda for liberation at our university in 2021. All women and queer QUT students are welcome, and we’d love to see you there. The groups our portfolios represent are so big, we thought it was super important to kick the year off by facilitating a space where your voice can be heard.

Seren Wyatt: Environment Officer

This executive did not submit an update.

Sarah Balmer and Taylor Thomas: Student Rights

The beginning of 2021 has brought with it many exciting opportunities and challenges. In the Student Rights portfolio, we have been working on our Adulting 101 sessions for the year and planning several other exciting initiatives. These include career coaching and important adjustments to the Student Representative Network. 

Class registration this year threw up lots of issues about face-to-face learning, and we appreciate everyone who filled out the Guild’s survey and contacted us with their feedback. That conversation is continuing with QUT, so please continue to keep us aware of how the beginning of semester is going. 

In the coming weeks, some of our share house starter packs will be distributed, so keep an eye out for those as well! 

The foodbanks at GP and KG are both open, and you can email us if you need any help accessing either of them, or any other welfare support. 

If you need any support, or if you have ideas as to how we can better support students, please contact us at studentrights@qutguild.com 

Nikka Turangan: Postgraduate Officer

This executive did not submit an update.

Rodo Nguyen: International Officer