A student named Sarah has suggested that the current system for funding, supporting and rewarding Societies is inadequate. She feels that the current STARS system rewards societies for non-active members and on the basis of names on a sheet, rather than impact and achievement, and that it disadvantages part time and mature students with compulsary training sessions conceived around the idea of full time undergrads with plenty of time on campus.

Sarah feels that the system should be changed to find a way to reward societies for their achievements  (students engaged with, events run, students it supports even if they're not members) and thattraining should be able to be accessed online with more flexibility to take into account the needs of students with less time on campus, and in a way that recognises the real world training and skills mature students often bring with them.

Please sign below if you support what Sarah is saying and owuld like the Students' Union to work on her idea.

*UMSU Bright Ideas has been created as part of the ‘Students in Charge of the Union’policy to try to enable more students to be able to create change and development within the Students’ Union.

Ideas can either be practical suggestions that may have a positive impact on operational factors or some may have an implication for policy or require a certain amount of resource. Any ideas that affect policy or have a substantial resource implication need to be decided by a General Meeting and as such these ideas will be treated in the same way that motions have been previously been treated. This means that these ideas will need to gain the support of at least 30 students to be put forward for the General meeting. To enable this to happen the Students’ Union has created online petitions that enable students to show their support and gain the required 30 students in support of the idea.

If more than six ideas gain the support of over 30 students by the end of Thursday (6th October) then a priority ballot will be held in the Students' Union this Friday to decide which six ideas will make it for discussion at the meeting. If your Idea is chosen as one of the final six then we will ask you to come along to the Bright Ideas Have your Say meeting and put your idea forward. If you feel uncomfortable about this we can contact all students that have completed the petition to ask if any of them would like to present the idea.

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