Reflections about my time as President of the JCRC
At the start of the previous academic year (2008-2009) I was elected President of the Nixon Court & Freemen’s Common JCRC. I wrote the following comments at the end of my term as President, which finished in July 2009. I would now like to share them in the hopes that they will help others in similar positions. The JCRC system is also currently under threat and I would like to share my experiences so that everyone can see the full benefits in participating in their JCRCs.
During the summer of 2008 I was allocated a room at Nixon Court by the Accommodation Office. I decided to set up a Facebook group with the aim of finding those people who were going to be living in my flat. The group gained popularity after a few weeks with over 150 members. I was shocked at this sudden surge of new members so I decided to advertise it on a few of the larger University of Leicester groups in the hopes that more future residents could find their flat mates.
After chatting to a few people on Facebook, it became apparent that there was nothing planned for the residents of Nixon Court or Freemen’s Common for the first week of term. I was really disappointed about this because I remembered the start of my first year at GMS, which was full of activities and bar crawls designed to get people to socialise. This spurred me into organising the ‘Moving Day Meet Up’ with the help of the Dry Dock for the first night at the halls. The manager of the Dry Dock (I’ll call him ‘S’) was quite accommodating and provided free cocktails on the night for the residents.
On the night of the Moving Day Meet Up a few people were talking about the JCRC and how I should run for President seen as I had organised this night and had a large group which could be used to promote events. I didn’t know much about how JCRCs were supposed to work but had the general idea that they organised events. During my time as President I found out that JCRCs do much more than organise events. JCRC’s are meant to represent their residents as well to a number of other organisations, including the University.
The internet problems at Nixon Court were one issue I tried to resolve, as this was the something everyone mentioned as the major problem at the halls. As part of the campaign for a better connection I brought a proposal to the Student Union Council for the Student Union’s support and I also spoke to the University’s Welfare and Accommodation Offices about it. Despite a slow start (mostly due to the lack of a response from the Accommodation Office) we finally made some improvements to the connection by December 2008 and again in February 2009. However, Internet problems remain a problem at Nixon Court and I would suggest to future JCRCs that they should make this an issue from the start.
During the course of the year the JCRC helped organise the Nixon Court and Freemen’s Common football team, which before our year in office did not have a football kit. After consultations with the Committee we were able to get some good quality kits which are still being used today. The kits had the logo of the JCRC on it which was designed by the Committee. This gave me a sense of pride as it people now had the opportunity for the first time to play football for this hall of residence.
The JCRC helped organise numerous events during the year which included a £1 all you can eat buffet at Zucchero World Buffet, the Comedy Nights in the Nixon Common Room and the Pizza nights. However, the Alton Towers Trip was the highlight of the year for me as President of the JCRC. The Committee wasn’t pulling its weight by this point due to exams so rather than disappointing everyone I decided to organise the whole thing myself. I used the JCRC budget to subsidise the tickets and travel expenses of the trip so that the tickets were really cheap in order to give everyone the opportunity to go. I had to keep increasing the number of places available until it got 125 people on the trip due to the great demand for the trip. The last few tickets were snatched as soon as I mentioned them on Facebook.
The day itself went quite well all things considering. I was put in charge of 125 people and had to ensure they all got on the coaches. The start was rather chaotic as this mass of people piled on the coaches. We left around 20 minutes later than schedule but everything seemed to be on track so we left the Nixon Court car park and set off for Alton Towers. When we got to Alton Towers I handed out the tickets and told everyone to be back at the car park by 5pm as this was the time the coaches were going to pick us up. After going on a few rides and filming with the help of Matt (follow this hyperlink to see the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnZYVNScdbM) it was finally time to get back to the coaches. Most people got to the coaches on time but we were still missing one or two people. Some of the group told me that a few people were finding their own way back as friends were picking them up. This made the initial head count irrelevant as we were not going to have the same number of people coming back anyway. After half an hour later than the expected departure time I decided to leave Alton Towers almost sure that everyone was accounted for. Before leaving I even asked both coaches whether anyone they came with were missing.
As soon as we were on the motorway I received a phone call from a few residents that missed the coach and just found their way to the car park. This pushed my patience to its limits as these residents, who were 45 minutes late by this point, were being quite rude on the phone. I kept as calm as I could and resolved the situation by asking a taxi firm from Leicester to go on a mission to Alton Towers to pick up these residents (who said they had no money for a taxi – to this day I doubt they were telling the truth). The taxi was paid for through the JCRC budget. The reason why I helped them was because I did not want to leave people somewhere with no chance of getting back despite the fact that it was their fault. I think I did the right thing by helping them get back rather than just leave them there (as a few people told me to do).
Lessons learned as a result of the Alton Towers trip is that it is human nature to be late so it would have been better to ask everyone to get back half an hour before the coaches arrived in order to do a head count. I would have also told everyone to inform me if they were going to make their own way back to Leicester so that there wouldn’t be as much confusion as to numbers coming back. However, everyone enjoyed the trip that went on it and had a great day out. A lot of international students went on the trip as well which to them was a unique chance to see one of the UK’s most famous theme parks.
At the end of the year we put a tab of £250 for all the residents at the Dry Dock so that everyone could celebrate a year of success with the JCRC. The tab went in an hour as more and more people flooded in and everyone had a good night.
After reflecting on my experience with the JCRC I would like to sum up by saying that I really enjoyed my time with the JCRC and I hope others will have the same opportunities as I did in the years to come.
Advice to future JCRCs:
- Do not think you know what is best for the residence. A dialogue is always needed in order to ensure everyone benefits from the budget.
- It is best to realise at the start that being part of the JCRC makes you know different from anyone else. Sending messages with phrases like ‘as your president’ (something I never did) will not help you connect with the people that you are supposed to help and many may see this as patronising.
- Events are important but they are not the whole function of a JCRC. JCRCs should be there to represent their students and start campaigns for particular issues.
- The students at Nixon Court and Freemen’s Common are not a homogenous group and so different types of events should be organised so that no one feels isolated.
I’d like to thank all the residents of Nixon Court and Freemen’s Common of 2008-2009 for helping making the year a success for the JCRC.
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