Editor’s note: Following the live updates, a clarification has been made at 8.55pm regarding Chris Smith’s statement on the closure of the college bars. 11.31pm has also been removed.
11.35pm: Onto relations with the Students’ Union. Livesley has sat on LUSU committees before and has a good working knowledge of it. He is an amiable person, but is not a push over and will fight the college’s corner. Pearson, the JCR haven’t always seen eye-to-eye this year, and at the end of the day it has been resolved. If he thinks he’s right he’ll got for it. He’s very friendly, doesn’t mind small talk to build up a working relationship.
11.34pm: Pearson would be able to put well-being of the college over relationship with a friend who was on the JCR. Livesley hopes in that situation the friend/officer would understand it’s his job to make sure they are doing their job properly.
11.28pm: How easy is it to switch off and let other officers deal with issues. Livesley, would help out other officers, and would not hinder rather than help other officer. Would act in the best interest of student affected. Pearson, would assert the problem, find out who is required to deal with the problem, find them and let them get on with it.
11.26pm: Livesley goes for Professor X from X-men, though maybe all of the major leaders of our time as well.
11.26pm: Who is your favourite leader and way. Pearson goes for the Queen, because she can do whatever she wants, cause she’s the Queen. The Queen can make herself known and you know if you’ve done something wrong by the Queen. Would emulate with a corgi.
11.24pm: What are your weakness and are you comfortable delegating? Livesley, “my main weakness is I put Furness first”, recounts personal experience from last year from which he has learnt. Pearson, sometimes he’ll be able to do it, other times he’ll have to delegate.
11.21pm: How do you deal with stress? Pearson, talks about an emergency during Freshers’ Week, he was very stressed but remained calm and likes to think he could do the same again. Livesley, copes very well with stress. “The more stressed I get the harder I work”. In stressful situations I deal with them quickly and decisively.
11.21pm: Current President, Luke Anderson has a lot of questions. My fingers are going to be tried…
11.18pm: Onto questions for all. How will you handle working with LUSU if there are any issues with the JCR? Livesley, I’m a hardy person, I can take things on. I would fully back my JCR, and I don’t let things drop. I have a grim determination to get things done. Pearson, if elected I would be President, I’m representing the college, and I would go with the college’s opinion not just mine own. My impartiality can help with certain issues.
11.17pm: It’s all kicking off about emails, how are they going to work, who will host them, will anyone use them? Pearson: I just want to do it to improve communication. Reiterates again that he will be researching the idea.
11.15pm: Are hoodies just an added expense when the money could be spent on better things? Pearson: Lancaster isn’t really a t-shirt climate, so maybe do the hoodies instead of t-shirts?
11.12pm: Question on the practicalities of email accounts for JCRs. Pearson, it’s a new idea and he’s have to do research into it, but would like to do it if possible.
11.11pm: Question on hoodies making people looking like a clique, Pearson feels it will make JCR more accessible and approachable.
11.10pm: Questions for Pearson, how would you plan on getting closer to SCR? Get to know them on a personal level, maybe go out for a meal for them.
11.09pm: Fully opposed to the bars being closed on a Saturday, it would be brilliant if the bar could be open 24/7, but I will be very active in working with LUSU to get the best situation out of this.
11.08pm: Wants to retain the Extrav committee, so everyone can have a say and better ideas come out of it.
11.07pm: Questions for Livesley, how would you get involved in college life and make yourself known? “Unofficial” cheerleader of women’s darts and pool team, and has been on men’s pool team.
11.06pm: Has ideas but keeping them quiet until elected and can form committees.
11.04pm: Wants to bring in JCR hoodies to make officers more visible and to work closely with the SCR. Will fight any extensive refurbishment of Furness. Wants a new JCR office to be central. Wants Trev to keeps its layout and decor. Will still in Trev for a few hours a week as an alternative to an officer hour.
11.02pm: Is campaigning to bring to JCR closer to the college, looking at JCR phone numbers and JCR officer emails. Gives an alternative for people who do not want to talk over issues face-to-face.
11.01pm: Pearson is up next, with another fellow Furnessians. People a bit bored of that now.
10.58pm: Talking about the refurb of Furness, and protecting the identity of Trev the bar. Also wants to work closely with Students’ Union and SRC.
10.58pm: As President he’ll have strong leadership skills, and interpersonal skills. Wants to set up termly individual officer meetings to make them feel valued.
10.55pm: During both of his terms in officer, he’s been involved in Students’ Union politics, including the Save the College Bars campaign two years ago.
10.55pm: Livesley, starts with a fellow Furnessians. He’s from the ghetto. He’s been on the JCR for two years as LGBTQ Officer and Social. He’s organised campaigns, the 15 Hour Bar crawl and Patriots Cup.
10.55pm: We’re onto the final round. It’s Adam Pearson verus Rob Livesley for Furness President 2010/11. Livesley to start.
10.54pm: Yawn.
10.45pm: Toilet break time.
10.43pm: Opinions on changed first year pass rate. Martin, would make sure her opinion was voiced. Strachan was in meeting when change was discussed, and in VP position would consult college first.
10.42pm: How will you deal with angry people in Freshers’ Week? Strachan, I can handle people shouting at me, speak to Kitchen reps and draw on own experience to sort out the issue. Martin can also deal with people shouting “keep calm and carry on”.
10.40pm:: How equipped do you feel to organise the numbers of people involved in Freshers’ Week? Martin, quite good at dealing with things under pressure and can get up in the morning. Strachan, has free summers to plan Freshers’ Week and can keep a calm head in bad situations. Has experience of working with other officers, looking after 500 people in London.
10.38m:: How would you guide people through bad academic situations? Having been there, Strachan highlights LUSU Advice, departments and the Unviersity’s Student Based Services. Martin hasn’t had experience herself, but won’t just dismiss the issue.
10.36pm:: Can’t afford to bring big acts up, so what would you do? Martin, look at bringing up-and-coming events. Strachan, JCR and Student Union funding isn’t there for big bands, so we need to look at the up-and-coming acts, it’s always a question and it’s always a struggle.
10.34pm.: Sober events on Fresher’s Week. Strachan, events in bar where you don’t have to drink, not separating people. Do more things during the day to bring people together. Martin, look at encouraging the sports side of things. Agree with Strachan on more day events, another Coalition?
10.31pm:: How would you fix the issue of people seeing the JCR as a clique? Martin. Coming to university was a massive step, and the JCR can seem a bit intimidating. JCR to go around with Kicthen Reps to make them more accessible. Strachan: unfortunately looking like a clique is unavoidable, if you’re working well as a team you’re going to look very close. That being said, officers shouldn’t just stand in groups, they should go and mingle with people. “We’re going to make effort everyday not to look like that”.
10.28pm: Question for Strachan about her intercalation. She says anyone who’s intercalated knows that it shows commitment to carry on and come back and tackle them, and it’s invaluable experience to help other people. It’s a one of thing of thing, not something which happens again and again.
10.28pm: How has living off campus made you more keen to get involved. “Just really want to make the most out of everything …realise what a good experience it is and want to get involved in it.”
Also, best and worst bits about Freshers’ Week. Wants to go to the Carleton, but like the themes.
10.27pm: For Martin, have you been a kitchen rep? Haven’t been one, never really organised anything, but a very orgnaised person.
10.22pm: Strachan, loves Furness and has seen all the work the JCR has done and wants to do something to give back. Has been a Students’ Union officer for five terms and has already sat on Academic Council. Has been through the system so knows what advice to give to troubled students. Has been a kitchen rep twice so knows a lot about the set up of Freshers’ Week. Has had a wide range of Freshers’, including a lot of international students, so understands about their experiences.
Has never had a JCR position, but has always got involved helping out, including making UV jelly. Does a lot of work with Students’ Union campaigns and making people work better as a team. Fundraising and shepherding people through London shows she can think calmly in hectic situations.
Feels she has a good knowledge of how LUSU and JCRs work and what is feasible and what is not feasible.
Thinking about putting on a T-Rextrav.
10.18pm: Martin is up for Vice President, “haven’t really had much to do with the college so far”. Wants to make the JCR more accessible to everyone. Wants to make the JCR more approachable. Doesn’t think she looks intimidating. Wants to organise Freshers’ Week so people see all the different clubs. Wants to work with other colleges to being a big name act to the University during Freshers’ Week. If elected she would want to have own email address so that personal emails and officer emails don’t get confused. Want to have flexible office hours. Doesn’t know about all the help and support that is out there, she’s not afraid to ask for advice. Would make a good representative on Councils, and is not afraid to voice her opinions. Is used to working as a team.
10.16pm: We’ve got some constitution clear up, turns up, the College DJ only organises the event Climax, not specifically Friday night. Everyone claps. People love a good constitutional dispute.
10.14pm: My laptop is peeling, this can’t be good. About to start Round Three. Ding ding ding.
10.13pm: Vice President candidates are getting ready to go. Emma Martin followed by Sarah Strachan.
10.08pm: Everyone’s being very loud in this break. Whatever happened to indoor voices?
10.02pm: Mood lighting in Liz Livingston. We’re gearing up for the two big guns, Vice President and President.
9.59pm: Will they be okay working as a pair even though not elected as a pair, and how to they handle criticism?
Thomas feels criticism is part of the job and they have to learn from it. She feels she’s capable of working with people.
Hall, knocks can be hard to take but if you take them they can make socials better for next term. Her and Thomas had a “lovely” Facebook chat last night so they’re starting to focus on working together already.
9.58pm: Thomas doesn’t know about games on a Friday when people want to go on a night out, but would look at themes to make nights more of an event.
9.56pm: What would you do to make Friday nights more appealing? Hall, look at things like Guitar Hero which could be vamped up to be more fun. Try and make Friday night the main night again. Possibly an interblock karaoke competition.
9.54pm: What ideas do you have for non-alcoholic socials? Thomas wants to look at doing more non-alcoholic socials in the week when people don’t want to drink as much. Hall wants to look into competitions and events where people can drink if they want to, but the focus isn’t on drinking. Possibly a wingman social so people don’t feel excluded if they’re not drinking and other people are.
9.52pm: First big event you’d like to look at. Hall, first one would be Valentine’s Day, looking at getting lots of people involved including societies and sports clubs. Thomas, goes for a Christmas sing-a-long in Trev.
9.51pm: Both looking at more events for International
students, less focused on drinking and more about getting to know people. Someone makes a Gryffindor reference, standard.
9.50pm: VP (Academic) is leaving. Sad face. :'(
9.49pm: What has been your favourite social of the year so far? Hall says the Big Night Out in Freshers’ Week.
9.44pm: Vicki Thomas next, who was also inspired by Intro Week. She worked on her college Prom committee.
9.43pm: Organised a lot of events for her college and was the the college Students’ Union. Won’t try and promise something she can’t do.
9.41pm: On to social sec, and we’re starting with Bryony Hall. JCR made a big impression on her in Intro Week. Socials have been good this year, and wants to continue this. Wants to be Social Sec because thinks that she have the experience and will take on fresh ideas.
9.39pm: Most important thing for the budget to cover? Bojko “Extrav and Intro Week”. Willis “would only be fair to put towards events which aren’t drinking as well as putting it towards events which are”.
9.36pm: Have you got the maths skills to be in charge of a complicated budget? Willis “I’m very thorough and I’ll always use a calculator…I’ve worked with money from the age of 16…I think we do have a fairly small budget but I’d make sure it was split fairly”. Bojko “Did accounting for PC World, didn’t get sacked. Degree has quite a lot of maths in it as well”.
9.33pm: How would you make the position your own, what new thing would you bring in? Bojko would look at making JCR more transparent by making minutes of meetings available online straight away, and look at ways of allocating money.
Willis would prefer not to be noticed, sees it like the role of the banker, people should only notice you when things are going wrong. Would look at bake-offs to raise some money, more could be done with darts and pool competitions to make more money.
9.30pm: Question about how much time they have to put to the role. Willis says her job in Trev is very flexible, Bojko can choose his hours for ISS. Willis will only have three modules next term, Bojko organised his time this week so he didn’t have any coursework due so he could concentrate on his campaign.
9.25pm: How easy are they to get in touch with? Bojko lives on campus, and has a lot of websites with emails. Willis lives off campus, but always has her Blackberry on her. She doesn’t have Facebook, she’s an “anti-Facebook” person.
9.23pm: Wants to help people find the money to do things.
9.22pm: Willis is an “organisation freak”, so role fits her perfectly. Puts money for phone bills in separate account seven months ahead. Makes a reference to being anal. Lots of lads cheer. Standard…
9.21pm: Wants to work with Publicity Officer, to make JCR more open and transparent. Look at modernising the way accounts are dealt with, helping JCR members keep track of money they’ve spent.
9.20pm: Has worked with businesses before to make sure they’re not spending money they don’t have.
9.19pm: Bojko is first up, has seen the good work the JCR has done over the past few years and would like to give something back. He’s a levelheaded guys who can take objective decisions.
9.06pm: Coming up in a bit is Treasurer with Craig Bojko and Emily Willis.
9.05pm: There’s a break, wine times.
9.04pm: Smith gets the room going with “Walking in a Furness Wonderland”. “It’s a learning curve, you have to learn to lose your sense of self respect.”
9.03pm: Favourite chants? Flemming: “Pedo-fylde”…
9.00pm: Are either of you members of RocSoc? Neither of them are. Roc Soc fail.
8.58pm: There’s a bit of constitutional shenanigans, everyone’s favourite type of shenanigans. Are the college DJs in charge of Friday night entertainment, SCAN will endeavor to find out!
8.57pm: Fleming: “I agree with Chris”. I smell a Coalition.
8.55pm: Would you be happy campaigning on bar opening hours? Fleming, “definitely, more than happy to”. Smith “completely disagrees” with the closure of the college bars, “we should have our bars open everyday of the week”.
8.54pm: Smith, I can handle my degree and will make sure I’m free on Friday and Saturdays, and also offers to DJ for birthdays in Trev.
8.54pm: Questions for Fleming, can you express something about yourself? He’s got his own gear and a pretty board music taste, “from indie to house and everything in between”.
8.51pm: Onto College DJ, with Matt Fleming givng a very short hust, and asking for questions before being over ruled by the Chair. Chair knows best. Chris Smith is now up, saying it’s a hard position to have a manifesto for but he can promise the best music. “Furness is famous for its varied music taste”. Whips out the everywhere else is nowhere line, the room isn’t so sure. Furness pride fail.
8.48pm: Wants to work with Publicity Officer more to get more people down to the Carter Shield.
8.45pm: During current officership he “more than doubled” the JCR sports budget through sponsorship deals and introduced fancy dress for Carter Shield. “More interested in people coming down to have fun … You come down in fancy dress, you have a laugh and that’s what it’s about.”
8.44pm: Looks too good in a skirt for the netball team. Loves being involved in sports. Collette McColgan is still laughing.
8.43pm: Current Male Sports Sec, Rob ‘Dicko’ Dickinson, is standing for the position again.
8.42pm: SCAN’s Assistant Editor is laughing very loudly, I can hear her from the back of the room. Onto the serious stuff, to encourage more girls to take part in college sports, she’ll look again at making it more sociable. And Furness is going to win Patriots.
8.41pm: “Carry on” dressing up for Carter Shield.
8.40pm: Make bar sports more social so more people get involved.
8.38pm: On to Female Sports Sec candidate, Immie Birchall. Currently
caption of Furness Netball team, has experience working with Students’ Union. Looking forward to getting people involved more in the college. We’re wizzing through these.
8.36pm: Do either of you have a strategy to streamline messages to make them more effective?
Clarke: About hustings we’ve had at least six messages from different groups, and it would be good to unify the messages instead of sending out too many.
Savage: What you want to try and do is the even it out, everyone is going to go to the 15 Hour Bar crawl, so maybe does need as much promotion, whereas really need to push hustings.
8.32pm: Clarke: funny themes to get people down to Carter Shield. Savage: Couldn’t make it to Carter Shield this week, but look at a sports centred newsletter, like the college one but just done for sports.
8.30pm: Any creative experience? Clarke: knows how to use Photoshop. Savage: assures room he is creative.
8.29pm: Clarke: put college magazine around the bar to help more people see it even with less issues, and approach people to write article instead of waiting for them to come to us.
8.27pm: What new ideas for people who are bored of old ways of communicating. Savage suggests more A1 posters on walls instead of A4s which people walk past, Clarke wants to see block reps being more engaged and speaking to people more: “speaking to people face to face is a good way of communicating”.
8.25pm: Current Furness VP Rachael Black turns from scouse to welsh half way through asking a question about publicising general meetings.
8.24pm: Savage “went to school”. Starts off “my fellow country men”. Knows a bit of HTML.
8.23pm: “JCR as a whole could be made more open … seen as a bit of clique.”
8.22pm: Rob has previous experience having done similar role for college, and a big set of fans here cheering him on. Wants to see a wider group of people attending social and sports events.
8.21pm: Onto our first contested position, Rob Clarke against Joshua
Savage for Publicity.
8.20pm: Do you agree with merger of old positions? “When first saw it I thought it was a bit daft”. Environmental issues are a bit of an odd one out.
8.19pm: LGBTQ is his weakness by own accord, but will research into it.
8.14pm: Happy taking on work of two people as only one person standing for two positions.
8.17pm: What would you do LGBTQ students? Wouldn’t want to just say what I think their issues are and make a complete “has of it”, so would do research.
8.16pm: “Equal opps is very important … everyone should be free to make their own choices … I don’t just want to speak for you, I want to represent you”
8.15pm: All systems are go again with Jon Robertson for Equal Opps Officer.
8.13pm: Mystic Macleod is dancing on the chairs. Standard.
8.14pm: I am getting sued in the morning!
8.10pm: Everyone takes a break as I retrieve my wine. We’re in for a long, and merry night democracy fans.
8.07pm: Will he still talk to the current JCR…not sure?
8.07pm: Does an impression of a chair. Everyone claps.
8.06pm: Thing he regrets having done this year: changing to constitution so much, would probably bring the International Officer back.
8.05pm: “An honest and reliable person”
8.03pm: Current Chair Matt Brennan gets up to do his hust for the same position. Thinks that he’s done a “fairly good job” in the last year, but has a couple more things he’d like to do.
8.02pm: Electronic issues of the college magazine Furst, maybe one paper copy pair flat
8.01pm: Are you a good team player? “I like to think I’m a friendly guy who can get on with people”
8.00pm: “Too much dependence” on Facebook, want to get people into the JCR more.
8.00pm: Will not be adopting the feminist tone of the current newsletter “just put a smile on everyone’s faces”
7.59pm: Give out email addresses to make JCR more accessible.
7.58pm: Wants to advertise sports teams more and make better use of noticeboards.
7.58pm: Minor technical fail but we’re back, with Sam Walsh for Comms officer.
7.53pm: Campaign on Nurse Unit closure and work with LUSU
7.52pm: Worked in school with children with learning difficulties
7.51pm: Kitchen repped this year, realised helped working with people and helping them out with issues
7.51pm: Priya Jadeja for Female Ed and Welfare
7.50pm: Will carry on being the condom fairy. Close
7.49pm: What campaigns ideas do you have: “I have thought about it, people need to know about it [safe sex]…Kinda more like theories”
7.48pm: Help with specific issues, doesn’t know a lot about what the University can offer “I’m willing to give you a hand with this”
7.46pm: “LUSU is the voice of the students” “haven’t been completely informed of how far I’d go into it”
7.45pm: Nathan Connell, sole candidate, makes a start “give it shot”
7.45pm: Internet is now working, and we’re off with Male Ed and Welfare
