Aston Students Guild

Aston Students Guild, also known as ASG, or just 'the Guild' to students, is the Students Union of Aston University.

It is located in the city of Birmingham, UK, in the city centre on the Aston University campus. It is mainly funded by the University through a block grant, and provides services for the students where the university itself cannot. For example, the Guild may provide legal representation in university disciplinary hearings, without the risk of a conflict of interest. The guild also provides services such as a photocopying shop, advertising student jobs, advice and counselling, VISA support for international students, housing lists and proof of landlords safety certificates, and entertainment.

All Aston University students are automatically members of the guild, although they may opt out if they wish. The guild is run by students at a three-weekly meeting known as guild council. Members must be nominated to serve on the council and council makes all decisions regarding the direction of the guild. Additionally there are 14 Guild Executive Officers (students union officers) who ensure the smooth running of the guild on a daily basis.

The Guild recently opted out of the National Union of Students. The students voted to disaffiliate in an all-student referendum. The decisive margin was close, at 53% to 47%, and there has been absoloutely no talk of holding another referendum with the aim of re-joining.

Guild Council

The guild council is the governing body of Aston Students Guild. It is made up of members of the Guild, who are all therefore students. Any member may sit on the guild council if proposed and seconded by 2 other members of the guild. The council has an upper limit of 250 members, however numbers rarely get into three figures and average turnout is around 30 members. This has proved a real problem for those running the guild as it does not provide an adequate cross-section of the student populace.

The council meets once every three weeks on a Thursday evening. Currently the meetings are held in a lecture theatre in the Aston University main building, known as room MB644. At these meetings the President reports in his activities during the previous period. The finance officer then gives a summary of the guilds current financial performance and target. After this other members of the executive report on any matters that have been raised to them. The council may then pose questions of all exec members, and hold their actions to account. The council can then decide on new policies or changes to the constitution (see below).

The council is run and chaired by the Guild Chairperson. The chairperson is separate from both council and the Executive, although they are elected in the same manner as the Executive. The current chair is Luke John Davies (known as LJ). He is assisted by a vice-chair appointed by the council, currently James Keane.The council also has separate sub-committees which meet and discuss various topics in detail. An example is the ethics and environmental committee. Each member of the executive has a committee to assist them in their duties and there are also committees such as membership committee, which runs the guilds disciplinary procedures, the disciplinary committee, which provides student members to the university disciplinary committees, and receptions committee, which organises Freshers week.

The Guild Executive

The Guild is run by a team of permanent staff and by an elected team called the executive who follow the rules set out in the Guild Constitution. The executive is made up of 4 full-time sabbatical officers and 8 part-time officers. Sabbatical officers are paid a salary to work full time for the guild, whereas part-time officers are unpaid student volunteers who do the role in addition to their studies. All officers are elected by a cross-campus ballot of all the students. Additionally the Guild Chairperson and the editor of the Aston Times, the university newspaper, have many of the same responsibilities and privileges of the part-time executive, and are elected in the same manner and at the same time.A full list of the current Guild Executive is:

Sabbatical Officers:

*President- Dilly Rehal
*Vice-President of Finance and Communication - Michael Kavanagh
*Vice-President of Education and Welfare - Matt Daley
*Vice-President of Student Involvement - Nadine Al-Kudcy

Part-time Officers:

*Equalities Officer - Dannielle Acock
*International Students Officer - Mayur Soni
*Representation Officer - Mohammed Aqdes
*Widening Participation Officer - Katie Craythorne
*Website Officer - Amber Pleass
*Fundraising Officer - Sarah Challis
*Postgraduate Students Officer - Carole Parnaby
*Market Research Officer - Joe Oram was elected to this post, but has left the university. It is therefore currently vacant.

Additional:

*Guild Chairperson - Luke John Davies
*Aston Times Editor - Allan Boyd

Legal rules and regulations

As a students union Aston Students Guild has a complex series of legal rules and regulations to follow. It is technically a private members club, and as such only members of the guild (Aston Students and those granted Honorary Life Members status) and their guests may attend entertainments or use the buildings facilities. Guests must pay a nominal fee (£1) to have temporary membership every time they attend evening events. In practice many others, such as university staff and students from Birmingham City University, who have a building on campus, use the shop and other facilities during the day. However no non-member may attend the Guild Council, the body which oversees and runs the Guild.

Additionally the Guild derives status as an officially registered charity from Aston University. This allows the Guild to receive donations and also applies to tax laws. As it is illegal for a charity to raise money for a separate charity the Guild has a closely affiliated but legally separate organisation called Aston RAG, which stands for Raise And Give. As a separate entity RAG can raise money for other charities, such as Meningitus UK or Breast Cancer Research, through events such as a 24-hour relay race around the campus lake. The new UK charities act will change this status, however it is not certain what the exact content of this act will be.

Also separate from the Guild is the Aston Times, the university newspaper. This is in order to allow the paper to comment on or criticise the actions of the guild or university if the editor or writers feel that it is in the best interests of the student populace.

Guild Constitution and Policy Manual

Additionally the Guild has its own rules and regulations, laid out in two documents. The first is the Guild Constitution. This document dictates how the Guild should be run and it is regarded as permanent unless changed by an act of council. It governs areas such as the executive officers roles and responsibilities and how they are elected to that position. The constitution is rarely changed, to make a change requires a two/thirds majority in the council, followed by a simple majority at a second reading during a separate session of council. It has however been changed twice in the last year, the first being the reconstruction of the structure of the Guild Executive Officers team, and the most recent the incorporation of a new Environmental and Ethical policy.

The second document is the Guild Policy Manual. The policies contained in this instruct the executive on how to run the guild from day to day. Policies range from the serious, for example anti-discrimination policies, to the more ridiculous, for example policy binds the Guild to end every night out with Frank Sinatra's New York, New York. A policy must be proposed and seconded by members of the council and must be passed by a simple majority of the council. They have a lifetime of four years, after which they must be either retained or lapsed by the council. Some out of date policies are lapsed and then re-written.

tudent services

The guild provides a number of services to the student populace. These are almost all organised through the Students Advice Centre. The SAC offers advice, support and representation on every issue affecting students. This includes anything from difficult landlords to accusations of plagiarism to international VISA applications. They also co-ordinate the guilds responsibilities with regard to disabled students, and lesbian/gay/bisexual students.

The guild also offers various other services, including a shop, a NATWEST branch, a hairdressers, a subway and a bar (called Einsteins) all in the guild building. There are 3 cashpoints, a large common room built in summer 2007 (the base), and a second floor study space built in spring 2007 (called the Loft). There is also a JobShop, which advertises student jobs and helps with CVs etc, and the CopyShop which provides printing services, including onto t-shirts or thermal binding, a small campus shop selling discounted newspapers and stationary as well as sandwiches and groceries and a book shop, though the book shop is located a short distance from the guild building in one of the accommodation towers.

The guild runs 2 websites: the guild website, at www.astonguild.org.uk, and a website containing photos of its events, which is at www.astonents.co.uk. The guild also produces The Aston Times, which is a student newspaper published three times a term, and Wotsup?, a weekly listings newsletter.

A comprehensive list of guild services are:

ports clubs and societies

The guild also runs all the sports clubs and the various societies at Aston. Sports clubs range from large and well known sports such as football, rugby and hockey to lesser known sports such as squash and Ultimate Frisbee. There are also marshal arts clubs, including tai kwon do, jiu jitsu and fencing.Societies also come in many forms. There are Religious and cultural societies, music societies, academic societies, political societies and some societies which are just for fun.

Entertainments

The guild hosts several forms of entertainment. Some are weekly, such as the kareoke night every Thursday. Others occur on various occasions through the year, such as pub crawls and comedy nights. Others are annual such as the Athletic Union Ball and Charter Ball.Every couple of weeks the guild hosts a large Friday night event. These are often themed and also often offer discounts on drinks. Examples of themes include a heaven and hell night, a super-heroes and villains night, beach party nights and freakers, the sexual fantasy ball.Additionally there are a number of 'weeks'. These include freshers week, when new students arrive, end-of-year week and the charity RAG weeks 1 and 2.

References

*Guild website - www.astonguild.org.uk
*University website - www.aston.ac.uk