UBMC Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Open Committee Meeting 2017!

We’re just over two weeks away from one of the biggest, most democratic events of the UBMC year – the AGM! This is your chance to choose and VOTE* for who you want to run your club for the 2017/18 year! It’s also the opportunity to run for any of the committee positions below and be voted onto the UBMC committee for the coming year, so it’s a pretty big evening! Even if you’re not planning on running for any positions it’s really important to attend as it’s where you’ll have a say over major club decisions and who runs the club you love for the next year! If we get loads of people running for positions and as many votes cast as possible it’ll ensure the club has the best possible committee for the 2017/18 year!

AGM Date – Wednesday 15th March, 6pm!

AGM Room – Learning Centre UG09!

In the run up to the AGM we hold an Open Committee Meeting which anyone/everyone is welcome to attend! It’s an opportunity to get a feel for how the meetings work and get involved plus contribute to the discussions before even being voted in! It’s also where we’ll be making the final decisions about any major issues that need an AGM ratified vote to take effect – for example the creation of a second indoor secretary role was successfully voted on at the last AGM, as well as an increase of £5 to the yearly membership cost! It’d be great to have as many opinions on such matters as possible beforehand so definitely come along!

Open Committee Meeting Date – Tuesday 7th March, 6pm!

Open Committee Meeting Room – Currently Nuffield G07, to be confirmed soon!

The AGM starts at 6pm and normally takes a looooong time - don't be put off by this though, it's tons of fun and we recommend you come even if you're not running and hate democracy! After the AGM we'll be heading for a curry in Selly Oak together and everyone is welcome, but it'll probably be pretty late (10:30/11ish) so be sure to bring some snacks and a few beers with you to keep you going!

How the AGM + Running for a position works!

If you want to run for a position at the AGM then you’ll want to follow these steps:

1) Read the role descriptions below and decide which you’d like to run for! – Don’t worry if you don’t get voted into your first choice of role, if you’re mega keen to be on committee you can run for multiple roles on the night! Any UBMC member can run for any position, so don’t be put off!

2) Talk to the suggested people at the end of the role description about what that role involves specifically, and any past/present committee members about committee life in general! You need to be sure of what you’re committee-ing too!

3) Come along to the Open Committee Meeting on Tuesday 7th March – This is a great opportunity to experience committee life first hand before the AGM. Don’t worry if you can’t make it though, it won’t be counted against you at the AGM!

4) You’ll need to prepare a short speech covering why you want to run including why you’re going for that position and what makes you great for it (although this can be as serious or winged-it as you like!). For the executive positions (President, Vice-President, Secretary & Treasurer) you’ll probably want to say a bit more about why you’ll be good for that particular role!

5) Find someone to nominate you on the night, as well as a seconder for the nomination – While this might sound scary don’t be put off, just ask a friend to shout out your nomination and there’s always plenty of willing seconders on the night!

6) After all candidates for a role have given their speeches you’ll have to answer questions from the audience – Each question will be asked to every candidate so don’t worry about getting unfairly difficult questions (or difficult questions full stop, executive roles generally get more serious questions but the majority of questions for non-exec roles will be similar to “What’s your favourite animal and why?”!)

7) The candidates will be asked to leave the room and following a brief discussion period votes will be cast, the candidates will be fetched from outside and the new committee member(s) will be announced!

The Committee positions you can run for:

President

As President you have overall responsibility for the club, which means keeping on top of everything which needs doing throughout the year, whether it’s your own responsibility or other committee members! The president has a number of key responsibilities:

Chair committee meetings - This means publishing agendas ahead of the meeting detailing what will be discussed so the rest of committee can prepare, making sure the meeting runs (reasonably) smoothly and remains (reasonably) on topic and allowing the whole of the committee to have their say.

Maintain links with the Midlands Association of Mountaineers (MAM) – As President of UBMC you hold an honorary seat on the MAM committee and are the main point of contact with them. The MAM are incredibly helpful to our club and our Low House and Ogwen trips are always joint trips with them, so it’s important to keep a good relationship! Attending their AGM and committee meetings throughout the year is encouraged although may not always be possible with club events/university!

Along with the above the president should support the rest of committee in whatever they need help with and ensure that everyone is keeping up with their roles – because of this a basic understanding of how committee works and what the other roles involve is very useful for the role! You’ll also need to be able to manage your own time effectively as the role involves quite a lot of work and will need to be balanced with your own studies!

President is a hugely rewarding role that allows you to influence the direction of the club for the year to come and easily get to know all the members, but it does involve a fair amount of work!

Talk to: Alex Wieczorek or M.ike Clancy

Vice-President

As many ex Vice Presidents would like to say we secretly run the club….. The reality is a little different, you’ll be working to keep the President in check and foiling his plans for a dictatorship! In seriousness, you’re kept busy running summer trip, organising the training for the club (Ropework, Single Pitch Award and First Aid), ordering club merchandise (Fleeces, Hoodies, Beaters and hats?!?) but without forgetting to keep the rest of the club generally safe and healthy (*Salutes*). Feel free to adapt these roles as you will see fit!
Although most of the training is organised before the start of the new university year and summer trip has been and gone you’ll be helping out all year. Keeping events running smoothly and helping out other members of committee as and when. An overall knowledge of the running club does go a long way and is recommended. Although it can be busy it is a highly rewarding leadership role within the club and most importantly, GREAT FUN!!

Talk to: John Luckett or Sensei Chris Stepanek

Secretary

As secretary, the main role is to record each of the committee meetings minutes, as well as those for the AGM. As the clubs contact to the BMC, it is also up to the secretary collect the insurance information from all members and ensure trip participants lists contain everyone's necessary details. Another important part is being in charge of UBMCs main email address and ensuring all emails reach the right people. You'll be kept busy keeping on top of everything, so it's important to be organised, but anyone considering running for the role should definitely go for it!

Talk to: Maggie Knight or Brain Taylor

Treasurer

Being treasurer is great, your main role is to look after all of the club finances, this includes both the guild and the munrow. The main aim is to make sure we have enough money in the pot for gear, trips and training, by keeping a keen eye on what’s going on in the different accounts. Checking over trip budgets with other committee members, and filling out various grant requests are also an important part of the role.
As with all positions on committee, you're expected to get heavily involved with redpoint, bc, socials and the club trips. you will even have to organise one yourself!! being a keen lead climbing for sport, trad and indoors is also pretty important to get the full experience. If you’re up for the challenge being on committee is a hugely rewarding experience so if you’re thinking of running, definitely give it a go!

Talk to: Piers Allen or M.ike Clancy

Social Secretary

Being a social sec is one of the busiest but also most rewarding roles on committee. Like everyone on committee, you’ll be expected to teach at Redpoint/BC, attend socials (obviously!) and go on weekends trips - all of which are always great fun anyway! As a social sec you will be responsible for organising the two biggest (and best) trips of the year - S.tanage and Annual Dinner. Additionally it will be your job to plan the fortnightly socials! You have absolute control of them - the venues, activities and themes are all yours to change around as you wish. Even though this is a challenging role that requires a high level of commitment and organisation, it’s insanely fun and you’re guaranteed to get to know everyone in the club by the end of it! So if you fancy planning awesome socials, running fun trips and love a good chat then this is for you!

Talk to: Jack Turner, Bobbie Miles, Llinos Williams or Jonny Cheetham (if he’s around on a trip!)

Gear Secretary

Nuts. Slings. Ropes. Feeling hot under the collar yet? Well perhaps you should be a gear sec! Everyone knows that nothing happens without the gear secs; as UBMC’s dynamic duo, you’ll be responsible for maintaining, signing out and collecting all of the clubs equipment. With weekly Redpoint trips and our fortnightly outdoor trips it’s a busy but rewarding role! You’ll also be responsible for buying a full shiny new rack and ropes for the club at the end of your service! If you don’t know what a ‘rack’ is yet then don’t fear, you’ll soon know everything there is to know, we’ll make sure of that! All we need from you is a willingness to learn!

Talk to: George Taylor, Nick Hill, Alex Wieczorek, John Luckett, John Harrison or Sensei Chris Stepanek!

Indoor Secretary

As Indoor Sec your primary role is to select the best climbers and provide those climbers with opportunities to train and compete while representing the University. This includes; a selection process, entering competition leagues, arranging training of various kinds and organising transport. You are also responsible for acquiring new official University competitions shirts for any members who don’t already have them. It is not necessary to be a member of the team to do this! Your secondary roles include those which every committee member fulfils. These include; teaching beginners at repoint, organising some weeks of indoor meetings at RedPoint or Boulder Central and organising certain outdoor trips allocated to you. The non mandatory roles include things like passing on information, responding to messages to the Facebook page and being helpful in general

Talk to: Jack Popplewell, Koharu Urawa, Owen Diba or Brain Taylor

Mountain Secretary

If you're a lover of all things cold, gnarly and generally type 2, Mountain Sec is the perfect role for you! As Mountain Sec, your primary role is organising and running the Scotland trip, our annual weeklong winter mountaineering trip to the Cairngorms. You'll need to be pretty organised, and willing to do whatever it takes to promote your trip to the new wave of freshers. You will also need to fulfill all the general duties of being a committee member, as well as a few unofficial duties…

Talk to: Ed Lewis

Web Secretary

Think PHP is a Pretty Huge Party? Like HTML so much that you always have a Hilarious Time Making Laughter when you encounter it? If you think you can maintain the unmaintainable, photograph the unphotographable, and have a good response to "Oh, I didn't know the club had a website", then Web Sec may be the role for YOU. You'll be in charge of the club's social media and internet presence, so being a bit tech-savvy or good with social media would be a bonus! (Inadequate grasp of acronyms not strictly required).

Talk to: Joe Ramsay, Maggie Knight

Finally...

If you’re undecided about running then the best advice is to just go for it! Being a committee member for UBMC is massively rewarding and is bound to improve your university experience! It’s an awesome way to meet loads of other climbers, improve your technical climbing skills, make new friends and leave your stamp on UBMC’s history. It’s also a pretty wicked career move that’ll look great on your CV and is bound to improve your time management, problem solving and group leadership! (If you’re already amazing at these then you shouldn’t have any doubt about running!)

If you’ve got any questions or doubts then shoot me or any other current/past committee member a message and we’ll help you out! Other than that GOOD LUCK if you’re planning on running!

Alex

xoxo





*Yes we are a democracy really, at least once a year…