At 21:20 on Wednesday 8th May, polling closed for our AGM. Here we will release some statements as required by our constitution and announce the results of the vote!
This announcement will have 3 sections: objects review, society finance summary, and vote results.
Objects review
Part of our constitution requires Wessex Scene to meet certain criteria throughout the academic year or failing that, present a plan to rectify that.
Per semester, we were required to try and carry out the following criteria:
1) publish and distribute a minimum of one unique editions; consider undertaking a collaboration with another group affiliated with the Students’ Union or University.
The ‘Change and Adaptation’ magazine was completed content-wise during semester one, however, it was not published and distributed until March 2024 due to various delays (including instability/inexperience in the committee and other more urgent issues such as resolving copyright claims.). Wessex Scene would like to apologise for this.
As a result of delays from semester one, the ‘Luck and Superstition’ magazine compiled during semester 2 is currently just awaiting some finishing touches before being printed and distributed, hopefully just before exams start. A third edition, in collaboration with The Edge magazine, is also currently in its writing & illustrating phase.
2) host and promote at least one ‘non-drinking’ event/social.
All our workshops have been non-drinking. Ideally, we would have had a proper non-drinking social too though we really struggled with numbers at the beginning of the year which made socials of any description difficult to pull off. There are talks for something to happen after exams though no plans have been laid yet.
3) host and promote at least one social/event in collaboration with another Media Group affiliated with the Students’ Union.
In semester one, we had a joint quiz social with The Edge magazine and Surge Media, for semester two, the post-exams social is intended to be a collaboration. We have also been invited by Surge to take part in their social taking place before they run a club night on the 11th May.
Per academic year, we are required to try and meet the following criteria:
1) promote to its members the opportunity to attend a minimum of one media conference.
We advertised SPANC24 to our members as well as WES 2024, though there wasn’t much uptake for these opportunities, we did advertise them extensively!
2) seek to nominate at least two of its members and/or their respective works for a third party award(s).
The publication and one of our members were nominated across two categories of the Student Experience Awards hosted jointly by SUSU and the University. SUSU’s involvement might raise some debate as to whether this is a third-party award due to our affiliation with them, though technically this argument could extend to the Student Publication Association on account of us being a member, in an ideal world we would have definitely tried to get some nominations in for SPA’s regional and national awards. We apologise for not going further in this area however we were quite busy with more pressing issues which were prioritised in order to ensure that members in future years may have these opportunities.
3) host and promote at least one event in collaboration with another group affiliated with the Students’ Union.
This somewhat crosses over with the previous requirement to collaborate with another media society, we did however collaborate with several societies (Model UN, Film, Archaeology, Labour, and Debate Societies) for a Christmas Ball. We also have our collaborative workshop with the Pagan and Witchcraft Society on Monday 13th May coming up!
Financial Summary
Compiled by Sheryl Robinson (VP Treasurer 2023/24)
Wessex scene group account (2023-2024)
Funding Sources: We secured grants in August and March, which increased our printing budget to £250. This enabled us to produce a greater number of copies this year.
Copyright Management: This year presented unexpected challenges in the form of a copyright claim on an image created five years ago. We allocated resources to address this issue, incurring expenses to resolve two claims. However, the third claim amounted to a substantial £792.50, to mitigate the financial impact, we secured a loan from SUSU, which we will repay over the course of two years.
Magazine printing: Recognizing the importance of widening our readership, we decided to increase the number of magazine copies printed. In previous years, our distribution was limited to around 100 copies. This year, however, we allocated £250 to print 250 copies of the magazine, doubling our reach and engagement.
A brief estimate of our spending is mentioned below.
Starting account balance: £816.00
1 13/10/2023 Grant funding Wessex scene- £250.00
2 11/12/2023 Payment of Copyright-1 -£75.60
3 18/12/2023 Payment of Copyright-2 -£71.98
4 11/03/2024 Printing cost for Change and Adaptation -£250.00
5 16/04/2024 Grant funding Wessex scene- £125.00
Current account balance £793.42
The loan obtained from SUSU will be gradually repaid. Plans are underway to raise funds and explore sponsorship opportunities with firms to support this effort.
Additional clarification: we have allocated approximately £250 each to the ‘Luck and Superstition’ and upcoming Edge collaboration magazines.
Vote Outcome
The bit you’ve all been waiting for, the vote results:
Turnout:
Overall, 24 ballots were cast, the most we’ve seen in the post-pandemic years! Thank you to all of you who voted!
Wessex Scene’s Committee for 2024/25
- Editor-in-Chief – Karla Beja
- VP Deputy Editor – Hamish McLay
- (VP) Treasurer – Alex Holmes (Zihan Xu)
- Social Media & Advertising Manager – Maya Stevens
- Head of Design – Lucy Grant
- Content Editors-
- James Sharp
- Brooke Luchford
- Emma Leeson
- Helena Virag
- Alexandra Giles
The positions of Imagery Coordinator, Technological Officer, and Events Secretary remain unfilled due to either no applicants or applicants winning other roles, potentially, there is also another Content Editor position available should this committee opt to open it for election.
Constitutional Amendments
1 of the 24 ballots cast opted to abstain from these votes.
All proposed amendments passed with between 91 and 100% approval, our constitution will be amended accordingly and uploaded to our SUSU page soon!
Results breakdown
Here is a more in-depth breakdown of the ballot count.
Closing Statements
Thank you to everybody who took part in this AGM, and thank you to everybody who has had any involvement with Wessex Scene in any capacity this year! We started as practically nothing more than half a committee and we’ve gone on to achieve so much this year, I’m sure that we’ll compile a ‘year in review’ type of article in the coming months to cover everything.
Congratulations to everyone who has been elected to next year’s committee, I’m sure that you will do an excellent job of keeping Wessex Scene’s momentum going and ultimately reach a level of success and engagement which makes this year’s look comparatively small!
Here’s to the future of Wessex Scene!
