Gill Thayne is running for sports president this year, her experience in university sports as well as union activity has made her a credible candidate.
Gill’s manifesto outlines that she is keen to appreciate the success’ of the university sports team more alongside building clubs’ futures and make them more self sustainable. Gill also wants to improve communication channels between sports teams and the union.
Brig caught up with Gill to ask her about the campaign.
Why do you want this position?
I’ve been heavily involved in the sports union for the last three years and it’s been really enjoyable all the experiences I’ve had in that sense. Also, I have this lovely idea of being able to support clubs Monday to Friday if they have any issue I want to be able to help them with things and also widen participation in physical activity across the university. Or for example, getting out on a Wednesday or at the weekends if I’ve time to see our students do what they are passionate about. I think it would be so beautiful to see students do what they want to do and if I can facilitate that then it will be a dream job.
Do you offer anything different than the other candidates?
I think the main thing is I have been integrated with the sports union for three years now and that already gives me more experience than the others even though Caitlin has already been in the post for the last year. But I have been involved these past few years so I have seen all sorts of stuff pop up. I think we are all pretty similar, we are all passionate about student sport but I think coming in fresh to the role with the experiences I’ve had sets me apart from the rest.
In your manifesto it says about fundraising to build clubs’ future, have you any fundraising initiatives planned?
I just want to make sure clubs can sustain themselves. Right now it is very difficult a lot of clubs are struggling with money because of new things being implemented. Moving forward I want to make sure clubs do have that drive to fundraise themselves, so they can sustain themselves. That will be happening with one to one meetings with the clubs this will give them an idea of different fundraisers they can do to sustain themselves. For example, making links with the external communities using the whole of Stirlingshire and provide transport so that they can do things like bag packing in Alloa Asda.
I want to make sure that they are aware of the opportunities around them instead of just having a stall in the atrium or a quiz in the venue, coming up with different ideas so that they all know what is going on. There is ‘easyfundraising’ where you sign up if you are a charity and then when you spend money on amazon for example, they will give a certain percentage back to your charity. So I won’t be coming up with anything new, just making them more aware of the different opportunities they have around them and making them accessible.
How will you deal with any challenges that may arise?
I have done a lot with the union throughout my three years here, for example right now I’m faculty officer of sport and I have gotten to this point where if anything pops up, I take a minute to evaluate what has happened, think what I need to do and move forward from there. Another thing, I am not afraid to ask the staff for advice we have fantastic staff in the union as it is and I’m not afraid to ask them if I need any additional advice. It’s really just taking that step back, evaluating the situation and finding the best outcome.
If you are elected, how will you deem your term as Sports president successful at the end of the year?
I think highlighting through my manifesto points, I will monitor myself and make sure at all times I’m driving towards achieving these goals. One thing I would see a success is making sure there has not been any huge issues and if there has been any issues I will make sure I have responded appropriately to make sure all clubs are generally all happy in the situations they are in.
Voting opens Monday 11th March at 9am.
