Posted on Tue 22 Jan 2019 at 15:46 by
Ffion Jones VX3
The start of the semester brought the first delivery of VX3 items to bangor, and with it the beginnings of the #GreenandGoldarmy era! However, as you can imagine, it did not come without it’s problems – and consequently I spent a large portion of the last 8 weeks ironing over a few creases, and ensuring that the students truly got the best deal. On the bright side, VX3 produced an excellent quality video showing off the new kit, which you can find on our Facebook page.
This Bangor Girl Can
The arrival of November brought one of the Athletic Union’s biggest campaigns of the year – this Girl Can. Through the hard combined work of the AU and Canolfan Brailsford, we delivered an excellent campaign, that got over 100 women involved throughout the week in activities varying from American Football and Circuits, to Self Defence and Mountain Walking.
AU Instagram
One thing I wanted to improve in my time as a sabbatical officer was the use of social media as a communicative tool! As a result, I decided to use a similar marketing and communication pattern to other universities and create an Athletic Union Instagram, used not only to promote AU matches and fixtures, but also Union Wide campaigns. This has gone very well, accruing over 550 followers in 6 weeks.
Welsh Student Sport
As part of my role as VP Sport, I am expected to attend BUCS meetings, and as Bangor falls into two different regions (Wales & North West), the amount of time I spend at BUCS meetings is doubled! In my last update I spoke at length of the discrimination North Wales faces compared to South Wales in the conversation of sport. Bangor have struggled time and time again recruiting high-quality coaches from Governing bodies we pay, due to our geographical location, which is a discrimination I find hard to swallow. As a result, I ran for – and was successful in running for the position of Student Chair of the Welsh Student Sport Group – with the purpose of pressuring governing bodies into representing the WHOLE of Wales, not just Cardiff.
Dragons Den
This semester we also piloted the first of two Dragon’s Den’s – whereby clubs send in ideas that require additional funds than what was allocated at the beginning of the year – successful candidates are then invited to go through a face to face pitch for the money in front of a panel. This is due to happen on Friday 7th of December, with Paintball, Women’s Cricket, Dance and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Dodgeball
On the 10th of November, the AU Exec hosted the first ever AU Dodgeball Tournament. Over 40 teams entered, and over 200 students took part across the day, and was a massive success for all. We had teams dressed up in a variety of tight and bright, and one team even dressed as the Village People! Special mention to Ruth and Mark for coming and helping throughout the day, the event had an excellent response, and the Athletic Union are thoroughly excited to have round 2 of the hotly-anticipated Dodgeball next semester!