A scheduling catastrophe on Saturday night between three hugely popular campus events has left JCRCs fuming across campus.
Derwent’s ABC-D, Vanbrugh’s Frat Party Volume and the YO1 event DubLounge in the Courtyard were left in direct competition with each other due to a timetabling oversight by YUSU.
The two college events were left reeling as students flocked to DubLounge away from their usual haunts in V-Bar and D-Bar. Joshua Treacy, Vanbrugh Chair, and Anmoli Sodha, Derwent Chair, are fuming at the disorganisation that resulted in their events being attended by barely one fifth of their expected turnout.
Between the two college events, they lost over £1,000 of potential revenue. Both Chairs felt that they couldn’t compete with YUSU’s prices that were available at the vastly popular DubLounge. To add insult to injury, Derwent College is home to the Courtyard which meant that the two competing events were within earshot of each other.
Both Chairs have pointed towards the lack of communication from YUSU, who would have been aware of the clash as the source of the problems.
Sodha told Vision how she felt betrayed: “I find it frustrating that my Ents have planned this event and had it booked in for five weeks, yet we had to find out about a competing event held in our own college via Facebook.
“I only found out about Vanbrugh’s event because it happened to come up in conversation with Josh.
“This actually restricted opportunities for the students, as they had to choose between two good events in their college rather than go to both as I know many would have liked to. There should be a system in place which prevents these double bookings from happening, as all events were cleared through YUSU.
“It’s not only our colleges that will be making a loss, it’s also Commercial Services who have had to pay for door safety and our late license.”
Joshua Treacy was equally furious: “For events such as Volume, we usually anticipate that a large proportion of tickets are sold on the evening. Last night, however, we were in direct competition with DubLounge. They drew away a large amount of our audience, causing Commerical Services to close the bar early, at 12.30am.
“As a showcase for the YO1 festival, they were able to put on an event that was cheaper, with proceeds going towards Amnesty International, and with a wide selection of acts. As a JCRC, there was no way we could ever compete.
“The DubLounge looked like a great event, but unfortunately the timing of it, which was not made apparent to us until we were well into the organisation process, caused us to make a loss at what could have been one of our best Volumes yet, and we will be speaking to YUSU about this issue in the near future.”
Felicity Hill, a Vanbrugh Entertainment Rep, in charge of organizing the event explained: “The thing that upsets me the most is that we took over the role in January and we had an incredibly successful first Volume.
“We put so much effort into this. We want to do something for our college and when we can’t even get our own college to go to our events because of YUSU, despite knowing that we had an event, well it’s incredibly disheartening.”
DubLounge saw a very high turnout, due to the extensive music selection and wide ranging advertisements, causing the event to be a huge success. However, students expressed their concerns to Vision.
One second-year English student commented: “I always really enjoy the college events, and me and my friends were all really torn about where to go. However, DubLounge was cheaper and it was a more unique night.
“It was absolutely packed and had a wicked vibe so seems like everyone took this into account, but it was a real shame to miss out on ABC-D. Hopefully this won’t happen again so that I don’t have to make the difficult choice.”
Matt Winstanley, the College Events Coordinator Officer was unaware of the clash until a week before: “The DubLounge event was not clearly made known to the college events team, something which simply requires a procedure to inform them, i.e. myself as College Events Coordinator, to be made aware of events of campus, which I have already implemented today.”
However, he did go on to say: “The DubLounge event attracts a certain crowd of people who are unlikely to attend a commercial college event, naturally this does not mean that there were not people attending that event who would otherwise have attending the college events.”
YUSU President Kallum Taylor explained the organisational oversight: “Clearly there was a major lack of communication early in the day between the three event hosts. This will not happen again. We must do everything we can to ensure that JCRC on campus events don’t take on even more challenges then they already face, and that we can avoid similar clashes of events in the calendar.”
Taylor has since adapted his stance on whether the lack of communication actually caused an issue: “The DubLounge event was publicised across campus and social media, so everyone knew it was happening. It’s worth stating though, that having spoken to our bar manager from that night, over 70 per cent of the attendees were off-campus students and external members.
“There was not a massively pivotal clash in audiences here. Better communication is obviously required; although it would be unfair to pin the blame solely on the Courtyard event; there are other factors too.
“There are over 4,000 freshers on campus who regularly tell us that they want choice from on-campus events, so there should be plenty of scope for everyone to be satisfied.”
Comment: by Jo Barrow
As a former ‘Ents Rep, I can testify to the difficulty of running college events. It doesn’t help that we’re competing against a plethora of YUSU club nights and an influx of student led nights, but since Saturday’s debacle, it seems that we now even have to compete with each other.
The teams behind the likes of Club D and Volume work incredibly hard to provide a fun, value-for-money night in the heart of their colleges, and they are often the defining feature of what individuates one college from the other. York’s collegiate system is often derided for being sub-Oxbridge in its pretensions, but in my experience, the work put in by the JCRCs has contributed hugely to my enjoyment of my time at university so far.
This is why I am furious at the lack of support being given by YUSU to the colleges. Left, right and centre, the rights and privileges of JCRCs are being eroded by the university and fact of the unclear relationship between YUSU and JCRCs. However, both still continue to benefit from the positive press that our supposedly collegiate university provides.
Of course it was just a mistake by the YUSU Events Co-Ordinator, whoever that may be, and it would be ridiculous of me to cast aspersions against the motivations of whoever allowed this heinous clash to happen, but this kind of carelessness could have dire consequences for future college plans. College events have fallen by the wayside.
Club D and Volume are teetering above the precipice, one badly attended event, no matter how well it was put together, could set off a calamitous chain reaction that will ultimately end up with the only campus events being the horrendous rugby ‘pre-lash’ on a Wednesday night. So, by all means, support YUSU events, just spare a thought for your friendly college event, and of the students who give up a hell of a lot of free time, just so that you can get pissed within stumbling distance of your home.
Doesn’t this sort of thing get discussed at weekly Ents meetings and hence should just be easily avoided?
FUMING!
OUTRAGED!
Just goes to show that “college spirit”, if such a thing really exists, is not enough to make people pay for substandard events. The Vanbrugh and Derwent JCRCs should look at themselves, rather than complaining that they can’t compete with YUSU competition.
This is HORSESHIT. I don’t want to get too metaphysical on everybody, so let’s just say i feel very sorry for the organisers.
Student politics is so full of self-involved careerists. For Anmoli to make those comments and then post such an angry status on Facebook so soon after is sucking up to YUSU to a laughable extent. This story is full of cases of people putting their own personal reputations above the requisite of their positions. Bet YUSU censored it fairly heavily too.
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I’d love to know where Mr Taylor managed to get that figure from – over 70% of students were off campus (which obviously means that they can’t go to college events)
I’d say that shows to what extent YUSU cares about colleges – second and third years (the vast majority of JCRC members) don’t care to go to college events. However true that may be, it’s not the place of the YUSU President to go around backing that image up.
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Anmoli also let Taylor store all his campaign shit in the Derwent JCR
Doesn’t mean she isn’t genuinely annoyed at Kallum though. That’s why she attempted to hijack the JCRC social that her Ordinary Reps had organised and make it a Keep Kallum and Carry On social (her JCRC weren’t up for it, hilariously).
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What’s the problem here exactly? There were three nights on, one of them attracted more people because it had better drinks deals and had better music. So put on more nights with good music and you will get more attending. Dub lounge was a great night, well organised and good atmosphere. More of that on campus please
@Langwith
I agree completely.
4000 live on campus 1st year students should be enough be support all three events IF those events are good enough and they are well promoted.
Gone are the days when JCRC’s simply put on any old event, open the doors and simply watch the masses flood in.
Whilst I am not a YUSU supporter I would suggest you read this Nouse article
http://www.nouse.co.uk/2013/03/10/review-yo1-presents-the-dub-lounge-at-the-courtyard/
as it gives a more balanced view of what a campus needs to be to be successful.
Are people actually suggesting that if the Dub Lounge had not taken place then both the college events would have been full?
Once freshers week is out of the way colleges need to realise that paying £4 to get in to a dining hall dressed in bin bags and newspapers doesn’t appeal to many people and certainly not 2nd and 3rd years.
Wise up colleges and up your game if you want to compete.
When will Vision learn how to spell licence? *sighs*
I went to neither ABC D or YO1 in the Courtyard, mainly cause both options sounded shit.
this really is YUSU taking things one step too far.
someone from yusu should stand up and issue an immediate and sincere apology for putting on an event that students actually wanted to attend.
furthermore they should be forced into putting on a similar quality event to that seen at Derwent/Vanburgh thus ensuring that all three events bombed.
now that is the least YUSU can do to show the university it is fair and treating everyone equally.
*protagonist
Vanbrugh event failed because they made a Facebook group and thought that would be enough! JCRC didn’t start selling tickets until a few days before the event. Nobody wants to pay £4 to get into a dining room with terrible music.
Vanbrugh and Derwent events failed because they were terrible. Wise up and move on. Get a club to bring in the equipment (Free of charge!) and get them to host the night in your college. People would enjoy it more.
Wise up, not YUSU’s fault, simply dogmatic JCRCs
as widely predicted the chairs are taking corrective action to save their careers and chances of YUSU presidential election
http://www.yusu.org/your-union/blogs/entry/1064
with a bit of luck they will manage to find all their toys and put them safely back in the pram.
This is hilaireous. You were beaten by a better even, GET OVER IT!
BLAZING!
Fighting back my tears of fustration and dissapointment the thing I cannot understand is how a Derwent event held in “the bar with the best atmosphere”
http://www.nouse.co.uk/2013/03/05/campus-capuccino/
could have failed?
But of course the answer lies in the truth. D-Bar is not so much a bar – but more akin to a sterile, cheap but well known Swedish furniture showroom. That serves horse meat.
I also think that rather that complaining, Sodha could potentially look at her own involvement. All the chairs campaigned on the basis of derwent throwing the best events and apparently this year this is failing. She is quick to openly run down Francesca knight under whom derwent was a great success but doesn’t seen to realise to what extent she’s failing as chair.
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There is no argument that dub lounge was a better event, much better value and the obvious choice for an on campus night,(And not for profit, hence the much better deal).
Why wouldn’t it be? It’s run by professionals, it’s their full time job.
The college events are run by unpaid, untrained volunteers studying for a degree at the same time, they are no competition.
The real problem here is that YUSU failed to warn the JCRC’s so they could get out of the way of an obviously better event. If colleges have to tell YUSU about events 3 weeks in advance, it’s only fair to assume YUSU will reciprocate.
In short, just because YUSU can out compete JCR’s it doesn’t mean it should. And if it is, let us know so we can stop wasting our time with them.
Went to the last club D and it was empty (half filled by the old boys who were up for the weekend)… think derwent just have an easy target to blame for the state of their events this year
Vanbrugh events are always terrible anyway . . .
Easy to blame a clash with YUSU’s event for this round’s empty club D, how d’you want to explain the last three half empty club D’s? Get your act together and claim some responsibility instead of putting on your PR rep act all the time.
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see above.
How naive is Sodha? She’s been absolutely found out once again here, particularly with her laughable Facebook status.
Fair, blame YUSU for an events clash that may or may not have been their fault, but then don’t withdraw from the sentiment when it appears you may be damaging your relationships with friends in high places.
I would also question the quality of Derwent events all year, even looking as far back as Big D which paled in comparison to last year’s event and, I hear from former-JCRC friends, made a loss for Derwent.
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People seem to be having fun digging at the Derwent Chair here, rather than actually looking at what the article says.
Having been an Ents rep for a college, I know how the Events Management Form system works. Any planned event has to be approved by YUSU: hence they knew about these clashes in advance.
All the Chairs are saying is that the clash should not have happened: and it shouldn’t have, if YUSU had kept their eye on the ball – there are more than enough weekends in the term to accommodate all events that want to take place, JCRC or non-JCRC. At best the JCRCs should have been told about a clash in advance, which again YUSU will have known about.
And the EMF system is managed by permanent members of YUSU staff who are not allowed to be named or quoted in articles, so they have to get SABs to quote and be held responsible for these mistakes.
So statements about any Chairs and SABs and their friendly relationships actually bear no relevance to the issue at hand.
Summary of article: YUSU staff cocked up. Chairs were angry. Kallum kind of agreed.
Newsflash, College events arent popular, and are generally attended by JCRC members and wannabes, well done to YO1 for actually putting on something which people want to attend. And perhaps Ents reps will now realise that a spotify playing “DJ” and some lame drink deals aren’t worth £5.
Hopefully derwent will sort it out for summer term, or we’ll have another embarrassing and expensive Big D.
I am a Fresher and feel although College events are vital for maintaining a college community. Ents Reps and JCRC’s work hard in organising these events. They do so unpaid whilst undertaking degrees, unlike YUSU staff. This was a mix up in organisation and on the night the Dub lounge provided cheaper entrance and alcohol prices, along with it being a club night with reputable DJ’s. This was the clear reason for the reduced inflow to the College events.
END OF STORY
@Fresher
I take it you were not at any of these events by your remarks which are wholly inaccurate.
The entrance to the Dub Lounge was £3 on the door so only £1 cheaper then the other college events. No student I know would opt for one event over another simply to save £1 without first knowing what kind of event it would be.
Secondly the alcohol prices on the night were not cheaper. Despite asking the bar staff on several occasions there were no drinks deals on at any point during the event. Despite my initial disappointment my friends and I were happy to pay the normal bar prices due to the fact we were having a good time.
Cheap bar prices DO NOT guarantee a good event. But of course they don’t hurt!
None of my friends would have gone to either of the other events had the dub lounge not taken place. We would have simply stayed at home.
I love Club D’s!
I’m more concerned about the dance moves in the article’s picture to be honest. Does it honestly matter that one time, one weekend, events didnt go to plan. Theres absolutely no point blaming the ents reps for this clear mistake, they dont create the venue, nor the drinks pries and they have a hard enough time as it is, …for example, if an event isnt well attended, they get it in the neck, if they constantly spam people, they get ridiculously abused. ITS THEIR JOB, not their fault,…and think about it, its week 9 of second term, probably one of the busiest weeks in uni ‘life’, dissertations are due, people have no money, comparing this to the last weeks of summer term when nothing is on and people WANT to party, is pathetic.
MILDLY IRKED!