All entries for Wednesday 30 January 2008

Union deficit may be just short of £200,000.

It is believed the the Students’ Union is heading for an even larger deficit than last year. In an interview with RaW News, Tom Callow – this year’s Finance Officer has said that the Union is trying to avoid a worsening situation. The deficit seems to be heading to a figure of over 100,000 pounds, but will absorbed by the Union’s reserves, which are supposedly over half a million pounds.

However, there are questions over the sustainability of maintaining such a deficit. Next year’s Finance Officer will have to reconcile the need to balance the books and maintaining current society funding levels. Tom Lindsay, the current SSDO believes that if the Union were doing badly, society funding would not be as adversely affected because much of the money comes from the subscription fees, but it would be affected nevertheless. If one takes a look at last year’s figures, there might be a greater need to focus on finding efficiencies in the £2.7 million wage bill compared to the relatively meagre £460,000 sports club and society costs.

We have just the Statement regarding the Students’ Union’s finances:

The Student’s Union has a deficit budget for the year 2007/08, but intends to restrict this deficit to less than £200,000. This figure is based on the budgeted deficit before contingencies, which are regularly used in any standard business planning.

The redevelopment of the Union South building was originally planned to begin in April, but the planned start date has now been pushed back to the end of the academic year. This is clearly beneficial to our members as there will be less disruption, but it also means income will be retained through our commercial services within Union South that was not included in the budget.

Our annual re-forecasting process will take place soon that will provide a much clearer picture of the financial state of the Union by the end of the year.

As always, there are plans in place to ensure the financial security of the Students’ Union in the long-term. The University is fully supportive of these and of our current budget.

This came from Tom Callow -Finance, Democracy and Strategy Officer

You can listen to the interview with the Finance Officer here where he was given the chance to reflect on his many manifesto promises, including cheaper drinks offers,and an increase of awareness of union democracy, to see whether or not he had fulfilled the promises made a year ago.:

: 30 Jan 2008 14:18 |  Tags: Audio Union |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem