The Edge Sport Lifestyle Your guide to covers Varsity takes a trip the local music Features day in full with round the new scene with the has a go at lots of pictures Southampton latest gig guide rock climbing and results IKEA 12th March 2009 O’REALLY? O’REILLY! England voting record beaten by the biggest elections in SUSU history, full coverage inside. www.wessexscene.co.uk The Wessex Scene team somehow only have two papers left, they are sad. O’Reilly wins Presidential race at the biggest elections night yet Josh, who were guided from backstage by Adam and display, the main fault occurred following the ELECTIONS NIGHT “I don’t know wheth- Parker, as well as a large technical team. Each redistribution of R.O.N. in the AU President cat- er to laugh or cry, announcement followed the same impressive egory, and meant that candidate Bradley Bailey Sophie Evans & Bonnie Sung this week has just pattern of scheduling; a VT of the campaign trail was mistakenly announced as winner. The blun- been fantastic.” for the role, green room chat with the nominees der caused great outrage and anger from Bailey SUSU election night 2009 set a new UK record for Sophie Patterson, chaired by Henry Potter, and then the results supporters, and many others, after the miscalcu- student voting numbers, and saw Steve O’Reilly elected VP Welfare & read by current President Alex Tanfield. Organis- lation was rectified. win President with a landslide victory. With 6165 Societies ers had clearly aimed for a high quality produc- Nevertheless, the technical team were rather votes cast over three days, Southampton’s Stu- a controversial technical hiccup saw his opposi- tion, and on the most part succeeded. On stage impressive considering that they had only four dents’ Union had the highest student participation tion Bradley Bailey announced as the winner, Tom and Josh mirrored the colour coding of the hours to set up their equipment, equipment that figures in the country, beating Nottingham’s record whilst Cassi White was re-elected in an uncon- would normally take all day to organise. Ambi- of 5895, and SUSU’s own record of 4729 from last tested race for Winchester President - though tious plans for the production of the evening “I’m so proud to be year. The race for President saw 5733 votes tallied RON came close to supplanting her, with 33 to meant the team required eight different cameras, part of the Sabbatical for the 4 candidates and RON (Re-Open Nomina- 22 votes. Alex Tanfield, current President of the some following presenters and others on dol- team, I can’t wait to tions), with O’Reilly receiving 2918 as first choice. Students’ Union, commented on the new team; start!” “I have every confidence in the new Sabbatical “I feel bad for Brad- The record break- team, and I think they will continue to lead SUSU Becky Maclean, elected ley, but just want to ing number of students forward.” VP Education & Repre- get on with it now, 6165 who voted in this The election is run as a Single Transferrable sentation and do the best I can year’s SUSU elections. Vote election, meant to improve the power of for the AU.” different categories by changing their bow-ties, Allan ‘Bermuda’ elected This incredible result meant O’Reilly, O’Really, had “It’s an hour on and whilst Jeni wore a total of 5 dresses. AU President won the vote outright as no other nominee could I still can’t believe Another first for the evening was a live link-up beat him, even with the distribution of votes in it. I can’t put it into with Loughborough University, whose Students’ lies, a continuous light show, equipment for live later rounds. The screen cut straight to O’Reilly as words” Union elections took place on the same night. interviews broadcasted from the green room, the elected, and the West Refectory, tellingly mo- Jamie Ings, elected VP Throughout the night regular interactions with frequent costume changes and colourful drapes nopolised by O’Reilly supporters, erupted in loud Media & Communica- Loughborough University were made possible by to match the election’s colours and the present- and boisterous support. tions borrowed equipment from the BBC. Adam Parker, ers’ bow ties - the evening felt more reminiscent Vice Presidential roles in the newly elected current VP Media and Communications, explained of a Eurovision Song Contest than a Students’ 2009/2010 Sabbatical team went to Becky Ma- every single voter. The preliminary stage shows the move; “After a chat with LSU TV we realised Union election. clean for Education and Representation, Sophie the number of first choice votes all the candi- we had an opportunity here to do something As well as the high electoral turnout, the at- Patterson for Welfare and Societies, and Jamie dates received, and the lowest is taken out of the unprecedented for student TV. It was a first, and tendance for the election night itself was remark- Ings for Media and Communications. AU Presi- race. These votes are then given to the remain- definitely a huge achievement for all involved.” ably high, and even though the capacity had dent was won by Allan ‘Bermuda’ Steynor, after ing candidates who were the second choice of The night was not without glitches however; been dramatically increased from last year, 400 those who voted for the eliminated party. This to 700, the West Refectory was full to capacity, process is repeated until a successful candidate ‘I’m so happy with how with a further 3,500 watching online via SUSU. “I think euphoric is is announced. Sophie Patterson, newly elected elections night turned TV’s live streaming. the word - thank you VP Welfare and Societies, showed the importance out, I’d like to thank Election night proved to be a huge success, to all the voters. I of deferred votes, lagging behind Henry Church everyone involved” preluded by months of planning, over a week won’t let you down.” until the fourth round of voting saw her surge Adam Parker, VP Media of manic campaigning, and a record number of Steve O’Reilly, elected ahead to an eventual win of 2827 to 2310. & Comms 08/09 votes. The night, which witnessed both tears of President of SUSU The evening was presented by four prominent euphoria and tears of disappointment, brought faces in the SUSU.TV team; Tom, Jeni, Holly and aside from the small technical errors with sound forward our new Sabbatical team for 2009/10. TECHNICAL FACTS DIRECTOR’S SUMMARY our, and made the largest video setup ever seen in SUSU. We even got the chance to link over 8 cameras Last year we broadcast the elections to the to Loughborough Students’ Union elections in a world online, but this year we really wanted bid to see whether we could do it! The planning 28 crew to make it bigger and better. We doubled the started back in December with endless amounts 22 screens amount of cameras, moved into the West Ref and of time spent creating content, brainstorming increased the capacity to nearly 800. With the ideas and working out how many cameras we 4 hours of broadcast events crew excited by the prospect of the new had. A large thank you must go out to all the 3,500 hits to susu.tv venue, the lights and sound were almost as large ‘stream team’ and events crew. as the gradball. We were extremely limited for 115k worth of equipment time but managed to create a venue full of col- Adam Parker Campaign Week madness spurs highest voting turnout ever, 6165 out with their hot pink outfits and aggressive lem this year was candidates affiliating them- CAMPAIGNING techniques. George Bergel, running for VP Media Campaigners were selves with popular bars such as Sobar and Jest- Emmeline Curtis and Comms, managed to attract a large crowd using every means at ers. Allowing posters and bar staff to promote with his pole-dancing girls; the pole was also en- their disposal, ranging candidates outside of the Union is technically For 10 days before the results were announced joyed by other candidates, who participated in a from extreme poster- corporate sponsorship, and against the rules. the concourse was crowded with candidates and dance-off towards the end of the week. The tune ing to eye-catching Other problems included not budgeting correctly their dedicated campaign teams, desperate to at- to ‘Footloose’ could be heard around the Union, events. for publicity used, and staging events and public- tract the student voter. Some candidates ran low as Welfare and Societies candidate Nick Thorne ity that had been rejected for health and safety profile campaigns, hoping their manifesto and urged you to vote through his reworking of the who took their campaigning to unfair levels, and reasons by the Returning Officers. ideas would speak for themselves, while others song. Sophie Paterson, also running for Welfare had to be punished. Most complaints simply resulted in a warning, relied on gimmicks and a huge presence to get and Societies, tried to prove her dedication to This year rules on internet campaigning were allowing for mistakes to be made and learned them noticed. the Union by spending the night sleeping on the relaxed, and for the first time ever candidates from. The harshest punishment exacted was the Campaigners were using every means at concourse with some of her campaigners. The were allowed the use of the internet, including confiscation of t-shirts, in order to cancel out their disposal, ranging from extreme postering of only category that was refreshingly free of crazy Facebook groups, profile pictures and statuses.