The responsibilities of this position can be broadly grouped into:

• The supervision and overseeing of the financial situation and budgets of the Union
• The supervision of all staffing matters of the Union
• The representation and protection of the rights of Durham students within the Union, the University, the National Union of the Students and anywhere else

In addition, for the first ten months of my term in office, the position of General Manager within the union was vacant. This meant that in addition to my "routine" duties I was called upon to deal in a much more hands-on way with finance and with staff matters than would normally be the case for the Treasurer, and additionally, I had to recruit a new incumbent.

To be more specific, I:

• was Chair of the Board and also Company Secretary to the subsidiary trading corporation, DSU Services Limited
• Set and monitored budgets
• Met regularly with the Finance Manager and signed off all expenditure
• Over-saw the running of the three Commercial Services of the Union (the Café and associated Catering currently runs, as well as the large café in the Union building, another three small cafés, a host of vending machines all over the University and a successful small catering subsidiary; the Student Shop which has the franchise for all University of Durham merchandise; and the Bars which alongside their traditional role also run functions outside term, caters for the Graduation market and works closely with DSU's Ents and Venue Manager to create Durham's premiere student "ents"
• Dealt with all recruitment and any other matters relating to the union's 50 permanent staff
• Over-saw matters (particularly disciplinary matters) relating to the broad pool of term-time-only and casual staff
• Ran from start to finish the recruitment of a new General Manager, involving the steps:
  • Re-writing the job description, person specification, etc., which were severely out of date
  • Creating an appropriate advertisement and placing it correctly
  • Assessing each of the 60+ applications for their suitability against the Person Specification and drawing up a long-list of 12
  • Recruiting assistance (from the University Personnel department) to help with the informal interviewing of these 12 people
  • Conducting these informal interviews and creating a short-list of four
  • Drawing up plans, scenarios and questions for the mini-Assessment Centre to choose from the short-list
  • Recruiting assistance (from the Chair of the Association of Managers in Students' Unions, from the Head of Business Support Services at the University, and from the President of the Union) for the mini-Assessment Centre
  • Chairing this mini-Assessment Centre and the meetings afterwards where the decision was made
  • Negotiating th contract, etc., with the person eventually selected
  I believe that this was the most significant job I did in my time in office. I sincerely hope that in ten years time, my name will only be found in dusty minutes, but the General Manager I recruited will still be making her mark with the organisation.
• Acted on the democratic will of the Students by promoting policy in such matters as local trading, providing ethical and fair trade goods within the union, and investigating and researching the issues around the continuing Nestlé boycott. More dramatically, I tendered the banking services of the Union in the hope of getting a more ethical banking provision, but unfortunately this would have proved too costly and the idea had to be shelved. We hope that the situation may have changed in a few years, however, and I hope that the treasurer of the time will find that I have laid the foundations to make it easier for them to research and if possible implement the idea then.
• Made myself answerable to approximately 7 committees or similar where I worked to keep students aware of issues relating to them, and to listen myself to their concerns. In particular, on the Finance and Services Committee I was accountable for any large items of expenditure, where it was often necessary to explain to people with limited time and experience why something apparently insignificant was important. This committee also worked closely with the Ratified Societies of the Union, funding many important activities.
• Represented Durham's students to the National Union of Students (NUS) and more frequently to NUS Services Ltd., the national buying consortium used by most students' unions.
• Represented Durham student to the University, sitting on University Council, (effectively the "governing body") and on a host of lesser committees. In particular I spent many months investigating, researching and quite frankly arguing on behalf of the students in the matter of residence charges. It was as a result of various senior members of university staff being impressed with my handling of this very major issue that I was offered my current position with them, although I refused a permanent post on the grounds of the potential in the long-term for a conflict of interest for me.

At the end of the term of office, I was awarded an Honorary Life Membership of the Union. Until recently I was on the executive of one of the ratified societies, with which I am still an active member, and I periodically assist the Union with such matters as counting election results. This job had a profound impact on my world-view, as well as teaching me more things than could possibly be listed.

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