Your year as Vice President Sport is nearly up, how have found it?
Simply one word describes my time, Incredible.
I don’t believe I could do it justice to describe the experience you have when you become a sabb. The job is defined by the people you work with and I can’t thank them enough for giving me a wonderful year. They have guided me through the complexities of HUU and helped me keep the Athletics Union on budget. I have been extremely lucky to have the voluntary base I have as well, practically all the presidents of the clubs have performed exceptionally. They have been spot on this year, met every deadline I have set and they have been fiscally more responsible, which has prevented the problem we had last year of clubs getting into debt. Finally I have to thank my fellow sabbatical officers they have been very supportive and we have worked well as a team, which didn’t necessarily occur last year, every officer got involved with each other’s zone. For example Chris (Marks) has campaigned for the free Wednesday afternoons for the sports teams and Ben (Wilcox) helping me with tour. Everyone has been great help to me even if it’s just pooping head in for a chat so we can offer each other a different perspective on each other’s problems.
It’s been a brilliant year.
What has been your best moment in the job?
When you preside of an athletic union of over 2000 members it’s impossible to pick out a single moment. There are countless highlights which I will remember. One of the most recent highlights would have to be the Netball final in Sheffield which happened before the Easter holidays. The union managed to rally over 70 people unaffiliated to the Netball Squad to wear the ‘We Are Hull’ and come cheer the team onto victory. That level of support had never occurred before and I feel it is a sign that the AU as an entity is growing stronger.
The other sign of this growing strength would be the AU ball, the naked calendar and Tour. The AU ball for the first time in its history sold out, the calendar has sold in record numbers and the record numbers that went on tour this year. 120 more people than ever before, we were largest group on tour and with the societies joining the AU on tour it shows that it’s not just the AU that is getting into the spirit of ‘We Are Hull’.
I just can’t put my finger on a best moment; it’s just been a series of amazing experiences.
A number of teams have been performing particularly well in national tournaments do you think we can we continue this next year?
This year has been incredibly successful on the pitch. This year we’ve seen a lot of teams mature this year, the majority of execs contain experienced and highly motivated players, I have been lucky to be a VP Sport with that solid leadership base. For example the Netball squads 16 games undefeated and their triumph in the northern conference cup. This can be attributed to the strong leadership within the club. There are too many examples of sporting success this year to mention but many teams have had an extraordinary reversal of fortunes this year, last year Rugby Union narrowly missed relegation but they finished this season 3rd in there league this year and the same story with the Golf club they have gone from basic non-existence to 2nd place in the northern league in just two years. Those are just two examples of dozens of sporting successes we’ve had.
The ability to make to build on this success, unfortunately, lies with the university. Due to budget shortfalls we haven’t been able to fund the AU as we would like to. The University needs to realise how important sport is for attracting students to a university. At present they only offer a handful of sporting scholarships for rugby league players. If this scheme was expanded to other sports and the university invested in coaching staff the Athletic Union can go from mid level union run on a shoestring budget to the top tier of sporting universities, we have the excellent voluntary base all we need now is the investment.
You stated in your interview with hull fire at the start of the year that you aimed to improve participation in the AU. Do you feel you have achieved this?
Participation for me has been tremendously important; it’s one of my buzzwords. The amount of people who have come up to me during the awards ceremonies and into the office and have said ‘I would be nothing without the AU’ shows how important it is to the student body. The Athletic Union is often stereotyped as a bunch of alcoholic students. It’s a complete misconception. The AU is an outlet for students it allows them to meet people that otherwise they never would have, should you have the misfortune to end up with housemates you don’t get on with you can build a whole new group of friends. Without the AU many students would be simply sat on the sofa watching day time TV, the AU doesn’t just offer a binge drinking life style but an outlet for a variety extracurricular activities.
I feel this is recognised by the student body, with 1 in 8 full time students being part of the AU in one way or another. Membership of the AU has gone up by 300 people this year and we want to get even more involved next year and not just in the large clubs like Boxing and Rugby but into the smaller ones such as figure skating. There is a club for every kind of student in the AU.
Three members of the newly elected sabbatical team worked in the AU office. Do you feel that their experience in working in the AU contributed to their success?
The AU office has given those sabbatical officers an advantage but not one that meant that their election was guaranteed. The AU office on average gets around 180 visitors so those sabbs did get to meet a large number of students before they began their campaigns. The office is also a social environment for many students; they may come in to talk initially about a sporting matter but they usually go on to mention other problems they may have from education to accommodation. This probably gave them a good idea of what the wider student body wanted out of their union. However all that is for nothing if you don’t appeal to the student body they were elected on their policies rather than their experience in the office, their effective campaigns won the election for them.
Societies went on tour this year. Has the drive to integrate societies and the AU been successful? And how much more work needs to be done?
At the start of the year Ben (VP Community) and I agreed that societies should for the first time come on tour. Personally I feel there has never been a divide between societies and the AU. Tour however is symbolic of how were all one union, this year we had 40 members of societies and the entire sabbatical team joining us on tour. It shows how successfully integrated the union is at present.
Tour while it’s known for its drinking aspects is also a great team building exercise. It allows members of both clubs and societies to really get to know each other in an environment outside Hull.
I believe that the record numbers on tour, largest ever group going from hull and the biggest contingent out of all the universities, will continue as I have personally been on 3 tours and never heard anyone say a bad word about their experiences while on tour.
Any words of advice for the sabbatical team that is going to be taking over the reins soon?
Selflessness is massively important for a sabbatical officer. You can’t go into this job purely to get an extra line on your CV or attempt to lever your position to gain influence in a political party. A sabbatical officer who does that will not perform well. A sabb must always put the student body’s interests first and ensure he/she works together with their fellow officers as a team otherwise they won’t achieve anything with their time in office.
What does the future hold for James Kerr?
Unlike many students I am fairly lucky with the fact that I have several options on the table. However I do have the opportunity to play cricket for a club in Australia, while I’m going to be very sad to leave Hull behind, it has given me opportunities and allowed me to grow as an individual and given me a set of skills which will be of great benefit to me in later life. Becoming a sabbatical officer has been one of the best things I have done.
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