Felix Interviews Deputy President (F&S) Candidate: Ali Lown

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What made you run for this position?

I’ve been heavily involved in societies all my time at Imperial, and in that time, I’ve been driven crazy by lots of things that could be easily improved. I want to make those improvements and make people’s interaction with the Union that little bit easier.

Why DPFS specifically - well this is the area I have most the experience with, I’m on the eActivities user group where I frequently suggest improvements, I liaise with the Union bar and with Beit Conferences in my work with DramSoc, and I also help organise Union events like Summer Ball, and most of the big international events in the Great Hall.

What is the main change you would like to implement if elected?

A main change kind of assumes there’s some big problem with the Union that everyone else has missed so far. My changes are little changes that make a big difference. Little changes that make the whole process of running a society that much easier. Little changes to the way eActivities is laid out that save you a few clicks every time you want to check something. Little changes to the budgeting process that save you hours of rewriting spreadsheets.

I’d love to tell you I’m going to tear down the Union and build it up from scratch, but we all know that’s not something any sabb can do.

What is your favourite thing about Imperial?

I love Imperial’s diversity. You hear people say we’re boring for focusing on science, but then you look at the incredible array of different societies and it’s clear we’re not at all boring. Did you know we have a whole society dedicated to cheese? And it’s got 193 members! Where else do you get that?

As Technical Director for DramSoc I get to work on loads of societies’ events. There’s AfroGala with its fantastic fashion, CSSA with many extremely talented performers, Acapella with their multi-award winning groups, and so many more. That we have all these societies that run these spectacular events every year is, really amazing; and I get to help make sure their night.

What is the biggest challenge you foresee in the next year?

I foresee that there will be unforeseen challenges. Students don’t really know how the Union works. We send in a carefully prepared budget and a few weeks later we are assigned an arbitrary sum of money with little idea where that number comes from. I have worked more closely with the Union than most and I still don’t understand a lot of it.

What I can forsee is that it will be an uphill struggle to get some of my suggestions implemented. Among students, the Union is a byword for bureaucracy and arbitrary rules, and as far as I can tell it always has been. Changing that is going to be hard work, but it’s something I’m absolutely ready for.

Couldn’t you argue that removing management group approval removes a crucial safety net that can stop clubs making rash and poor financial decisions?

I want to reduce management group involvement, not remove it entirely. Management groups play an important role in checking club finances, but right now they’re having to check every single purchase over a limit that’s a one-size fits all for every societies, which doesn’t take into account what would be best for each of them.

What we need is more tailored oversight. Inexperienced societies, and ones that have had past financial trouble, will get more support and more oversight. Societies with a proven track-record of being financially responsible can have their spending limits increased so that they aren’t waiting for someone to rubberstamp their purchases, and the management group has less to deal with.

What simple Union tasks do you think are infuriating?

Let’s take annual budgeting. Funding has been allocated, and I want to know what my society received.

I go to eActivities, which loads for 10 seconds, click ‘Finance’, then ‘Budgets’, then ‘Annual Budgeting’. Instead of a budget, I now see my society’s objectives. On the fourth layer of navigation, I click ‘Budget Submission’, and get a table that doesn’t fit on my screen.

At the bottom I use one of two horizontal scrollbars to get the helpful label ‘C.S.P.B. allocation’ where I find what I’m looking for. Except, oh wait, they’re all zero because despite the email from the DPFS, eActivities still hasn’t been updated. That’s infuriating, for me, and for every single society.

There are already mechanisms in place to ensure financial stability should a club “run into problems,” what is the benefit of clubs squirrelling away money (or “building up reserves”), if this could negatively impact budgeting allocations?

The current contingency mechanism cover a pretty limited set problems, there’s not much money available, and clubs can’t rely on it.

I want to implement a sort of joint saving account so that clubs can easily set aside money for their own purposes. ‘Designated Members Funds’ are supposed to cover this sort of thing, but they have an extremely low uptake because nobody’s clear about what they do, you have to be absurdly specific about what they’re for, and there’s no guarantee you’ll get approval to take money out. Clearly in their current form they’re not something clubs want.

That absolutely should not result in lower budgeting allocations. Why penalise a club for managing their money sensibly? It’s nonsense.