I’d like to use this article to tell you a bit about myself, and why I think I’m the best person for the job. More importantly, I want to talk about what The Union could become if the necessary changes are made, and exactly what I want to do if elected. If you are a member and you like the ideas that I have for The Union, please vote for me on Monday. If you’re not a member but you like the idea of what The Union could become, then please consider joining.

If elected, my two basic objectives as Union President would be to have everyone who walks through the door change their mind about at least one idea, and to ensure that everybody felt welcome to walk through the door in the first place.

As Treasurer, I raised more sponsorship than has been raised in the role’s history and provided the widest variety of membership benefits, from discounted club-entries to cheaper meals. I have organized debates (Music Industry, Michaelmas), and invited and secured speakers during my own and others’ terms. I’ve worked as Chair of The Treasurer’s Committee and on the Executive Committee to ensure the term ran smoothly and successfully, and that members’ voices were heard by The Union. Starting out as a guest-liaison, I’ve had experience at most levels of The Union hierarchy, from helping to plan our Ents to interviewing speakers for live audiences, so I’m well placed to lead the Lent Team.

Outside of The Union I’ve worked at similar organizations with an international presence. At The Royal Institution I was involved in developing long-term strategies to engage members, inviting speakers, and working to ensure members got the most out of membership fees. I was also responsible for organizing Europe’s largest first time Model United Nations conference.

I have no desire to be a caretaker President, and there are a number of things I’d like to change about The Union. Firstly, nobody should be deterred from becoming a member based on cost. It’s a simple problem - I would immediately change our pricing scheme. We’ve got to be more sensitive to the wide variety of financial circumstances within the student body, and provide a system that alters our prices on sliding scale relative to ability to pay. We also need to have a system in place that allows students to pay in small sums over their time here.

Once a member, The Union is yours. It’s an amazing space and I would create an online booking system to advertise the free rooms so that members, rather than just the committee, can actually use the buildings.

Secondly, The Union needs to get its invite policy right. If elected, I will ensure we have a member-voted policy that explicitly states what we mean by “promoting free speech”, and that outlines a clear procedure for instances in which we are confronted with difficult decisions about speakers. If you’re going to give a privileged platform to someone, you really need to think about what that platform will do, rightly or wrongly, for his or her cause. I think we should only be accepting controversial speakers if they are prepared to debate their views with those who disagree with them the most strongly.

What inspires people about the Union is the quality and variety of speakers and debates we showcase throughout the term. My main objective, if elected, would be to bring you the best line up we could possibly achieve. I would update the way in which we invite speakers and would mandate that all officials write invitations as part of a minimum number of invites, so that we can operate on a much larger scale than we currently do. Furthermore, I want to engage with the filming industry, to ensure we can really start to compete with the likes of TED with our online and televised presence, further attracting high profile speakers. It’s important we get the right balance of ‘big names’ and interesting topics for the line up, ensuring that our debates remain current and intellectually engaging, and avoiding an excess of cameo celebrity appearances. We should also extend our partnerships with the best of student nightlife in Cambridge to bring them to The Union, such as Rudimental and Denim; to make the Union a hotspot on which for Cambridge’s best activities to converge. Finally, we need to lay the foundations for capitalizing on the opportunity to expand and secure The Union’s long-term vision. I want to introduce a Corporate Liaison Officer to look into ways we can plan for our bicentennial anniversary to make sure it has the biggest possible impact.

If this sounds like the sort of Union you want, then please vote for me on Monday!