General Marketing for StudCo: simpler is better By Dan Morrison During my three years at UVA, whenever someone has tried to explain to me how Student Council works it’s been long and difficult. We’ve never had an elevator speech that works outside of the basic, “Your voice is our vision.” For those marketing council its key we have quick and effective marketing. The Elevator Speech We need to explain what Council does in every capacity but still be simple and understandable. I’ve broken this down into a very quick elevator speech that can be delivered in both large presentations and face-to-face settings. These facets should be at the core of our marketing to new students so they fully understand Council. What does Student Council do? We give students the tools they need to be and do what they want at UVA. We do this in three ways We work on behalf of students We work alongside students We support and equip students Each section corresponds to a major function of Council. We work on behalf of students through SpeakUpUVA and the Representative Body taking in and acting on concerns. We work alongside students by having students join Student Council committees to undertake relevant projects. We support and equip students through the Appropriations process by funding student groups to undertake efforts Council cannot. That’s it. Below I have broken down the sections more granularly so we can fine tune marketing for each individual point. On Behalf: The Representative Structure We work on behalf of Students by filtering concerns into the Representative Body of Student Council. The constitution calls for Representatives to, among other things, do three things Represent the issues facing their respective schools Respond to needs presented by the student body Serve on one of Student Council’s standing committees In the coming year we are going to do this through SpeakUpUVA. When Joe Wahoo has a problem, he signs onto SpeakUpUVA.com and submits a problem- within 48 hours a Representative who sits on the related committee will contact him. If the problem is about concessions at athletic events it goes to the Rep who sits on the Athletic Affairs Committee. If the problem is about lighting in First-Year living areas it goes to the Rep who sits on the Safety and Wellness Committee. The Rep works with StudCo’s resources to solve the issue. Alongside: The Committee Structure and the Council we all know and love Let’s say Joe Wahoo doesn’t want to send a request to Student Council to get something done: let’s assume he wants to join the organization to make UVA a better place. He applies for the committees we offer. When people describe Student Council, this is normally what they describe. Council has a budget of about $70,000 to $100,000 that we allocate to the 11 Presidential Committees and we use it to implement needed initiatives around grounds. The committees are Academic Affairs Committee Athletic Affairs Committee Buildings & Grounds Committee Community Affairs Committee Diversity Initiatives Committee Environmental Sustainability Committee Legislative Affairs Committee Public Service Committee Safety & Wellness Committee Student Arts Committee Student Life Committee We also have Ad-Hoc committees for special needs and two special committees: Marketing & Communications and the Technology Committee. All these committees work on initiatives they deem important to the student experience at UVA. Support and Equip: The VPO and Appropriations Let’s say Joe Wahoo has something big. He wants to build a community, start a movement, or investigate a passion of his. He can create a student group and get started on such a project. This is where the appropriations process and CIO consultants come into play. Appropriations: Student Council is charged with the duty of allocating the Student Activities Fee (SAF). When you cut out permanent expenditures, salaries, etc the Vice President and his/her team doles out $600,000 to CIO’s. CIO Consultants: The CIO consultants advise student groups on best practices and opportunities that exist for student groups. This could include additional funding, cosponsorship opportunities, and advising on specialty issues like environmental sustainability or diversity. We have over 800 student groups at UVA (some more active than others). Each got started because someone somewhere wanted to improve the quality of life of his or her fellow students. Student Council helps make this happen.