It’s that time of year again. Swarms of colourful t-shirts are out in force at Gardens Point and Kelvin Grove, armed with bright smiles and informative flyers. Student Guild elections are upon us. If this is your first year at QUT or you just don’t know much about it, let me give you a quick introduction to the whole thing.
1. Background - Firstly, the Student Guild is the student body responsible for clubs, sports and various other student welfare services. The election is held every year to ensure the Guild is run by people the students of QUT want. Pretty simple, right? Yes, yes it is.
2. Campaigning - This week (and last week), you might find yourself being approached by people asking how your day is, if you’ve heard of them and if you’d like a flyer. These people are campaigning to get their group’s message out to the masses. Some of them are genuinely friendly and leave you alone if you’re in a rush, and some are overly enthusiastic, following you to your class trying to keep a conversation going. They might talk about some of their future goals, what they’ve already achieved and what they promise to bring next year if they’re elected.
I’m usually pretty tolerant when someone approaches me. I’ll be down for a little chat, take a flyer and I’ll be on my way. Other times I’m in no mood for it so I’ll switch into antisocial mode, get my Kath and Kim speed walk happening and move past as quickly as possible.
If you’re not a people person at all, why not take a leisurely stroll trough the Botanical Gardens? It’s nice, it’s calming and you bypass (most of) the campaigning going on at the entrance of Gardens Point. Or you could plug in your iPod, whip out your phone and look really busy, whichever floats your boat.
3. Voting – Remembering what I did last year, you go to wherever voting is taking place (last year it was in the Refectory at KG), you give them your ID card for verification and you get several pieces of paper. You put some scribbles on the paper, you put the paper in the box and you’re done. Easy peasy! Vote for whoever you want, it’s up to you to decide.
Voting isn’t compulsory, BUT you do get a nifty $5 food voucher for voting (no matter who you vote for), and that’s enough persuasion for this lazy student to vote.
Voting is open Monday to Wednesday (17 -19 September) at Gardens Point and Thursday and Friday (20 and 21 September) at Kelvin Grove.
And there you have it, my extremely quick, no-frills guide to guild voting. Good luck!
Some great ideas there to avoid the onslaught of personal-space-bubble-popping.
cool post
Thanks Harrison! Hope this made a few things about the election clearer for you
Thanks Dorothy, hope you make it through the week with your bubble still intact
It’s a shame the Guild for the past two years under both parties has been largely self-serving and added nothing to the non-existent social element of QUT (whether the parties will burst their own reality distortion-field bubble or not), hence why I’m sure less than 25% of students actually vote.
I haven’t had much experience with the Guild. I’m only in my second year and being out of the loop last year, I had no idea what the guild was, who I was voting for or why. The only Guild-run event I enjoyed this year was the toga party, so I agree that they could probably improve on the social aspects a bit.
i like your posts, always funny, but i usually just say, already voted, and that turns off most of them, but a few actually interrogated me, lol, um, but other than that, i feel a bit sad, because really that is all the interaction i have had with the student guild. I have checked out the clubs, but there really is nothing good out there, except the sports clubs, which i really couldnt sign up for in winter.
Hopefully one day, ill be the one standing there, annoying people with flyers.
Hey Abed, I’m glad you like my posts!
Saying “I’ve already voted” is a simple yet effective strategy, I’ll definitely remember that one.
Yeah I know what you mean with the limited interaction with the guild, I’m the same as you. Maybe when the elections are over, the Guild will have more sports and clubs that interest you!
The concept of harrasment takes a new level during election week… A queue of pseudo-political student groups who can’t understand the words “leave me alone” chasing after you as you try to cross the bridge to Z Block. Furthermore, their almost insulting names such as “Epic Party”. I mean what are we? 12 year-old kids? Some people have approached me an actually suggest that I vote them for the cool name of their party. Really? How did these idiotic brats even manage to get into uni? This takes me to my next point. Should they actually be allowed to create all that circus interrupting everyone’s life with their moronic ideas and attitude? If they actually were on a tent and you could approach them if you were interested it’d be alright but instead they persist by queueing one after the other and chasing you to your class.
You have some very valid points there Alex. Some (but not all) campaigners sometimes get a bit too caught up in the campaigning and voting shenanigans and go overboard with trying to get their message across, with the following to class and what-not. Tension gets high because everyone is so eager to win. I did hear about an incident today that clearly shows that the groups just need to take a step back from all the intense action and re-evaluate the decisions they’re making and their strategies.
All Blogposts need Kath and Kim from now on.
Try talking to yourself too…. generally makes groups avoid you but other then that, awesome post!
Hahaha awesome strategy! Maybe I should turn into the crazy cat lady and throw cats at people
Couldn’t even have a quick lunch in peace before I had to rush off to my next class without being interrogated by not one, but TWO people from the guild shoving flyers in my face and the like. They even tried to take me to the refectory or wherever it was you had to vote, 2 mins before my class started! Will be very glad after the holidays when it’s over!
Oh the joys of guild elections haha, I don’t think voting was this intense last year. I agree though, holidays can’t come soon enough! The craziness will die down and we can walk to our classes in peace.