On these pages...
1: Sports Officer
2: Jodie Austin
3: Matthew Thorogood

Jodie Austin

Sports Officer

My name is Jodie Austin and I am a Third year Marketing student and I am running for the position of Sports Officer. I have been an elected member of the AU Executive committee for two years, I am the current Women’s Hockey President and this year I was voted in to be an External Trustee of the Union. These positions have given me the chance to understand the day to day running of the Union and how it operates. Within the women’s hockey club, I have liased with the Director of Sport from the University and several others, to appoint a new Community Hockey Coach who will prove very fruitful for not only our University teams but also the surrounding schools and clubs. I am very passionate about sports; you could say I eat sleep and breath sports! I believe joining a sports team can really bring out the person that you are capable of being. You have the chance meet new people and make friends that you wouldn’t otherwise meet and builds your confidence up which will help you in later life. I am an open and very approachable person and am happy to help anyone who needs it.

This past year has been a very difficult one for University sports, as we had to battle to regain our budget after the changes in the new structure of the union. Hopefully we are now in the position where we can build on that and make sports the best it can be, and I want to be there to help each of the individual sports clubs build and mature in the best possible way.

If elected as Sports Officer I intend to:

• Continue to build up the reputation of the smaller clubs and make the rest of the athletic union aware of their success so that they get the recognition they deserve.
• I also want to continue building on the interclub relations that have started to occur this year, by organising fun events which all clubs can get involved in, like the dodge ball tournament I organised this year. I believe the AU will be even better when all the clubs integrate and get on together, making the Wednesday atmosphere even greater than it is already.
• Also by liaising with the Director of Sport, I want to try and help by encouraging more University clubs to build bridges with local clubs and charities etc. which may create opportunities that the University clubs may not be aware of or capable of achieving on their own. The University sports department is there to help.
• As a sporto myself I know how important Wednesday nights are for everyone and I want to make them more sports oriented, by liaising with the entertainment department of the Union.

All you need to do now is to come and join me and the rest of the candidates to understand in detail what I am proposing to do for you students who want to join a club and those of you who are already are part of a club. Make a difference and vote for me. Xx

Jodie ‘Peter Pan’ Austin
Sports Officer

Word Associations

• Budget: Arghh!!!
• Songs: ‘My Garden Shed!’
• Naked: Twister
• Snakey: My life!
• Sportos: legends!

Questions

1. What do you envisage the role of Sports Officer to be?
I see the role of Sports Officer as being someone who can be approached by anyone for information, or help regarding sports. Someone who can help guide their clubs to spend their budgets wisely and someone who wants to see the future of sports to be the best it can possibly be.

2. The most important part of this role is to manage the sports budget, how would you decide how to divide the money and ensure its all done fairly?
I would make sure I go through the previous years budgets to see what different clubs expenses are. Also I would take into account the New Academic Year’s budget request forms to see what the various clubs need to operate successfully. Hopefully then I will have a greater understanding of how I could split the grant fairly.

3. Our AU is one of the best in the UK when it comes to participation and commitment. How would you continue to improve this?
One of my main aims is to increase participation by making sports even more accessible to those who want to join a club but don’t know how. Also to make sure the commitment of the current sportos is increased by getting the clubs to get along and socialise with each other, making Portsmouth AU THE best in the UK!

4. To be a great sports officer you have to be...
An approachable, friendly, hardworking person who enjoys working in a team; and have the ability and knowledge to help people. Oh and you need to enjoy a Snakey B!

5. Which club most resembles you and why?
I would definitely say hockey. As some of you may know people who play hockey are said to be gay or prep school; seeing as I am not gay I am defiantly prep school! I was once described as a hockey monster!

6. What experience do you have that might suit you to this role?
As I mentioned before I have been an elected member of the AU Executive Committee for the past two years. This has educated be on all the aspects of running the AU. I have been working closely with the current Sports Officer in all the activities of the AU and look forward to the chance to do it myself.

7. As a sabbatical officer networking is essential and important, what would be your best networking line?
Anyone for a bit of Touch Cup?Think that would to the trick!