By Sayed Alkadiri, Vice President Business and Law

It has been absolutely thrilling to see some of the amazing events and activities societies have been running in the past few months or have started to plan for. To just name a few events and activities, students are still buzzing from ACS’s Take Me Out night, last month the Pakistan Society held a really interesting event on adoption with a BBC Radio Presenter, and I’m very much looking forward to the Journalism Societies’ event with VICE journalist Gavin Haynes on the 18^th.

The Students’ Union exists to help you put on these great events, and is always working to identify the barriers to participation in societies so we can swiftly tackle them and help societies thrive. Having myself been involved in a variety of societies for many years, I know one of the greatest tension points has been that societies haven’t been allowed to sell baked goods on campus to fundraise for charities or for their society. This has been particularly frustrating given that societies at different universities have been freely allowed to do so, and have raised substantial amounts for their respective causes as a result.

Late last year, I launched negotiations with the University and their food contractor regarding this issue, and I’m excited to announce we have successfully negotiated for societies to be allowed to sell baked goods on campus, effective immediately!

As there is an obvious health and safety aspect to this, there are some regulations and processes societies will have to follow to ensure the selling of baked goods is done in safe way.

If you want to have a bake sale on campus you will need to complete and return this form, which can also be found in the event planning section of the 'Leading a Society' pages on our website here.  Please bear in mind that bake sale stalls need to have prior approval from MDXSU, and that they can only take place in the foyer of MDX House. 

The Students Union is always working to facilitate student societies and ensuring you succeed in everything you want to do. It was two years ago that I led negotiations with the university for block room bookings to prevent societies having to wait for weeks to get a room. And from where we were then we have made significant progress, but I accept there's still plenty more to do.

if you believe they are other barriers preventing your society from being successful, please feel free to email us at societies@mdx.ac.uk or me personally at s.alkadiri@mdx.ac.uk, and we will work with you to knock those barriers down!

In Unity,

Sayed Alkadiri