The first Tuesday in March was Pancake Day, so we held our annual Pancake Flipping competition in the Chancellor’s Mall.  The rules were simple: flip a pancake as many times as you can in 30 seconds using a ready-made pancake and a small frying pan.   

Bill (SU Staff) showed us how it was done and flipped his pancake a respectable 16 times in 30 seconds.  The gauntlet was down.  The first student to take part flipped their pancake an impressive 20 times.  Eventually, we had to stop, the pancakes were in tatters and no longer resembled pancakes, but we’d had great fun and no pancakes on the ceiling.  As for the winner, well, they flipped their pancake a whopping 32 times in 30 seconds.  This will be a hard record to beat next year, but we’re certainly going to try!

We held our AGM in the Loft, and 46 students attended.  A Special Resolution was passed, meaning we can amend our Articles of Association to reflect the name change of Bolton SU to the University of Greater Manchester Students’ Union.

A Resolution was also passed approving a new logo and new colours for the University of Greater Manchester Students’ Union.  We are very excited about our rebrand and love our new colours.  We will be redecorating the SU Office in summer - it’s all steam ahead for your new look SU! 

During Student Money Week, we gave out a financial guide full of links, services and tips aimed at saving money and getting better deals. We invented a new compare-the-prices game using our Spin Wheel and put on our ‘Taste the Difference’ Activity.  Students loved it!  As always, the ‘Taste the Difference’ test drew some gasps of amazement when students chose a cheaper, supermarket home brand as their preferred selection.  We were pleased to learn that students regularly shop at Aldi and Bolton Market, making sure they get the best deals.  

We celebrated International Women’s Day on Monday, 10^th March.  We created a Women in Leadership board with biographies of women at the top of their profession.  We had a women representative for each School at this University, showing women they can reach the top of their profession.    We had a stand in the Mall with the Midwifery Society, where we chatted with students about International Women’s Day, helped them take a turn on our history trivia wheel and encouraged them to take a thank you card, write a positive message, and give it to a woman in their lives.

SU President Nominations closed with 6 students running in the Election to become the next SU President.  It was a very exciting voting period, with not many votes between first and second.  All candidates and their campaign teams put in a lot of effort to get students to vote for them. We are proud to announce the winner as Saad Mehmood.  1,796 votes were cast, which equals 18.5% of students voted, an increase from last year.

We look forward to working with Saad and helping him to fulfil his pledges.