Societies Report Exposes Big Spenders

YUSU Sabbs have published a report showing the amount of grant money received by each University society.
The ‘Clubs and Societies Resources and Participation Report’ was released last week, and investigates the distribution of funds and resources across 54 of the 57 Union funded societies on campus.

Societies that are most generously funded per head include the University’s media societies, Happily Ever After society (which performs annual musicals), UoY Brass Band and the Gilbert & Sullivan society. The other groups which receive the highest funding per member, such as Astro Soc and Duke of Edinburgh society, are said to require increased funding for transport costs, equipment and venue hire.

Generally, the level of grant per society is proportional to membership. Only three of the ten clubs who receive above £2,000 per year have more than 75 members; and the groups with the highest total funding were often those with relatively few members. YUSU Student Activities Officer, Nick Scarlett, told Vision: “the findings were very much as expected, generally societies with high membership gained grants in proportion to their members. This was skewed through media outlets and larger performance societies, however, the passive membership of these societies is huge.”

The report is likely to be carried out on an annual basis, to further check on financial decisions made by officers and subcommittees.