2023 A Year in Review

People & Culture | Clubs & Societies | Marketing & Communications | SportUNE | UNE Life Events & Catering | Belgrave Cinema | Advocacy & Welfare | TuneFM | Security | CEO Summary

SportUNE

Key Highlights and Achievements:

• Ran successful Wednesday evening mixed netball, and Saturday women’s netball competitions in Trimester 1 & 2. This included 51 teams and almost 600 registered players from both UNE and the local community.
• Took a team of 15 UNE students to Melbourne for the UniSport Indigenous Nationals in June, hosted by Monash University. A week-long celebration of team sport and Indigenous culture.
• Hosted the 2^nd year of the Intervarsity Tri Series Netball competition in July. 50 students from three different universities (University of Sydney, University of NSW, University of the Sunshine Coast) travelled to Armidale for a weekend of mixed and women’s netball competition against our UNE teams.
• Took a team of 50 UNE students to the Gold Coast for UniSport Nationals. Our students competed strongly in a range of sports including Beach Volleyball, Cycling, Golf, Netball, and Rugby 7’s.
• The 2023 Summer Twilight Soccer competition has achieved the highest participation numbers for a number of years. This includes 63 teams and over 600 registered players across junior, senior & mixed competitions.
• Hosted the NERU Finals Series which saw over 5000 spectators over the series.
• Hosted the Group 19 Rugby League Grand Final, with over 3000 spectators throughout the day it was one of the largest single events at Bellevue in recent years.
• Swim School has grown throughout the year consistently and now sits at 230 students, best result in recent years.
• Most school groups attending in recent years including NEGS, PLC, Martins Gully, Drummond, One School Global.
• WEMBO to be hosted in Australia for just the 2^nd time in history, SportUNE to help deliver this event with over 1000 expected from around the world to attend SportUNE over the weekend.
• Other events successfully hosted include: Lifesaver Day, Farming Futures, Frosty Balls Volleyball, Knock On NSWRL, NSW area swim championships.

Student Engagement Initiatives:

• Organised and implemented the traditional inter-college sport competitions, Mary Bagnall and President’s Trophy. Students representing all six colleges and ‘Townies’ competed across eight different sporting events, with Austin-Page College taking the win overall in both competitions.
• The UNE Sports Academy ran for its 6^th consecutive year in 2023, providing bespoke support for 17 high-performing student-athletes. Nine of these students represented UNE at UniSport Nationals in 2023, and two students were selected in Australian teams which competed internationally.

Partnerships and Collaborations: 

• UNE has completed its first 12 months as a registered member of the FISU Healthy Campus Programme; an international benchmarking program focussing on staff and student health and wellbeing. UNE has been able to satisfy 66 out of 100 criteria, achieving a Silver Certification status. Encouraged by this progress, the UNE Healthy Campus Program was officially launched on the Armidale Campus in October with a Healthy Campus Walk and Lunch for staff. We are looking forward to rolling this program out to benefit our staff and students on all UNE campuses, as well as the online UNE community.
• Organised a holiday program for Ezidi students aged 12-18 learn to swim collaboration with Armidale Regional Council.

Student Success Stories:

• Jake Bourchier (2^nd Year, Agriculture), selected in the NSW U21 Men’s Netball team that competed in Perth in 2023.
• Savannah White (1^st Year, Bachelor of Environmental Science), selected in the Australian U19 Futsal team which competed in Europe in 2023.
• Benjamin Weaver (1^st Year, Bachelor of Agriculture), selected in the Australian U24 Dragon Boating team that competed in the World Championships in Thailand in 2023.

Future Plans and Strategy:
Our vision is to be the highest standard sport & health precinct for regional NSW. We aim to be a central hub for a variety of sports, activities and health services to cater for the needs of our growing university and community.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR):

• Continued support programs for Back Track, Freeman House, Ascent, Pathfinders.
• Fostered first traineeship opportunity for local community high school student to begin a pathway into the health and fitness industry. We aim to continue and build this program to provide ongoing opportunities into this sector.
• Investing in the replacement of lightbulbs around the courts/fields/gym to LED to be more energy efficient.

UNE Life Events & Catering

• total number of guests at graduation ceremonies- 2500
• coffees sold.
• number of sausages at student BBQs served-Average 100 sausages per BBQ. Approximately 40 student BBQ’s across year
• number of people served in the cafe
• number of events – 551 executed or booked as of October 26^th
• number of hours worked– N/A
• kilos of waste saved – N/A

coffees sold – 49,872

number of people served in the café – 80,479

Graduation – April, August & December. Roughly 180 graduates per ceremony in April, 120 graduates per ceremony in August & 200 graduates expected for each ceremony in December. Lunch serving upwards of 120 each day & evening event catering for 80. For UNE Life this brings in addition café sales, catering sales through lunch, evening events and procession catering as well as event management fees. Catering per ceremony averages $20,000.00.

Rugby Final – 2500pax 9^th September with the food van, 2x bars, great hops truck, canteen, seated presidents’ lunch. Altogether brining in more than $45,000 with gate sales.

Café Life Reopening – Café Life was repaired earlier this year with the massive move from Booloominbah to Café Life occurring in February 2023 just in time for Orientation. This has resulted in increase trade, more food and beverage options being made available with the increased space and a whole new feel with whites, plants and neutral colours. Daily sales are now above $4,500.00.

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

Through SAFF we have hosted a number of student initiatives from movie nights at Belgrave to working with Oorala on Naidoc Week & Sorry Day. One of our most successful events was RUOK Day featuring pancakes prepared by UNE staff and cupcakes, tea and coffee served by UNE Life Events & Catering. Roughly 220 people were present in the Café Life courtyard for this event.

Another initiative surrounded intensives and offering our online students a great experience. BBQ’s were set up at the Natural History Museum with roughly 300 attendees each day they were held. Tours to local businesses, distilleries and of Armidale attracted 30-40 attendees each time.

This year we also purchased a food van to be used at student events in order to offer a wider range of food and beverages. This food van also enables larger quantities of food to be available at Bellevue for all sporting events.

PARTNERSHIPS

UNE Life has strong relationships with a range of stakeholders. With UNE the notable partnerships & collaborations to note are with Oorala, Environment & Built Estate, UNE Marketing, Events & Corporate Comms. We work closely with all of these departments for events and catering.

We have also built strong connections outside of UNE. We have supported the charitable work of Dymocks with their twilight event and taken on the Department of Primary Industries & Young Farmers Conference to be held in February 2024.

FUTURE PLANS

The Stro will finally begin to reopen in February 2024 in time for Trimester 1 Orientation. This space is multipurpose from being a hub for students and staff to socialise, study and conduct meetings as well as being an event space for UNE and the whole community. A new, fresh clean look has been implemented to enable a blank canvas for the space to be designed and used for just about anything you can imagine. Over time new facilities include bar, bathrooms and AV will be introduced to continue to improve its usability and versatility.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY

As a business we continue to offer biodegradable cutlery, cups and plates. Even our catering aim has taken on this initiative with biodegradable packaging used for deliveries.

AWARDS

Sports Awards – 120pax 20^th September at Bellevue bringing in over $8,000 for our events & catering arm.

Student Awards Night – 100pax 21st September at Marquees on Graduates Walk brought in over $15,000.00 and was a 2023 highlight for both students and our events team.

BELGRAVE CINEMA

1. Key Highlights and Achievements:Sciflicks, Q&A, Rola etc – who what when why, bumbs on seats etc

• 9/2/23 Girls night out Magic Mikes Last dance – 49 attendees
• 17 & 18/3/23 Flickerfest 72 total attendees
• Armidale International Film Festival 837 individual tickets sold. 9 movies across 3 days
• French Film Festival 376 individual tickets sold. 5 movies across 3 days.
• Rachels Farm Q&A with Rachel Ward, Director and Actor
• Rola 30/3 – Sell out 189 people. ROLA (Stone) has recently gained international recognition after it won a category in the inaugural 2022 Earth Futures Film Festival. It is directed by Dr Marissa Betts, and filmed and edited by Mike Terry.
• Matildas Games! 298 attendees, both screens sold out on Wed 16^th Semi Final 973 individual tickets across all games
• Oppenbarbie! Sell out opening night 107 tickets sold to each 20^th July – matildas in the big cinema at the same time – 187 people sell out Friday 21^st.
• 2400kgs of popcorn popped on site,
• 50000 tickets sold all year (with xmas still to go)
• 3 most popular films, Barbie, Super mario bros, Oppenheimer.
• 43000 scoops of ice cream went into our famous choc tops.
• 2700 hours of movies screened

2. Student Engagement Initiatives:Student events, free screenings during oweek/intensives who what when why, bumbs on seats etc

• Sci Flicks – Fire of Love – Dr Nick Tailby – 9/2/23 – 57 attendees
• Sci Flicks – Contagion with Hear about the real-world science in 2011 hit film, ‘Contagion’, with a short talk and audience Q&A with UNE Professor of Nursing, Kim Usher. WHEN: Thursday, 27 April, 6pm – 20 attendees
• Sci Flicks – Eight Legged Freaks Thursday October 26^th Dr James O’Hanlon is the author of Silk and Venom: The Incredible Lives of Spiders – 16 attendees
  (all sci flicks organised with the help of Marissa betts, mentioned above for Rola)
• 180 belgrave plus memberships given out to support students during oweek rediscover the magic of cinema.
• Discounted screenings during intensives.

3. Partnerships and Collaborations: How many events in total, how many parrtners how many dollars raised etc

• 13/9 Duval Kayaking Club Pirates of the Carribean (61 tickets sold)
• 13/9 Yes23 The Last Daughter (124 tickets sold)

4. Future Plans and Strategy:Developing the cinema brand, fingers crossed for a return to normal content releases, incorporating elements of showmanship into events and creating more opportunities for organisations and businesses to collaborate.
5. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR):Waste, Backtrack? etc?

• Community engagement tickets available at a discounted rate. $5 a ticket and open for all standard sessions. PCYC collaboration.

BELGRAVE @David Stevenson-Relf @JOSHUA BIUDOLE@ANDRENA ROLOGAS

1. Key Highlights and Achievements:Sciflicks, Q&A, Rola etc – who what when why, bumbs on seats etc

• 9/2/23 Girls night out Magic Mikes Last dance – 49 attendees
• 17 & 18/3/23 Flickerfest 72 total attendees
• Armidale International Film Festival 837 individual tickets sold. 9 movies across 3 days
• French Film Festival 376 individual tickets sold. 5 movies across 3 days.
• Rachels Farm Q&A with Rachel Ward, Director and Actor
• Rola 30/3 – Sell out 189 people. ROLA (Stone) has recently gained international recognition after it won a category in the inaugural 2022 Earth Futures Film Festival. It is directed by Dr Marissa Betts, and filmed and edited by Mike Terry.
• Matildas Games! 298 attendees, both screens sold out on Wed 16^th Semi Final 973 individual tickets across all games
• Oppenbarbie! Sell out opening night 107 tickets sold to each 20^th July – matildas in the big cinema at the same time – 187 people sell out Friday 21^st.
• 2400kgs of popcorn popped on site,
• 50000 tickets sold all year (with xmas still to go)
• 3 most popular films, Barbie, Super mario bros, Oppenheimer.
• 43000 scoops of ice cream went into our famous choc tops.
• 2700 hours of movies screened

2. Student Engagement Initiatives:Student events, free screenings during oweek/intensives who what when why, bumbs on seats etc

• Sci Flicks – Fire of Love – Dr Nick Tailby – 9/2/23 – 57 attendees
• Sci Flicks – Contagion with Hear about the real-world science in 2011 hit film, ‘Contagion’, with a short talk and audience Q&A with UNE Professor of Nursing, Kim Usher. WHEN: Thursday, 27 April, 6pm – 20 attendees
• Sci Flicks – Eight Legged Freaks Thursday October 26^th Dr James O’Hanlon is the author of Silk and Venom: The Incredible Lives of Spiders – 16 attendees
  (all sci flicks organised with the help of Marissa betts, mentioned above for Rola)
• 180 belgrave plus memberships given out to support students during oweek rediscover the magic of cinema.
• Discounted screenings during intensives.

3. Partnerships and Collaborations: How many events in total, how many parrtners how many dollars raised etc

• 13/9 Duval Kayaking Club Pirates of the Carribean (61 tickets sold)
• 13/9 Yes23 The Last Daughter (124 tickets sold)

4. Future Plans and Strategy:Developing the cinema brand, fingers crossed for a return to normal content releases, incorporating elements of showmanship into events and creating more opportunities for organisations and businesses to collaborate.
5. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR):Waste, Backtrack? etc?

• Community engagement tickets available at a discounted rate. $5 a ticket and open for all standard sessions. PCYC collaboration.

THE SHOP @ALISON LEMON @David Stevenson-Relf @ANDRENA ROLOGAS

1. Key Highlights and Achievements:

30000+ textbooks/ebooks sold

10000+ auspost parcels scanned through

1000+ nursing uniforms supplie

Layout of store changed for disabled/pram access

3 additional staff trained in auspost procedures.

2. Student Engagement Initiatives:

7 prizes given away for raffles by clubs/societies

Student discounts available

Students employed on site to assist them with developing skills for their eventual careers.

3. Partnerships and Collaborations: 

Birdie Candle Co – locally made candles

Yin-Yang Kombucha – bottle return system

Belgrave Cinema – Choc Tops sold on site

Focus Magazing – sold on site

Paperware – Local supplier

4. Future Plans and Strategy:

Grow our convenience range, in order to better fill the needs of students and staff on campus

Source cheaper suppliers in order to help our customers deal with the rising cost of living.

New product ranges from various different categories in the works! – Things like small appliances are now available through our store.

5. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR):

Vast vegan friendly confectionery and health food range.
Paper bags and wraps used on site.

2^nd Hand Textbooks sold through us in order to reuse required texts.