Mr CRAIG BATHGATE

Hello,

I’m Craig Bathgate and I’m running for the position of Sports President.

My experience of sport here has been hugely enjoyable and diverse having been part of the Men’s Football, Tennis, Squash and Triathlon clubs along with playing in two intramural football teams. My roles within the Triathlon club committee firstly secretary and now president, and also my current position as Scottish Student Sports Chair for Triathlon mean I have gained an invaluable amount of experience and learnt many skills all of which I feel would enable me to serve you as your sports president. Here is my vision for sports here in Stirling: 

Development - Club

• Building upon the links which created between the Sports Union and the Sports Development Services and School of Sport developing the following areas:
  • Sports Management     
  • Sports Nutrition
  • Sports Coaching
• Supporting every club in implementing a Club Development Plan which will help guide them as they grow and develop.
• Further enhance the awareness of funding opportunities for clubs.
• Push for the redeveloping the current Sports/Students Union website so that clubs and wider Sports Union activities can be publicised to their full potential.

Development - Individual

• Sourcing more funding and increasing awareness of available coaching and officiating courses is key in helping to develop our clubs and the individuals within them.
• Increasing the awareness of both internal and external volunteering programs/opportunities is key to giving our students the opportunity to gain new skills and develop existing ones.

Development – Facilities

• It’s great that the university wants to invest in our facilities however we need to ensure that any plans and developments going forward cater to the need of both students and clubs.  

Inclusivity

• Working with clubs, irrespective of their size or stature to ensure that they’re equally valued within the Sport Union, further helping to create a positive collective notion around Sport here.
• Your Sports Union needs a president who can be reached by all students. If successful I would operate an open door policy to be there for you as much as physically possible. 
• Continuing to work with groups such as Air3 Radio, Air TV and Brig to increase the profile of sport here in Stirling. Also working with individual clubs to help them with their own publicity.
• Working closely with the Students Union to ensure that as a Sports Union we are not denying any student the opportunity to play sport here in Stirling as outlined in the OneStirling initiative.

Opportunity

• Making intramural sport more accessible for all students, through lowering participation costs, increasing the amount of intramural sports and increasing publicity.
• Setting up a weekly official Parkrun.
• Giving students the opportunity to try new sports throughout the year, rather than just during our Give It A Go weeks, through helping clubs to facilitate taster sessions throughout each semester.

Thank you for reading my manifesto, a more detailed copy of it and further information about my campaign can be found on my Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/BackBathgate4SportsPres/

#BackBathgate #BathgatesBananas