Non-sabbs are a vital part of our Students’ Union, doing many jobs that keep the things you want going.
There’s a weekly magazine, online radio station or charity auction for some that lets people know they’re doing their jobs.
However, non-sabbs that represent are working just as hard too even if you don’t realise it. Just because there’s no Solus night, printed paper or piece of audio doesn’t mean that they aren’t doing enough.
Being a non-sabb could look great on your CV or pay you enough for an extra few drinks at Come Play but it’s not just about that. Non-sabbs are doing it to serve you, the members of Cardiff Students’ Union.
But if there is no representative non-sabbs then the happy shiny feeling that comes from knowing you’ve got someone to fight your corner isn’t really there.
The most worrying thing about these by-elections though is that it’s not a fluke or even a couple of coincedences.
If less than one in five of us can be bothered to vote here and we’re the third best in the country, I feel for the rest of our Students’ Unions.
It’s a wonder that they have any influence at all.
Excuse my holier than thou speak but it isn’t difficult to vote when there’s a ballot box in nearly every teaching building.
It’s encouraging that the officers I talked to really wanted to encourage us to be active in their unions and to use a cliched phrase, ‘get involved’.
At the end of the day though, it’s not up to them, it’s up to the rest of us, the 22,981 of us that aren’t in the pay of the Union.
The ones that give away our student loan to the Union and expect something in return.
Voting is one of the ways they give us that.
