Why I vote Breckenridge

It’s less than two weeks until the elections for the 2011/2012 students’ union at Queen Margaret University take place. Although I am usually reluctant to do that, I’d like to issue a recommendation for a candidate.

I vote Breckenridge for two reasons:

I vote Breckenridge because I believe he’s the best candidate.
I also vote Breckenridge because I believe he’s the least bad candidate.

Let me explain why Michael is the best candidate:

He’s been doing a great job in university for the last three years. This included his work in academia, organising several events, delivering classy team papers and so on. I have worked with him and he is reliable and clear, precise as you would expect a Swiss to be. In addition he is the perfect diplomat, and knows how to communicate in what situation. He is a networker, a connector and an influencer. These are all skills you need to lead a £450k organisation.

Also his activities inside university, outside his classes are outstanding. He has been a student ambassador ever since, representing the university, being a face for the brand Queen Margaret. He’s been the Events Manager of the union last year, helping the union the take up pace again after a disastrous year of event management at QMU. Also, having studied at another university, he understands the needs of mature students as well as undergrads.

Finally, his goals are clear and concise: he tells you what he’s doing. And he shows understanding of the problems QMU and QMUSU have. And he is prioritising the most important goals of QMU and us students. He is the one to keep on building a union we can be proud of, in the way Rusty and Rio started it.

The other candidate has some flaws that make me believe he should not be the president. There are minor things like believing Jack Daniels is a proper drink, hybris (Ektor Partyking WTF?) or terrible spelling in his manifesto (double exclamation marks, American English, apostrophes, anyone?). Bigger flaws are in his curriculum. He was the marketing officer for the Union last year. Now look at how they market themselves: their communication is in need of a revamp ever since, the efficiency is near zero and the profile hasn’t got better in the last few years. The website is poor. The eBulletin is poor. He did not have any visible achievements – are you going to vote that guy as your president? Out of six of his points, four fall into the events category. He is missing a point there: Your student experience is certainly about events, but the union’s job is to back your interests. And that’s what the president is supposed to do. What he’s applying for is the Events Manager. So he should.

And yes: Michael is one of my closest friend, hence I am biased. But this is my honest opinion: vote people into the union who you can trust. Vote people who can do the job. Vote people who are fond about what they are doing. Vote Breckenridge.