Adam Mossman realised that he should be running for an FTO position when he noticed just how heavily involved he has been in running societies. “It’s kind of the progression of where I feel I’ve been going,” he says, “I see a lot of ways that the resources and connections and the Union with regards to activities can be improved.”
Mossman has been part of five different society execs as well as shortly getting involved in a sixth. Experience is clearly one of his strengths. As part of folk society, he organised ICBINI (a mini folk festival) which was held at Lancaster in 2015. He acknowledges that it’s nowhere near the size of Roses, but believes the skills are transferrable.
Speaking of Roses, Mossman had a hand in organising the first eSports competition for points, and wants to increase the amount of non-sports events. This might be a criticism of his manifesto, that sports societies are neglected, but he believes that broadening JustPlay will encourage more people to get involved. “At the moment if you miss Fresher’s fair you feel like you’ve missed the bus. So more people involved, more people there.” But his main priority for Roses would be exploiting the big platform on offer.
Mossman was critical of the organisation of resources in the Union at the moment, referring to ‘catastrophic confusion.’ “It’s scattered all over the place and essentially if I could just magic all that into one place, I would,” he explains. This is also the biggest obstacle he’d have to overcome, saying that the location of support is ‘opaque.’ “It’s not necessarily about cutting the red tape but showing where the red tape is and how you navigate it.”
When asked about improving facilities for international students, he admits he had not yet looked into it. But was at lengths to say that he’d go out of his way to listen to them, and after the interview would speak to some students facing issues after realising he did not know.
Mossman believes the thing that makes him stand out as a candidate is how much work he puts in. “I don’t really realise until about halfway through just how much I’m throwing myself into it, and I just have this constant motivation to see a big important task through to its completion.” He knows what it’s like to take ideas off the ground from nothing, and that seems to be a constant theme: “I have a lot of experience in building new stuff up,” he says. Support is a key thing he’d bring to this role, believing it is a lack of it is an issue that affects many students.
Whilst sport seems to be on the backburner for Mossman, he appreciates how amazing those events are at Roses and wants to keep this going from strength to strength. But non-sports societies are his focus, believing a broad range will encourage and attract more students.
Trivia: Mossman was familiar with the funding system for societies.
