Position Descriptions for Potential Applicants
President: Rahul Ingle
The President of International House is a flexible role. Being at the top of the committee is like being the Pope, but even better because you are young enough to party. The main job of the President is to be a representative of the student body in dealing with IH administration, the IH council, the other colleges and any external bodies that want to make contact with IH in regards to the students. The President also needs to manage the IH student club committee and ensure that they are focused and completing the tasks that are required of them. This part is usually easy as the committee itself is comprised of loyal followers. It is worth noting that any disputes within IH are usually resolved in its initial stages by the President and Vice President before they escalate. Overall, it could be said that the president is the face of IH charged with keeping the peace and ensuring the smooth operation of the student committee.
Vice President: Thomas Soh
The role of Vice President is quite ambiguous as there is a lot of free space within the role to do your own. For the most part I am second in command to the President and as such have very similar responsibilities to them and will liaise with them on all issues. The difference is that the President deals with external bodies like other Presidents and the IH council, whilst the VP oversees all the internal work in IH such as whether the committee is running effectively, if people are doing their jobs and if we are representing all groups in IH.. There are 4 core things that you must do in the role of Vice President:
- Maintain a presence within IH, so be seen at meals and events.
- Attend GC meetings as well as a weekly meeting with the Head and Deputy Head of IH.
- Coordinate the IH Photograph in semester 1.
- Coordinate and organise Mini O week in semester 2.
Secretary: Amanda Low
I sit on both the General Committee and the Activities Committee, and take minutes at the weekly meetings. I organise the General Meetings (GM) as well as the Annual General Meeting (AGM). I’m in charge of the Facebook pages, Nexus and keeping everyone up to date on the latest happenings around IH. My job sounds boring but it’s more interesting than you know! Come have a chat with me to find out more.
Treasurer: Vee Vien Tan
- Act as treasurer for Satadal, Play, Orientation Week, CIA Week, O-Weekend, River Cruise, any other expenditure on assets for student club and on expenses concerning the welfare of IHSC members such as for newspapers expenses and Foxtel.
- Ensure the Play, Orientation Week, CIA Week, O-Weekend and River Cruise committees draw up a detailed budget as per discussion with the Treasurer at least 2 weeks (where applicable) before the commencement of the respective activities.
- Record and approve cheques as well as other financial transactions.
- As IHSC is a registered business subject to laws of the CA 2001, ensure all financial records are properly documented
- Issue invoices to the Accounts Manager (Will and David) of the college when requesting for money.
You do not have to be from a Commerce background to apply for this position.
International Liaison Officer: Maggie Greenham
International Liaison Officer (ILO) is responsible for organising all IH’s cultural events and any social events that aren’t alcohol related. I also have to organise CIA week and the clubs and societies, The ILO attends both GC and AC and runs the Cultural Committee to organise the cultural events. Finally, the ILO is the international students representative on GC. Cultural communication is also something that my role focuses on so it’s a really awesome position to make friends and learn a lot more about all of IH’s cultures!
Activities Officer: Vishnu Sachidaran
Being the Activities Officer, my role is one that has a few major responsibilities. The biggest one is being the O -week coordinator. For O-week, I coordinate the entire week along with the 16 other O-weekers. I am also in charge of organising all IH parties and I’m in charge of the bar at all parties. I chair the Activities Committee which is a weekly meeting discussing pretty much the activities happening around IH.
Activities Treasurer: Sameer Jalees
As AT, I reimburse people by writing cheques if the activities they need to be reimbursed for are under me, e.g. clubs and societies’ spending. I also ensure Shop liquidity is running smoothly, emptying the cash in the cash register and taking it to deposit in the bank. Finally, I have to keep budgets updated with the relevant spending and try and ensure all money allocated is spent by the end of the academic year.
General Member For Shop: Genevive Kroussaniotakis
As Shop Girl I search for food either online or in small stores, often searching for the lowest prices. These goods are then sold, not at a profit, to IH students. This is a simple and fun job, even though it puts a dent in my bank account for a few weeks!
Community Involvement Representative: Larnie Hewatt
The position of Community Involvement Representative (CIR) is essentially all about getting IHers out of IH and involved in the wider community. This involves promoting volunteer opportunities and sharing info about local and global social justice causes, as well as running events of this nature within IH. Such events in the past have included Do It In a Dress, Movember and Live Below the Line. CIR also focuses on the environment and issues of sustainability. CIR oversees the IH Environments Committee, which aims to educate the college about becoming a more environmentally conscious college and reduce the amount of waste it produces.
ICAC Representative: Inika Reinhardt
ICAC rep is International House’s representative on the Intercollegiate Activities Council. This position lets you go to other colleges and meet people outside of IH because you’ll be meeting with other colleges’ ICAC representatives and be attending various intercollegiate events such as dance-offs and poker nights. Your primary goal is to encourage positive interaction between residents of IH and residents of the other colleges in a way that both makes IHers feel good about living here and fosters friendships between colleges. You meet with AC every week and and ICAC every one to two weeks and are in charge of organising your own event and putting together people to represent IH at other events…and you have fun!
Female Sports Representative: Jordi Nugent
The female sports rep works in tandem with the male sports rep. You maintain sports inventory, organise/dictate captains and teams, advertise games and sporting opportunities available at MU, sit on AC (Activities Committee), sit on the ICSC (Inter-Collegiate Sports Committee), and help organise sport. Basically this is a fun, social, sporty admin role. Workload wise, it varies, depending on the sports calendar. Having mainly weekly morning sports games, you have your afternoons and most of your weekends free for yourself… unless training is on! Sports rep is a great way of getting to know lots of people from IH, other colleges and Melbourne Uni Sport. Sitting on AC and the ICSC is exciting; particularly due to realising you are part of something bigger. I’ve had a blast being female sports rep, so if you are considering, umm-ing, and or ahh-ing whether you should run for election or not… DO IT. You won’t regret it 🙂
Male Sports Representative: Thomas Schmitt
As male sports rep I’m in charge of finding captains and putting together the IH sports teams (mostly the guys teams). Along with the female sports rep I organise jerseys for the teams and the sports equipment needed for the sports. I get to buy stuff we need and if anyone needs anything sports related, I deal with it. Lastly I sit on the ICSC (intercollegiate sports committee) and help to make sure all the sports run smoothly and are epically awesome! All in all I deal with all things sport.
Globe Editor: Zizi Averill (Interim)
As Globe editor your role is part article blood-hound and part paper work-horse. At your weekly Globe meeting you collect your writers together and discuss what they are writing. You must make sure you’ll have enough content for the next edition. Then you spend the next week chasing people up over Facebook, emails and at dinners. By Friday these happy conversations transform with a slightly more frantic tone. The weekend is for compiling the works and checking for splling eorrors and tpyos. By Sunday evening you print everything off in order to deliver it on time for the Monday morning Breakfast Gang. It’s an incredibly enjoying and satisfying job – especially if you enjoy writing!
General Member For General Committee: Khaya Mphele
The GMGC is a composition of two primary tasks. Firstly, s/he is expected to liaise with Catercare, those angels who feed us. This encompasses sitting down with a representative from Catercare once in a week, and debating the most recent concerns/ queries you have compiled from other IHers. Furthermore, you must liaise between Catercare and the student club committee if some form of catering is requested for an event. Secondly, the GMGC must maintain, as well as seek to expand, the assets of IH. Informally, this relates to maintaining and adding to the assets of the gym and the games room. I think the time commitment is not well defined, rather a GMGC faces many ‘mini-tasks’ including purchasing more assets and dropping by the kitchen to talk to Catercare should the need arise. In each week the number of the ‘mini-tasks’ may differ. Perhaps it is best not to be disorganised and brush aside such tasks, sillily thinking “i’ll get around to it later”, when carried away with studies. The author is shamefully guilty of this.
