Official remit:

“5.1. The President:

5.1.1. Shall be ultimately responsible for the Society, its activity, and its development;

5.1.2. Shall chair General Meetings of the Society and Society Committee Meetings (unless absent, when the President can delegate another to do so);

5.1.3. Shall be responsible for managing the Society’s relationship with the Guild and any external organisations and ensuring that the Society and its Members are represented in any relevant Guild processes;

5.1.4. Shall ensure the Society is operating in line with the Guild’s governing documents and compliance policies and processes; and,

5.1.5. Shall have overall responsibility for the promotion and development for the society, including by providing a weekly communication to the membership and leading the organistion of freshers week.”

What this job really looks like:

The President is the leader of the Debating Society and their primary role is managing and supporting the rest of the committee to deliver on their responsibilities. This often includes ensuring committee members are meeting deadlines, providing advice, ensuring committee are properly trained and stepping in to do different jobs when the relevant committee member cannot. Other responsibilities include representing the society to external groups (including the Guild and other societies) and managing major events like freshers week and elections. While the President is the leader of the society their power is not absolute and so voters and potential candidates should know that some manifesto pledges cannot be absolutely guaranteed. This includes pledges relating to specific events or teams (for example promising more show debates would have to be agreed with the new Chairs/Deputy Chairs) or the fundamentals of the whole society (for example changing our constitution has to be agreed with the rest of the committee). This is not intended to stifle creativity, and there is a lot the President can absolutely do, but it is important to provide the context that they do not get to dictate policy absolutely to other committee members. It also should be understood that in the case of a last minute demand for work or a committee member having to take a break for whatever reason most of that work will de-facto fall on the President, and thus someone running for this role should be prepared that they will sometimes have a substantial workload increase with little notice. Given the scale of the president's remit there are a lot of desirable traits but necessities include leadership, organisation and management skills.