Liverpool Guild of Students

The Guild of Students building.

Liverpool Guild of Students (LGoS) is the student union of the University of Liverpool (not to be confused with the Liverpool Students' Union which represents Liverpool John Moores University), though LSU and LGoS are now in partnership.

The Guild's mission is listen, lobby, lead - which encompasses its devolved approach to representation. Unusually, the Guild elects a team of largely non-portfolio sabbaticals officers who steer the organisational priorities. The staff team of 30 manage and develop day to dy and long term work of the Guild in three directorates - Membership Services, Central Services and Social Enterprise.

The title also refers to the Guild of Students building, which is the centre point of activity in student life at the University and is run by the four sabbatical officers. It contains various bars and cafes as well as administrative offices, meeting rooms, training facilities and the Athletics Union. It also hosts live music, theatre and comedy in its four main venues - Mountford Hall, the Stanley Theatre, James E Brown Room and the Courtyard.

The building was built in three stages, evident from the difference in architecture. The original building, housing the Gilmour Hall (originally the debating chamber) was built in 1911. The middle section was built in the 1930s and the largest part, housing the Mountford Hall and the Courtyard was opened in 1966. Originally the Courtyard was open to the elements, before being covered in the 1990s.

The current Chief Executive of the Guild is Tricia O'Neill.

Guild Media

LGoS used to publish the Liverpool Student newspaper, which was a joint publication with Liverpool Students' Union and Liverpool Hope Students' Union, until it closed down in May 2007 because of increasing costs and declining advertising revenues.

In 2007 produced an official LGoS publication, the Sphinx, referring to the original student publication of the Guild in the early 1900s. The Sphinx itself folded by the start of September 2008 due to rising costs and a lack of advertising revenue.

Liverpool Student Media has since grown as an online news-site, ran as an activity group within the Guild. Today Liverpool Student Media is split into 3 with LSMedia providing news, LSRadio is the student Internet radio station and LSFilmmakers (often referred to as LSFilm) provides video content for the whole group, often streaming events from the Guild. As thriving media groups, they cover all main events in the guild and in the city including live coverage of Guild elections as well as commentary on Guild and University developments.

LSMedia

Although not officially organised by LGoS, Sphinx has been largely replaced with the web based venture LSMedia (Liverpool Student Media), a joint venture between the University's Radio Station (LSRadio) and magazine and film/TV elements. The site launched on October 23, 2008 and has been successful even without much promotion.

In mid 2011 the LSMedia site entered a redevelopment process under new editor Dani Telford. The Drupal system on which the site used to run was replaced with a Wordpress system and the site's appearance was also overhauled, leading to the site resembling that of a traditional newspaper.

Guild Live

Guild Live was the name of the entertainments provision at the Guild up until 2008. The Mountford Hall is the largest hall, accommodating around 2,500 people. There is also the Stanley Theatre, commonly used for gigs and theatre performances, the James E. Brown room and the Courtyard which are also used for various events.

LGoS now works in collaboration with the Academy Music Group regularly hosting gigs and concerts on their behalf in Mountford Hall and the Stanley Theatre. Recent appearances include Dizzy Rascal, Elbow, the Manic Street Preachers, Noah & the Whale, and Calvin Harris.

External links

• Guild of Students
• LSMedia (Liverpool Student Media)