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Hello, I am Matt and I would love to be your Head of Finance for 2026/27. This year, I have been away on placement at Disney in London, but you may have seen me cutting about at NaSTA, Showcase or Alumni Weekend.
I was Deputy Station Manager in my second year, I won Best Onscreen Talent and News at NaSTA in 2025 and have been a NaSTA trustee in my year abroad. But the REAL QUESTION is why on earth would you want me to be Head of Finance?

I have five main principles I would like to bring in:
1. Effective use of available money from Union grants
2. Develop relationships with HELIX to maximise the benefit the society can get from their facilities
3. Investing money into upgrading our server
4. Commit to making LSTV as finically accessible as possible, through strong relations with NaSTA and good understanding of the Plus Programs Benefits
5. Transparency around how funds are spent through
But let me break this down…
LUU Grants
I would want to continue our strong relationships with LUU so we can continue to get as much money as possible from their grants which will benefit all members. From my time as Deputy I have strong relationships with those in the Union, so would like to use these connections to increase our likelihood of getting accepted! But what would I spend it on…
Footsteps Fund
I have been blown away in the development in Filmmaking side of LSTV since I have been away! There have been so many incredible projects from the team this year and I would love to see this continue into next year. As we all know, with these filmmaking cameras there are BIG FILES, so, in order to support the next generation of LSTV members I would like to apply to a Footsteps Grant to upgrade our server to cope with increased storage capacity requirements.
This upgrade would benefit all members, as it would speed up upload times onto our computers and ensure that for many years to come LSTV can continue to make our incredible content.

Activities Grant
Theres £80,000 available we can get a slice of in order to help us fund small upgrades and events. It’s an LSTV anniversary year and I have already been in discussions with various Alumni around hosting a One-off event to celebrate! Money from the Activities Fund could make this event truly special and accessible to everyone.

Student Ideas Fund
I would love to support our members to apply for the Student Ideas Fund – support given from the Union that we could use to fund specific projects that showcase skills or knowledge by students.
We could use this fund to specific films or documentary’s that could show LSTV’s impact in the wider student community.

HELIX
Towards the end of my time as Deputy, I began discussion with the HELIX centre about how we could use the facilities for the benefit of LSTV.
If you don’t know - HELIX is the universities “innovation hub” designed for students to to collaborate on creative, innovative, and entrepreneurial projects based on their own initiatives and ideas.
I would love to continue to foster this relationship, this could have many benfits for us:
• Use of their computers when we are stretched on capacity (especially during edit suite)
• Use the ‘Makerspace’ area to make our own merch / crew t-shirts, this would be a cost effective way to bring merch to members at the best possible price!
• Make use of their studio space – they have a PROFESSIONAL STUDIO and Podcast equipment, if we developed a relationship with them overtime the use of these spaces could be revolutionary for the society

Investing money into upgrading our server
I have gone into this above, but just to say again! The society is constantly evolving and growing and with this upgrades are needed.
It would be a great way to secure LSTVs technical capabilities for this year and for future generations by upgrading our servers to allow for greater capacity. Particularly due to the increased use of film cameras, it would be my aim to ensure we have sufficient capacity to support all memberss in creating the very best content we can.
Through my year with Disney I have been working on moving the National Geographic content onto a cloud-based system. So, I have legit real world experience in this! I would assess all the options to see how we can move LSTV forward to ensure we have PLENTY OF STORAGE FOREVERRR

Financial Accessibility
It has always been a source of pride for the society how accessible it is to its members. This is something I am determined to continue. During this year as a NaSTA trustee, I have been inspired by their work to push funds to breakdown financial barriers to participation in Student Media. I would like to continue to work alongside them to provide the best funding possible to make events like NaSTA as accessible as possible.
I commit to gaining a strong knowledge of every aspect the Leeds Plus programme, so we can ensure that members can get the very most out of what the university offers. My experience on Exec in my 2nd year means I have experience dealing with sensitive membership issues with descression. It would be my aim for the Exec to be completely approachable for all members, so we can ensure that no student feels they cannot participate in any LSTV event for financial reasons.
Transparency around how funds are spent
It is my aim that we can allocate funds to all aspects of the society. From News to Sport, Filmmaking to Live and beyond every aspect is important to making LSTV the ICONIC society it is today.
I think it’s super important that every committee member thinks they are getting their fair share of funds, so I will commit to regular meetings with committee members to discuss how they would like money for their section of the society.
I would also like to incorporate this into our general meetings – give members a voice in how we continue to upgrade the society. This could come from anyone and be something small like a set upgrade to a bigger project that you would like to try and fund.
By having regular discussions with anyone about how much money we are playing with to fund the society, it helps members feel involved in the big picture of LSTV.

Sorry, I know I have gone on for a while there! But I am super passionate about LSTV and would love to be Head of Finance to support the Society into its next era!
I will not be able to make the meeting on Thursday as I have got to work :(, but if you have any questions please do feel free to DM on Instagram and I will be happy to get back to you and I will include it in my video!

Hi, I’m Reuben and I’m running for Head of Finance.

I joined LSTV this year and have had a brilliant time working on projects, such as ‘Belle View’ which I co-created and co-direct, and getting to know some of you, however due to my placement year working at an accountancy firm, my free time has become significantly limited and I haven’t been able to involve myself in LSTV as much as I would like. Fortunately, next year I don’t have to work there anymore and I’ll be able to bring all my free time and financial knowledge I’ve acquired to the role of Head of Finance.

The main aspect of my manifesto is to acquire more funding and make sure all expenditures of the society are as efficient as possible. The specific purchases we make would be largely decided by you, the members of LSTV. With so many completely different projects with completely different needs, I would aim to regularly meet with any member who has an idea for a purchase that will benefit the society.

As for acquiring funding, I aim to work with the new Social Secretary to help organise fundraisers for the society as a whole, not just individual projects, as in my experience this can be an effective way to secure funds, opening a new source of income. I will also aim to maintain and hopefully expand our existing revenue, such as gaining more grants or running more commercial projects.

Another important factor to allow us to purchase more equipment is to make sure that the money that we do have is being spent as efficiently as possible. LSTV has many, expensive licences and subscriptions which massively eat into the budget year on year. Reducing this running cost in any way possible will not only free up more funding now, but this will also have a compounding benefit for every future year of LSTV.

Finally, I want to make sure that LSTV is an accessible society for all, by utilising the Plus Programme. This society is so great to be a part of, and as Head of Finance I would try my hardest to eliminate any financial barriers that prevent people from joining in. And yes, this does mean subsidising NaSTA.