The Drop Meets…Nick "Welshy" Davies, Guild President-Elect

Another Nick Davi(e)s for President? The Drop meets the president-elect.

13 years ago

Guides

After winning the Guild Presidential Election with an impressive 2481 votes, Nick ‘Welshy’ Davies chats to The Drop about Campaign Cricket, getting stuck in car windows and his plans for the Guild next year.

HR: Congratulations Welshy! It must be great knowing that you’re Guild president for next year! What was your initial reaction when you found out the news?

ND: I don’t actually remember… when Badger called my name I must have had this weird kind of ‘elated blackout’. The next thing I remember is hugging him up on stage. It was a great night. Since then it’s all been really surreal. It’s weird knowing now that I have a job secured for next year. I’m a third year law student and I worked out the other day that I only have about 24 hours contact time left which is pretty scary.

HR: And have you done anything to celebrate?

ND: Well after the results were announced on Friday I stayed in the Lemmy until it closed and then moved on to Timepiece! Facebook has been going crazy – I’ve had so much support and so many congratulations from people… and so many friend requests! Sometimes I have to check I do actually know the people first! After the initial craziness I just relaxed over the weekend – my housemates don’t get it but I find doing the washing up and cleaning weirdly relaxing, there’s a picture on Facebook of a massive pile of washing up I did over the weekend!

HR: That’s certainly not our idea of relaxation! So now election week is over – can you think of any highlights of the week for you?

ND: There were so many – it was great hanging out with everyone else campaigning and we invented some interesting new ways to stay entertained when we weren’t actually trying to pester everyone for votes. We all played ‘Campaign Cricket’ which involved using a ‘Like Mike’ board as a bat and one of Azalia’s (Lawrence, running for VP Welfare and Community) penguins as a ball!

HR: So the week wasn’t as stressful as people make out?

ND: The stress was mostly in the build up – when we actually had to present our ideas to the university people to see if they thought they were completely ridiculous or not, that was quite nerve-wracking!

HR: What was your funniest moment from the week itself?

ND: It would have to be Azalia’s stunt to see how many people she could fit in one car. She managed to fit 17 in the end but it was only a tiny Polo and of course I managed to get stuck in the back window!

HR: How do you feel about working with the 4 other elected Sabbs?

ND: I think we’ve got a really strong team. You get to know people really well when you’re all campaigning together on campus… and of course I knew a few of them before anyway. Our manifestos don’t really seem to clash that much either so I think we’ll all fit neatly together.

HR: It’s a bit of a coincidence that we’ve got another ‘Nick Davies’ as president next year (this year’s Guild president is Nick ‘Badger’ Davis). Have you spoken much to Badger about next year and what the role involves?

ND: Ha, yes the name thing is quite funny! I actually knew Badger already from our work for RAG in previous years. He’s a really good guy. I’m going to need to chat to him quite a bit before next year to discuss budgeting and how I’m going to achieve my ideas financially.

HR: So what will your first steps be as Guild President?

ND: Well, once my exams are out the way I’m going to get straight out there doing research. I’m really keen to work on employability and somehow linking that in to societies as well as the different subject areas. For example the Modern Foreign Language centre – I think we could make more of that.

HR: Housing is also a big part of your manifesto – student landlords aren’t always very reliable, what are you hoping to do about this?

ND: I want to set up a system where students can give feedback to other students… say if they had a particularly bad or a good landlord. Everyone should be able to access this information.

HR: But surely first you’re going to allow yourself a bit of time for relaxation?

ND: Of course I’ll relax a bit… my official start date is July 1st!

Ten things you might not have known about Welshy:

His most embarrassing moments in Exeter… have involved getting kicked out of clubs for generally being too drunk (Thankfully he’s never been banned from any though!).

If he was an alcoholic drink he’d be… Southern Comfort, lemonade and blackcurrant. It’s a little known fact but it tastes just like those Refresher sweets you had as a kid. It’s easy to drink… just like him it’s ‘easy going.’

He’s originally from… the Swansea Valleys in Wales

If he could give candidates for next year one piece of advice it’d be to … take time to prepare your campaign EARLY (Nick started in his first year!).

His favourite fancy dress costume has been … wearing a suit for a wedding social or probably will be a Scouts and Beavers social he’s got coming up. He has won a lot of fancy dress competitions in his time.

If he had to pick between rugby or football … he’s a rugby boy all the way (he is Welsh after all…)

His other nicknames are… he doesn’t have any. Just Welshy…it’s his trademark!

During his time in Exeter he’s been involved in…archery, RAG and he works in the Ram!

He’s done Welcome Week so many times… that people still come up to him saying that they remember him moving them into their room and carrying their TV, printer etc.

His only regrets from his time in Exeter so far are… that he didn’t get more involved with Community Action and Voice.

Henrietta Richards