In which Nickers talks about Campaigning, Collectivism, and wishes everyone a Happy New Year.

A slightly unusual blog this time, but rest assured that a ‘what Nickers did in his holidays’ style account will appear soon.

My main role, and the role of all student Officers is to be a political voice and a political representative. For all that election manifestoes are full of promises to improve bars, put your favourite show on at lunchtime or improve the budget for student activities, these things are only signs of a candidate’s ability to listen and their judgements on current issues. The real focus is on representing student views to the University and local community and for allowing students to make changes to their lifestyle, their community and their world. I’ve been quoted before as saying that the job of the Executive is not to run the Union but to make sure it runs itself. Similarly the role of the Executive is not to be the only ones who campaign for an issue, but to ignite debate, inform the Student body of the issues and allow for voices to be heard. This leads to one thing – collectivism. I believe firmly in the ideals of collectivism and unity – and here’s why.

I’ve been involved with various campaigns over the years and a few phrases ring through as being utterly absurd. The first was from a woman who didn’t support a petition asking for phones to be returned to halls as “I don’t sign petitions on principle”. The principle was presumably that she didn’t want her voice to be heard. At a recent conference the discussion turned to City Academies and a speaker said “There’s no point in discussing this… we can’t change anything”. Both of these events seem to me to have one thing behind them – the lack of self-belief in the person concerned. I’m in a privileged job where each day my goal is to allow people to develop themselves and explore their potential. The most privileged aspect of this is knowing that each and every student I meet has an enormous amount to offer. Collectivism can be described as a loss of identity – I think it’s much more a celebration of individual identity, both of the self and those around you. That’s what makes a Union of Students so powerful when it campaigns. A 100 signatures on a petition is not one piece of paper with lots of marks, its 100 people describing their convictions, their beliefs and their purpose and the it’s also a sign that each of those people have a sense of self conviction, self belief and self purpose. A united voice is a strong voice, and a united campaigning voice is a dangerous and exciting prospect.

The other more recent event that has spurred this blog is a text from one of my friends that read “Merry Christmas and well done on the Civil Partnership stuff – that’s great”. I don’t want to suggest that my friend’s sentiment was misplaced or that I wasn’t ecstatic when same-sex couples were granted these rights – but the issue here is of who ‘owns’ the campaign. The fight for civil partnerships was not just a fight by the LGBT community but one fought by those who believe in equality. Collectivism is about adding your voice where it is not expected. Apartheid was not ended by black South Africans alone, and when the closure of the Sociology department was announced at Reading the call was from Sociology students to everyone for support, not just for signatures within the school itself. The Students’ Union is made up of a huge number of groups, but what it should never be made up of is a huge number of divisions. A problem for Sports clubs is a problem for all students; a department closure affects everyone and the failure to provide adequate accommodation in one Halls should be accompanied by a cry from all.

2006 will be a major year for all students. The introduction of variable fees, upheaval in the way we can organise ourselves in Students’ Unions, and the continual march of the Education sector towards a commercial state. On the eve of this year I know that I believe these issues can be met, can be overcome and can be used to make the future better for Students. But this can only be done together. 2006 will be a year of change, a year of campaigning and, I hope, a year of collectivism.

Happy New Year to you all,
Nickers x

In which Nickers describes the second SEANUS Executive of the year and his travel back from Canterbury.

SEANUS Meeting two was a shorter affair than the first – though I did have to travel to Canterbury for it. Once there I intentionally walked to University of Kent to meet up with Katie and Liz rather than go straight to Canterbury Christchurch College to where the meeting was.

The meeting was attended by most of the Executive as well as Stephen Brown and Ellie Russell from the NEC. It was nice to have them there, as they’re always very willing to help us out.

We had a quick update on the current Campaigns and Projects. The SE Weighting campaign postcards have been distributed and will be sent from individual Unions. NATFHE have agreed in principal to support the campaign and there’s support from a Lib Dem member of the Home Office in our research. With 2006 heralding variable fees it is really important we all keep pushing the campaign.

We reported back from National Council, Becky Hulme (NEC Observer) discussed NEC meetings and I reported back from LGBT conference.

For the unified RAGs day we’re going back to Unions and getting our RAGs groups to identify when they’re free and look at events that we can all run on our campuses or combine in one location.

Steve from UCCA chatted about the University imposing a no-smoking ban on their bar and the financial affect this had on them. Issues of autonomy from Institutions led to Steve writing up a charter between Unions and their parent organisations.

I suggested that we should try and be sharing some of our Governance review stuff among each other as many Unions are undergoing changes and it would be useful to see where everyone was. Bubble is collecting all this stuff together.

We had a chat about neighbourhood forums and how they work at various places. This ranged from being a moan-fest at Students from locals to some very sensible work together.

I’m going to be doing some work on Volunteer Accreditation schemes and possible looking at a regional award for volunteers. I was quite pleased to get this and Governance in to the same meeting which shows how truly sad I am.

We decided to support the WMANUS PGCE campaign and encourage Unions to ask their MPs to support EDM 1229 – so do it! There’s been stuff from Wes Streeting sent out and also details on the WMANUS website (www.wmanus.org).
And with that we headed off home – though the journey was filled with the relocation of NUS and the trials of Staff Parties. To finish, here are my two favourite comments of the day.

“and now… she is dead”
“Where do you live?” “Wye” “Because I want to know!” “Wye”

In which Nickers describes STADIA Conference with less detail than his other Blogs

I arrived at Liverpool having been at LGBT Conference for two days and stopping off overnight with my folks in Crewe, so started off at a slight disadvantage. The Coffee was of the usual NUS standards and shocked my system into the Student Activities Conference mood.

One of the nicest things about the event was being able to meet up with officers I’d met over the summer, particularly those from ‘Activities in Action’. This was very useful and allowed me to catch up with what lots of other people were doing in their Unions.

The pace of the conference was very good – lots of workshops and opportunities to chat which meant I learnt a lot. The workshops I attended were…

Refugee Issues – With RUSU’s STAR (Student Action for Refugees) group getting very enthusiastic and involved again I attended this workshop so I could support them.
PDP: Making it work for us – How Personal Development Plans can be used in Student Development and improving graduate employment prospects.
The powers that be – A very interesting talk from Graham Allcott, the director of Student Volunteering England who discussed policy changes in the sector.
Involving and Developing Students through Union Governance – After Volunteering, governance is my second favourite subject so I attended this. Was quite helpful – RUSU are way ahead on a lot of governance stuff talking to other Unions.
Rewarding Volunteers – a chance to have people praise the MASIV scheme and also to think about next term’s Volunteer’s party.

I must admit I was exhausted after 4 days of Conferences and so missed the last Workshop session on Tuesday… but the break did allow me to network at the social that evening and the 5th block didn’t have any workshops that jumped out at me.

As well as the workshops there were lots of network sessions, including a table network event where we all discussed a particular subject. I attended the one on community action with a view to setting up some projects for next term.

That was STADIA in a nutshell. I realise there isn't as much detail as normal but that's because a lot of the stuff will be used in the various meetings I have with staff rather than being democratic events in and of themselves. I'm always there for your questions though

Byee and happy break again!

Nickers x

In which Nickers closes the term with difficult decisions but optimism for the time ahead

With illness and conferences it’s been an odd few weeks – I’m working on the STADIA report at the moment and you’ll see that in a separate Blog. This covers the non-Conference work I’ve been doing, and I should really start with Student Council.

Student Council was eventful – thanks and praise should go out to Emily Beardsmore, the newly instated Chair, for facing a challenging meeting with efficient and decisive guidance. The call to censure Dave Lewis fell dramatically (10 votes against censure, 4 votes for), and I’m very glad it did – Dave works immensely hard and he is always centred on the members, not any personal sense of grandeur or importance. It’s just a shame this failed attempt didn’t get reported anywhere because it’s a real boost to the President’s popularity and the backing of Council signifies the backing of everyday students. All three of the proposed motions I spoke for passed without any opposition, so particularly the Governance work that the Union’s been doing can go ahead now. This is very exciting indeed; I’m hoping to share some of our practice with other Union’s in the area through SEANUS (next meeting 15th December) and get tips for the constitution and regulation review.

After a few days away (2 days sick, at LGBT Conference over the weekend for SEANUS and then at STADIA for a further three days) I returned to sort out my hundreds of e-mails. I attended the Nightline social which was really nice and have been planning out the events for next term. Highlights include, of course, the Volunteers party, a week of supporting student activities, even more RU Ready Training and RAGS week during week 6 (this looks like it’ll be fantastic – I don’t want to spoil any surprises but the committee are already working very hard on it).

One of the nicest things that has happened in the last few weeks was the chance for Dave and I to chat to a couple of guys in Mondial over our lunch break about the Union, 3Sixty and our plans. We really don’t get enough time to do this, and I certainly left it feeling glad to have had the opportunity to chat to some ‘grassroots’ students instead of answering e-mails. More of this next term I hope…

There have been very serious issues with the RUSU Forums and difficult decisions have been made. This is a very unpleasant business and I hope that students are understanding about the situation.

The potential closure of Sociology has led to a swift response from the Executive – I’ve been getting people to sign our petition as the first stage of the opposition campaign. If you haven’t signed it I really hope that you do so – it’s one of several available at Reception.

My STADIA report will appear shortly, but for now I’ll leave you with best wishes for a happy and restful break and an expectation of great things for next term.

Nickers x

In which Nickers talks about his excursion to National Council as one of the South East Reps

National Council Report – Monday 14th November 2005, Coventry

I wasn’t really sure what to expect at the first National Council but what occurred didn’t surprise me. It was a mix of useful motions and sensible debate piled next to bureaucracy for the sake of appearing clever and profiling veiled as representation. I deliberately took a bit of a step back on the day so I could gauge how it all worked and I hope my report doesn’t seem overly negative or positive – my feelings are very much mixed about the event.

As a heads up to exactly what National Council is…

“National Council directs the work of the NEC and can hold them to account for their activities and responsibilities during the year between Annual Conferences. The Council meets at least three times a year and can ratify decisions taken at liberation and other conferences, as well as making recommendations to Conference regarding the accounts and estimates. Any ratifications that are not passed by National Council revert to the next Annual Conference. National Council may also pass policy, in exceptional circumstances.”

…As taken from the NUS Website. One thing I was surprised at was the absence without apologies of many NEC – the blasé attitude of some towards the event suggested that the ability of Council to hold officers accountable wasn’t quite as forceful as officer online leads you to believe.

Here’s a bit of a rundown of the day…

The first point of business was the Election of the Chair, and this went to Ben Ward who was also chair last year. One of Ben’s things seems to be added structure to Council and the agenda moved to some By-laws that he’d worked upon. These all seemed very sensible to myself – they reminded me in many ways of our own Standing Orders at RUSU, but what occurred was that they were applied for this Council only and then revoked so people could have a proper look. This was slightly frustrating – the issue was one of accessibility. The by-laws stated that all paperwork should be available in good time for Council, but the by-laws themselves weren’t and this became a debate. How far you can criticise something that aims to improve access for being inaccessible I’m not sure… I hope that the by-laws do get passed without too much fuss for good next time. Also at this time was a discussion of whether NEC can vote at Council. The first democratic NUS Event I went to was last year’s Extra-Ordinary conference in Wolverhampton and I can remember the NEC right to vote being removed then (subject to ratification at Conference). This was done but not written in the constitution so NEC did vote throughout the meeting. To me this seems like working in the framework of the law but not its spirit – though fair play to Sian and Veronica who chose to abstain from all votes as Council requested the NEC to do. The agenda was changed and the affiliation of new areas was bought forwards so that Bubble could have his vote as Areas Rep… the vote was unanimous and Katie and I cheered.

So the first 40 minutes or so felt like just an exercise in bureaucracy and showing off who knew the constitution best. But it did get better…

Commission Sessions

So that questions could be asked about the Report and Plan, Council split into groups for the next section. Firstly there were 3 discussions: Welfare, Strong Students’ Unions and Liberation Campaigns. Katie attended Welfare, Claire went to Strong Students Unions and I attended the last one and everyone else in the room was a liberation officer or on the committee… I have a huge interest in Liberation work, but it’s not my background so I didn’t feel I could engage fully at this session. However, Sian and Jo Salmon updated us on what was going on in the priority campaigns. The Women’s campaigns are aimed at fighting the gender pay gap and supporting women in the workplace and a pro-choice campaign. Sian described her work for Student’s With Disabilities (SWD) including the Sexual revoLOOtion stuff about providing disabled toilets with condoms and sanitary products, involvement in student activities for disabled students and ‘Don’t Diss my ability’ which campaigns against negative attitudes about SWD. There wasn’t really much controversy about these campaigns as work seems to be going well on both. We had some NUS coffee and reconvened in two groups ‘Education’ and ‘Society and Citizenship’. I went to Education with Katie. I was somewhat annoyed that the whole conversation seemed to be about why Julian Nicholds (VP Education) was referring FE questions to Ellie Russell (VP FE) when she wasn’t there. If the best response is to be given surely the best person needs to give it?

After Lunch the National Treasurer Joe Rukin gave a statement from Will Page who officially offered his resignation. I don’t think this came as much of a surprise, but I must say that I don’t think some of his comments about the NEC weren’t really fair, I’m not sure anyone should have to declare which political party they vote for if it doesn’t affect the way they vote, debate or represent students.

We had updates on the Welfare, Education and FE campaigns which was interesting, but not much new from the Regional Conferences. All the information is on t’Website so I’m not going to replicate it all here.

We moved into the Motions session next, which, as expected was the most exciting bit of the day by far. The motions can be summarised as…

1) Access to National Council – for Council to become more accessible. I voted FOR and it PASSED.
2) Stagecoach and NUS Extra – this caused the most debate and points of information. Stagecoach a well known funder of the homophobic pro-Section 28 campaign has a discount on NUS Extra currently. The motion was to remove them. I voted FOR (with some waving of my hand) and it PASSED.
3) Support for Terence Higgins Trust (THT) – the motion was for NUS to support the removal of luxury item status from condoms as championed by the THT. This would reduce or remove the VAT on them. I voted FOR and it PASSED.
4) 7/7 terrorism attacks – this was a motion of thanks to the NEC for their work on the post 7th July response. I voted FOR and it PASSED
5) No to terrorism and Racism – in a similar vein, supporting the NEC’s response and re-iterating the dedication of the movement to work against racism and terrorism. I voted FOR and it PASSED and quite right too.
6) OFFA – campaigning to support the Office of Fair Access and increase its powers. I voted FOR the motion PASSED.
7) NUS Successes – I liked this one, a mandate for the NEC to talk about when they do cool and groovy things. I don’t think we do concentrate on the good works enough – they do happen but we aren’t really told (unless you’re facing disaffiliation). The motion PASSED and I voted FOR.
8) Blogs – A moan at officers who don’t update their blogs and a crackdown on it. To be honest, I have an issue with the idea that a blog every two weeks that says nothing is better than one every month that is done properly. Sian noted that people moan about the number of blogs, but not their contents, and it does seem that it’s more accountancy than accountability. I don’t think this was really considered in the motion, but some NEC (Sian, Gemma, Dan Randall and Wes particularly) do manage to blog regularly and fully. I ABSTAINED and the motion PASSED.

At the last section, the Reports Motions there was a motion to censure Gemma Tumelty for organising Regional Conferences during Ramadam. Jamal spoke against the motion and it was withdrawn.

And that was that! I then went to Warwick University to meet with my friends Jenny and Maria and had a very nice evening. If anyone’s got any questions then give me a shout.

Nickers

In which Nickers reports on MASIV, Governance and the place of Democracy

It appears that I’m doing this every three weeks deliberately – I assure you this isn’t the case! I’ve just been very busy and doing lots of stuff.

Week 6 was RUSU’s Money Week – and I helped out as much as I could with the campaign. This included running a session of ‘R U Ready… to be a treasurer’, heading up the Campaign for South East Weighting and doing stuff on Volunteers Hours to show how much they give to the campus ‘economy’ (if it can be called this). The campaign was a huge success – one of the biggest pushes the Union has done in recent years and one that really did get the Union into halls through the finance talks and encouraged the student community to participate. I’d like to thank all staff and Executive who took part in the campaign and a special thanks to Jenna who co-ordinated the whole lot fantastically.

Last time I reported that 207 people were on MASIV just before the deadline – in fact 230 people signed up in the end! What’s more, we’ve now run training sessions that have seen 150 of them prepared to take part in the module, get their portfolios together and get accredited. The more I think about this the more I grin.

A lot of my time’s been sorting out issues with Spark and the role of editorial independence of content opposed to independence of the Union – and what I mean by that is not the Executive but the membership. My feeling is that student media should not be the Executive’s, just as 3Sixty should not be the Executive’s nightclub. But it should belong to the membership, be responsible to them and have a duty of care to inform them properly and uphold the policies that they, the membership, set through the democratic processes. Editorial Independence is the ability to discuss the policy of the membership, not ignore it, and editorial independence is a privilege given to the Student media by the membership through its constitution and regulations, not a right of it. If it were a right then all Students Union’s would have it – not just Reading. The Executive have a duel role – fulfil their portfolios and uphold the administration of the democratic processes of the Union as its trustees. I know this view – that all parts of the Union should be accountable in some way to the membership is not one shared by everyone – but I do believe in a democratic process and the power of the group over the individual. I refuse to apologise for this. My review of the Constitution and Regulations in line with the Governance review will hopefully clear up some of these misconceptions and grey areas and put the governance of the Union back in the hands of the students.

Governance review – I’d have liked to have done much more work on this recently, especially in light of tomorrow’s Student Council. The edited highlights of the plans are…

1) Sabbatical Officers to remain as they are
2) In addition to these trustees 2 internal, non-portfolio trustees (i.e. full time students who have to look after the business, legal and democratic side of the Union, but not a specific area like ‘Education’ or ‘Welfare’)
3) Two external, non-portfolio trustees interviewed and selected by the Sabbatical officers and scrutinisers. Suggestions for this could be ex-sabbaticals of RUSU, people with a background in the education or charity sector and so on
4) Replace Part Time Officers who currently have an untenable position as trustees and scrutinisers of trustees and replace them with a team of 6 whose remit is to make sure the trustees are acting properly for the Membership
5) Change the role of Council to a policy setting and campaigning organisation not a scrutinising one (a role it is unable to fulfil currently)
6) Change the structures of meetings and the constitution and regulations accordingly

As an Officer, my main focus is political. I’m keeping an eye on two campaigns at the moment – the first is the Participate campaign (look out for Pink Postcards and read the article in next week’s Spark) and the South East Weighting campaign. Many people (about 500) signed the petition to Bill Rammell during Money week and I hope the pressure remains.

That’s all for now…

Nickers

In which Nickers apologises profusely for not updating his Blog but has been a busy boy...

My goodness – that’s a long time since my last Blog! I am a bad Nickers so I apologise. What have I been up to that has kept me from Blogging for so long I hear you cry through cyberspace. Hush down and I’ll tell you…

Firstly I was Chair of Elections Committee for the by-election and NUS Affiliation – running hustings and NUS debate, making sure the candidates were ok, doing PowerPoint presentations and Press releases, co-ordinating with student Media and the NUS to get people down discussing the issues. I want to say thank you to everyone who voted and showed that they cared about their Union and their student lifestyle and a special thank you to the candidates for making it a great election.

The results… Societies Officer is now Anthony Gudgin, Volunteers Officer is Naomi Tomblin and we voted to stay part of NUS with 89% of the vote!

RU Ready… for running events was a real success – with very positive feedback indeed – everyone thought the level of Training was “ace” or “very good” – so many thanks to those who delivered the sessions.

I’ve been busy on the day to day stuff with Spark and Junction11 as usual and I’ve been helping out with Nightline Training too.

MASIV looks like it’s going to have a wonderful 2nd pilot year – with an hour and a half till application deadline we have something like 207 applicants! That’s up by about 150 from last year. Thank you everyone who’s encouraged, cajoled and promoted the scheme to others. I was at Regional Conference yesterday (more of which below) and MASIV was held up as best practice again – I grinned inanely.

I remained grinning because I then got elected to National Council by the other SE officers who attended. I’m dead chuffed and very smug right now, and looking forward to getting into doing stuff and helping the National Campaign.

I wrote a motion for Governance Review and took it to Student Council and the phrase 'Council is in Crisis' is now floating around the Union like the odour of Snakey B on a Thursday morning. This is very exciting and great to be working on.

That's mainly it - sorry again for my blog being so late - especially to a certain JH who loves it so much!

Nickers x

In which a satisfied Nickers reports

This week’s been Sparkling. Spark training, Spark publishing and meetings about the newspaper – so I’ll be working extra hard on the other volunteer groups next week so they all feel loved :) If you’re from Junction11, Nightline or RAGs and feel neglected just come and ask me for a hug.

The “RU Ready… for Spark in a day?” event on Wednesday went fantastically. Fran, Gav, Nathania, Caz, Nick, Kat, Vid, Ellie, Karen and all the other Editors who I’ve forgotten (sorry) did a brilliant job at introducing the paper to Freshers and keeping the energy levels high. In all about 45 students attended the event – if each person writes just one article a week that means 15 pages (about half) of the paper will be produced by Wednesday’s trainees. This week’s Spark includes 8 whole pages written by Freshers for Freshers. Student activities – indeed the Students’ Union as a whole – is about involvement and having a go. The pullout looks brilliant and rewards the hard work put in by both journalists and editors. The feedback was very positive too - It’s this stuff which gets me excited about my job!

I’m also doing lots of work on the By-election which is coming very soon. Week 3 will see Hustings, talks for and against NUS affiliation and the publicity for candidates kicking off. For Freshers especially this will be an exciting time – a chance to elect Officers and see the democratic foundations of the Union in affect.

I’ve been out and about a fair bit this week – Monday with the LGBT, Wednesday and Thursday at the Union and so I think sitting in with a cocoa this weekend sounds really rather nice! I must be getting old (23 next week…)

"Of ships and shoes of ceiling wax, of cabbages and kings..."

Saturday - and the dust is settling at last! Thursday and Friday have both happened since my last blog on Wednesday - as they tend to most weeks.

Went to the Union on Wednesday night - good to see people having an excellent time as before and I liked the slideshow :) Getting the message across that the Union is much more than just the bars and cheesy-chips is really important, and I'm amazed at how much importance people are willing to put on small day to day things compared to the (on-going) fight for a free education or the need for secure student housing. I helped out behind Mojos and at the cloakroom - was tiring stuff and whilst I've always appreciated the student staff I think I do even more so now.

I was publishing the paper on Thursday which was fun whilst juggling my time on the Executive and MASIV stalls - I want to say a big cheers to all the Exec who covered for me and telling me to take a break when I was frazzled and extra special thanks to Bill Smith, Michelle Hewings, Gemma Yusuf, Emily Beardsmore (Vice-chair of Council) and Dave Ball (a student trainer) who were all there as volunteers and made the life of the Sabbs much easier.

I had a few drinks after work with some of the Freshers fayre helpers which ended up being the pub quiz, but I left and went home to sleep before the Karaoke being a very worn out Nickers by that stage.

Friday was quieter than the other two days, but it was really nice to have Gemma Tumelty, the National Secretary of NUS down to help out with the Fayre. Sian Davies was also down on Wednesday to give a hand with the SWD (Students with Disabilties) stall. They're both lovely so it was nice to see them again and gave me a bit of a boost.

I'm in the office even though it's saturday so I can do some paperwork and also so I could help out (vaguelly) with the Junction11 meeting - really I just tried to look pretty and didn't :) Next week I've got Spark training, my first trip to Bulmershe and a whole lot more - love it!

Day 3 of Freshers week - 2pm

Ok - Freshers Fayre has started. Had a bit of a panic first thing making sure that Junction11 had a PA and were broadcasting where they needed to and then set up doing the Exec stall with lots of pretty pictures and stuff. I've been chatting to Sports Clubs about what training they would like this year and generally chatting to Freshers to discuss the Union and what it can offer them.

Yesterday afternoon I was checking stuff in Spark and having my photo taken - lots - by a Sparky which was quite fun if a little strange! It keeps coming :)

Day two of Freshers week: 11am

Yesterday was manic - I was... photocopying leaflets which I later handed out at an academic welcome, fielding questions at reception, trying to sort out Junction11 over Freshers Fayre, checking some of the pages in Spark, learning how to use the bar tills and chatting to lots of different people about the Union. I decided to stay in and not go to Scott Mills so I can have energy for the rest of the evening.

So far today - checked the forums, answered some policy questions and been interviewed for Spark.

Flipping FTPs, Mum in the Midlands and Careers Management

Aaagh! It’s started – International students are back and the reality of Freshers week has struck home. The handbook’s done, the Ents are booked, the training sessions are being written and each time I move a piece of paper onto the ‘done’ pile it reveals another 6 things to be worked on. It’s been really nice actually meeting students in the flesh though – I’ve had loads of contact with various people over e-mail, texts and so on, but it’s nice to be able to smile at and see the person you’re helping.

Yesterday saw me publish Spark for the first time – and it was scary! Having to deal with File Transfer Programmes (FTPs) that didn’t work on the Spark computers, learning how Mac programmes worked and of course trying to make sensible judgments about our Equal Opportunities Policy. I did really enjoy it in the end and had my best mate to help read it through (cheers Edward!) and I know it will get easier.

My parents have now moved up to the Midlands – which hasn’t really sunk in yet and I spent a weekend there helping them settle a little bit as well as seeing my Uncle’s inauguration ceremony for his new Parish and visiting my Granny. I’m trying to keep an eye on all my family stuff whilst delivering for the Union – its not always easy but I think I’m getting there!

More training planning and so on – I’m looking forward to saying “I did this session” rather than just “I will do it…” before too long. I want to see some of my work in action!

I went to a day on Careers Management with lots of University people in suits and also Andrew Lewis who did a great talk on making sure Careers Management is more personal to students. I thought this very helpful and hope that the University do follow up on their *revolutionary* plans to make the scheme about students as individuals. The photo is of our group in an exercise - I'm looking perplexed but my hair's cool in it!


This week RUSU has been stopping me... sleeping

SEANUS!

Yesterday I met with the rest of the SEANUS (South East Area NUS) Executive and we made decisions that affect 150,000 students. How very exciting and incredibly scary!

A lot of the focus of the 4 hour meeting was of course the planning of the year and the campaigns that we will be running. SEANUS is primarily a campaigning body – concerned with improving the life of students across the South East of England.

The main campaign for the year is on South East Weighting – it costs almost as much to live in the South East as it does in London and many students may consider the Northern Universities more favourably because of this, especially post-graduates. We want to see Universities in the SE prosper, and a greater number of students from less well off families being able to access Higher Education. This campaign is going to be a long one and so the primary focus at the moment is researching the discrepancies between regions to move towards a point of action later in the year or maybe even later. We’re confident we can win on this but that means preparation.

SEANUS are encouraging institutions within the area to consider their support of International Students, beginning with a survey of English language Support and campaign to make sure institutions are investing in it.

The Executive are also investigating Rights at Work, supporting the NUS’ Student Activities campaign and also Fairtrade and ethical practices within Students Unions. For this last campaign I’ve been asked to produce a guide to ethical consumerism within Students Unions, something I’m passionate about as those of you who know me will recognise.

I submitted a suggestion that the Executive look at doing some co-ordinated days of action across the region to encourage students and groups to work with each other in different institutions. This fed really nicely into an item from Bubble – SEANUS convenor – about doing a co-ordinated RAGs day. A member of the Exec will be getting in touch with RAGs groups in the area to make decisions about this – but the day should appear between the 25^th November (a day of action opposing violence against women) and 1^st December (World AIDS day).

We’re hoping to increase the number of Further Education Institutions with active student representation and are co-ordinating this with Ellie Russell, NUS’ Vice-President of Further Education (see previous post about NUS campaigns for how cool I think she is).

The SEANUS website needs updating and executive members have been directed to do this. We’re hoping to elect representatives for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual students, Students with Disabilities and Further Education students at the next SEANUS Council at the end of October.

The other piece of ‘regional housekeeping’ was that of expenses. We decided that for the moment at least Sabbatical Officer on SEANUS should pay their own travel while other students who don’t get a wage will have all expenses paid.

We discussed the decision within the NEC to hold a National Demonstration and its implications. There’s a bit of a divide within the movement as to whether the finances of the organisation could allow such an event, but equally it’s important for student rights to be defended and our voice to be heard. We also chatted about the international students festival and the consensus seemed to be that we agreed with it in principal but the way the organisers were suggesting involvement (paying £1000!) and went about telling people about it was not entirely well received.

A lot of this stuff was about planning and researching and so may not seem very ‘sexy’. It is important that we know our facts and can make our campaigns work, and that does mean lots of preparation and getting things right. I have high hopes for the year ahead and for the success of SEANUS.

FE Colleges and campaigning for student activities

This week I've been working on all the things I said I would be - the chat with Paul Roberts was really useful and has given us some aims. I saw Francesca Bingley on Monday and fleshed out some ideas for Spark training. I sent an e-mail around the STADIA (see earlier posts for what STADIA is) with the idea of doing a one afternoon introduction to the paper for Freshers. The idea is that instead of the first thing a Fresher goes to being a planning meeting they get a chance to produce something immediate. This has got a lot of support from Fran and various Media and Activities Sabbs across the UK, many of whom want to replicate it if it's successful. It's nice for Reading to be leading the way on something else!

Yesterday the other Sabbs and I went to the NUS Campaigns Launch in London.This was a fantastic event and really helped me place the aims of the NUS NEC (National Executive Committee) in relation to both RUSU and the South East Area.

The three main priority campaigns for the year can be found on the NUS website soon, but they cover anonymous marking, the importance (and drastic neglect) of Further Education Colleges and also Student Activities. I'm hoping that RUSU will be supporting all three of these campaigns but I want to discuss the last two particularly.

As a Higher Education institution you may think its weird for Reading University Students to be campaigning for better support within FE colleges. In fact, better and more active FE students lead to better and more active HE students. For so many people at Reading it is the activities offered to them by the Union that become the happiest times at Uni. This may be their games for the Netball Team or the friends they made through RUDS. We can only provide this becasue of our funding from the University Block Grant and - more fruitfully - the our commercial services. We can run a democratic, supportive and representative organisation - though obviously we still never have enough money! At RUSU we represent 16,000 students through 6 Sabbatical and 6 Part Time Officers, have a regular student council and clear staff structure to support us. We run a Nightclub, Bar, Cafe and Shop to finance this. Compare Thames Valley Students Union's Reading campus - as many students to represent but no commercial services to support it and only a Single Sabbatical officer. I think FEs can be vibrant and active places - but considering most FE Unions only receive 2p of every £100 that their parent organisations have it is no surprise that they can't work fully. And can I add that Ellie Russel the VP Further Education delivered one of the most rousing and fantastic speeches I have ever heard. And she's a lovely person too damn it!

The Student Activities Campaign recognises that most people involved in the Union do so not through a hobby, sport or volunteer opportunity. On this year's Sabbatical team we have 2 ex Nightliners, 2 JCR heads, 2 Junction11 presenters, a Sports club president, a Society President, a Course Rep and a previous Part-Time Officer. That's all student activities leading the way into the Union. We are proud of our sports teams and our community action. The University loves to showcase our Sports and describe the benefits of our volunteers - but we need to protect these things. We need to protect our Wednesday afternoons so that students can compete in sports and other activities, make sure the University Sports Centre is for University Students first and local residents second. We need to make sure our activities are accessible to all no matter their race, religion, age, sexual orientation, gender, marital or child status. I'm passionate about student activities - that's why I love my job and I want to protect the environment at RUSU that allows them to happen and happen fully.

I'm pledging now to support these campaigns through both my role on RUSU and through SEANUS - and if I don't hold me up on it at Council, e-mail me and come to my office and shout.

My Bank Holiday weekend - where neither are present.

Actually this isn't just about my Bank Holiday, in fact it's much more about the Training I went on last week. From Tuesday through to Thursday afternoon I was in Winchester. My last visit there ended in rather unpleasant drunken exploits so I was slightly nervous, but the session was absolutely fantastic. The course was called 'Training the Trainer' and was run by NUS as part of its 'National Student Learning Programme' or NSLP. The concept is that students are taught generic training skills - like different learning styles and when it's appropriate to use certain games and so on. Even though I've a long history in running activities for Young People and students through my Youth Work background and so on, it was incredibly useful (you might be able to hear my enthusiasm!). Andrew Lewis, VP Education also took part and I'm trying to send another delegate to a later session.

After three intensive days I decided to return home to London for the last time ever *sniff sniff* as my parents are moving up to Chester in a few weeks (picture to the left is my front door at home...) While here on Friday I wrote a paper for Nightline and also one on the subject of the RUSU Forums. The Forums are taking up a lot of officer time at the moment and I think that I should be meeting with University staff and volunteers to work out ways of improving things for our development groups rather than spending an hour each day making sure no-one's breaking the rules. I really like the way the forums work and the service they provide, but it's too easy for people to nip on anonymously and badmouth people before disappearing again. The trick will be to allow Students their free speech without phantom posters making the forums unpleasant places for people - especially Freshers - to visit.

I'm back on Tuesday and have a meeting with Paul Roberts, head of Nightline. I also plan to get some definite arrangements for student Media training sorted using my newly found NUS network buddies and get a skeleton plan for next year's RU Ready? Scheme before NUS Campaign launch on Thursday. Then it's Reading Pride on Saturday followed by a party in Cardiff... I should sleep at some stage shouldn't I?

Stalls, Spark and The US Constitution

Hey RUSU-land. Since last Thursday I've been catching up with a lot of the Student Groups - trying to do some fun stuff with RAGs (more details to follow if I can pull it all off - but it'll be groovy :D), I've also been working more on governance issues with Nightline. After a very pleasant meeting with Francesca Bingley (Spark editor) yesterday we have some clear ideas and goals for training in particular and the development of Spark in general.

I'm co-ordinating the Executive stall at Freshers Fayre and chatting to Part Time Officers and others to see if they are happy to volunteer. It will be nice to have a clear focus for Freshers about what the Union is and who the Executive are. This also isn't easy to pull off - so I'm working hard on it!

I've also got the task of giving RUSU's constitution and Regulations a bit of an overhaul - which is slow work but will make it more accessible. On average I'm halving the word count for each section and will add 'quick reference guides' at the back as well. The reason for the Blog title is that the original (before amendments) US Constitution was 4,500 words long. The current RUSU constitution is over 6,000. A little perspective might be needed...

48 Hours in Hatfield

I spent Monday until Wednesday at 'Activities in Action', an NUS training programme in Hatfield. Some of the stuff I'd come across before, but some of the techniques on, for example, doing research was really useful. With the 'RU Ready...' scheme being set up this year its particularly important that I get as much information as possible from students, so I've all kinds of ideas for Training Needs Analysis schemes and the like.

The networking was also really useful - I ended up chatting with a guy from York RAGs who is a sabbatical officer about the organisation, and he was really helpful and supportive. I also got to chat to National Nightline's general secretary about the way that organisation is moving which was quite exciting. I also got invited up to Edinburgh for Hogmanay by one of the NUS Scotland officers - though I'm not entirely sure he realised what he was saying at that late a stage of the evening. Overall I found the session useful - though hard work and I was very tired by the time I got back!

I also got some new glasses on Wednesday but no-one's noticed until I told them. I think they're really nice though...

I spent most of today fondling a slinky in the shape of a fish, though all for the good of Union volunteers.

I attended a Stadia* event called 'Planning a training programme' which is going to be dead useful for all the 'RU Ready...' stuff that's going on. I'm looking forward to coming back and getting out some flipchart paper and chatting to the programme stakeholders (edited from Stockholders... I was tired when I posted) about making Training Need Analysis forms and the like.

While there I chatted informally about M.AS.I.V. - and again people were amazed at the scheme. Reading's certainly leading the accreditation sector with this project - all the other Union's want to nick it for their students! Even the NUS guy said he'd pop down to chat about it - cool as chips.

I was supposed to be networking with a Sabb from Kington Union but he cancelled so I had a very nice drink with my friend Emma, who also happens to be VP Education at Kings College London - the world of NUS is actually far too incestuous!

*Stadia are a group that do lots of support for student activities.

Totally addicted to html.

I've spent all of today working on a new gateway for the Volunteer section of the website - and I'm pretty happy with it too! I've been educated in the basics of html and decided to make things complicated for myself by stretching what I knew. No broken links or images though... all good. Once it's finished (along with the rest of the website clean-up) you'll be able to see it.

In the last couple of weeks I've also been doing lots of stuff on the 'RU Ready... to advertise' handbook for all those Publicity Officers and communication secretaries in student groups. This will be available in the autumn term.

On which note, though we're still sorting out training for the Autumn term it looks like we'll be covering Publicity, budgets and Event Planning. Spring will be more committee centred as its the main handover period for groups.

I'm off on Training from Thursday to next Thursday in London (with a weekend at home I'll admit).

This week RUSU has stopped me from... reading 'Flights of the Mind'

<- A drunken picture of yours truly (my Mum doesn't like this photo - she says I'm less green in real life)

Okay - the background bit. I'm Nick Smith - but Nickers is easier to remember. I'm VP Development at reading University Student's Union - which basically means I'm there to support volunteer groups like student media and fundraisers and stuff. This blog is an attempt to tell you guys what I'm up to.

I'm the first ever VP Development so it's quite scary - but I was a part time officer last year so know the ropes a bit. I was awarded a Bachelor of the Arts for English in the First Degree last month (so I graduated) which means I can put letters after my name.

More updating as I have stuff to say!