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!