Public Emily Number One

2007-02-09T17:51:00.000Z

Here is my report that was for development committee on the 22nd January

Looking back to my manifesto pledges that I made this time last year

· New employability skills workshops
We have run RU Ready sessions that look at employability skills such as presentation skills
· Help selecting the workshops that fit your needs
I still have not designed a questionnaire for this but as part of the big push for RU Ready training this term
· Intensive Workshops at the end of summer term
I have had discussions with Sam about what needs to be done for this.
· More community volunteering
RUSU placed 80 students in voluntary placements in the community last term
· Expansion of the current RU Ready Scheme
We have run more RU ready sessions than last year such as RU ready to manage your time
· Continued support for volunteer groups
Hopefully I’ve supported you all please shout if I haven’t

Other things I’ve been up too since last development committee please feel free to ask any questions

Inspiring Women
Senate
Discussions with Nightline
MASIV
Volunteers and Societies bash
Teaching and learning stratagem
Sabbatical review
Time off for Christmas
RU Ready
CCMS conference
UBTL

2007-01-15T14:45:00.000Z

Plans for Spring Term

So moving on what are my plans for this term. This looks like a busy term as always but an exciting one,

We’re going to run RU Ready training again this term, but on a slimmed down agenda with one session a week with lots more publicity and really get it off the ground, We’re also going to run some give it a go sessions every other week to give students a chance to do things they wouldn’t normally try these are still being sorted out but when they’re finalised I’ll let you know.

This term is obviously elections term so will be a busy term especially as I’m a candidate. The sabbatical roles are changing for more info and to comment on the proposed changes then look at http://www.rusu.co.uk/DisplayPage.asp?pageid=21094

We’ve got RAG Week and South East Area NUS Rag day which will be good and I’m looking forward to working with the new RAG committee and would like to say a big thank you to last years RAG committee headed up by Julia for all their hard work this year.

We’ve got Re-Fresher’s fair coming up in week 3 which gives you a chance to get involved with things you’ve not already done or if you missed out on something last term come and have a look and sign up again.

We’re going to have several days of community action which will give students an opportunity to get involved and take part in some voluntary action in the community as a one off day rather than having to commit for the whole term .

Week 8 will be a volunteers week and will give us a chance to showcase all the work that our volunteers do, culminating with the volunteers and society’s bash on the Thursday 8th march so put it in your diary’s it will be bigger and better than ever before.

I have taken over the running of the women’s campaign and would like to hand this over to a student’s women’s officer by the end of the term hopefully with some interactive events this term.

2007-01-15T14:43:00.000Z

Autum 2006

I would like to start this blog with apologising for the lack of blog’s over the last term, I don’t think I’d realised before term started quite how busy it would be and how much that I would struggle to find time to blog, so one of my new years resolutions is to blog more. In this one I will tlak about last term and then will post a new one about next term.

Last term started with a shock announcement from the university about the closure of physics but it set a trend for the next term. Then there was Freshers week which was a busy week but some of the highlights for me were the busy society’s day and then a busy Friday day. We had a record number of people interested in the MASIV, RU Ready and community volunteering. The next week kicked off with spark in a day and Junction11 in day. This was the 1st time we’ve run Junction11 in a day and we had lots of people attend which was really positive.

The term just seemed to continue with a big push for the national demo, I was upset that I couldn’t be there for the beginning but it was amazing standing on the side of the river waiting and watching the demo go passed and joining the reading group. Then the next major campaign was the fight to keep physics open at reading the physics students put up an excellent fight one of the best moments of this campaign was sitting with the UCU staff members whilst university council was going on and them telling us that it was the best fight they had seen for a course closer for a long time apart from Sussex where they overturned the decision.

Other highlights of the term include making sure that spark got published with out any major hiccups, the masqurAID ball run by campaigns forum,
hearing that the RAG total for the last year totalled over £10,000, training over 50 course reps and running faculty rep training for the first time, being involved in writing the university’s teaching and learning strategy which means that we can shape how the university delivers teaching and learning for the next 5 years, hearing that we’ve managed to place over 80 students in community volunteering placements, having a record number of students (260) enrolled on the MASIV scheme.

It has been a busy but amazing term I have learnt a lot about the university, RUSU and my self and am looking forward to the next term with excitement.

2006-09-11T17:11:00.000Z

Train the Trainer

I am writing this on the train on the way back from NSLP Train the Trainer in Leeds. I was attending this course as a trainer and had my own tutor group, it was a great honour to train on this course I remember when I went on this course a year and a half ago as a trainee and loved it and I hope that my tutees got as much from it as I did. There were four students there from reading Ryan our VP education, Gemma, Marcus and Jack all from JCR’s or volunteer groups, they all seem to have come away from it really enthusiastic about training next year. I know we have a really good group of student trainers with the 4 that went to Leeds and two that went to Bath Spa earlier in the summer. We are going to get together and write some new sessions before term starts. Training next year is going to be brilliant!
But what have I been up to before train the trainer! since I last blogged I have
· Done interviews for external trustees
· Talked to someone doing research into the social and economic impact of volunteering in reading, and from this talked about doing our own volunteer audit looking at how many students volunteer and the impact that they have,
· Had a meeting about Transferable skills and the new website that the university is developing, putting all the skills based stuff that the university does together and made sure that RUSU is mentioned at every possibility as we are one of the biggest skills providers of the university
· I’ve attended communication in action training in Leicester which was good fun, it was good to meet other officers and talked about student media and the place that it has in unions and also for me to learn about the legal aspects of media that I had no experience in before. I also got accosted at 8.30 in the morning slightly hungover being interview on film about my reactions to the students library being opened! It then got played in front of the whole group!! Which was an embarrassing experience to say the least!
· After communications in action I had the Friday off and went to reading festival for the whole weekend! Which was great fun and really good to have some time off! Saw lots of band think that Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish and Hundred Reasons we’re my best bands but it was nice to send time with my sisters and friends I’d not see for ages and my box of wine!!
· On the Tuesday after the bank holiday Dave, Nick and I headed down to Winchester for a demo planning day and a SEANUS exec meeting
· I then spent some days in the office catching up on emails, developing our training plans for the year and helping to look at our new volunteer co-ordinator post and the applications we had received.

When I get back into the office next week I will be doing more external trustee interviews, interviewing for our volunteer co-ordinator, helping to plan Freshers fayre, having a meeting with the new printers for spark, making sure that the Junction11 studio gets put back together and planning a trainers session writing day so we can all get together to plan some new sessions for next year.

I will blog later which I know I said last time about my plans for next year but as I’ve still got 4 hours left on the train there should be plenty of time for me to write it!

2006-08-16T10:21:00.000Z

Emily's 1st Blog

I sat down to write my blog and have found that its harder than I thought! Where to start! Well I’m Emily and I’m Vice President Development at Reading University Students Union. How did I get here! Two years ago I started my degree in engineering, but also met some amazing people and signed up to Nightline.

In my Freshers term aside from everything else that happens as a fresher, I trained as a nightliner and then in the spring term of my second year with lots of arm twisting I signed up to be co training co-ordinator for nightline and Vice chair of Student council. With my training I got sent on the National Student Learner Programme (NSLP) with NUS. This was an amazing three day course where I learnt how to be a student trainer! I came back from Liverpool all enthusiastic and with my co-trainer Rachel we re-wrote the Nightline training plan and I also got involved in RUSU training. From there my involvement spiralled and I became Chair of Student council when PDT resigned and lead student council through the governance review to bring the exciting new structures we have now!

Then when the time came for nominations to elections, I didn’t really have any choice I had been closely involved in RUSU for a year, I knew that I’d work well with the team that were re-running and I had lots of exciting plans for the future which I’ll talk about later. So after a stressful few weeks and 28 hours in the snow talking to people I was elected as VP Development. It seems such a long time ago now! But since I was elected I have had to chair the last ever student council, handover my nightline training (Gemma Chris and Nat I’m sure you’ll do an excellent job!!), There was a small matter of exams and then I started!

I can’t believe 6 weeks have gone by since I started my handover with nick! Everyone says the summer will fly by and it’s true this is almost my last full week in the office before Freshers week!! I have been on sabbatical training with the rest of the sabbs and the student trustees, I have been on activities in action, NUS training about my role, I have written my plans for the year, written the training plans for the year, ordered publicity for Spark and Nightline, interviewed external trustees and lots of other stuff.
I think that’s probably enough for now! But I’ll blog later this week on my plans for the year!

2006-07-03T09:06:00.000Z

In which Nickers says goodbye as VP Development

Just over 11 months ago I wrote my first of 35 Blogs about being the first VP Development at RUSU. In that time a lot has happened, some bad, much of it good, all of it – the most overused word on this website – exciting. Last week I had my last Development Committee of the year, the awards for Honorary Life Membership and very soon will check my last ever MASIV portfolios. I was going to right a long blog trying to discuss all of the things I’ve been up to – but this is impossible. Instead here, in no order, are my top 6 highlights.

MASIV – the scheme I first got involved in as a Part-time Officer elect, saw through it’s first 2 years of piloting and which has become my conversation piece at every NUS, University and Union event, article and blog. I don’t apologise for this, it’s an amazing scheme and the hard work put in by University and Union staff to make it a trailblazing success is to be lauded.

RU Ready – last Summer we trained around 100 people in 2 different sessions. Over the past year RUSU has trained over 400 students in over a dozen sessions, from Course Rep and JCR training to running a Freshers stall and presentation skills.

Student Media – seeing Junction11 get a new mixing desk by injecting extra money to go alongside the alumni funding is something I’ll remember fondly. Although things with Spark and the Sabbs was far from smooth throughout the entire year, I’m proud to have been on the first team to hold up the Constitution as students wanted it and to be frank and honest about the way things work, rather than pretending they were something else for an easy life.

RAGs – I can take almost no credit for this area, but it is certainly one of my best memories and will remain so. The work Julia Horne and the rest of this years RAGs committee have done and the way in which the student population embraced the group and gave so readily is commendable and reminded myself and the other Union officers exactly why we want to do this job.

Pledge Day and the ‘Participate’ Campaign – Seeing Reading’s pledge day up on the screens at NUS National Conference was brilliant. The idea was so effective and, despite the Debating Society defacing it (tut tut), was a great sign of the achievement and worth of student activities at RUSU. I was really pleased to be able to take an active part in the National Participate campaign and getting students enthused about it too.

And of course The Governance Review – It is sexy. We now have a constitution that is readable not risible, more ways to get involved and the ability to tackle changing legislation. It’s not perfect yet, but it is a real step forward.

There’s been a lot more of course, and my collection of memorabilia from this year is huge. Cheesy but true, I need to say a huge thanks to all of the RUSU staff, particularly Sue Breakwell and Stefan Kelly who have done amazing things for development, and would remain calm when I suggested we did huge things on no money and in no time. The Sabbs have been friends, enemies, allies and colleagues at various points, but they’ve always been there and part of the team and so thanks to them all. Again, particular mentions to Andrew, who as Education I’ve worked alongside a lot, and Jenna – a superb VP Welfare, a hard act to follow and the reason I got caught up in the Union in the first place by asking me to join Nightline.

To my successor Emily only one bit of advice – do your own thing. By the end of the year you’ll be the best VP Development RUSU has ever seen and I couldn’t put my baby in better hands.

And onwards to Welfare, to Night Safety, Freshers Angels, South East Weighting, Balanced Lifestyle campaigning and much more.

Goodbye for now,

Nickers x

2006-05-29T12:09:00.000Z

The AUT, Freshers' Angels, a special woman called MAVIS and a call from a doctor.

The summer term’s a strange one for all students, and for student officers it’s no different. A good chunk of my work is responding to student requests and people just popping in to the office to chat. With the exams this happens increasingly rarely, which means that things have been slightly quieter and my days slightly shorter – which is nice. I’ve made it home for Simpsons several times this term.

On everyone’s mind on the Sabbatical Team is of course the AUT strike. This is a difficult time – I fundamentally believe that lecturers deserve better pay, but my responsibility is from and to the student body. When Top-up fees were introduced lecturers were promised more money, and this has been denied. Partly this is because HE funding has not increased as promised – government funding for institutions decreased when fees were introduced for example. Dave and Andrew have been engaging often with the University senior management, AUT representatives, local MPs and the NUS. In my capacity as SE Area Rep and Executive officer I’ve been chatting to people across the region about their views. For a full update keep checking www.rusu.co.uk/strike.

Although I’m out-going in my role as VP Development, my dedication to student activities remains as strong now as ever. I spent week 3 promoting Freshers Angels, NUS Activists and Web volunteer groups and several hundred people showed an interest in these new groups.

The most exciting development has been MAVIS. Mass Active Volunteering Involving Students is about getting people involved on a single day (Thursday 15th June) in a variety of community action projects, such as graffiti removal and fundraising. MAVIS is a great opportunity for people unable to commit to a regular volunteering slot. For more information e-mail MAVIS@reading.ac.uk or see www.rusu.co.uk/mavis, where you can download posters and a MAVIS ask.

In preparation for becoming VP Welfare I’ve been working on Freshers Angels, with about 40 people signing up so far. This new volunteer group will aim to make new students feel at home, meet new people and generally ease the first few days at University, including supporting JCRs on moving in day if they’d like an extra pair of hands.

I attended my first Welfare, Support and Guidance meeting the other week. This is the University’s big meeting on student services such as accommodation, the medical centre and the counselling service. This was a great chance to be introduced into some of the people I’ll be working alongside next year, as well as seeing some University staff I already collaborate with in a new guise.

The highlight of recent weeks was of course Dr Karl Kennedy, as good this year as he was the last; scourge of Sam Read, beloved of Dave Lewis and purveyor of excellent cheese. To the guy who was asking me about JCRs – do pop in and see me, and to the drunken bloke who I couldn’t hear, feel free to come and day hello as well.

Nickers x

2006-05-08T08:54:00.000Z

In which the Spring Term starts with successes, Local Elections and Nickers making life complicated for himself. Again.

Two weeks into term then? And what have I been up to? Well from Friday 21st my diary looked something like this. What I’ve tried to do is show the breadth of work Sabbs tend to do, and show that it’s a 24 hour job!

21st – Away day with other Sabbs to plan upcoming term, discuss what we’ve been up to this year and have a chat about any concerns we have.

24th – A very ‘bitty’ day reacting to students getting back and the things they need. Good fun, very important, but not much to write about!

25th – Catching up on paperwork, including the website and posters for the Local Elections and some press releases ready for Spark. Attended a RAGs meeting in the afternoon. In the evening went to see ‘The Constant Gardener’ and chatted to the Campaigns Forum Student Stop AIDs stall that was there.

26th – Discussed the plans for Live11 with staff, went over the accounts for all the volunteer groups. Has a Junction11 meeting, which seemed to last longer than it did. Did some preparation for the No Platform Policy working group meeting and Development Committee. Checked some Spark pages in the evening.

27th – I checked the Bumper edition of Spark all day (9am – 4.30) and provided some impromptu quotes for them. Tidied up my office ready for moving after this. Later that evening I went to support the Remix Reading exhibition in the town, which was excellent.

28th – SEANUS Executive meeting in Farnham – away from the office all day, but had phone calls with Dave Lewis about the move and the Spark printers, as well as some texts with members of staff.

29th (Saturday) – My Mum and Dad came down, showed them the Union. They still have no idea what I do, but were impressed. Met Jenna for a drink in the afternoon and ended up chatting about work, then went clubbing in the evening and explained my role and the democratic structures of the Union with a second year I met.

30th - Did no work apart from a phone call from a Nightline volunteer about Publicity week.

1st (Bank Holiday Monday) – did some of the work for SEANUS from Friday and had a nice lunch with my housemates. Bought a new shirt using my NUS discount.

2nd – NSLP National Network day in Birmingham, networked with other trainers from around the UK and got my award for completing the training course. Got lots of ideas for future plans. The below picture is Steve Brown (NUS Executive) and myself in no way taking the piss.

3rd - Got in early to set up the new office, catch up on e-mails and paperwork. Popped out to look at a house for next year. Finished off agenda for Development Committee on Friday as well as my report. Re-read no Platform policy paperwork ready for Thursday. Got home and did some more SEANUS work.

4th – Voted in the local elections, came into work and had a meeting about Nightline Publicity, including the Publicity week. Attended Societies Convention on behalf of Sam Hibbs. Chaired the No Platform policy working group. Wrote and sent out the last bits of paperwork for Development Committee, including suggested new bye-laws. Went out for a social with Junction11. Had a text conversation with the student media and Mike Hance who were at the Local Election count.

5th – Had first Development Committee at noon. Talked to staff in the afternoon about doing the active community day on 15th June. Went home early (5pm) and chilled a bit.

6th (Saturday) – Went to London to see the Sultan’s Elephant

7th – Did some work on the SE Area Ethical guide, wrote my blog for SEANUS, prepared materials for the next week’s push on getting students involved in Freshers’ Angels, Web Volunteers, NUS Activists and Forum moderators. Wrote this blog.

And that’s that!

Nickers x

2006-04-17T10:26:00.000Z

A month of events, birthdays, Conferences and Conventions. And the Juice Master.

What normally happens when I come to write my Blog is that I look back over my diary and summarise some key decisions or actions. The last month has seen some really big events happening and in many ways it’s quite difficult to do them justice.

On the 17th March (the date of my last blog) I attended the celebrations for the University’s 80th birthday – which were very exciting, with University Court followed by cake. I’m not entirely sure what Court does – and talking to some of the people who sit on it (teachers and the like) they don’t either! The University is reviewing it though, so fair play to them. I had a nice long chat over lunch with various staff members and local Lib Dem Councillors about local safety, the misconceptions of students, the pros and cons of the Labour party and the commercialisation of Education. University Council succeeded the celebrations. Although I sit on this, I’ve had to miss almost all previous ones due to other commitments this year. There’s not a great deal to report from here, though it was interesting for some lay members of Council to raise concerns over whether Sports provision on campus should be about participation or achievement. I think the development of individual students is more important than the winning of medals and the Union should be funding our sports clubs, volunteer groups and societies on this basis alone.

As I waved goodbye to all those on courses for the holidays I got on with menial tasks like tidying my office and catching up with e-mails and paperwork. On the 22nd of March Reading hosted an NSLP (National Student Learning Programme) network event. This went down very well and I learnt some interesting theory about intelligences and was encouraged to do the accompanying NSLP paperwork so I can get accredited in the summer.

I talked to the Reading Film Theatre about how they can get more students down to their shows (do go along – it’s a nice way to relax and far more interesting than watching that same DVD again).

MASIV has seen another successful year. We’re waiting for re-submissions so I won’t realise all the numbers here, but it continues to go from strength to strength and other such clichés.

After a weekend up in Birkenhead with my Uncle I attended NUS National Conference. Dave Lewis has done a solid report back so I won’t repeat what he said here. It was very interesting to see internal workings of various NUS factions and I only got 8 hours sleep over 3 days as I was always running up and down campaigning for one election or another. I handed out Bubbles, Condoms and Sherbet as well as countless stickers and leaflets. I’ve got some cool T-shirts out of it too! It was a lot of fun, there were a lot of good policies, and a lot of people trying to ruin the conference, but overall very worthwhile.

I had a reasonably quiet week in the office finishing things off and reviving myself. Which was much needed, before heading back up north with Super-Davey Lewis (not his real name) to attend NUSSL Convention. NUS Services Limited is the company that supports RUSU’s trading elements. By being part of NUSSL we have the buying power not of 16,000 students but 5.2 million, meaning cheaper beer, sandwiches, coffee and stationery. It was a good chance to see some stars of this world and future plans. I met the Juice Master who can peel an orange with his mind and also reassured me that an 8 pound bag of sugar has no fat, though an 8 pound bag of lard has no sugar. The man’s a genius. Attended some great seminars on the future student, the states of student debt and of course, my much beloved Governance.

This takes me up to today, Bank Holiday Monday (yes still working today). I’ve had a restful Easter – first one away from my ‘home’ church which was a bit strange, but nice to chill out with my Granny.

One of the things often levelled at Students is that they don’t care. I firmly believe all students do care about their finances, welfare and education, but don’t always know how to express it. The following article from NUS President Kat Fletcher was quite interesting I thought about the perception of the apathetic student:

http://education.guardian.co.uk/students/comment/story/0,,1750986,00.html

This week – I’m coming back to Reading Tuesday Morning, have a Lobby of Parliament on Wednesday, am discussing Freshers’ Angels Thursday morning and at a planning away day on Friday.

See you next term,

Nickers x

2006-03-17T08:57:00.000Z

Nickers Report to (the last) Student Council

You may not have noticed, but it’s been Election season. For this report I’m going to be discussing not only my mandates through my job role but also the manifesto pledges I made last year. I bet you can’t wait.

Vice President Development:
1) Be responsible for the running and management of student media

Junction11 work: I’ve been sorting out the new Mixing Desk, and helping with the Mixaphon. This is basically lots of chatting to people (Dave Wiley, Sam and Martin mainly) and then running around trying to do bits and pieces.

Spark work: I was an election candidate so couldn’t check Spark for a few weeks, which is a shame as I rather enjoyed the couple of weeks I did so am looking forward to resuming this with Manuela and co. I’m also looking at getting things like Press passes and contact cards for the Editors on Manuela’s request. At this point it’s appropriate for me to thank Manuela for her patience in a fairly turbulent time and commend her and the Editorial team for the way they’ve worked this term.

2) Be directly responsible for the running and management of other student development groups

Nightline – helped with Training and been doing some handover work with the new Co-ordinator Rachel. I oversaw committee elections and I think there’s some absolute stars coming up the ranks so will be a very exciting year.

RAGs – well where do I start? It’s got to be a colossal thank you to Julia and all of the committee for the hard work and innovation that went into RAGS week. It was volunteering and student participation at its very best and they did us proud. I was generally chatting to staff about stuff beforehand, helping with flyers and writing press releases with Julia. During the week I helped with the RAGS raid in Reading and collected £50 in an hour, was locked up but made £65, attended the Traffic Light Party and of course was covered in Baked Beans live on 3Sixty stage. It was a huge amount of fun and I really enjoyed the whole caboodle.

3) Be responsible for all student development matters of a collective or individual nature, paying particular attention to split site provision.
AND
4) To promote student development opportunities within the Union

There were three major events which promote and celebrate volunteering this term.

Re-Fresher’s Fayre was very successful, we had more people attending then last year and I know some groups had lots of sign-ups. Many thanks to all that came down and were part of a great day.

I ran a ‘Pledge Day’ which was a brilliant success and one I’m going to suggest that my successor Emily looks into running next year as well. Over 200 people put in pledges and, despite being covered in graffiti from the Debating Society it still looks pretty impressive. The NUS has used it as a case study on their website.

The Societies and Volunteers Bash was really good fun, the awards went down well – especially Martin Butt’s outstanding achievement to Junction 112 (sic) which I don’t think he wants to have changed! Big thanks to all those that made the evening possible, especially the calm and organised Naomi, who I couldn’t have coped without and the constantly energetic Gudgin.

5) Be responsible for all student citizenship matters both inside the Union, and in the local area.

There’s been a lot of work on getting a combined Volunteer strategy to the University tying in community Volunteering, the MASIV scheme and aspects of the careers’ transferable skills stuff. This is very exciting and will actually put volunteering on the University’s agenda as well as our own.

6) Chair a Volunteering Committee and report the decisions and recommendations of this committee to the Activities and Support committee.

This is planned for week 9.

7) To maintain editorial independence for student media within the Union.

Yep, including an interesting discussion about whether a Trustee can be a section Editor.

8) To ensure that equal weight is given to Bulmershe.

There’s still nothing for me to do on the satellite campus I’m afraid – but according to the Bulmershe chair the students there all know who I am and what I do. I went to Breeze Bar the other week and almost pulled so it’s all good.

9) Attend all relevant meetings as set out in the meeting regulations.All the relevant ones and also some that are completely irrelevant too.
10) Ensure that the website is always up-to-date, and update their minisite at least once every fortnight with a run-down of what they’ve been doing

My Blog has been updated but not very regularly over Election period. Mea Culpa.

Other work…

I attended Regional Conference in Bognor Regis which was good fun, though getting up early the day after Hustings wasn’t much fun. When I’m at Regional Conference I have to fulfil my obligations to RUSU as one of your representatives but also to the region as part of SEANUS and SE Rep to National Council. Along with my fellow representatives I reported back my actions from the last National Council and was also mandated to put in an emergency motion to make NUS accounts more transparent and to censure Joe Rukin the national treasurer. Which brings me nicely on to…

National Council which I attended on Valentine’s Day (no cards from any councillors, I was so upset). A full report will be up on my Blog soon (probably by the time Student Council meets) but the emergency motion I wrote was successfully passed (with one part) and the censure against Joe Rukin was one of 3, but the only one which went through. Wahey!

My Election Pledges 2005

Set up a new Modular Training Scheme - Yep

Increase MASIV participation – I know at Hustings someone described the rise as ‘steady’, we’ve quadrupled the numbers since last year, which I think is pretty good.

Make democratic events better publicised – Still some work to do on this, because the governance review shuffled things around a bit the work I’ve done on democratic awareness has shifted. There’s plenty to be done with the Campaigns Convention next term.

Set up a Group of Volunteers to do web design work – This hasn’t been forgotten, and I always intended it to be a summer term job which it will be. Since I was elected for VP Welfare next year I’m also going to be setting up the “Freshers’ Angels” volunteer group as well.

2006-03-16T11:47:00.000Z

NUS Lobby of Parliament on March 1st

1st of March was a great day for me as I took part in the NUS’ lobby of MPs. The focus of the lobby was the 2010 coalition to keep the cap on Tuition fees. This would be achieved by asking MPS to sign an Early Day Motion and join up to the coalition itself. Myself, Andrew Lewis and VP Development Elect Emily Beardsmore talked to our three Reading MPs – Martin Salter, Rob Wilson and John Redwood.

Emily and I had a long discussion with Martin Salter on campus first thing in the morning, and as well as agreeing to sign the Early day Motion we had a long chat about the idea of respect being towards young people as well as from them, youth provision in Reading (both Emily and I were or are youth workers) and the possibility of RUSU working with Martin on a relief project for the Tsunami.

A journey into London (and another chat with Martin whom we bumped into on the tube) and we walked into the Houses of Parliament. Andrew came along after a meeting and spoke to Rob Wilson who decided not to support the campaign on the grounds that he ‘might not be an MP in 2010’. Mr Wilson’s certainly keeping in the public eye (it was him who called for Ian Blair’s resignation recently) and I have more belief that he will be still around in four years time; hopefully he can support it then.

The day was full of very interesting speeches from members of the 2010 coalition and the NUS National Executive Committee. We had discussions about the affect Top-up Fees would have on minority background students, such as LGBT students or Black and Minority Ethnic students and also the concerns of lecturers and other academic staff.

The last event of the day was a parliamentary panel debate, with Bill Rammell (HE and lifelong learning minister), and the two shadow ministers for HE, Boris Johnson (Conservative) and Edward Davey (Lib Dems). I couldn’t stay for all of the discussion as I had to go and talk to John Redwood, but highlights before I left included Warwick reporting their MP said “You won’t her many Conservative MPs say this, but I approve of widening participation as it allows students from lower social and minority groups to mix with their superiors”, all three of the speakers completely avoiding a question on SE Weighting and whether SE students should pay a higher percentage of their loans for accommodation and living than anyone else and Boris… well being Boris, including the suggestion that lectures didn’t care about study for academic worth only for pay. Brilliant. John Redwood (MP for Wokingham) was unsure what his stance would be in 2009 and so was uncomfortable with signing the Early Day Motion.

So one out of three MPs signed the EDM, but we got soem really good face time with our MPS and also a lot of information about the issues around variable fees and the 2010 cap. There's work to be done, battles to be fought and a campaign to be won.

2006-03-15T11:57:00.000Z

Elections - thanks, congratulations and NUS Conference

I was unsure whether to post about the elections – but it’s only right for me to thank everyone who supported me, campaigned for me and voted for me during them. Also I must say a huge thank you to Hayley who was a brilliant opponent, fair and supportive. I think the closeness of the result shows that there were two strong candidates in that election.

I hope that I can follow on the legacy of strong Welfare provision that we have seen at RUSU.

Congratulations to all the other successful candidates; my successor and better Emily Beardsmore and Ryan who will join us in the RUSU nest and allow Education to soar next year.

Thanks to Elections Committee who saw through a difficult period (shame on those who received formal warnings) and a very close count night.

I’m still not happy about NUS Conference though.

2006-03-15T11:55:00.000Z

Nickers dances and has a great time at the Societies and Volunteers Bash

The Societies and Volunteers Bash this year was the first of its type, as we moved from an evening that recognised just the volunteering aspects of the Union (admittedly including Sports and Societies committees) to this year’s event that also paid homage to the social and development aspects of being part of a society. The events run by societies and the atmosphere that they create upon campus are really important to the community at Reading University.

The awards and bands section of the evening went really well – it was a good idea from the Volunteers Committee to intersperse the wards sections between bands to keep the audience involved and give lots of ‘nipping to the bar/loo’ breaks. Also for the first time ever the Welfare volunteers were fully recognised at the event – Jenna did a great job at getting Peer Supporters, Nightliners and Welfare Reps involved in the evening and fully acknowledged for the valuable work they do.

There was much dancing and singing – with some scary renditions at Mojo’s Karaoke (the only place to be on a Thursday night) and a 3Sixty dance floor with enough room to boogie, to glide and to slide.

Huge congratulations to all who won awards and many thanks to Sam Hibbs, Jenna Roebuck, Anthony Gudgin and Naomi Tomblin who did so much for the night. But ultimately, the night was a success only because Student Activities at Reading is a success – and that’s all down to everyone who gives so much to the community on campus. So the biggest thanks of all go to all of you.

2006-03-07T11:50:00.000Z

RAGs week - When Reading was made immensely Proud

The Raise and Give Society need huge congratulations sent their way. This blog will essentially be another opportunity to sing the praises of Julia and the rest of the committee for all their hard work, work which really paid off and led to a RAGs week I think Reading can be truly proud of.

The Exec gave as much support as we could – as well as generally supporting the group for things like making sure stalls were available and chasing up leaflets, I was personally involved with two events – the Wednesday night Beaning and the Friday Lock-up.

On Wednesday I raised money to try and get Jenna beaned, with limited success because unlike my fellow Sabbs I didn’t stand outside by the queue cheating… As it happened it was academic as all three of us got covered in beans live on stage. My Mum was proud. We raised about £400 over the evening though which was obviously excellent. Only £66 was raised to bean me – which just shows how lovely and loved I am…

Friday was the Lock-up. Cries of “Release your Nickers” echoed across the campus and bemused open day visitors, but I did manage to collect the £50 bail target, as well as an extra £15 – which I think shows how unjustly imprisoned I was. A lot of fun and hopefully something I’ll be able to do again next year.

All in all the week raised £3,560.99!
So well done RAGs – you were awesome!

2006-03-07T11:35:00.000Z

Playground Politics as NUS National Council 14th February 2006

The NUS is a political body, but there are several types of politics at work within it. There are the ideological politics, those that strives to help students, represent them, develop and protect their lifestyles. Then there are the petty politics, more akin to discussing who can come to whose birthday party and far more in love with the ideas of processes and structure than responding to the student body. National Council contained both of these, but far and away the majority of it was the second type, a type that will only hinder the movement and seed disappointment and disunity among us.

The audience arrived for the performance from the NEC (with appropriate seating) only to find that the compere was ill. Joshi from Kings was elected as chair for the day – he’s a top bloke who I’ve known for a few years now so was very happy to have him guiding the proceedings.

After apologies from everyone apart from Flick Cox, the minutes were accepted, and we also accepted the byelaws that improve Council’s accessibility and caused so many problems last time (see my last report), with the additional change that the Chair can be overturned.

The first National Council began with re-arranging paperclips, this one began with re-running an NEC meeting and playing Campaign Top-Trumps, with most Councillors left confused, bored and frustrated. The NUS accounts and estimates were discussed, but this became a heated argument between Benson, who felt the international students campaign was unfairly under funded, and other NEC members. The co-op housing project was slammed and the rants escalated. Benson at one stage declared; “Why should I encourage international students to support the 2010 coalition?” which caused my mouth to drop in amazement. Ellie “Secret Weapon” Russell was immensely sensible, and she calmed things a bit by pointing out that there wasn’t a “campaign Hierarchy” and Kat Fletcher reminded NEC that they worked collectively and that budgets were set together at the start of the year. There was talk of zoning the estimates in line with the rest of the movement in future, which seems very sensible. I turned to Bubble and asked why on earth he wanted to be on the Block of 12 after events like this, where playground politics are all too evident and it seems we’re a National Union of Primary students not FE and HE ones.

Commission Sessions

I attended the Society and Citizenship commission group, but there wasn’t much to discuss, though we touched on international twinning.

We broke for lunch and a much needed pint.

In the afternoon Katie and I went to the Welfare commission session. We discussed the Co-operative Housing project, which I think looks wicked, the support of Loughborough students who are being discriminated against by being told they couldn’t live in certain areas as well as Sexual Health and the BNP.

Katie, Clare and myself went with London and the SW group to discuss how we can support the priority campaigns in our region. This aspect of being a National Councillor is often forgotten, not least by national councillors. Essentially I think the areas need to be doing this as much as the councillors (I know I’m on area Exec so this doesn’t excuse me) but it’s all about making things relevant. Education Funding and SE weighting, the Participate campaign and the 2012 Olympics – there are so many ways to make priory campaigns mean something in real terms. If I’m still active in the region next year (which I’m sure I will be) this is something I want to work on.

After some coffee and jam rings we moved on to the motions, where the two types of politics I described at the start both reared their heads, and I saw some members of the NEC who I’d previously had a huge amount of respect for in a new light.

Motion 1 – Supporting students in challenging unfair college practices

I thought this was a pointless motion – it’s my understanding that what Students’ Unions (and the NUS) generally do is support students in challenging unfair practices from their institutions… Parts were taken to remove a big chunk on ID cards, which I supported as I felt the debate was too big to have anywhere other than Conference. I voted FOR with the parts and the motion PASSED.

Motion 2 – National Directory

This was a motion to change the National Directory back so it’s put into regions. I voted FOR, but I think this motion was far removed from the type of political debate and direction we should be having at National Council. It PASSED, but I wasn’t fussed either way.

Motion 3 – Timing of National Conference

Making sure that National Conference is held outside of term-time whenever possible. Considering the huge numbers of FEs this is quite a task, and Kat gave us some background on the bookings (Winter Gardens are booked 5 years in advance). I voted FOR and it PASSED.

Emergency Motions

Motion 1 – The BNP in Blackpool
A motion to oppose the BNP in Blackpool and pressure the Winter Gardens into not accepting a booking from a fascist group in future. Kat Fletcher suggested we contacted other organisations who use the venue and get them to do the same. It PASSED.

Motion 2 – Transparency of NUS accounts.

This was our motion, which I wrote and Katie spoke very well for. It basically asked that NUS management accounts be presented as Regional Conferences and National Council. Parts were removed to take out a line where I said “That National Council and Regional Conferences are excellent ways at directing the national movement and its campaigns”. I spoke against this, because these meetings are designed to do just that, even if they aren’t always successful. The parts were removed. I’ve always said that National Council should be more than just an opportunity to profile for the next year’s Block of 12, but looking around the room and in light of these parts it’s clear that the majority of National Councillors do just use it for that. This was playground Politics to be ashamed of, and several Block candidates fell down my voting list. The motion PASSED with the parts.

Report Motions

These motions basically hold NEC to account or praise them.

Joe Rukin had three motions of censure against him
1 – from the SW concerning how budgets were put together. Joe explained his starting position very well, and considering how clear the accounts were I voted AGAINST the censure. It FELL.
2 – from the SE with me speaking for. Kingston received an e-mail from Joe at a time where they may potentially disaffiliate where he described them to a member of staff from NUSSL as ‘awkward and hostile’. Kat Fletcher agreed with the motion and it PASSED. I think this shows that occasionally National Council can do what it needs to, and hopefully persuades Kingston that when NUS do things they shouldn’t they get slapped on the wrist.
3 – from the NE about comments made to the National Press. These were taken out of context and had been dealt with. I voted AGAINST and it FELL.

Commendation of Sian Davies and Veronica King.

The playground bell ran and the NEC showed themselves in an appalling light, and I lost a lot of faith and respect in some officers because of the way they acted. Policy exists saying that NEC shouldn’t have a vote at National Council, but in the constitution they still can. The principal that they should be unable to hold each other to account through censures or vote against their own censures is clear. Sian and Veronica were praised for acting in the spirit of this and abstaining from all votes last council. Several other members of the NEC behaved appallingly, and it felt to me like Sian and Veronica were being condemned for their actions. At one stage there was table banging and raucous applause from the NEC as the Councillors looked on in disgust. I hope the NEC were pleased with themselves as it became clear at that point the gulf between them and those holding them to account and being the ‘foot troops’ among the region expanded. The motion FELL, mainly due to NEC voting against it and Block of 12 candidates avoiding any conflict. I voted FOR as did Katie and Bubble.

It’s clear that I can’t do a proper commendation for these people, but well done to Gemma Tumelty, Sian Davies, Ellie Russell, Veronica King and Kat Fletcher for Dan Chilcott for abstaining from all votes and being led by current students not forthcoming elections.

When I first ran for National Councillor I said in my speech that the NUS’ upper echelons dissuaded student officers from getting involved. This is still my view. I wish I could say that I am proud of all the National Executive, but this number is getting smaller the more events I go to, and that is simply wrong.

Nickers
n.a.smith@reading.ac.uk

2006-03-07T11:23:00.000Z

RUSU Pledge Day

I’m really pleased that NUS have been running a student activities campaign this year, and in a previous Blog I promised to support all three of NUS Priority campaigns as fully as I could. When I received an e-mail from the ‘Participate’ campaign about Pledge Day I thought it was a great initiative, but also wanted to adapt it slightly.

Pledge day’s concept was simple, creating a physical manifestation of the volunteer work and commitment to student activities that is so strong on campus. Students are not the drink obsessed, anti-social slobs that the media often portrays them as. They are active, interested and concerned. Over 200 students wrote a pledge on February the 13th, ranging from attending Society socials to doing a Junction11 radio show each week.

The NUS decided to use the work as a case study for the campaign and it can be found here

http://www.nusonline.co.uk/campaigns/participate/news/272066.aspx

I hope this event – easy to run and easy to be part of – is continued next year and beyond.

2006-03-07T09:27:00.000Z

A general round up before some specific blogs

It’s been a while and I’m sorry – what I’ve decided to do is give a quick rundown here on all the things I’ve done and then do separate Blogs for Pledge Day, the Volunteers and Societies Bash and RAGs week. I hope to write up my NUS National Council report soon as well.

Since last time…

Lots of Work with Nightline helping with Training and overseeing their new committee’s appointment

Lots of work on the Volunteers and Societies Bash, including the awards and making sure it all ran smoothly

MASIV stuff – had a Board of Studies meeting to discuss future funding
Spark – had chats with the new Editor Manuela who’s coped admirably and very maturely with a difficult handover

Junction11 – Working with their Exec with getting the mixing Desk and also the Mixaphon

RAGs week – covered in beans, locked up and generally humiliated

All the day-to-day running around answering e-mails and trying to juggle queries about sweets in jars, Marathons, bands, governance reviews and all the other little things that take up a lot of time but are boring to write about in a blog!

And of course, I was at the Annual General Meeting for the RUSU Charity and the RUSU Business (the Nursery).

Individual reports to follow.

2006-01-24T13:37:00.000Z

This blog is only just over 2 weeks from my last (I’m supposed to update fortnightly), but I’ll admit that I’ve not done a ‘what I’ve been up to’ style account for a little while now – really about a Month or so. For most of this time it was the Holidays – highlights of which included finishing off the ‘RU ready… for Events’ and ‘RU Ready… to Promote’ online packs (available at www.rusu.co.uk/nslp), the 2nd SEANUS Executive (detailed below) and a rather enjoyable Christmas party with staff and Exec, though I did lose my duffel coat and glasses at this social so I’m wearing my old (and less funky) pair. The majority of my work time during the Holidays was spent updating the Constitution and Regulations in line with the Governance review (more of this later) but I will admit that I only worked a 40 hour week and not a 55 hour one as I tend to work during term.

Aside from an eye infection I had a very pleasant Christmas break and a relaxing New Year.

I’ve been doing a fair chunk of work with Junction11 concerning their new desk, including finding some more money for them so they can get a better model then they could otherwise afford. I’m also incredibly impressed with their ‘Jukebox Junction’ where you can text in a code to the station and the computer will automatically play a song for you. Martin Butt and the rest of the Tech team at Junction11 have done an amazing job on this – so fair play to them!

Another group that needs congratulating is the new RAGs committee. Headed by Julia Horne they have brought a huge amount of enthusiasm to the RAGs group. It’s really nice to attend their meetings and so on as they have so much energy – it reminds me of why I love my job and feel so passionately about volunteering watching them in action! I really hope many students get involved with RAGs week (week 6 13th – 17th February) as their plans look fabulous.

I held a Volunteers Committee to update everyone with plans for RU Ready, M.A.S.I.V. and the Community Action Volunteering we’re doing as well as giving volunteer groups a chance to talk about what they’re up to and their plans for the rest of the term.
I did “RU Ready… to Promote” training last week which I really enjoyed having done a stint as head of Nightline Publicity in my second year at Uni.

Student Council on Thursday 19th January was an important meeting and one which, through passing the Governance motion with the attendant new Constitution and Regulations, has changed the way the Union is run. The Governance webpage will be up and running soon but the changes will mean a clearer structure for defining Portfolio roles (such as being responsible for Welfare campaigns like safe drinking) and trustee roles (such as being responsible for the financial well-being of the Union and drinks sales). The non-portfolio positions will open up the Union to less traditional students, just yesterday a post-graduate student with a family was discussing the possibility of her candidacy with me. The new meeting structure is cleaner and easier to get involved with. Council eventually voted unanimously for the motion, with 3 out of 4 proposed amendments (including one for spelling changes) being passed as well.

This term includes the Union Elections. 2006 will be a difficult year for RUSU, a challenging year with variable fees and a new extension, a year of change and of adaptation. It is my hope that all students bear this in mind when at the ballot box and choosing who they want to support.

If anyone has any questions give me a shout!

Nickers

2006-01-09T10:51:00.000Z

Number Crunching

A very quick post - I saw today that Bill Rammell is getting ready to announce a 2% fall in HE admissions next year. I know 2% doesn't sound a lot, but if you take the figures for all people within Higher Education in 2002-3 this equates to 45,503 people, or triple the student population at Reading.

I think that sounds like a lot of people being turned away from Education.

2006-01-04T12:46:00.000Z

In which Nickers describes his opposition to Top-up fees and describes a conversation with his local MP.

One of the things I like doing most of all is chatting to MPs about student issues, and in 2006 the most important student issue is Top-Up fees. There are many aspects that need to be looked at, and many fights that need to be fought, but one aspect close to my heart is the funding of the Post Graduate Courses in Education (PGCE). I come from a family of teachers and I think the proposed shift from having the tuition for PGCE paid in full with an extra to counter the debts from their first degree to potentially being charged £3,000 can only stunt the number of students going into education. An Early Day Motion (EDM) asking for this stance to be reviewed has been tabled at parliament and I wrote to my MP – Rob Wilson to support this.

Here is my letter and his reply:

“Mr Wilson,

As someone who comes from a family of teachers I am concerned. The availability and quality of Education will always be reflected by the availability and quality of our teachers. I believe the current culture towards paperwork and targets is turning prospective teachers away. The Education sector is in desperate need of reform and in desperate need of strong teachers to carry those reforms through. I don’t believe we can afford to turn good teachers or prospective teachers away.

For this reason, I am asking you to support the Early Day Motion tabled by Paul Farrelly. This requests the Government review their decision to allow variable fees of up to £3,000 for a Postgraduate Certificate in Education. I believe that the introduction of these fees will turn students away from teaching and that this should be avoided.

I know Education is one of your top priorities and your experience as Students’ Union President will tell you how important the community of teaching students is to Reading, especially on our Bulmershe Campus, so again, please support EDM 1229.

Regards,
Nick Smith”

“Dear Mr Smith,

Thank you for your letter concerning EDM1229 and tuition fees for student teachers.

I am not naturally a supporter of top up fees and you will note that my party did not support them at the last General Election.

I am giving the matter careful consideration at present and therefore will not sign EDM 1229 at this time.

Thank you for writing, I hope you have a happy Christmas and New Year break.

Yours Sincerely,

Rob Wilson MP
Member of Parliament for Reading East”

I have followed this up with the following response.

“Dear Mr Wilson,

Thank you for your letter of 22nd December 2005.

I’m glad to hear you are not a supporter of top up fees. While I am aware that the Conservative party did not support them at the last General Election I am also concerned that the new leader of your party will cause a turnaround* on the issue. I fundamentally believe that Education should be funded for all and that we are not in a society unconcerned with debt and I still believe that Top-up fees will turn students away from University.

I hope that whilst you consider your stance on EDM 1229 you do bear in mind your previous opposition to them and the students who voted in the last general Election.

Yours Sincerely
Nick Smith”

I’ll be sure to keep you updated on this issue, but if any student would like to know more about the issues being discussed, or how you can also write to your MP please let me know.

*UPDATE - This was written before David Cameron did do a U-turn on Top-UP Fees (despite writing the Conservative Education Manifesto for the last general election where he opposed them)

2005-12-31T15:30:00.000Z

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

2005-12-17T10:49:00.000Z

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”

2005-12-13T15:25:00.000Z

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

2005-12-09T15:47:00.000Z

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

2005-12-01T13:39:00.000Z

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

2005-11-22T10:33:00.000Z

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

2005-11-01T15:30:00.000Z

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

2005-10-07T13:25:00.000Z

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…)

2005-10-01T12:40:00.000Z

"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!

2005-09-28T13:01:00.000Z

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 :)

2005-09-27T10:50:00.000Z

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.

2005-09-24T10:01:00.000Z

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

2005-09-09T10:13:00.000Z

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.

2005-09-02T14:39:00.000Z

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.

2005-08-28T12:38:00.000Z

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?

2005-08-17T11:28:00.000Z

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...

2005-08-11T10:52:00.000Z

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...

2005-08-04T23:01:00.000Z

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.

2005-08-02T15:01:00.000Z

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'

2005-07-29T11:07:00.000Z

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

2005-07-29T08:58:00.000Z

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!