Firstly the referendum on NUS affiliation at Chester University. For me, being a part of NUS shouldn’t be about NUSSL benefit statements, it should be simple questions about valuing collectivism, but also feeling that NUS takes you seriously for the affiliation you pay. If a Union doesn’t feel like NUS is taking them seriously, or representing them effectively, then I actually think it’s quite right this is questioned and taken to referendum. I think quite rightly some people at Chester were questioning what NUS did for them. Ultimately the failing of NUS here was on communication, and we can’t keep making excuses for not being able to clearly demonstrate the benefit we bring to students, students’ unions and student officers.

Although the timing of the referendum meant the campus was nearly dead, and it made engaging with students particularly difficult. During the 24 hours I was up in Chester I was delighted with the way in which any students I did stop and talk to, were for the most part really interested in finding out more about NUS, and this for me backs up the genuine positive sentiment many students have about NUS, and this needs to be backed up by a better communication mechanism. The final result was a particularly impressive one for NUS, and I’m really looking forward to staying engaged with Chester over the next year.

However, as good as the result was at Chester, the referendum result at Imperial was crushing in the other direction. The motivation for this referendum was not around communication or feeling sidelined, but at a deep frustration at the failure for reforms to be ratified at Annual Conference in April. Speaking to the delegates from Imperial as they left Blackpool, they were bitterly disappointed that conference didn’t endorse the proposals before them. Losing Imperial is a devastating blow, I may not always completely agree with the politics of some of their students, but our strength lies in unity, and for me losing Imperial is just another reason to add to the many others that the reform agenda needs to be fulfilled.

A whistle stop tour of key meetings and events follows.

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