As ever this is going to be a bit of a diatribe about my life, scroll down for the cold hard facts about what I have been up to.

The Story

So to begin, it has been a few weeks since my last blog, many apologies for this delay. It has been quite hard working to full effectiveness for the past few weeks. The blinding paralysis that is fast becoming my personal financial position has been of great concern to me, so much so that I braved my first job interview in some seven years. This isn’t to say that I have not had a job in many a year, rather, that I distinguish the process that one has to go through in elections is very, very, very different to that of a real world job interview.

Apparently I am not very employable, I have too little management experience and too much experience in running an organisation at a senior level. I may have been kidding myself, I was sure that a job as a students’ union president (a reasonably competent one at that!) meant that I was genuinely employable. Apparently I am not. Well not at least in job interviews so far, but I am broadening my horizons! Or at the very least I will take what I am given.

In part I blame my failure around the big table to my own experience and preparation that has, in fairness, let me down somewhat. The other 80% I chose to blame on some very weak interviews. A lack of structure or ones that are not helpful, I have sat on the other side of the table on many occasions in my time in students’ unions and NUS. I hope I have offered some support to those who have been seeking employment in my presence but I now get what the nerves and the jittery performances were all about.

The great tragedy in all this is that I am not allowed to work in the one form of employment that I have a great interest and a broad knowledge base. That is of course Students’ Unions; I am under no illusions that once on the other side of the NEC rollercoaster I will be working for a number of years in students’ unions at least until I become a famous international artist, so it goes. The upshot is for all of you who have not had a response from me via email – between my cash flow crisis and the great server crash of 2006 – I will be in touch in the next couple of weeks.

I have though been very busy though.

The Facts

Joe and I ran Environment Conference 2006 – a project that we both saw as one of pulling people back into the campaign. There has been mixed performance in the area of the environment on behalf of NUS, and I believe it is probably widely regarded as a tokenistic waste of time, that could be better delivered by an organisation that has a specific focus on the environment. The conference had a low attendance but was well received by those who attended and I think we have started to move the campaign in the right direction. We are working hard to develop a campaign that will not just prove successful during our time in office but will have a lasting impact; the key to this is working in partnership with other organisations inside and outside of the movement. This year we are really excited to be working with People & planet, Friends of the Earth and Stop Climate Chaos.

If you are interested in getting involved in the ethical and environmental campaign, please feel free to email either Joe or myself so we can send you regular updates on our campaigning activities and sign you up to the E&E jiscmail. The plan is to get a standalone environmental motion to national conference with a strong set of amendments that are genuinely challenging in their standpoint.

I have visited a good number of Unions in the past month:

Liverpool Guild

Arts Institute Bournemouth

Goldsmiths (I’m not sure if it really counts) but I spoke at their Student Meeting

University or the Arts

University of West England (a lot)

Kings College London

University of Westminster

University of London Union

These visits have been for varying reasons, either freshers visits or working on some of the projects that I am keen to see get off the ground.

One of which is the London Student Assembly project. I am very excited about the potential impact of that this project will have to the lives of students in London. For those of you who are not aware of the London Student Assembly, it is a project that will provide a voice for students across London by tying an NUS co-ordinated representative body to the existing democratic structures within the region, IE local authorities and the Greater London Assembly. If you are interested in the work going on in the region of London please feel free to contact me and register for the briefing day on the 2nd of November in ULU.

Right, that is it for now, sincerest apologies for the late coming of this blog. I am most of the way into blog 4, so it should be up shortly.

Thanks

Dave

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