I can’t believe it’s only been two weeks since I started at NUS- it feels like two years! I’m really excited about the year ahead and can’t wait to start getting stuff out to unions about the FE campaign.

My first couple of days in the office were spent going through all my e-mails, meeting staff and getting settled in. I wasn’t able to go the NEC induction training because I had my last two exams at the same time ? so I had I had a mini induction day on 6th before going to the Emergency NEC meeting.

On 7th July I was on a bus on my way to a meeting in Euston about the upcoming Foster Review on the Future of Further Education when we were stopped by the police and told to get off immediately. Wandering around the streets of London trying to find where the meeting was with fire, police and ambulance sirens everywhere and not having a clue what was going on was a scary experience. As the day unfolded and the events of the morning became clear I felt a mixture of surprise and fear mixed with anger and sadness for those caught up in the bombings and family and friends worried about where loved ones were. Reflecting on the events over the next few days, and watching as people picked themselves up and carried on with their lives, I realised that although the threat of future violence will always be there, there is no future in terrorism and those people who seek to divide communities and incite fear and prejudice in people will continue to fail. That not only goes for terrorists but also to fascist organisations such as the BNP, who disgustingly tried to make a political gain from the events of July 7th for the by-election in Essex. I want to say a special thank you to Jamal and everyone else who got involved for their tireless and fantastic work in helping to organise the vigil last week. I found the vigil to be very thought provoking and an example of how we can positively move forward from these horrific times and unite to become a stronger and better society.

On the 11th July was the first NEC meeting- we had some good discussion about the priority campaigns and responsibilities and passed two great emergency motions on the London Bombings and the Olympics. I was given responsibility for working with the British Youth Council, co-convening the Student Union development group with Gemma and sitting on the Education and Anti Racism/Anti Fascism teams. I also submitted a motion to the meeting about the upcoming Foster Review (go to http://www.nusonline.co.uk//campaigns/developingunions/269636.aspx to have your say!) which was passed (hooray!). It highlighted the work NUS has done so far on the consultation process for the Review, including attending a focus group with the FE advocates and meeting with Sir Andrew Foster. It also pledged to continue to seek student representation within the new structures created to support the Government’s Skills Strategy, especially on the National Skills Alliance.

Over the next couple of days I was in the office replying to various e-mails and starting to get my ideas down about how to take the FE campaign forward this year. On Thursday 14th I had a meeting with the “FE campaign task group” made up of various staff and a couple of NEC members to talk about the FE campaign and bounce ideas off each other on what the focus of the campaign should be. This was a really productive day and I feel much more confident about writing the campaign now (which is what I’m going to be doing over the next few of weeks)

I’ve started to realise that one of the hardest things about being a full time officer is something that people aren’t necessarily aware of or appreciate - I certainly didn’t when I was an officer last year. On the one hand you want to send out relevant, useful and engaging materials that unions can use to directly improve the learner experience for their students. Then on the other hand you need to balance that with engaging in important policy forums that don’t necessarily make for a lively campaign for unions but have an impact on the FE sector as a whole. I hope I can strike this balance early on and work out ways to engage the membership in the work that the NUS does outside of the priority campaigns and with student unions.

This is what I’m up to over the next few days:
Wednesday 20th July: going to Manchester for a thank-you dinner with the FE advocates

Thursday 21st: in Farnham for the SIAD/KIAD training to run a session on how to run an effective course rep system

Friday 22nd: attending a meeting on the priority campaigns

Hope you have a great week x

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