What have I been doing?

I came back from holiday last Sunday and was in Hatfield on Monday morning for my first summer training- Activities into Action. There were some really interesting workshops on volunteering and it was really great to meet lots of officers and hear their thoughts on the Activities priority campaign and what they think the future of volunteering is as well as their plans for the year. I found the stuff on volunteering particularly interesting- it relates so much to FE because the majority of student officers and governors are volunteers and student unions really rely on volunteers to help deliver campaigns and the basic level of support for their students because all too often an FE union will have about 2 hours a week staff support and only a £500 block grant to draw on. In the workshops there was discussion around what motivates volunteers and why they get involved. When I got involved in my student union last year and with NUS as an FE advocate the main reason I did it was because I wanted to make a difference- that sounds a bit fluffy but its true. I saw an opportunity to help make changes for the better and at the back of my mind I was thinking of all the things I could learn from the experience. I had ideas and wanted to put them into action. Last year when I attended a lobby of Parliament with NUS some of the other FE advocates lost out on their Educational Maintenance Allowance because apparently attending a lobby on education is not an educational experience! ‘Disgraceful’ I hear you cry- and people wander why sometimes students are reluctant to get involved?!

Thursday 11th- Areas political convention- the convenors of SEANUS and WMANUS came to HQ to meet me and Gemma Tumelty (we have responsibility for Areas) to talk about how the Areas are going to work together this year. It was decided on the flip of a coin that the SEANUS convenor would be the Areas representative on National Council and the WMANUS convenor’s would share a seat as an observer for the Area’s at NEC meetings. We also heard what campaigns the two Areas are planning for this year. If you want to find out what the Areas are up to you can contact the WMANUS convenors at enquiries@wmanus.org or the SEANUS convenor at su.president@cant.a.ac.uk

I’ve been in the office since then catching up on e-mails and getting on with some work!

What am I doing next

• Active Political Leadership training
• Getting my A-level results
• NEC meeting
• Public speaking training
• Meeting with the AoC (Association of Colleges) to discuss this years NUS FE campaign
• AoC bilateral

It was agreed at the last NEC meetings that NEC members would write an officer report for every NEC meeting so we all know what we are up to. This should give us all a better idea of what the NEC is doing as a whole and see where we can get on board with each others campaigns. I’ve put mine below so you can see what I’ve been doing since I started in office.

• Planning the FE campaign, setting the Priorities for the year
• Responding to queries/problems from student unions and officers
• Attended a focus group on the Foster Review
• FE campaign meeting with staff and some NEC to discuss this years campaign, what the priorities should be, how the FE advocates scheme will work, FE essentials and Governors training, the Student Union Development survey- launching on September 1st
• Responding to invitations to attend FE Freshers Fayres and organising NEC members to go
• FE advocates ‘thank you’ dinner in Manchester
• Running a session at SIAD/KIAD in- house training
• Attending two Priority Campaign’s meetings
• Writing motions for British Youth Council AGM in September
• Meeting Lynne Sedgemore from Centre of Excellence in Leadership to discuss our bid to the Learning and Skills Development Agency to run a quality assurance programme for FE and the Student Union Development Survey
• Annual Leave from 1st to 5th August
• Activities into Action training programme- 8-10th August
• NUS Area’s convention in HQ
• FE campaign meeting-12th August
• Scripting campaigns launch
• Active Political Leadership training programme 18th and 19th August

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