| FE Lobby, NEC meeting, Leading Learners and HMD |
| 29/01/2007 |
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It’s the start of regional conferences week so I’m sure I’ll be seeing lots of you over the next few days. Here’s a run down of what I’ve been up to since the start of the new year- it’s been a busy start to 2007! 4th- Meeting with a representative from PKF, who are working with the Self Regulation Implementation Group which I sit on, to discuss NUS’ views on how the further education system could become more self regulated and what the benefits could be. 5th- Day in HQ,/p> 8th- I chaired a meeting to discuss future plans for NUS’ further education policy work and details of the FE Lobby of Parliament on 21st February. GET IT IN YOUR DIARIES! More information is now available on www.officeronline.co.uk/fe 9th- I had a day in the office before heading off to Southport for an evening out with the NEC before our strategy meeting. The NEC don’t get to spend much time as a whole group and NEC meetings aren’t always the most team building events shall we say, so I thought it was great to have the opportunity to spend some time together and it set the tone for the start of the next day. 10th- The full day NEC meeting was quite intense but a really useful and valuable opportunity to reflect on our own experiences in NUS and to focus down what we had learned about the organisation to identify its strengths, weakness and where we need to be moving to. We spent the afternoon discussing the first draft of the 2007 Estimates. 11th- Meeting with representatives from the Learning and Skills Network 12th- I attend part of the Finance Committee meeting,/p> 14th-15th- National Learner Panel meeting in Manchester. 16th- Day in the office, mostly spent feeling very nervous about the next day. This conference was run by the Centre for Excellence in Leadership in partnership with NUS. Over 150 delegates attended to take part in debates about the Letich Review and Self Regulation, attend workshops on the Learning and Skills Council and Learner Involvement Strategies and hear speeches and ask questions of leaders in the FE sector. I have to say I found pretty much all of the content of John Hayes (Conservative Shadow Minister for Skills) pretty hard to stomach, but apart from that I thought the debates, questions and ideas that came out of the day were nothing short of inspirational. I’ve posted my opening speech in another BLOG. 18th- Strong and active union’s zone meeting and a phone conference with the DfES about the FE Bill and Foundation Degrees. Then a long drive to Leicester due to the terrible weather. 19th- Strategic Conversation Day, Leicester University 22nd- Management Team Meeting all day 23rd- I was off on sick leave 24th- Self Regulation Implementation Group Meeting 25th- Day in HQ then I attended a Holocaust Memorial Day event at Camden Town Hall with some fellow NEC members. In my first year of college I was in a play called ‘Ghetto’ which is about the Jewish ghettos in Poland and written by Joshua Sobol who was a Holocaust survivor. Every aspect of being involved in the production, from researching my part to rehearsing the harrowing scenes in the text cemented my resolve to visit Auchwitz/Birkenhau myself, which I did in January 2005. I will never forget what I saw and learnt there and I find it very hard to put in to words how it made me feel and how it has changed my outlook on the human race ever since. 26th- Day in HQ. Today was close of nominations for election to the NEC- good luck to everyone standing for election. The Blogs on this site represent the individual views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies or practices of the National Union of Students. All links in blogs will open in a new browser window. The permanent URL for this specific blog entry is: http://www.officeronline.co.uk/blogs/ellierussell/273809.aspx |
