September 19th was an unusual day and not one I would really like to repeat. The NEC met twice one meeting followed almost immediately by another with two very different subjects.

My first experience of chairing an NEC meeting was the first NEC meeting of the day, to receive the report of the investigation into the resignations of three of our committee members. The report was commissioned after Annual Conference in which some of our Jewish members felt that NUS was being a bystander to Anti-Semitism. There was an independent Chair appointed who interviewed several people about the events at conference and the events leading up to conference. It was an extremely stressful time for NUS, the media attention it brought was particularly unwelcome and unpleasant and I know that a number of individuals within the organisation had an awful time personally following conference. In addition to this it is fair to say that the media slant on the investigation was that NUS was Anti-Semitic in its action and inaction on various issues and for me, who cares deeply about this organisation that is committed to equality and diversity, that opinion was very difficult to hear and read day in day out.

At the first NEC of the year the National Director and I took on the responsibility of making sure the report progressed speedily and that timelines and updates were communicated to the NEC regularly. I and I’m absolutely sure all of the people who work for NUS are extremely glad that we can draw a line in the sand under this difficult time and move on.

The report stated that whilst some of NUS’s internal procedures are outdated and not very efficient the National Union was not Anti-Semitic nor apathetic to Anti-Semitism. The report stated various recommendations that myself as National Secretary and the Strategy team are going to consider how best to implement across the organisation.

The NEC agreed a press release after deciding which recommendations would be implemented by which group/NEC member. We then had a much needed break and I handed the Chair back to Kat for the second NEC meeting of the day.

NEC round 2 was focussed on the demo question…to be or not to be? I had my rant in a blog a couple of blogs ago so I won’t harp on too much at this point but I will say this, thank you to the NEC for listening to the membership, finally!

On Tuesday 20 September I went up to Northumbria’s Fresher’s Fair and their scheme of Fresher’s helpers impressed me lots! Then on Wednesday I travelled over to somewhere near Blackpool for a Regions and Development meeting until Friday, we finally have a full Regional Officer Complement! Welcome to you all.

I was back to Newcastle on Friday to do a “what is NUS” presentation to all the part time officers there, which was really enjoyable.

On the Saturday I really wanted to go to the Exmouth Demo but unfortunately I had to move all of my possessions out of my house in Liverpool into storage as I was still kind of living in two places! So sorry Katie and Alan, I heard it was storming however!

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