As you may be aware the MORI research we commissioned has now been published and its findings give us real direction and focus to deliver the services and campaigns that our membership are crying out for.

But now we have this report what are we going to do with it?

How are we going to ensure that the issues identified by MORI will be acted upon both democratically and operationally?

Before and since taking office on the 1st July this research has dominated much of my work and continues to do so especially in terms of ensuring the issues raised are addressed and acted upon organisationally and democratically.

At National Council in November a new Year of Change Steering Committee was formed to receive the MORI report, to steer the writing of a strategic plan for NUS and to come up with options for democratic change. This group met for the first time on the 19th December and will meet again next week, we will then send out a document to Students’ Unions with the options for democratic change that they have devised using MORI recommendations and information coming out of the Review of Regions and Development conducted recently in the organisation.

If democratic change is truly going to happen then Students Unions need to commit to this process, read this document and submit amendments by the 10th February of the option that they think is the best way forward for NUS’ democracy. There is only so much we can do internally and only so much individual members of the NEC can do as any democratic change must happen democratically through conference.

The deadlines are pretty tight I understand but start considering when you would have your meeting to pass your amendments to conference now, I will make sure the document outlining the options is with you by 23rd January that gives you three weeks to considers the options and be proactive about progressing democratic reform in NUS.

One comment from a person participating in the MORI research about the NEC’s commitment to reforming democracy was “turkey’s don’t vote for Christmas” clearly referring to the perception that the NEC won’t support any changes that would effect them personally or damage the representation of their faction. My perception is that this year this is not the case, this year the NEC on the whole are committed to making NUS better, increasing avenues for involvement from the membership, organising grass roots activists, making the management team more accountable, reforming National Council, increasing regional democracy whilst maintaining political diversity, so if there is ever a time to rally behind this process as Students’ Unions its now. I know that this may be boring now, as Jamal said in his recent blog the topic of reform has certainly dominated the last two years, but we are reaching the critical point now where we are going to deliver what our membership want, what you want, and it is vital these discussions happen at Conference this year.

We have started reforming and I believe in some areas we have been performing, but there is still much to do, so please read the document from the Year of Change group, debate the options at your Executive Meetings or Council Meetings and submit amendments to conference, lets have the debate, lets open our democracy, lets think about areas that have previously been seen as “untouchable” and lets increase confidence in NUS for the future.

DEADLINE 10TH FEBRUARY 1PM – email amendments@nus.org.uk
DON’T FORGET YOUR PROFORMA OR PASSCODE

Obviously alongside the work the Year of Change group is doing on democratic change they are helping to steer the content of the Strategic Plan, they will receive a draft copy on the 16th January for feedback and comment. It is unthinkable that an organisation of our size has previously had no Strategic Plan, in terms of our services, our communications and our finances I am glad to be finally working on this and that we have such clear direction from the MORI research. The plan will go to the NEC and National Council and be ready for delegates to read at Conference.

For us to become a strong and active union, we must really start delivering for students and for students’ unions, our campaigning ability must increase, our communication and marketing must be developed to prove we are more than just a card, we must start developing student activists, we must support unions regionally as well as nationally and we must ensure our financial stability and increase our income to improve our services.

I hope this blog has made it clearer what direction we are taking from the research and the Year of Change group, any more questions please do get in touch. gemma.tumelty@nus.org.uk or yearofchange@nus.org.uk

The research can be found here

and my presentation highlighting the key findings can be found here

Whatever you submit amendments on just make sure you take part in our democratic process, last year 28 unions submitted motions, this year 58 unions submitted motions, this is still no where near the amount of unions that should be participating so get writing!

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