| Regional Conference Week – the Westside fun bus and other adventures! |
| 27/02/2006 |
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This is the week where the NEC get split into half then tour four regions putting on regional conferences. It may sound like in the rest of this blog that I’m moaning a lot, I was really poorly through the entire week but I did have fun, I had a great time with my other NEC colleagues and I really enjoyed engaging with the delegates on the conferences and reporting to them all the work we are undertaking as an NEC that I’m really proud of! The Scenes: Monday – St Martins, Lancaster Tuesday – Keele, Stoke on Trent Wednesday – Gloucestershire, Cheltenham Thursday – University of the Arts, Chelsea, Westminster
The Cast:
Gemma Tumelty The Props:
A big white minibus van type thing – aka “The Fun Bus” The long week started out with Julian, Ellie and Myself driving up to Lancaster from London on Sunday. We stayed overnight there then set off in the morning to try to find St Martins College, having previous experience with internet printed directions I always get a little nervous when trying to find places, but all was well and the week got off to a pretty good start. In case you missed the wonder that is you Regional Conference you can find the Powerpoint presentations that the NEC made here XXX. So I’m not going to bore you with what we discussed, because every day was the same! NW regional – most heated and interesting discussion (NUS Extra) award We then set off to drive to Stoke on Trent, it took longer than we expected as they seem to be digging up every single road in that place and I kept getting us lost, Wes kept making me laugh so hard I could barely drive and I was starting to feel a bit ill, like I had some sort of cold coming on. We finally got there and went out for a curry as we hadn’t eaten yet. I woke up in the morning feeling like I was going to die, I had really bad cold and flu like symptoms, couldn’t really talk, had an awful cough and really the last thing I wanted to do was go to a regional conference. We arrived at Keele Uni, Joe Rukin nearly drove into some poor little mini with three girls in it while he tried to park our big beast of a van and I went to stock up on Lemsip. At one point in the day I was halfway through my presentation and thought I was going to faint and Wes had to take over, I was poorly and felt very sorry for myself! But there is nothing you can do – but carry on regardless. WM regional – best refreshments (muffins, cookies and fruit on arrival and throughout the day!) award and Most FE delegates award We left that evening and decided to eat first in Stoke, it took us about 40 minutes to find the Pizza Hut (where we used the NUS Discount!!) so it was late before we got on the road again to drive to Cheltenham. We dropped Julian In Birmingham on the way as he had to go to London for a meeting. We got to Gloucestershire Uni campus for the SW regional, its day three now, we’ve all heard the presentations twice already, we’re tired and some of us ill but this point you know you still have to do it another two times and I have to admit its quite a soul destroying thought!! However we had a great day with the SW unions and had really good session on how they are going to deliver the Priority Campaign actions in their unions. SW regional – talking about starting another new area award The journey back to London was great, Joe drove home and I slept because at this point I was still really poorly. They hopped out near Euston and I drove up the road to my flat – a night in my own bed, heaven! The next morning I was up dressed ready to leave at just before 8.30 so that I didn’t get a parking ticket when I realised I had lost my keys to the house, frantically searching for them made me leave the house late, I was 5 mins over 8.30 and I got a bloody ticket. This was not a good start to the day, I got stuck in traffic, was late, lost my wallet, still felt ill, had no where to park van meaning we had to pop out every two hours to put more money on the metre, we were running overtime on the agenda for the first time and we were several NEC down from when we started! But we got on with it and got through the day and I could finally go home and get into bed with a hot water bottle and attempt to get better! (Well except that on Friday I had to go to an affiliations team meeting and I had a steering meeting Saturday night and all day Sunday from 10-8) London Regional – best, most arty bar award and most questions asked on report and plan award Thank you to all the Unions who hosted us, thank you to the delegates you were wonderful audiences and Thank you to my NEC westsiders who helped out and turned up and who were seriously much more fun than the eastside NEC – I must apologise for spreading my germs and making you all ill!! Till next time 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/gemmatumelty/272049.aspx |
