August started with two weeks out of the office, first naturally at finance training and then, not quite so naturally (maybe?!?) at media training. Both were at the University of Leicester halls of residence, not quite in the middle of no-where but near enough. Topically enough for the finance course and the fact NUS Extra would come up, the only thing anywhere near us that brought us back to civilisation was an ASDA (well I’m sure an area where the roads are 30 feet wide with one lane each side, and the houses are another 30 feet set back is very civilised, but not exactly sociable) ten minutes walk away. As I knew what would happen, and there was no point fighting against the rising tide, I made sure I told both courses were the ASDA was and found out who had brought a minibus.

Finance course, even if I say so myself (Not that I can even attempt to claim any of the credit when it’s all down to the staff), was excellent. The arbitary decision to get rid of organised ents for the evenings however, was not necessarily met with universal popularity, especially as on the second night for most it had meant a cab into town, but the programme of the course was universally accepted as telling finance officers everything they needed to know and then a little more that might be useful.

The media course was a little different. While the majority enjoyed it and thought it thoroughly worthwhile, it was noted that for some we missed the target in terms of delivering what they hoped. The difference was we had been doing finance training for years, media we hadn’t this was our first bash for a long while, and quite obviously things in media have changed a lot since then. Finance, well that doesn’t ever change too much. With media it’s clear and it’s always the same when you do anything new, you have to be prepared to make mistakes and learn from them. Well that is what we will do, and next year it will be better.

There was a great bunch on both courses, and I actually learned a fair bit. Despite not looking forward to it at the time, I actually enjoyed the grilling on NUS Extra at the finance course where I delivered an update on NUS Extra, entitled “NUS Extra, the Facts”. Now I have to be honest, I wasn’t exactly a die-hard fan of NUS Extra like some people had been before National Conference, but I hadn’t been against it either. In fact what I told Martin at the time was “I can’t decide. I’m sat on the fence that much, I’ve splinters up my arse”. I didn’t even mention NUS Extra in my manifesto, and only even said in my speech that “Some of my ideas might not be as sexy as NUS Extra………”.

The reason why was simple, I could see some of the arguments for and some of the arguments against then, and I came faced of course with my own political beliefs, which would always drag me towards the idea that no more money should be asked from students, and also with what I’d spent all my time doing my degree learning, that you got a operating deficit, you can solve that by cutting costs or increasing revenue. Well I’d always go for increasing revenue if that choice is open, cutting costs after efficiency savings always means cutting services, cutting staff, cutting whatever you deliver that males you worthwhile. No one can do that and guarantee long term sustainability (see that’s my degree talking), especially NUS. The bottom line is that the inevitable consequence of tuition fees and grant abolition had made both on the finances of students unions and of course NUS. The other thing is, you can’t negotiate better national discounts for students

Salford had been thinking about pulling out at this stage, comet had just pulled out of the card without seeming to give a reason and we’d decided that having McDonalds was just too great a risk. In the end, thankfully they didn’t, whether I changed minds that night or not I don’t know, I just know I at least answered all the questions honestly. I have to be honest, it wasn’t my idea, and even after it was passed I was still ambivalent towards the project, but now, besides the fact conference passed it and I ended up as treasurer, with a duty and a mandate to see it through, I can now see far better the financial reality in the student movement and the real need for this to work for all our sakes.

Of course the one major incident at finance was of course SAGA, the end out come to which, was as Wes as mentioned in his blog, and then tried to pass of as his own idea! Well it wasn’t his and I promised not to say who the ‘muse’ was. When we arrived at the finance training, we found that we were had been doubled booked with a Saga painting holiday. Saga plus students. Hmm, quite obviously not the most natural pairing in the world. Well, the first thing I did when I found out was ask about the night bar. ‘We’re sharing? What, with Saga? You are kidding, don’t you realise how much that is not going to work? Well that was easily enough sorted out, and Saga would have Beaumont for their ‘Leicestershire Art History Quiz’ (you see why I wanted a separate bar?) and we would have Claremont.

It was about 6-ish on the first night. We had as our open space what at night became a bar. In the day, it was used as breakout space for groups and it was where tea and coffee came. The shutter rolled open. Jenny Martin was not impressed. ‘You can’t open the bar, we’re still working” she said, and she had a good point too, we all were. “Saga want it open for their dinner” came the reply.

Well after a brief yet impassioned conversation, the shutter came down and they served through the rear door facing onto the corridor. And so, we now have the answer to every seedy journalist trying to put the ‘students are pissheads’ story. “Well at a recent NUS training event, students were still working into the evening, but our work was disrupted by these anti-social pensioners, demanding that the bar be opened at 6pm!.” It’s beautiful, and it’s true.

Besides all this, there wasn’t much difference between the two courses. On the first I was accompanied by Wes, busy profiling (he wouldn’t expect me to say anything else!). The NEC member at media, the champion of non-smoking in students unions (and indeed blogs) was doing something altogether far more surprising.

At both we had delegates, or should I say most obviously the non-delegates, busy attempting to raise their stature on the national scene. One attempting to freeload on the back of being a speaker and one truly freeloading, well not really, as he just turned up for the evening (drinking) sessions. You both know who you are!

Of Course there were the usual displays of networking and advanced networking

The worst thing I’ve seen for a while happened after one of the Leicester courses. Just getting off the station at Nuneaton, there were these coppers with guns. Well asked the first one if I could take a photo for my blog and he said in a way which made it sound like he was holding out his two-foot cock “What this?”. So I took the photo. The thing you don’t necessarily see is the asian pensioner, the only non-white to get off the train there. Another bloke and me were the last ones off, both with big rucksacks, just reflecting on how embarrassing it is.

Squeezed in between the two courses was a most wonderful trip to Aberystwyth. Truly wonderful in every way. Firstly down to the fact it took over three hours to get there, followed by the hilarious Aber sense of humour “The University, about two minutes walk hat way” Oh yes, two minutes walk if you happened to be a jet powered hill-climbing giraffe on stilts. And then when I did get there, sweating like a lamb in a kebab shop, I had the pleasure of another interrogation about NUS Extra, the finances and the service provision which the union got, before getting a lift which would just get me back to the station in time. I have to say thanks for that, but for some reason, I got to sunbathe at the station, which had a siding with a minature railway (sadly not working either) for over an hour for the train to actually turn up. Despite getting my laptop charged at the union, the battery lasted just ten minutes. You know, there’s an identical laptop in the NUSSL Boardroom that is always plugged in. I wonder….

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