October starts with an NEC meeting. This time we actually had a proper meeting. For months, we’d been going through the motions, but not actually getting to the motions. There had always been things that had eaten up time that had stopped us getting that far down the order paper and I don’t think we had discussed a single motion for over three months. This time was different, we just sailed through them, with Will Pages frighteningly obvious motion on supporting the Exmouth students sailing through in less than ten seconds. Peter Leary continued to request that that the vote was taken on motions as soon as possible to get them through, and of course get to his three which were, as always, right at the bottom of the pile. And we got there, well almost, with just one motion not being heard. But of course that isn’t what the meeting will be remembered for.

What everyone will remember was the resignation of James Knight, President of NUS Wales. Which was a shock, if not necessarily a total surprise. JK had been off with stress earlier in the year as he had been bullied/victimised/abused by a section of his Welsh constituency, he’d been off at a crucial time and when he came back the people who had, according to him, set out to make his life hell did not see the error of their ways, but intensified their attacks.

He said he’d had no support from NUS and the time had come to walk. So walk he did, a brave decision indeed. Some cynics said he jumped before he was pushed, but I don’t go for that. I can believe everything he said. What he did was a very brave decision to make and you have to applaud him for that.

I have to admit, I don’t think I am that brave. When the meeting broke, I said to Damien that it was a bit of a surprise to see someone else who felt the way I do much of the time. Well he felt it far more than I do, in that he’d not just been thinking about walking but actually had gone and done it. It’s easy sometimes to find yourself depressed and disillusioned in NUS. It’s not because of the commute, sleeping on floors or the time away from the family. That might be hard, but I can cope with it. But the question I sometimes ask is it worthwhile making those sacrifices when it doesn’t seem like much is being achieved? But it’s like any job I suppose, there are good days and bad days. I’d say it was character building, but I think I’ve got enough character already thanks! They say that with power comes responsibility, but part of the problem is in NUS (and NUSSL too) there is this idea that you have power, but in reality all you have responsibility. But I feel no matter how disillusioned I may be, it is my duty not to walk away, and remain trying to be optimistic that at some point perseverance will triumph. No matter how much I feel some things are not working, I suppose in a way which may be interpreted as a massive show of ego, I know things are better for me being here. At least that’s what I con myself with every day.

I came in with my eyes wide open and knew full well the state of play with NUS finances. OK now I know a lot more, and have long said that throughout the student movement most sabbs only figure out what their job actually is three months in. I never thought that I would find myself working to that rule, after spouting it for years, especially as I beat it when I was an SU sabb. Well I’m there now and have got a grip, I just need to make it tighter!

One thing I have said for years is that there is a reason that National Treasurers only do one year, they come in on day one, look at the books and think “Christ! Only another 355 days and I’m out of here”. It’s for that reason that I said at the start I would do have to do two years, I could see what the task in hand was, and the fact it would take more than a year to even skim the surface. I don’t know if I’ve changed my mind on doing a second year, much to the annoyance of several people I know, who in kindness have said they would like to stand, but won’t if I do. Whilst most people on the NEC had decided if they were restanding or what other post they were standing for more or less as soon as they won their last election (and some before even that), I’m still to make up my mind. I’ll do it in December. This may seem an eternity away in the constant election cycle we have to live in in NUS, but it’ll still be earlier than when I decided last year!

Getting back to the NEC meeting, the other thing of note for me at the NEC was of course that I got a self-imposed roasting for the lack of updated budgets. I’ve had a little bit of a problem in getting them until now. At first I was told that no new budgets had been done since the estimates were rejected by conference. As it was that late, I’d decided that we might as well wait until the end of year management accounts were in. Well of course when they were in, the line changed to ‘well it’s too late to do anything new now’. Well it may be fair enough to leave all the NEC budgets as they were last year, there have lots of cost savings made in those areas, but using last years budgets in other areas just didn’t seem to make sense.

Last year NUS did £120k better than budget. That’s where the good news ends though, as it meant we posted a deficit of £375k. And of course the main reason that this ‘saving’ was made was down to the fact that we ran for most of the year without a full staff compliment. So that saving is unsustainable, and of course we have £130k worth of rent to find for this year. Hopefully for the next meeting, I’ll have something better to show everyone.

This was of course in stark contrast to the Finance and Resources meeting on Wednesday at NUSSL HQ, where there was a similar tale, they had done £150k better than expected, but of course the chances of a £375k deficit being recorded in Macclesfield were never on the cards. It seems for them that central billing (a system which means all unions get invoiced directly by NUSSL opposed to an outside agency) had come at just the right time, and it had meant that even with a reduced turnover caused by unions declining bar sales, profits were up because costs had been slashed so much.

On Friday I had the shortest trip I could possibly make in my duties as an NEC member, to Warwick University, or UTMOW as we used to call it when I was at Cov (University of Ten Miles Outside Warwick). Getting off the lovely pink double deckers that have appeared since term has started halfway through my usual trip to Coventry Station was bliss. I had been invited to a democracy fair and shared a stall with Joe and Andy from WMANUS. I have come to the conclusion that there are now far too many Joes in NUS, especially as we have taken on another one, who I last met about eight years ago at UTMOW, Joe Keenan the new South East RO.

Anyway, I was there for a democracy fair, a good idea indeed, where all the internal democratic campaigns, councils and committees had a stall to say what they did, recruit people to get involved and give stuff away. My next day away was oddly enough to go and visit WMANUS and talk through ideas that both organisations need to get a grip on, showing what benefit they have for their members. The day after I was at UWE, for something on similar lines. The thing that stood out for me there though was that the union had done a constitutional review, and this year would pay all of it’s representatives to attend meetings. The university had OKed it and would cough up £50k to pay for it. The only problem there was the union reckoned it would cost about £90k.

Like so many trips away, the worst bit of the day was the travelling, not the train, but the taxi from the station. He was quite obviously running up the meter, turning right and looping around when the signs said straight on, but pulled his best stunt just as we got there. “Which part do you want?” he asked. I told him the SU and he started trying to convince me that that was in the city centre. He wouldn’t have it that that was Bristol Uni and this was UWE. Anyway, as he passed me my receipt, he asked if I could close the window. In response I asked him if he could charge me what was actually on the meter, £5.80, not the £6.00 he had charged. To that he jumped out of the cab and tried to pick a fight!

On the way back, I went for the bus option. I would have done on the way there if I wasn’t a bit behind time. But again, I should have listened to the wise council of the UWE sabbs who had given me a copy of the paper, which contained a ‘feedback’ or complaints form for the buses. I soon found out why, as it was a full half hour late, getting me to the station about five minutes after the train had gone. Oh well.

After getting stuff done for the NEC report and plan -would it surprise anyone to find out that not only the NEC, but also the staff budget holders, have never received training on budgeting?- my next jaunt away was to Bradford University. If ever there was a hardship claim that finance committee would be sympathetic to, it would be theirs. The riots a few years ago hadn’t exactly done much good for their recruitment figures. On top of that the inevitable consequence of tuition fees and grant abolition means more students live at home when they study. When your institution is in the area of the country with the heaviest density of Muslims, that isn’t exactly going to help your bar takings. If that wasn’t enough to knock the union for six financially, according to HEFCE, Bradford is the best university for inclusion, or to put it in other words, has the poorest students in the country, so the ones who do come have the least amount of money to spend.

After another NUSSL board meeting, the last thing on the travel agenda for October before the regionals kicked in was a nice trip to Reading for their referendum. I love a good referendum. It’s one of the few chances you get to tlak to students about what they think of NUS, and I was happily surprised at the number who wanted to do so in the rain under my golfing umbrella, bright yellow with ‘The unions got it covered’ printed on. Chris Higham at Leicester got a load done last year. I must ask Martin Cullen for some more, they are very useful props in these situations……

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