Hello, and welcome to my blog! I hope it is something that you find useful and informative - and that it reveals many of the mysteries surrounding our National Union!

I thought I'd use these first entries to fill you in on what I've been up to since July - so my apologies if you've already heard this several times!

The main theme of the summer has, of course, been the NUS Summer Training Programme, which kicked off in July with Convention 2004, hosted by Leeds University Union. I really enjoyed Convention, and the Women's Campaign got to play a major part in the training on offer, with workshops ranging from 'a woman's place is in her union' to an introduction about NUS for women's officers.

However, Summer Training isn't just about Convention, and the Women's Campaign has been all over the country delivering sessions on diversity and the liberation campaigns at many of the courses, from 'Support and Represent' to 'People and Money'. Not counting 'Women and Campaigns' (more about that one later), I've been on two Summer Training courses as a member of the NEC - 'Support and Represent' and 'People and Money', both in Aston, as well as popping over for the day to the 'People and Money' course at the TUC Centre in London to do a session on diversity. You could say that I got well and truly grilled (though at times it felt like being in the frying pan AND the flames, if you'll forgive me for mixing my metaphors…) Anyway, despite the usual hostility that I fully expected, the response I got overall was pretty damn fab and by the sounds of it, there are many officers across the UK who are fully committed to the principles of equality and diversity :)

Summer Training ended last week (funny that, given that the beginning of September marked the end of the summer…) What was I saying? Oh yeah, the grand finale of the Summer Training Programme was marked by what I consider to be the best event of the lot - 'Women and Campaigns'. And before I get flamed by thousands of Presidents or Welfare Officers or Finance Officers, let me quickly cover my back by pointing out that, as National Women's Officer, I am duty bound to be completely biased in favour of 'Women and Campaigns' - it might even be in the Constitution, and if it's not, then it should be…

But seriously, 'Women and Campaigns' was brilliant. I've been on it twice before as a delegate - once before it made it into Summer Training Programme (run by Helen Russell, so that shows my age!!) and two years ago in Kat's final year as Women's Officer. However, for those of you who are thinking about running for the NEC, let me share this pearl of wisdom - being a delegate is completely different to being the Lead Officer on an event, if only because you end up with the strangest of tasks, such as attempting to put together a display stand for an external organisation. Two hours later, when you still haven't got any closer to having a stand that, well, stands up, you discover that you're actually missing a vital component and that you might as well have not bothered!! Delegates miss out on all the fun stuff…

I hope that the delegates on the event enjoyed as much as myself and the other NEC members (Kat Louis and Gemma) did, and that y'all got loads out of it. And as for the people who decided to send text messages to our delegates asking how the "bra burning" course was going, or calling us lesbians, well I owe you all a thank you. Thank you for illustrating why we need the Women's Campaign. Thank you for demonstrating that sexism (and homophobia) are alive and kicking in 2004. Thank you for being living examples of the attitudes we need to work to change.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

I'll leave it there for now - check out the other posts to see what else I have been up this summer!

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