July

I finished at Teesside on Friday the 25th of June and started at NUS on Monday the 28th of June – talk about being thrown in at the deep end! Nevermind I thought, I have handover to teach me all I need to know. Unlike at my previous Union I had a three day crash course instead of a two week process.

On the Monday I managed to have half a day in the office with Ross my predecessor before going to a mis-scheduled Regional Reception which was my first introduction into the organization. I spent the next two days at the TUC in London training with the rest of the group. It was good training but I don’t feel two days is enough to train National officers which is something that will be changed.

The Thursday was the day we officially became the new NEC and had a meeting to allocate responsibilities to the NEC amongst other things. I was delighted to be given almost all the ones I applied for. My responsibilities are Finance (convenor), strategy, student union development, internationalism and Northern Ireland so please feel free to contact me about any of the above. My general thoughts of the meeting were that it was nowhere near as harsh as I thought it was going to be in terms of politics but my position on that has changed since.

Friday – well I got to sit behind my desk for the first time and start digging out all the information I needed to know for the year ahead, the scale of our financial issues and get a handle on what the reform savings are worth to our organisation provided they are passed.

The next week was Regional Receptions so I was busy traveling up and down the Eastern seaboard traveling to York St John, Lincoln and Surrey SU’s. The rest of the time I was trying to learn pages upon pages of budget codes, financial procedures and rules and regulations all fantastic stuff! Intermixed with all this was me spending time with our Director of Finance to find out what the current situation is now, going forward and what my plans were. This takes longer than you’d imagine believe me! It was around now that I stopped telling people I looked after NUS’ money and started saying I look after the money we haven’t got – if that is possible?!

The last of the regionals took place on the Monday of the next week at Buckinghamshire Chilterns with two more days in the office before shooting off to Keele for Ents Convention. Here we saw what NUSEnts’ plans were, saw Anthony Wilson make a special guest speech and talked to officers about their needs on Entertainment provision as well as getting to know a little bit more about NUSEnts myself. We also made time for a Management team meeting as there were a huge amount of issues to discuss before I travelled to Bristol to spend some time with Reading’s officers and do a presentation on NUS and NUSSL.

The following week it was time for a decision on relocation which came about through a special NEC meeting for the cause where the NEC resolved to move to a split site option, sharing back office functions with NUSSL and having that office in Manchester – a decision that I was very much pushing for and one that will save us money and hopefully bring us closer to you the membership.

The next day it was time for Convention to kick off. Three days of mayhem – especially if you are n the NEC but all in all I think it was a well run event with lots to do and loads of people to meet and share ideas with which is something I found really helpful when I was a sabb.

The following week I was lead officer on the first leg of People and Money in York. I always lover P+M and this was a great week to kick off the summer training. Had a great bunch that week with officers mainly from the North and Scotland attending.

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