So freshers’ weeks are nearly upon us and all the planning and work that you have done since coming into office has led to this point. When the students get back and business picks up. When you really start to think that you are doing your job and when those plans start to come to fruition.

Many of you will have your five minute induction talks to deliver and the chances are you will be at the end of a two hour period where students have been talked at and had information overload. The tendency will be to talk about the evening entertainment, your bar and what pub crawl you have on that evening. You may talk about what the union does, advice, the fact you have four sabbs and what your roles entail. But how many of you will challenge the audience? How many of you will involve them? And how many of you will deliver the talk focused on campaigns and involving those people in your union?

Now when I was a sabb I focused on us as sabbs, on the freshers’ fair, and on the fact that if there was a problem then students could come to the union and we could solve it. So I’m not writing this to say how good I was at it but to share my experiences of how to get the tone right and lessons I learnt.

The key way that you can engage freshers right from the start is to let them know the bread and butter of the union. Campaigns, collectivism and injecting that injustice.

Now remember the chances are you will be the last in a long line of people talking to the students so make it interactive. Why not get one student to stamp their feet, then get the people around them to start doing it, then build up to the whole lecture theatre making noise and stamping their feet, highlighting that the union is there for individuals, groups and students as a whole. It is a way of breaking the ice and getting that attention back.

Then it is injustice time. Focus on an issue where you know a local or rival university has a better facility than you. Tell them that its things like this that the union campaign for to have provisions that the students want and deserve. If you can, link it to a campaign the union are running so that when you roll it out, those students who have been there on their first day in their first talk will remember it, and will be more inclined to get involved.

I am not saying do not mention the services the union run or the evening entertainment that is going on that night, but don’t let it dominate. If we are to build strong and active unions then fresher involvement is key and the initial view of what the union is often is formed at that talk.

All of you will have freshers helpers and a team of students ready to help students settle in and promote the Union. Get them to be your campaign leaders, use them to promote what the Union is about and not just getting people to your club in the evening. There is the opportunity to get to so many more people during the freshers period due to the sheer number of helpers that you will have involved and keen to make the difference. Use them to be your messengers, get them onboard with your campaigning agenda, and make them feel like they are a part of your campaign plans for the year ahead.

Good luck across the freshers’ week, fortnight or three weeks as it used to be at my old Union. It will be tiring but remember this is the chance to get three years worth of involvement and engage the membership in your unions campaigns.

NUS will be out and about at your freshers’ fairs so hope to see you then.

Cheers,

Richard ‘Bubble’ Budden

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