Today it’s Friday and I am completely and utterly shattered after conference but I just thought I’d write a few words down.

For me this was the best annual conference I’d been to. The work that NEC and staff have been doing to improve accessibility and the feel of conference was great. The new staging and big screen was great and I think it made a real difference to have the NEC on the floor and not on the stage.

The one thing that did tick me off a bit was the fact that people kept on walking in front of the sign language peeps, as you could probably tell when I had my rant on stage. But overall it was a more accessible conference. It was also great to know that we actually passed 4 motions. This is unbelievable and I’ve been at conferences where we have actually only passed just over one motion.

The other thing that really made this conference for me was the involvement of FE. This was the most Fe delegates that we had for a few years and it was great to see them as engaged with the conference and getting up there and saying their piece. I also think it was awesome that we passed the emergency motion on Tomlinson- it was such a pity that the FE priority emergency motion got ruled out of order just because a college had done it themselves, without being told what to do or have someone put a motion in for them. (I still can’t believe what happened with Dudley College) or sign a proxy in their name. I think that it is wrong that people use FE colleges to further their political stances and to be honest I found it a bit ironic that people used Dudley College, who are one of the most active FE colleges this year.

All in all it was a good conference- we got policy passed, furthering commitment to FE, reaffirming the fact that we believe in free education, putting student activities at the top of the agenda and demonstrating that we are pro choice and proud of it. Also a huge congrats to all those who got elected. Kat (not sure what would do without her on NEC and to think 14 months ago cause of what others said about us and the rumours they spread we weren’t even friends!), Joe, Gemma, Julian, veronica (proving you don’t have to be a hack to get elected- still can’t believe this was your 1st conference) and Elle, who I know will be one of the most awesome VP Fes we’ll ever have.

Right I’m off back to bed now but I hope you enjoyed conference and found it to be different this year. Night night Xx

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