Hey There- God can you believe it for the last couple of weeks there hasn’t been a photo of me on the blog section. Good grief Sian Davies I am shocked and appalled! Shame on me! (Me, blog a lot??? Never!!!- hehehehehehehe- but hey at least you know what I am up to!) I think some of my fellow members of the NEC are needing stiff drinks to still get over the shock. But just when you thought it was safe I am sat on a train and taping away at a lap top so here is my NEC report that went in for the next NEC meeting. So have a read away at what I have been up to- there are also some links to different bits, web sites and organisations on my blog so please do take a look. Hope you are all enjoying the new year and freshers and if you have any questions about what I am up to then just drop me an email on sian.davies@nus.org.uk

Since the last NEC meeting this is what I have been up to:-

Attended media & public speaking training.
Attended and spoke at the NUS Campaigns Launch.

Attended the launch of a disabled post graduate web site called Premia (www.premia.ac.uk) Started working with Premia on the issues that post graduate students faces when it comes to disability (it is shocking how little disabled student allowance post graduates get. It is much less than post graduates- which make you think ok is it ok for us disabled peeps to do a degree but heaven forbid if we actually wanted to do a masters or PhD? The resources and support just isn’t there.)

Worked on Liberation 2005 and Liberation, Equality & Diversity training. (do come along- bring your sports officers, activities officers, liberation, comms. Have a Union day out because liberation does affect every area of Students’ Unions from the AGM to the bar.) Got SWD Campaign materials ready for the new academic year (go to the SWD Campaign section of Officeronline to take a peek)

Supported the VP FE by attending Freshers Fairs in FE

Attended Freshers Fairs to raise awareness of the SWD Campaign- some of which have resulted in people standing to be SWD Officers in their Unions. (If your Union does have a SWD officer please do get in touch because we are trying to find out how many Unions actually have SWD officers.) Started work on the Disability Equality Duty which is going to have huge impacts on colleges and universities (to find out more go to www.drc-gb.org) Arranged and attended SWD Committee meeting (minutes will be available on SWD section of Officeronline). Arranged the SWD/Participate Sports Day that will happen in November.

Campaigned on the issue of an international disabled student whose parents were refused a visa to be in the UK which meant he was unable to study here. Through the NUS campaigning & support this case was won (go to the news section of Officeronline to find out more).

Arranged mental health day which over 100 officers & students attended (go to the mental health section of Officeronline to take a look at photos). Arranged NUS having a disability education lawyer. Worked with the VP Welfare on NUS Mental Health campaign. including posters and online campaign resource section. (go to the campaign resource section of Officeronline) Held meetings with NIACE (www.niace.ac.uk), Radar (www.radar.org.uk), Disability Rights Commission (www.drc-gb.org), British Blind Sport, English Federation Disability Sport (www.efds.org), Skill (www.skill.org.uk), Mental Health Foundation (www.mentalhealth.org.uk).

Attended the Terence Higgins Trust Sexual Health Campaigning day to work on the SWD Campaign Sexual RevoLOOation. (www.tht.org.uk) Arranged a meeting with the Scottish Executive who oversees mental health and Scottish SWD Officer. Attended the Exmouth Demo and supported the Exmouth Exec in their fight against their campus closure. (www.upsu.org.uk) Worked on the priority campaign participate. Worked on the assisted dying bill that is going to the house of lords on October 10th. (to find out more go to the SWD section of Officeronline)

Answered the usual emails/telephone calls etc.

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