Seems as though the weeks are flying by, cant quite get my head round the fact that I’ve been in office now for nearly 7 weeks!

Looking back though its clear to see that I’ve spent most of my time around the country (and some out of it).

Thought I’d give you a brief look at what I’ve managed to cram in since my last blog…

NUS USI Training

I was so lucky to be invited over to Northern Ireland for the annual NUS-USI officer training event. It’s a great but unfortunately unique opportunity to speak and engage with our officers in Northern Ireland.

Although extremely difficult to get to (plane, car then boat!) “Lusty Beg” was one of the most beautiful places I’ve visited in a while. Both Alex Kemp and I were thrilled and somewhat relieved to be in such a relaxing environment for three days, so much so that it didn’t feel like work!

Officers their quite rightly find it difficult to engage with NUS UK. We talked constitutional reviews, national demonstrations and increasing support for local SU’s in the north of Ireland and all this throughout great training sessions and of course, a good old pint of Guinness (well Guinness in their case, I stuck to a nice glass of wine ;-))

I certainly took a lot away from it and look forward to working with Colleen and the officers to create an even more vibrant NUS-USI for the future.

STADIA Day (Liverpool)

I also had the pleasure of attending the STADIA day on representation and Democracy at Liverpool students union. What has become clear this year is the amount of officers really enthused and committed to providing increased representation and democracy within their union’s. This is something we’re very keen to do in the Strong and Active Unions Campaign, so watch this space for more information.

It was also a fantastic opportunity to talk to officers and union staff about our STADIA network launch. We will be launching a whole host of networks, broken down to increase participation in particular issues. It will share ideas and best practice as well as solving some of those issues that we all face in our unions. For more info please email me at stephen.brown@nus.org.uk or the STADIA team on sarah.caine@nus.org.uk

NEC meeting

I’m sure many people are already aware of some of the resolutions met at the NEC meeting. However, the way we reach these decisions, and often even the decisions themselves are either misconstrued or taken out of context. I was pleased that the motion I supported and spoke on the middle east which was factually accurate and balanced to reflect the horror in Lebanon and Israel past with a good level of support. Further I believe strongly in an immediate and sustainable ceasefire and hope that members recognize this as a time for unity and not division. Lets recognize that although we cant change or solve the crisis we can certainly unite for students across the world by putting our name to safe and just solutions in critical times of need.

I was also appointed by the NEC to fill the NUS services director’s vacant position.

All in all I was pleased that the first meeting was out of the way and we got to discuss some pressing issues such as supporting student nurses and the “One Water” campaign that Ama and I are currently involved in. “One Water” is a special product which when sold sends money away to create safer and accessible drinking water for the people of Africa. More info on this to come.

Strong and Active Unions Zone meeting

The zone came together to push forward with our priority proposal for the year. At present we will look at three key points – Activities, governance and supporting further education students rights to organise on campus. It looks like proving to be an exciting and engaging campaign that we will launch at the Campaigns launch on September 6th.

Activities in Action

My first training event of the year! The course was fantastic and the work put into it resulted in excellent feedback from the officers. We don’t often get much chance to engage with sports and activities officers and I hope this course showcased our commitment to redressing the balance. The strong and Active union zone team are right behind this commitment so look out for more exciting news on this.

Socially it was also a great course and bar my “attempt” to sing the Darkness “I believe in a thing called love” I reckon most people enjoyed the social time to network and share ideas. I’m expecting great things from this set of officers this year!

Other than all these exciting things I’ve also…

• Attended the first SEANUS committee

• Continued organizing allocations for freshers fairs (most requests ever!)

• Management team meeting

• Continued the organization of the NUS media awards

• Met with the Electoral Reform commission

• Attended the Society and citizenship zone meeting

• Attended Active Political Leadership 1 (more on this will follow)

• Met with Duncan goose about “one water”

• Began to update officeronline including the creation of “Zone Sections”

Think that’s it for now. But will keep you updated with my activities!

Stephen x

The Blogs on this site represent the individual views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies or practices of the National Union of Students.

All links in blogs will open in a new browser window.

The permanent URL for this specific blog entry is: http://www.officeronline.co.uk/blogs/stephenbrown/272849.aspx