National Secretary (Convenor)Stephen Brown
National Treasurer Dave Lewis

Governance
NUS Governance has taken up the majority of the Strong and Active Union (SAU) zone this term and whilst we deal with students’ union governance, getting our own house in order has been, and must continue to be, a key priority going forward.

Besides the obvious – we’ve been continuing to develop a series of projects that we see as key to both NUS’ role in the third sector and to fulfilling our commitments to those officers and students whose experience and talent is currently being wasted post the Student Movement. I’ve strived to make this the cornerstone of my work this year, and I hope we are moving towards making real change, efficient and cost effective change for you and for NUS.

But our work hasn’t stopped there. We also promised the beginnings of new and exciting website redevelopment, moves towards becoming a paperless organisation and radical new communications to boot. We promised, involvement in the Olympics, support for the Glasgow Commonwealth games and change-making opportunities for sabbaticals for London 2012. We said activities was crucial but not just our obligation and we said building strong and active unions did mean democracy discussion, community bridge building and international discussion.

I believe we’re on the path to achieving all of this in 2008. Below is a summery of our work.

Trusteeship
We want our officers and student trustees to get the most out of their involvement in students’ unions. We should never underestimate the enormous personal benefit we all get from being trustees or members of our executives. NUS must do more to ensure that that experience and talent is not lost and that charities and organisations alike in the third sector are the beneficiaries of these unique experiences.

Together with the British Youth Council, ACEVO, NCVO and Rockpools, we’re designing and exciting programme for the third sector. The main thrust of the conference will be to showcase our enormous talent, as well as identifying ways that the third sector can attract more young people. Currently less than one per cent of all trustees in England and Wales are under 30, in its unique position, NUS will work towards our membership filling the gap.

Plan

• Hold a one day conference for third sector organisations and agencies, showcasing our talented trustees and giving practical suggestions on attracting younger trustees
• Begin to build a database of trustees and promote future opportunities

Horsesmouth

Horsesmouth.co.uk connects people seeking support, guidance and inspiration on the important issues, with people who are willing to give - from the benefit of their own experience. And we have our own section especially for people involved in students' unions.

While millions of people are already using online forums for discussion, and social networks to share music and photos, the ability to share knowledge in a safe environment is unique to horsesmouth.

We aim to launch an NUS section within the coming months. This is a grand opportunity to connect people in the student movement seeking advice and support. You can become a mentor, listing your skills and experience and someone may contact you for advice or guidance. It’s an incredibly pioneering project, launched by the Rt Hon Gordon Brown at Downing Street last summer. We’re over-the-moon to have our own section agreed by the website, and shows our commitment and desire to become a leader in peer-to-peer mentoring.

The NUS Awards
As many of you will know, last year saw the death of the NUS Media awards, largely because of financial pressures. However, we always committed to reviving them along with some other student awards and so come the NUS Awards. June this year will see the first NUS Awards show demonstrating the best the students movement offers from campaigning and innovation to media and journalism.

The awards, to be held in Birmingham, will be officially launched in the coming weeks and we’ll be excitedly preparing a night to remember. It’s important to showcase our successes, together as a movement and finally we have a place to do it.

Watch this space!

Democracy and Governance
Is democracy just a processes or an outcome in itself?
Is democracy the same thing as governance?
Is democracy through representation enough?
Is a voting student the same as a voting member to a Union?
How can Union democracy and governance develop students?

Good questions, right? Well, these are the burning questions the student movement is keen to tackle. With both the Democracy and Governance event held in January as well as the revamped Democracy tool-kit and elections materials, we hope we’ve at least made some progress on solving the inevitable democratic conundrum.

We all know how tough increasing participation across our unions is but we’re keen to find new and innovative ways to attract union members to our polling stations.

SUEI
NUS is now working with SUEI and the DIUS (Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills) to dramatically expand the reach of the initiative to ensure that all students’ unions in HE are able to take part and benefit.

We have achieved our target of twenty five students’ unions joining cohorts four and five; it is testament to the fantastic impact of the scheme that so many unions are determined to participate and increase their organisation with this programme.

Plan

• Implement the framework to ensure that resources from Government are used to best effect for the membership
• Work with NUS in Scotland and the Scottish Parliament to obtain funding for Scottish Unions
• NUS will encourage students’ unions to participate in the evaluation initiative. This initiative is designed to support, help and nurture staff and officers to lead and manage better run students’ unions.

BUSA
BUSA has agreed to join with UCS to form a new organisation to represent and facilitate HE Sport. During late Spring 2008 the final arrangements of the new organisation will be presented, and voted for by BUSA/UCS members.

Since London has been chosen to host the Olympics in 2012, it is important that we work with all relevant partnership organisations to ensure that there are opportunities for both student volunteers and students’ unions.

Plan

• Develop a clear partnership with BUSA,
• Work with BUSA to ensure that our members are fully informed about the role and impact of the new organisation
• Work together on London 2012 and how to get students involved in the Games

New website

We have a number of websites across the internet; a confusing mix of information, events, campaigning, advice and support, attempting to achieve different outcomes using differing methods. Given NUS’ commitment to increasing its capacity to campaign, to maximise the time that students’ unions have and create efficiencies within the organisation, we must evaluate what we are trying to achieve online.

Over the last few months we have sought to freshen the exist websites at nusonline and officeronline, with regular new content and a new design, but we recognise that ultimately the existing software (CMS) is not sufficient for the purposes that we need.

Our online presence must be reflective of our vision as an organisation; a pioneering, innovative and powerful campaigning organisation: the definitive national voice of students. Fighting barriers to education, empowering students to shape both a quality learning experience and the world around them, supporting influential, democratic and well-resourced students’ unions.

The website should be the first point of call for society, decision makers, students, and students’ unions. It should increase the success of our campaigns, advocate our position as the national voice of students, creating a sense of unity between all of our members. As students’ unions are increasingly under attack, or their role within the local community is challenged, we should be demonstrating the strengths of our members through the website. To achieve this we will showcase the campaigns of students’ unions and promote each students’ union link to their website.

There are three particular aspects to how our online presence will be organised, the website as detailed above, an extranet and an intranet. All three will complement each other, but put simply the audiences can be divided as follows, the main internet website – anyone, the extranet – students’ union officers and staff, and the intranet – staff of NUS and NUS Services.

The extranet will be unique to each user. This is the opportunity for students’ union officers and staff to log on, communicate between each other, share experiences and develop campaigns. It will integrate events booking, online payment, image galleries and material ordering for campaigns.

Put simply, we are at a turning point for the organisation. We have undergone a difficult staff restructure, the creation of the Strategic Plan, and a culture supporting the new Mission, Vision and Values. To ensure that NUS is relevant to students and fit for purpose for students’ unions we must change our governance structures and our website to achieve this.

The project is being jointly funded by NUS and NUS Services, allowing us to develop a website which meets the needs of both organisations, and ensures greater cooperation.

We start the project from a blank page, it will not simply be the movement of existing websites, but will require substantial content, training for staff and officers, and clear expectation management.

Given the size of the project, it will take a number of years to achieve all the outcomes.

Plan

• Create a single website
• Provide a site that is stylish yet relevant
• Improve communication across the student movement
• Launch the student focused site in June/July, with the students’ union extranet towards the end of the year

Communication

Subsequent to our commitment to becoming a paperless organisation and the recognition that some students’ unions are much further ahead than we are on e-campaigning, we decided to pull the NUS Mailing in September. We will be reverting to online communication through a revised Brief, amongst other, new ways. Further to this, we now have a new head of communications who is keen to develop a much more forward-looking communications strategy.

Feedback has been gathered from the membership regarding NUS’ external communication. The majority of the membership felt that The Brief was a useful communication tool used by NUS. Since September 2007 a review has been conducted by the Communications Unit into how The Brief can be made more accessible. The Membership Development Unit have continues to produce The Brief weekly in preparation for a handover in January 2008.

In addition, a report has been developed on how NUS can improve cross union communication. The proposal of the Membership Development Unit is to create an online forum for unions to take part in discussions and knowledge sharing. This has been discussed with the Communications Unit and will be looked at in the website review in early 2008.

HE Elections Research

In response to requests from the membership, we have carried out extensive research into elections participation in HE. The data covers two full years and tracks factors such as number of candidates, voter turnout and union budgets to test participation. The research will be released in conjunction with a new pack on elections in time for Democracy Day in December.

Plan

• Complete write up of elections data.
• Rewrite elections toolkits.
• Launch materials at Democracy Day in December.

Action
Data from the 2006 and 2007 elections have been collated and evaluated. This information is comprised in excel form in addition to written commentaries and a report, E-voting: future or farce. The Democracy and Governance Day has been postponed from December to January 2008.

Officer Development Programme
Evaluation of ODP was very positive, in total we trained 482 delegates over seven courses, 90 per cent of delegates rated the course as good or excellent, 98 per cent of delegates thought the facilitation skills of trainers and the presentation skills of trainers were good or excellent. Delegates were happy with the balance between workshops and tutor session and thought that the workshops were relevant to their role with 84 per cent of them rating them as excellent or good. Skills that delegates most commonly mentioned as having gained over the course were: campaigning, confidence, communication and networking.

Planning is well underway for next years ODP with focus groups being run to gain more feedback from officers.

Higher Education Development

• Election Toolkits have been rewritten
• A Democracy and Governance Day is planned January. This will cover how democracy and governance interrelate, democratic principles, issues that unions are facing today and generating involvement in elections.

Plan
NUS is working with Horwarth Clark Whitehill regarding making it easier for unions to become SORP (http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/investigations/sorp/default.asp) compliant and creating a reference guide for them to use. Plans to work with BWB are also prevalent.

Further Education Canteens
For two years conference has asked us to run a campaign on college canteen prices, this year we’ll get the ball rolling with a series of meetings with trade unions involved in college canteens.

Plan

• Meet with Universities College Union and UNISON
• Build a two year action plan

International Work
See in Society and Citizenship

London 2012 Olympics
In partnership with Podium we are using our sabbaticals and sector knowledge to create frameworks for a lasting legacy post-Olympics. Although only in the initial stages, work seems to be going very well and plans are afoot for longer term strategies that reach far beyond our elected terms of offices.

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