It seems that little has changed in the past few months - the sexists in the media are still hell-bent on taking Britney down, Amy is back in rehab (no, no, no) and work on NUS’ governance is still rolling on. And although the latter may not be high on the agendas of glossy fashion magazines, it’s certainly number one amongst those oh-so-fashionable and on-the-pulse student officers at Camden HQ.

We’ve been working hard to ensure that the newly developed schedules (or the meat-on-the-bones as they’re affectionately referred to) are understood and digested by the membership. They’re online now here for your consumption. The feedback has been good and many are still as excited by the historic change NUS is embarking upon as ever. And it is historic, especially if historic means old – I’ve aged more in the last year than is scientifically or humanly possible.

But (NUS cliché number one), there is still more to do and we’ve got some hard battles along the way. Their arguments haven’t changed – the opposition is still using the same, old, tired nonsense about apparent cuts to democracy and “Blairite, right-wing officers” as much as ever. But now (according to many of the newly submitted manifesto’s) we’re not just to the right of the student movement anymore, we’re now fully blown Tories! If they keep pushing the bar any further I’ll be relinquishing my Labour membership and I’ll be joining UKIP. But then, that’s as likely as some on the left joining the Monster Raving Looney Party (or maybe not ;-)).

Regionals were inspired (the support for the review not the agenda you understand). We had about six people all week that we could identify as opposed to the review, which is encouraging, but by no means grants us the luxury of becoming complacent. The Women’s campaign is still debating this issue and has been wavering for some time on whether to support it – but they’ll debate it at their conference and I’m confident they’ll support a review that more than doubles their representation and gives more support for students to engage and change NUS.

Governance isn’t all we’ve been doing though – I recently wrote NUS’ submission to the “Morgan Inquiry” on barriers to volunteering for Young People. You can find my submission here.

Some other highlights of the last few months include:

• Not phoning for nominations
• Not writing a manifesto for election
• Organising a trusteeship conference for the third sector
• Organising a fundraiser for the charity “Children of Swaziland” – you can come!
• Kicking off our work on employability
• Speaking at the Governance and Democracy day in Leicester
• Regional conferences
• Disabled Students Conference.

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