Hi, hello, welcome! Without ceremony or announcement and in the blink of an eye, here it is on OfficerOnline: My humble blog.

I don’t maintain a personal blog in cyber space – I’ve never really gotten into that craze and I’m not sure I ever will: I’d much rather spend my time actually living life, instead of writing about and reflecting upon it. That’s just the way I am.

However, in the context of NUS, I believe blogs definitely have their place: Blogs provide an unique platform for NEC members to communicate directly with the vast number of diverse students whom we represent. They improve accountability and transparency, giving the NEC a chance to tell you what they are thinking, where they are coming from and where they’re going. And finally, I think they help de-mystify what NEC members get up to when they’re not sitting at the side of the podium during Annual Conference!

But blogs are not the be all and end all of the student movement. In this internet age, sure we can all read comments and make our own, we can analysis events, post on a message board or forum and be too critical too easily. But this shouldn’t be the entirety of our involvement – it should just be the start.
So whilst I fully intend to fulfil my mandate from our membership and blog monthly, as stipulated by Conference, I plan to spend the rest of my time out there and getting on with the job.

And so, to Annual Conference 2006, where it all began back in March. I’d been to NUS Annual Conference a good few times before (more than I care to admit!), but nothing could have prepared me for the experience of going through Conference as candidate – especially for the block, where your election is not until the final day. What an emotional roller coaster of a ride, in which I ran on adrenaline and practically zero sleep for the three days. It was also the first national conference at which I had plucked up the courage to step up to the podium and make a policy speech – I’d just never had the guts to do so before. But you know what, it’s not nearly as hard to get up there as it looks and Conference does respect you and listen to what you have to say (well, on the vast majority of issues). So to anyone who’s planning ahead (!) and thinks they’ll be at Conference ‘07 and hasn’t spoken before: Scribble down a speech, get up to the podium and go for it. You’re contribution will be valued and it so refreshing to not always hear speeches from the same ‘usual suspects’!

Conference itself is all now just one big blur for me. I was particularly pleased to see Conference vote in favour of NUS Extra, continuing constructive engagement with the Coca-Cola Company and NUS adopting policy on plagiarism (we’ve spent a load of time on this issue at my students association and are stilling doing work around it). But I was also frustrated that Conference voted (indirectly) to not discuss the then-ongoing industrial dispute and the massive impact this was having on our members. And of course, I was over the moon to see Conference to take the principled and progressive stance of supporting targeted grants. Yes, the vote was close, but that’s part of democracy. And no, it wasn’t some Labour Student stitch up. As if we had enough votes for that to happen.

So, to the final day: When after all the election speeches had been made, after the votes had been cast, and after the great Ballroom of the Winter Gardens had emptied, the block count got underway and the results started to leak out…

To ever delegate who voted for or transferred to me, thank you so much. I will work tirelessly this year to live up to your expectations and if you ever think I’m not, I want to hear from you! And to those of you who worked tirelessly to help get me elected – especially my Labour Students comrades – I owe you so much and many, many thanks.

After Conference, it took a while for it to sink in, and I found life as an NEC-elect somewhat overwhelming: So many emails, facts, figures, documents, invites to meetings/sessions/conferences all flying your way before you’ve received any training or guidance. I attended my first NEC meeting, as an observer, in early May. Here I made a conscience decision to not get too involved in procedures debates, but instead just take it all in so I now have an idea of how these meetings work.

I was also one of the few who trundled to Loughborough for National Council in late May and after travelling all the way from Edinburgh, I was extremely disappointed that quoracy was not reached and the whole event was called off. What a waste of people’s time and NUS’ money. That week, the pay dispute was at its height, final exams were upon us and graduation time loomed. After all the unrest coming from some associations and unions, Council should have provided the perfect forum for these issues to have been debated and for the NEC to have been held to account for the decisions they had made. But instead, we were four Councillors short of being quorate.

The start of July saw all of the new NEC head to Southport for a residential week. I’ve been on a few training courses in my time through a variety of organisations, but I’ve got the say that this was the best one I’ve ever taken part in: in depth, intense, comprehensive and wide ranging. The event also provided a brilliant opportunity for the NEC to look beyond each other’s politics and get to know each other as people. It’s something I don’t think we see enough of in the student movement. All too often, we damn people because of the faction they belong too or their views on a specific issue. But whilst there is nothing at all wrong with disagreeing with an opinion (in fact, that’s healthy!), we should not be disagreeing with the person.

As part of the revamp of how NUS organises and campaigns, we now have one major priority campaign (on education) and then a variety of other campaigns lead by Campaign Zone Committees. Each block member is part of two of these four zones and my responsibilities this year are the Strong & Active Unions and Society & Citizenship zones – both of which I applied for so that through them, I can deliver on the promises I made in my manifesto. In addition, I’m the NEC block member on NUS Finance Committee (along with Dave Charlesworth).

Finally for now, I want to talk about Southern Africa. In mid-June, I was part of a delegation of student leaders – including other NEC members – and young trade unionists who were taken to South Africa and Swaziland for 12 days by a small but effective NGO called Action for Southern Africa (Actsa). Actsa is a UK-based solidarity campaigning organisation. It is the successor organisation to the UK’s Anti-Apartheid movement and was born when South Africa’s horrendous apartheid government toppled and made way for democracy. On the visit we got to see a lot of the work that Actsa is involved with, as they took us to met and get involved with a broad cross-section of society: young people and students; our counterparts on the NEC of the newly formed South African Union of Students; youth commissioners; government officials; an MP; a women’s sexual health co-op; businessmen; NGOs and multinationals. Actsa’s aim being to give us a first-hand experience of life in South Africa & Swaziland, the struggles that people face and what the student movement in the UK can do to get involved, given our proud history of internationalism and showing solitary with students – particular with South Africa. We saw for ourselves the devastating effect segregation and discrimination has had on society, the horrendous consequences that the HIV/Aids epidemic is continuing to have (one student leader we met said the South African student loans company is in real financial difficulty, because so many students are dying before they can pay their loans back) and we saw so much of South Africa still living in abject poverty.

The experience of going to Africa has, undoubtedly, had a profound effect and created a real drive amongst us to push Africa back up the agenda of NUS as it should never have fallen off. I’ve already written one motion for next NEC and Stephen Brown has done another. Global poverty, HIV/Aids, equality, debt relief, fair trade and internationalism are all issues that I know plenty students are interested in and concerned about and issues which I believe can really unite the student movement.

But things are never simple in student politics. And as we left for Cape Town, a small storm was brewing in Blighty: A few people had urged us to not take up Actsa’s invitation and accused us of being morally corrupt for doing so. Yes, morally corrupt. It was even suggested to me that I’m taking kick backs from a corporation in exchange for saying nice things about them! What nonsense. This was a trip organised and run by one of the most innovative, dedicated and progressive non-governmental organisations going. And like most NGOs, Actsa applies for funding from a whole variety of bodies, one of which is a youth foundation. This foundation receives money from the Coca-Cola Company, however the board is made up of independent trustees and it’s these trustees who decide upon which projects to fun, not Coke.

So if you think that working with a democratic, internationalist and solidarity campaigning organisation which has its roots in the anti-apartheid movement is somehow immoral and unethical, then to me that’s a bizarre way to define both those words. Indeed, as a supporter of constructive engagement, to have not gone would have been to boycott. But to go meant constructive engagement and the opportunity to ask tough questions to Coke about their ethics.

As such, I’m clear in my mind: Going on this trip hasn’t compromised my position or beliefs but instead broaden my understanding of our world and we can now hopefully put Africa and it’s plight back on the agenda of NUS.

Alright, I’m done and I’ll wrap up now until next time. I wanted to end by saying congratulations on getting elected to every student officer either starting a fresh this summer or continuing in your role. I hope you received some sort of informative handover and are now well settled in.
I wish you all the best and look forward to meeting and working with some of you during the next 12 months. The year ahead is whatever you make of it: A year may be a long time in student politics, but it still whizzes by at break neck speed. So make the most of it, do as much as you can but also enjoy it - and if you ever want or need to get in touch, please feel free.

Summer training is already upon us. I’m attending Action of Finance & Governance (Leicester) and NSLP Training (Greenock), so if you are going to either, I’ll see you then!

Cheers,
Fin

e: steven.findlay@nus.org.uk
t: 07764 75 65 13

PS: Dust! No…? Anyone?

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