Firstly, hi, I’m Tom Stubbs. I sit on the Higher Education Committee and also the Strong and Active Unions Committee of the National Executive Committee of the National Union of Students. I am the former Post Graduate officer of Swansea University Students' Union, and former General Secretary. I have also been on the Welsh National Executive Committee. My first pledge; my blogs will be acronym free!! My second is that I plan to try and do at least one blog a month!

So what is this blog going to be about? The first section will look where in my view our organisation is, where there are good points and bad points. The second section is where I want our organisation to move forward. The third part will just be about what I’ve been doing over the past few months since I was elected.

The National Union is at a turning point, one in which we have options of moving progressively forward, or one that is based upon old ideas and old values. The governance review is going to be the first major shake up of our democratic structures for over 25 years with the creation of the National Council. I feel that it’s time for us to change to provide for the campaigns of the future and not to look to the 1970s and the militancy that was prescribed by the student movement it decades past. The structures need to change, and yes the block of 12 does need to be reformed. The far left of our union argue for it because it is a way of making sure they can get a voice on our National Executive Committee. I’m also talking about our union because together we can help achieve our goals, from halting the lifting of the cap to the further success of the liberation campaigns. It’s about working together and reforming, not calling for a revolution and not blockading or marching. Our union is slowly changing but we need to pass the governance review. We’ve been talking about change, let’s finally do it!

Yes we do need to reform National Council but we also need to comply with our democratic structures while they are still there. Which is part of the problem, many people on the National Executive Committee see the National Council as pointless but if people actually used it and paid attention, you have to realise that it can be useful. We should engage it, reform it and help it make us, the National Executive, more accountable to the people who elected us, the students and not our factions!

Moving on, as those who read my manifesto may know, I have got several plans, many concerning the involvement in liberation campaigns and Special Regions and also those who are commonly unheard by our National Union; post graduates. I’m going to National Post Graduate Committee conference and Annual General Meeting on the 9th of August in Keele, and also the Higher Education Committee meeting as well as the Strong and Active Union meeting the next week which are both in London. I knew there would be travelling while I was on the National Exec but I never envisaged how much!

Finally, what have I been doing since I was elected by you, well, a lot! I’m still finishing my Masters Thesis, and have attended all planned National Exec meetings; I did miss the emergency one due to work commitments. I also found the residential training very beneficial as I had never been a sabbatical officer, and being from a Welsh Institution it was a crash course in how NUS UK works.

Any way if you want to contact me here’s the details;

Tom.Stubbs@nus.org.uk

Phone me on

07973566325

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