The first (ordinary) NEC meeting of the year took place on the 11th July at Camden Town Hall. A lot happened, so I thought I’d write a separate report with my take on the day’s events and decisions about the year ahead.

Response to the terrorist attacks on London

The events of the previous Thursday were on our minds and the NEC agenda. Jamal and I had both submitted Emergency Motions on the terrorist attacks, but we all agreed that it would be more productive under the circumstances to have an informal discussion based around the motions and the issues to decide what we could do collectively to tackle some of the challenges arising out the attacks.

There were really three things on my mind during that discussion: outrage at what had happened and sorrow for those affected; gratitude towards the staff and management of NUS who had spent a great deal of time phoning around to make sure everyone was safe; and horror at an e-mail I had received from the Muslim Safety Forum over the weekend recounting a spate of unjustified and unprovoked attacks against black people and people of different faiths following the attacks. A Mosque in Leeds was attacked with a petrol bomb, there had been an arson attack on a Sikh Gurdwara, reports of ABH, malicious communications (including towards NEC members) and other racist and fascist attacks. I’ve since learned that the BNP have been peddling their racist filth through the letter boxes of Becontree, near where I live, where a by-election is taking place with slogans like ‘Isn’t it time you listened to the BNP’ and images of the attacks. That the BNP should use these attacks to spread fear and suspicion and misdirect outrage against terrorism into hatred towards innocent people is despicable. Whatever your party, whatever your politics, I would urge everyone to get involved in the fight against fascism wherever it presents itself.

The NEC agreed a plan of action and today e-mail was sent to all unions regarding events NUS is taking part in. I found the strength of our resolve on this issue encouraging.

Allocation of responsibilities

At the meeting, NEC responsibility teams for the year were allocated. I was pleased to have been allocated the responsibilities I applied for:

• Education
• Finance
• Student Union Development
• International Students
• I was also awarded the scholarship the National Union of Teachers (NUT) grants to NUS to work with the NUT on joint campaigns and projects. I will be developing a project plan for this work in consultation with the NUT and constituent members.

If anyone would like to get in touch with me about these, or any other issues, please don’t hesitate to drop me an e-mail on wes.streeting@nus.org.uk on give me a ring on 07946 840 167.

Later in that meeting we had a (rather heated) discussion about the composition of the Management Team, which was left unresolved and shall be returned to at the August meeting. The level to which the discussion sank at points left me feeling frustrated and disappointed, but I’ll avoid airing the dirty laundry of others on here and will instead hope that the next discussion is chaired more effectively and doesn’t descend into personal attacks.

Setting the Priority Campaigns for the year

The first NEC meeting of the year is the one at which priority campaigns were set. Three proposals were put forward: an education priority campaign, a priority campaign called money money money (based around funding of students, institutions and unions) and one based around student activities.

We decided that there should only be two and I’ll be honest and say that I found the subsequent discussion immensely frustrating. I do not believe that other people were given the chance to air their views properly – people were cut off mid-sentence and there were lots of flippant remarks about merging priority campaigns with scissors and glue (I kid you not) and some petty jibes at other NEC members which was not helpful in an important discussion on a hot day in a stuffy room.

In the end, however, we decided upon an Education Priority campaign and a second priority campaign incorporating the student activities proposal and aspects of Joe Rukin’s Money Money Money campaign, surrounding funding of students’ unions.

There were two other significant points raised during this discussion. A number of Observers were angry that mandates set down by conference for priority campaigns on student activities, funding students’ unions and FE Union Development, seemed to have been watered down or forgotten completely and I must say that I thought they had a point. There are legitimate questions about the process by which priority campaigns are written, submitted and decided upon by the NEC.

The priority campaigns will be launched on the 1st September. Booking forms have been sent out to unions, so do come along. I’m hoping to get involved with both in some way, shape or form, particularly the Education Priority Campaign as I have done a lot of work on education funding, course closures and widening participation in the past.

I also voted in favour of proposals for a Health campaign as part of the welfare team’s work for the year and a motion on the Foster Review of Further Education.

I really hope that this year is a campaigning one for NUS – one that reaches beyond officers down into our 5 million strong membership. How many students look at NUS beyond the value of their discount card? How many students are aware of the opportunities for involvement? And most crucially, how often to we actively engage ordinary students in the work that we do?

I hope I’m not still asking these questions in a year’s time.

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/wesstreeting/271118.aspx