| “We are the East Side, my friends. And we’ll keep on driving ‘til the end. We are the East Side, we are the East Side. No time for losers, ‘cos they’ |
| 30/11/2005 |
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Ah, Regional Conferences. A week spent traversing the country, jammed into an Regional ‘Fun Bus’, getting up close and personal with other NEC members and, most importantly, meeting the membership. I thought I’d take a light-hearted look at my week on Regional Conferences and provide a warts n’ all account of what’s it like from the other side! Despite having been to Regional Conferences many times before, I really didn’t know what to expect from them as an NEC member. I left home early on Monday morning, armed with a suitcase full of clothes, toiletries and my infamous travel iron for Kingston where my week on the ‘East Side’ of the Regional Conference trail began. The NEC team on the East Side were myself, Gemma Tumelty, Julian Nicholds, Ellie Russell, Judith Niven, Jamal El-Shayyal, Daniel Randall, Peter Leary, Benson Osawe and Kat Louis.
South East Regional Conference, Kingston – Monday 31st October After picking up Joe Rukin in the car on the way I arrived in Kingston just on time to navigate the ramps with my wheelie suitcase. There were a number of surprises when I entered the Conference. Firstly, the turnout from FE unions was great (a trend that would be repeated again and again; a tribute to the work that has been done last year and this year to boost involvement). Secondly, was the new Democracy Guide, which I think is a great step forward. Whilst I am a member of a political group I know how alienating our national union can be to those who aren’t and those whose mates aren’t in the know. This has got to end and the Democracy Guide is a positive step forward to achieve this. Finally, I found a discussion document on reform and the MORI interim results. To say I was feeling slightly upset that this was the first time I had seen these documents is something of an understatement, but I grinned and bore it and will take this up with the Management Team at the next NEC meeting, along with a number of colleagues who feel the same. Anyway, to the Conference itself. I really really enjoyed it. I facilitated the Regional Roundup and it was really good to hear about the issues on campuses, encouraging to see people engaging with the debates and discussions on reform, responding to Islamaphobia and a well contested set of elections to National Council. We also sat in on SEANUS Conference. Bubble asked me what I thought afterwards and so I thought I’d share what I’ve said more widely. I cannot believe that an region that has had to struggle without a Regional Officer for some time has managed to put together an Area that works and is actually running some strong regional campaigns, notably an excellent campaign to introduce South East weighting on student support (as in London) to recognise the high maintenance costs incurred while studying in the South East. Bubble and his team are doing a great job for their region and I wouldn’t be surprised if more Areas crop up using the South East model. After the Conference finished, we had a bit of a situation in that the ‘Fun Bus’ was actually a seven seater, leaving insufficient space for everyone (not to mention their luggage!). So with some volunteering to go by train, the rest of us squeezed on board. I lost the feeling in my legs for a bit under the weight of my suitcase, but before long we arrived in Colchester, where we spent the night in an old bed and breakfast. But not before heading off to a school-themed pub for a quick drink (and some interesting admissions… See quiz below) and then getting a kebab for dinner.
East Anglia Regional Conference, Essex – Tuesday 1st November On Tuesday I was back home in my old Region, East Anglia. The NEC get very precious about their own regions. It was another very good turnout from across the region. East Anglia was a different affair to the other regionals. There was an interesting mix of new and second year sabbs and East Anglia is a very diverse region spread over a very strange area (University of East London, for example, is in East Anglia). I thought it was the Region that was most focussed on holding us to account, with more questions than time available. I think mechanisms for holding us to account at Regionals should be strengthened and improved. In East Anglia, I ran the MORI session, having been East Anglia’s Rep on the Year of Change project last year. The feedback, as with the rest of the week was really interesting and I was surprised by the level of consensus in the room that the size and makeup of the NEC should remain as it is. I also drank more Coke than I thought possible (prompting a question on the issue during the Report and Plan session!) and thanks to the generous portions supplied by the bar, the curly fries just kept on coming. I’m anticipating weight gain from this week. Thankfully a new minibus had been delivered during the day so that we could all fit inside! The fun bus was very fun indeed! We decided to sing to the West Side, rewriting Queen’s ‘We are the Champions’ and reciting our revised version over the phone (hence the title of my blog). They didn’t seem impressed! We arrived late in Nottingham after stopping off for some food. Upon arrival at our Travelodge, Julian and I had a rather unpleasant surprise when we found that the room we were supposed to be sharing only had one double bed. I was not impressed. Thankfully, I realised that the sofa in the room had a pull out bed, so I slept on the floor and the crisis was averted. Not after the amusement of the rest of our colleagues on the Regional Tour!
East Midlands Regional Conference, Nottingham – Wednesday 2nd November So it was Nottingham on the penultimate part of our Regional Tour. Whether other people will admit it, there was strong consensus from all concerned that the East Midlands region was the best looking on our tour. Myself and Ellie were very impressed. How shallow! But on a more serious note, I really enjoyed Wednesday in spite of sleep deprivation. I delivered the session on NUS reform and emphasised the need to break down barriers to our democracy and spoke honestly and openly about factions and their role in NUS. I also managed to bag some awesome postcards from Gab from Loughborough as part of their sexual health campaigning. “Don’t dribble in the box” was a particular favourite of mine! I’m not sure everyone shares my toilet humour. Again another good set of regional councillors were elected, but I can’t go on without mentioning Ben Ward from Loughborough in particular. Having been elected as Chair of National Council last year he steered the Year of Change group and was re-elected to a second term as Regional Council Rep. I’ve no doubt he’ll do a great job for a second time. Once we had finished, it was off to Newcastle for the fourth and final leg of our trip. Having arrived late again, fallen about with Ellie in fits of laughter and the pathetic dribble that was allegedly the shower in her room and freshened up, myself, Julian, Gemma and Ellie headed into China Town for some much needed nourishment. We did some more laughing then but by then it was all just a blur.
North East Regional Conference, Newcastle – Thursday 3rd November Newcastle got off to a bit of a bad start when we couldn’t find anywhere to park! This led to us having to lug loads of boxes down the high street to the Conference venue; all very embarrassing. By this point in the Regional Conference tour, it’s hard to find the presentations you’ve already seen three times very interesting. However, with a shortage of NEC members, I convened the Welfare Policy Commission, instead of joining Julian in the Education Commission as I had done during the rest of the week. We shared some really good ideas, from campaigns run locally through to gaps in provision for international students. Someone has already emailed to say thanks for the ideas we generated during that session. The North East also saw the most contested election on the whole tour, one of the FE candidates elected first place and a round of applause for Joe Rukin who managed to arrive in spite of having a meeting scheduled on the other side of the country and braving severe rail delays. After a swift pint in the bar, it was back on the road down to London, where we arrived at about one in the morning. It was far too late for me to get home, but Gemma kindly let me crash on her sofa, which saved NUS a fair bit of cash and me a shed-load of time the next morning, as it took me all of five minutes to walk down to HQ! All in all I enjoyed the Regionals and whilst the same old presentations become boring after hearing them for the umpteenth time, the feedback doesn’t. That said, I think there’s loads of room for improvement. As a tool for ensuring accountability and giving the membership a say on policy and campaigning direction, I really don’t think they cut the mustard. And finally, a little bit of fun… Who said what Quiz! Regional Conferences are an opportunity for NEC members to learn quite a bit about each other. Here are a selection of my favourite quotes from the week. Can you guess who said what? Answers will appear in the next blog…
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