| Blogs are like buses… |
| 05/03/2006 |
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It’s Friday night at the end of regional conference week and I’m absolutely shattered. Having had a pretty good rest
NEC Delegation Meeting – Monday 30th January Like any Constituent Member, the NEC has the right to submit policy to Annual Conference and follows the same rules and everyone else. This meeting was to decide which amendments should be submitted. For the Education Zone, I supported a motion from Ellie Russell and Julian Nicholds, which I thought successfully incorporated funding issues facing our members in both the HE and FE sectors, something missing in previous policy passed. For the Strong and Active Unions Zone, I voted to support the only motion submitted; one from Kat and Gemma on zoning the work of the NEC around conference policy zones, which struck me as common sense. Two good motions were submitted for the Welfare & Student Rights Zone; one from Veronica and Sian on Mental Health and another from Jamal on provision for non-alcoholic options at events. I voted for the mental health motion on the grounds that Jamal’s had been submitted elsewhere. I’m sure the NEC will lend their support to it at compositing. Finally for the Society & Citizenship zone we discussed a motion from Suzie Wylie on promoting peace and democracy calling for an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and one on Jamal concerning civil liberties. I opposed the text on the immediate withdrawal, not because I supported the war, but because I think we would leave behind an even bigger mess than we created by joining Dubya’s little jaunt in the middle east. I voted for Jamal’s motion, which passed. The meeting concluded with a point from Jamal concerning seating arrangements for the NEC at Annual Conference. More on that later. NEC meeting – Monday 30th January After some chips and onion rings in the Duck n Dive at ULU, we reconvened with Gemma in the chair as Kat had to leave for another meeting. - Management Update - The meeting began with the regular management update from Andy Grant and discussion about the forthcoming suspension of unions who have not paid their affiliation fees. I expressed concern about the number of FE unions on there and the strategy for building unions where they don’t exist, rather than simply cutting them loose. Jo Salmon made the good point that there was a difference between those who can’t pay and those who won’t pay. I was assured that this would be looked at. I must say that I am reconsidering whether the minimum affiliation fee was a good thing. Melanie Ward has reported that she is aware of one College that had to hold a special fundraising event, just to pay their affiliation fees. I think that, for FE at least, the minimum fee issue should be looked at again. - Priority Campaigns Update - We received an update on the two priority campaigns, including details about the forthcoming national lobby. Excitingly, we also discussed plans for the National Demonstration, which will be held end of October/early November hopefully. We had a discussion about whether it should be held on a Sunday or a Wednesday. I argued in favour of a Sunday. Whilst Wednesday is a busier day in Westminster terms, I felt that by holding a national demo on a Sunday we would give more people the opportunity to take part; FE students won’t have to worry about losing their EMA entitlement, students won’t have to worry about missing lectures, rank and file union activists, teachers, parents and other members of the public would also be able to attend. Sunday is also a quieter news day, so I’m sure that we could saturate media coverage on Sunday and Monday if we pull this off. I know that many of you had concerns about holding a national demonstration this year, but I hope that everyone will realise the importance of holding a national demo to coincide with the introduction of top-up fees. The NEC were united in their resolve this time and I hope that you will unite with us. Consultation is clearly vital and we have plenty of time, so please let us know what you think! - The Estimates - The estimates weren’t ready for the meeting. Sufficed to say a lot of us weren’t happy, but I thought in light of some of the things I heard during Regional Conferences that I should highlight that I don’t think the blame can be laid squarely at the door of Joe Rukin. Although he has political responsibility for the finances, I think that the problems go deeper than one individual. As an organisation we are moving forward, but there is still some way to go. To be fair Joe has produced the estimates earlier than last year! - Other issues - Unfortunately, we didn’t get through all of the motions submitted. One of the major areas of discussions concerned the Schools White Paper. I have been working with the NUT on this and following the debate carefully. Daniel Randall predictably accused me of ‘instinctive loyalty’ to Tony Blair, this time because although I supported his motion opposing the Schools White Paper(!) I wanted to delete the text saying that this Government has gone further than the Tories in destroying state education. Given that only that week the Tories on the Education Select Committee had tabled a minority report urging the Government to pander even more to their right wing agenda, I thought that was a bit much. Finally and fortunately, we granted funding for an anti-Islamaphobia campaign led by Pav; a welcome initiative. Keeping Scotland Top-up Free in Aberdeen – Friday 3rd February On Friday I had a great day up in Aberdeen taking part in a campaign run by NUS Scotland in association with the students’ associations of Edinburgh and Aberdeen against the introduction of top-up fees for medical students north of the border. Myself and Judith Niven both spent the day around campus, talking to students about the campaigning and encouraging them to write to their MSPs. What I find particularly galling about this move by the Labour-led Scottish Executive, is that it is a Liberal Democrat MSP – Nicol Stephen - who is leading on this issue! So much for the ‘Real Alternative’!
Regional Conferences – Monday 6th to Thursday 9th February The East Side Regional Fun Bus Team from last term was now the West Side! Traversing the country in our bus of fun from Lancaster to Stoke on Trent, then Cheltenham to London, delivering presentations, reports, Black Students’ Handbooks and a little bit of humour with it. I must say that I found this round just as much fun as the last, though I was absolutely knackered by the end of it all! I did feel, however, that there was too much talking ‘at’ rather than ‘with’ delegates and I found this rather frustrating. General Meeting at Essex on Anonymous Marking – Friday 10th February There was no rest for me after regionals as I was straight off to Essex to speak at an Emergency General Meeting on Anonymous Marking which had sparked some controversy in one of their departments. It was a tense meeting that ran rather late and some of the arguments against anonymous marking (apparently there are some?!) surprised me somewhat and the sabbs took a lot of (unfair) flack. I was so impressed though that they had managed to arouse so much passion from students about a key, but not often sexy, educational issue. Siobhan Kinealy and Bav Patel both delivered inspiring speeches that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end and there will be a referendum on this issue shortly. St Hilda’s College, Oxford Open Meeting – Monday 13th February I went along to a well-attended open meeting at St. Hilda’s, the only all-women college left in Oxford. Having spoken at all three of Cambridge’s womens’ colleges I didn’t find the experience that intimidating, to the surprise of their JCR president! It did give me the chance to talk in a relaxed setting about NUS, the campaigns we run, the nature of our relationship (or lack of sometimes) with students and specifically about central affiliation to NUS through OUSU and the importance of retaining all-women’s colleges. It was another late one and straight back to London for National Council the next day. National Council – Tuesday 14th February I wish I could say that I spent the day a loved one, but as much as I sometimes feel wedded to NUS a day at National Council wasn’t quite the Valentine’s Day I had imagined. I did receive a card or two though and gave Melanie a box of chocolates I got on offer at WHSmiths for a pound! I’ve written a separate report about Council, which I hope to put up soon, once I’ve toned it down a bit (it’s quite a rant!). Further Education Lobby – Wednesday 15th February I had a great day at Ellie Russell’s lobby as part of the Loud and Clear campaign. The turnout was great and there were some excellent speakers, notably Ellie who delivered an amazing speech taking swipes at a range of vested interest groups in the sector and the Minister who sat alongside her! For my part, I lobbied a number of MPs and also challenged Bill Rammell MP, Minister for Higher Education, about cuts in adult education provision and the threat this poses to widening participation. Ellie is now our not-so-secret weapon and headed for Number 10 it seems! And people say the NOLSies are careerists! ;-) http://education.guardian.co.uk/students/news/story/0,,1713991,00.html Media work: student contracts, ‘spoon fed’ students and HE admissions This month I’ve also done quite a lot of media work, both locally and nationally. Issues included the decision by Oxford to introduce contracts for students (see Julian’s blog for a damning indictment), a report that said that students were now ‘spoon fed’, which gave me the opportunity to go on the attack on prime time on Radio 5 Live and to highlight the FE Loud and Clear campaign and finally a series of local radio interviews when admissions statistics were published. As ever, feel free to get in touch with any queries about my work. And please let me know if there are any campaigns you need support with. It’s what we’re here for!
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