| Where has July gone? |
| 14/08/2006 |
| After a jam-packed month I am wondering where July’s gone? Looking back over my diary there hasn’t been a day without a meeting, or an event. Lots of stuff to include, so I’ll try and keep it brief but readable, as I’m not sure existing format will work anymore. We’ll see how it goes, I guess. So… …In this blog: • The NEC spends a week together in Southport on induction… • We get priority campaign planning underway… • I attend Aldwych Handover with Gemma in Edinburgh… • The British Library welcomes undergraduates (but not too many!)… • UCU members say yes… • Management Team and the FE Zone meets for the first time… • I engage in some international work… • The NPC meet with us about joint work for postgrads… • Meeting with the Lib Dem education team • Back-to-back meetings at DfES… • More Lib Dem lobbying… • The Education Zone meets and HESA stats disrupt my sleep and my meeting… • I go back to the classroom with the TUC and go on the lunchtime news… • Action Through Advocacy opens the summer training season… NEC Induction (Southport) – 3rd to 6th July Myself, Gemma and Stephen formed a ‘fun car’ up to Southport on Sunday night, hitting a bit of traffic along the way and losing our voice singing along to a musicals CD purchased by Stephen at a service station. I enjoyed NEC induction last year, but was relieved to find that a revamped format, coupled with lots of new faces around the NEC made for an entirely different induction experience second time around. Once again, we discovered that more unites us than divides us, that we are energetic, enthusiastic and focused and that we all have something different to offer NUS. Highlights for me included the various exercises and games we played and our first (albeit informal) NEC meeting where the priority campaign proposal tabled by Gemma and I passed unanimously, with a couple of minor amendments that also passed unanimously. I can’t recall a time when this has been the case. In the year that top-up fees are introduced, I believe that it’s crucial that the NEC provides united leadership and I’m currently working flat out with staff, NEC and officers to make this happen. Priority Campaign Planning Meeting – 7th July – and Ongoing Work My main focus right now is putting the plan passed by the NEC into action. Gemma and I are determined that our number one focus right now should be getting information and materials out to students’ unions in good time and in time for them to roll them out for Freshers’ Week. If you haven’t done so already, please register for the Campaigns Launch on 6th September in Birmingham, which should be a substantial improvement on last year’s event with a clear, coherent priority campaign ready and a range of interactive workshops, stalls and sessions to help you with creative campaigning across a range of areas for the coming year. Also, NEC members are more than happy to come to your Freshers’ Fairs to help with NUS Extra and promoting our National Demo and priority campaign. Please email the National Secretary on stephen.brown@nus.org.uk if you’d like us to come along. I’m also free and willing to do Freshers’ talks, Council meetings, General Meetings etc. to promote our priority campaign. I’m also willing to come and talk to you about planning your own campaigns for the year. Drop me a line if you’d like me to visit on wes@nus.org.uk. Aldwych Handover (Edinburgh) – 10th & 11th July Delivered a session on the student finance arrangements from 2006 and onwards, covering the whole UK. Aldwych Group is the students’ unions of the Russell Group and they elected a progressive and dynamic chair in the form of Brian Duggan who takes over the mantle from Kat Stark, who did a fantastic job. Meeting with the British Library – Thursday 13th July Met with Jan Wilksinson, Head of Higher Education, along with Nicky Grant from ULU to discuss undergraduate access to the Library. The policy changed recently, to a furor of elitist whinging from academics. We met to discuss ways to encourage appropriate use of the Library, which was a very productive meeting. Spent rest of the day in the office catching up. Management Team, UCU Ballot Result and the FE Zone Meeting – Monday 17th July A manic Monday which began with a long Senior Management Team (SMT) meeting, followed by the first FE Zone meeting and relief that the lecturers’ pay dispute has been settled to the satisfaction of an overwhelming majority of UCU members. Internationalism dominates on Tuesday 18th July Myself and Gemma met with representatives from the Aegis Trust (including its chair, former NUS president Stephen Twigg) to look at joint work we could do with its student groups on highlighting their campaign activities around genocide prevention. The Society & Citizenship Zone also met, but sadly I was unable to sit in for the whole meeting as I had a number of other meetings to attend at the same time, including… Bilateral Meeting with the NPC – 18th July Discussed a number of ways forward for joint work and campaigning initiatives before heading off to… Meeting with Lib Dem Education Team – 18th July Gemma and I met with Sarah Teather and Stephen Williams, the Lib Dems’ Shadow Education Secretary and HE Spokesperson respectively. We raised concerns about the potential for a shift in Lib Dem policy on fees, given their new tax plans, a policy pamphlet calling for a lifting of the cap by a leading Liberal think tank and the introduction of variable fees by a Lib Dem minister in Scotland. She was adamant that their policy remains the same, but noted that their would be a policy review around 2007/8, to which we will be submitting evidence. This busy day was rounded off by ULU Handover Party. DfES Meetings and Lib Dem lobbying – Wednesday 19th July Gemma and I had our first meeting with Bill Rammell, Minister for Further and Higher Education. We emphasized our consternation at Alan Johnson’s recent comments that ‘students will learn to love top-up fees’, had a discussion around some recent stats showing falling participation and a somewhat more positive discussion around the Further Education White Paper and the Bill we expect to be announced in the Queen’s Speech. Following this meeting I attended a Coalition of Partners Meeting scrutinising the messages that DfES will be putting out around fees and then met with David Howarth, a Lib Dem MP as part of the lobbying work we have been doing before the recess around the Lib Dems on fees, which was very positive. Then I headed back to the office, but not before buying a fan as NUS HQ is like a furnace in the sweltering head right now! HESA Stats Release and Education Zone Meeting – Thursday 20th July Thursday saw the release of a mass of data from Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), including some worrying stats around widening participation (especially at Russell Group institutions) and student retention (especially at CMU universities). I did a lot of preparation beforehand with some individual SU’s and with a press release, which generated some interest which you can read here: http://politics.guardian.co.uk/publicservices/story/0,,1824581,00.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5195580.stm or from the Press Association here http://www.24dash.com/content/news/viewNews.php?navID=48&newsID=8329 I was also up until about 1am the night before for a debate on Five Live about the debate on the Anita Annan show. So it was with a degree of sleep-deprivation that I arrived at the first Education Zone meeting, where we identified key areas of work around ‘Equality in Education’ . Am now just looking at the details and working out managing my time convening a zone campaign as well as the priority campaign! Well, I did promise to be a campaigning Vice-President!! TUC in the Classroom Event and BBC lunchtime news – Friday 21st July Following on from some of the HESA stats was a survey which showed that the majority of students and parents still don’t understand the new funding arrangements from September this year, which promoted interest from the BBC lunchtime news. I’ll be honest and say I enjoyed the nerves and adrenaline of being in the studio. I’ve done live News 24 feeds before and pre-records, but was just a little bit exciting about being in the studio. There’s something about seeing the weather live, that makes it that bit more exciting! I’ve had feedback ranging from the highly positive to the cruel, with one wag pointing out that I looked about 12! Anyway, more importantly I went along to deliver a speech and take part in a debate at the TUC’s Trade Unions in the Classroom event at Congress House. The TUC runs this scheme whereby trade unionists visit schools as part of citizenship classes to promote trade unionism and workers’ rights. A great idea and a positive event! Action Through Advocacy (Herts) – Monday 24th to Thursday 27th July It was with great pleasure that Veronica, Louise and I opened the summer training season with Action Through Advocacy at the Univ. of Herts. I think I can speak for the three of us when I say we had a fantastic week. It was by far and away the best training event I have been on and I’m really looking forward to working with the officers I met during the coming year. Highlights for me included setting up an Advice Centre as part of the role play where I played an Education Advisor, Dean of Students and Health & Safety Committee chair, as well as hosting a karaoke competition which I called (to some cheers and some groans) ‘the NUS Extra Factor’! Since Advocacy, I’ve been back in HQ, had a meeting or two and am cracking on with getting that inbox down, ploughing ahead with Priority Campaign planning and getting up to speed with some of the bureaucratic faff that comes with any organisation. July ends on Monday with an HQ Quality Steering Group, but not before a weekend spent in the office catching up… and August looks set to be just as busy as this month!!! Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions etc. Wes t 0871 221 8221 f 0871 221 8222 m 07738 477 353
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