At the end of my last blog, I promised to write about Extraordinary Conference and the reform process in this blog. It’s taken me a long time to write about it, partly because I’ve found it so hard to write down how I felt after that the day and partly because I’m so fed up with talking about governance. That’s right. I am so fed up with talking about governance right now it’s unreal.

Probably just like everyone else, I didn’t get involved in my students’ union or our National Union to change structures and processes, but to campaign to change students’ lives. That’s a bit of a cliché, but it’s true. But there’s a reason why I’ve spent much of the past year talking about NUS’ governance: the current state of NUS is seriously undermining our ability to change students’ lives.

We’re all tired of navel gazing, but let’s remember why last year representatives from students’ unions across the country voted to start this process of change and why hundreds of delegates at the Leicester Extraordinary Conference voted to make the transformation of NUS a reality. Deficits of hundreds of thousands of pounds spiralling to a dizzying height of £1.4m - students’ money wasted; a policy making process that fails to engage most sabbatical officers let alone your average student – students’ voices unheard; a record number of disaffiliation referenda – students tired of waste, incompetence and failure.

The Extraordinary Conference wasn’t perfect. I know lots of delegates left feeling that we hadn’t had sufficient time to debate the reform package as a whole. The strength of feeling about the proposals from both the proponents and the opponents of the reforms inevitably led to an electric and, at times, combative atmosphere. But there are a few things worth bearing in mind:

• Opponents of the Extraordinary Conference predicted that it would be small – over 800 delegates attending the conference and voted on the proposals, which is higher than the number of delegates who participated in the last Annual Conference
• The new Senate, Zone Conference and Committee structure will enable more representatives to get involved than ever before, in a more open, inclusive and accessible policy making process
• The new Board, composed of a majority of student members and a minority of external members, will ensure that NUS remains student-led but also able to draw on valuable expertise to ensure that we’re never again forced to grapple with deficits in excess of £1m or make large numbers of staff redundant.

I know students’ unions are eager for NUS to get back on a campaigning footing. That has been evident from the conversations I have been having with people during the past couple of months and from some of your emails and Facebook messages that I have been reading. The reforms will receive a second reading at Annual Conference in Blackpool, giving delegates the opportunity to debate the whole package as well as the meat on the bones of the core constitution – the new schedules.

As I said in my speech at Extraordinary Conference, all that we have done will have been in vain unless you take the right decision to ensure that the disasters of the last decade do not repeat themselves in the next. 27 people on the National Executive Committee do not have the power to transform our National Union. People talk about the NUS leadership as if it is those 27 people. But you are the leadership of NUS and if it hasn’t always felt like that, well that’s just another reason to choose change.

As ever, I am more than willing to talk through aspects of the proposals with you if you have any questions. Like other members of the NEC I’m also available to come and talk to your councils, general meetings etc to discuss the changes taking place in NUS.

Wes

wes.streeting@nus.org.uk
07738 477 353

My diary in December…

Here’s what else happened in December…

3rd: Compositing and speech writing ahead of Extraordinary Conference
4th: NUS Extraordinary Conference (Leicester)
5th: NEC Meeting – mainly to discuss finances and NEC motions to conference. Considering the heat of the debate the day before, I thought it was a good natured meeting for the most part, brightened by the arrival of Khaled Al-Muddallal, the Palestinian student at Bradford who had been trapped in Gaza. For more info, visit the Black Students’ Campaign page on Officeronline!
6th-7th: NUS South Presidents’ Residential
10th: Meeting with Dianne Willcock, VC at York St John University and a visit to York College
11th: NUS HQ – mainly working on ELQ response and issues
12th: Meeting with UCAS in NUS HQ, followed by a meeting with the Nursing Team at Unison to discuss joint working and later a telephone meeting with Jane
Denholm on HE quality issues for a study she is producing.
13th: NUS HQ – mainly working on ELQ stuff
14th: OIA Board Meeting in Reading followed by Aldwych Group meeting.
17th: NUS HQ followed by a meeting with the Master and Chair of Governors of Birkbeck College
18th: Annual Leave
19th: Annual Staff Meeting and Party followed by Christmas holiday!!!

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