Week 4 Aug 23rd till 28th

.... on and on it goes its the official 4th week in office and my week really does fill up fast!
Ive had the Monday off as holiday. Managed to write my graduation speech last week so spent the weekend practicing.

New Website is Launched!!!
Wow is all I can say, well I can actually say http://www.wolvesunion.org and take a look for yourselves. Its all the words associated with awesome, I believe the youth of today say "Sick!!".

Tuesday I am stacked up with meetings, starting with a group meeting with Sharon Meeley from the Grad Office. She has come over to ensure that we are happy with the procedure for the graduation and to check that we have what we need. We are lucky enough to have the offer of a special VIP lunch on some of the graduations days. MMMMM free food always helps me work harder. Later that day I have a 1-2-1 with the Vice Chancellor, I inform her about the current status of the SU, freshers, some other internal issues, and also about some proposed plans for the future of the students union. I also inform her of our plans for the NUS National Demo. The good news is that she sounds supportive and understands why as a nation of students we have to do this. My day ends with some student interaction, website designing and tweaking, more freshers planning, and I get to sign my contract of employment.


Wed & Thursday
These to days are spent on catching up with the day to day duties. I have another staff handbook consultancy meeting, this is good because we are now finished and ready to have this checked out by the solicitors before making the document live after presenting at the Trustee Board later in September.
Had a meeting with a Walsall Night Club for our Freshers week events and also discussed the possibilities of a regular weekly deal. All things are looking good and contracts for freshers are signed. That's another tick on the to-do-list!!!
The day ends at around 8pm, yes its a late finish considering I started at around 815am, but I went to visit Cov SU with Alex Blower, this was a meeting with other member students' unions to discuss plans for the future and strategy for the demo amongst other things.

Friday-the week ends
The end of a busy week ends today. The new building plans are moving along nicely and its starting to actually look like we will actually be in for an amazing treat with the new space. The morning begins with strategy planning with Luke and the team, followed by our very first Exec Meeting. This is a meeting that I chair. We cover the usual stuff and also discuss the possibility of a new student society linked to student media, setting up an open student forum for activities and of course the AGM. As always, minutes from the exec can be found online via our website

Week Three 16th - 23rd Aug

More NUS Training.

I'm back in the office for one day, and the work from last week is still here, so its back to back meetings before driving back home for a change of clothes and then Tuesday to Thursday more NUS training at Warwick University.

BBSU Building Better Students' Unions.

Its got nothing on APL but the amount of knowledge shared and gained is positive. The full details of both these training courses have been written up and can be found in my personal files.

So these last two blogs as short as they are, does not reflect the amount of shizzle I've been up to. Kinda finding it hard to even find time to write these blogs. (its a little late)

Week Two 9-15th August 2010

It's official, I survived the first week.............

So here we are in week two and it really is going well.
This is gonna be a short blog entry, but that doesn't mean its been a short week. I spent the first day on more in-house training, its a session on public speaking. It's not about "hear-yee hea-yee" but more about writing our graduation speeches and how to deliver them.
Tuesday to Friday I'm off with the whole team to University of Bristol for NUS training at APL (Active Political Leadership)

Wow this is an amazing course, I leave it feeling inspired, empowered and ready to fight for student rights. Way too much stuff to put to words here, but its four days of training, networking, sharing good practice, and Digby Jacks. Key word for the event? "Hyperdiversity"

1st Week in Office Aug 2nd- 8th 2010

Week one its the first week.

Yes its the first week and after a week of training, we are all here and ready to go bright and early. The whole team are unified and invigorated with plans for the year.

Monday begins, we start off with a presentation to the university, where we present our plans for the comming year and unveil our campaign plans. We have 7 main campaigns for the year and we will work on these as a team.

So onto Tuesday, with a day where we "Run The Union" for the day. Its what it says on the tin, we run the union, but with a twist. Throughout the day we are given different task and scenarios so owe can try out our skills and test our capabilities. Its fast paced but it works really well. We also get to meet some of the key people in the university and discuss how we will work together for the year.

Inbetween all this I still have my usual meetings such as Staff Consultancy Forum and the ongoing freshers planning. Wednesday we all get a chance to have individual one to ones with the ASC advisors so we cn get to know exactly what their jobs involve.

Now Im starting to realise that this blog thing is starting to get pretty intense, so I hope you are enjoying it. There's so much I could put on here, my personal thoughts, feelings, etc. But I hope that if you really want to know more you will come and see me as my oor is so open, it doesnt exist.

So back to the blog.............

Oh wow!! another week done and dusted. Training, meetings and presentations and I even maqnaged to get out into costa and speak to a couple of students.

July 26th-31st Training Officially Starts

Yes its finally here, my training officially begins this week. 9am start at the SU office (yes its like I've never left) We are all in for our 1-2-1 meetings with the existing officers- Bally Singh, Eric Potts, Matt Ward and Arun Bhajwad. Thank you for all your help Bally, I will take everything on board.

So training continues and we are down at the Chaplaincy with Super Hazel the master trainer. Its a nice change and we are engaged in lots of different tasks throughout the day. Its all about team building and getting to know each other and our roles. On a positive note, its great training and I'm learning new things as well as refreshing old. On the negative, there are slight tensions, but its something I know we will work out between us. Its not about power and trying to assert authority or superiority, and its fine and natural to have differences in opinions on certain issues. I naturally expect us all to challenge each other and ensure that students' needs and benefits remain at the heart of the organisation and our duties. I do generally mean that, even if I do read back over it and it looks contrived. Anyway the training continues...........................

...........from Finance Training to Health and Safety

It's H&S with Neil Reading, from the basics, right through to ensuring that we know how to Risk Assess an event. This is some serious stuff and is very in dept, I knew we were thorough, we cover every possible outcome. back to the office for another freshers meeting then back to the training, my feet don't really hit the ground and I haven't had a chance to grab any lunch, so I eat on the go,mmmmmmmmmmmmm biscuits and tea!!!!

Princethorp Residential

Thursday is here and I'm in the Kenny-mobile driving off to Warwickshire for special training and team building with the officers and staff. Its a fab place, very historic and beautiful ( that'll be the Historian in me) So I wont bore you with the details (I'm assuming that people actually are reading this!!) ahem..... so where was I?.............. oh yeah..... We work hard and learn hard. We have Emily from NUS helping us understand what our roles as Trustees will involve and also learning what it will be like to be a student officer. We even get to cook dinner for everyone afterwards. I do the starter (stuffed mushrooms) Alex and Dave the main (Fajitas) and Ellen does desert (Veggie Cheese cake). Another two days of class training and we have been able to work out our Marketing and communication strategy, what our main campaigns will be for the coming year and thoughts for the future. We are agreed that we will work unified on 7 main campaigns that include Education Funding, Course Rep System and Mental Health. This is a great move as together we will make this work. In addition to this there will be lots of issues that will be worked on and resolved diplomatically behind the scenes, but these seven will be the big "up there and in your face" type things.

And now................. I must digest all this information and prepare for another week ...............

July 19th- 26th 2 weeks to go!!

The time draws near and I'm nearly officially ready to start my term in office. But before then, its another weak of essential preparation. My week starts with a Wed Freshers planning meeting. I'm meeting a promoter with Ivor from Marketing, followed by general this and that with the usual weekly planning and keeping up to date with regs and procedures.

Thursday- Meetings Meetings Meetings: Its the AGM!!!
As the title says, I'm in for a meeting to discuss and decide what we are going to do for the AGM and also our Bye-Elections, I'm in at 930am and the meeting is scheduled till 11am. Its full, we discuss and decide on a lot of points, including deciding agenda items, timings and possible invitees. Was good to see our new Chair of Union Council Katie Billingham, I know she is going to do a class job this year. Following this meeting its decided that the Staff Handbook Working Group meeting will postpone to another date as Matt Knight has progressed on this and is now ready to send out sections to staff for evaluation.

Friday- Party in the uni
Joan Fleming celebrates retirement after 40 years of teaching and Deaf Education.She has thrown a 'Mini Ball' for her colleagues and Deaf Studies Class of 2007-2010. Was an honour to meet her family and hear the farewell spec hes. She will be greatly missed at Wolves, but no-doubt she will stay in touch.

July12th - 18th- Finalising Freshers Plans

Tuesday is my first day in the office but I spent most of Monday working from home. Completed my report from the NUS Regional Reception and started work on investigating different avenues for developing our income stream. Put together a small report and sent a copy off to Hazel for her feedback.
Today I was in from 9.15am ready for standby on a meeting for Blended Learning Strategy. Followed by finalisation of some of the finer details for freshers week, in prep for the group discussion later toady at 2pm, should be really interesting.
Met briefly with Bally and later assisted him with the CEO's six month appraisal.

Think I'll spend the rest of the week at home brushing up on my Japanese

July Activity- Mon 5th- Sun 11th

NUS REGIONAL RECEPTION

The first of our official NUS training days with the whole team. So Im here with Dave Anson and Ellen Marshall. Warwick University is pretty impressive, it will be great to try to achieve the same feeling of pride in our SU. Anyway this reception was a chance for other presidents and officers to come together and find out how to access NUS services and share contacts and best practices. Once again I have completed a report on this event and this as always can be found in my personal folders.

I met some familiar faces from over the spring/summer and gained some more new contacts. Attended a workshop with Susan Nash VP Society & Citizenship and a workshop for Presidents.

FRIDAY- A WHOLE DAY OF MEETINGS
1) 9am First meeting with Hazel and Luke, to go over our notes and thoughts coming out of the NUS Cuts Conference. We have now decided on devising a strategy for future campaigns, including the national campaign scheduled for sometime in November. (as previously mentioned, full notes on this are in my personal folders)
2)10am- Staff Consultative Forum- Regular meeting to discuss staff issues, in attendance are reps from all our departments. We covered many topics including the new staff handbook and proposed flexible working times for Sept.
3) 2pm- Meeting to discuss the freshers proposals put forward by Cool It. This was attended in Costa Coffee. Present was Eric Potts, Ivor Mullings, Luke Gilbert. Very interesting meeting, especially because as the time grows nearer to making our final decisions for freshers, Im getting a lot of questions and nudging by people trying to find out or influence my decision. The fact is what ever we decide, will have the needs of students first. So we are pretty much decided on the outcome now and these will be finalised next week. We've been planning this since early may and now we just need to pull the final decisions together.
4)3pm CEO Objective Setting Meeting- In attendance all current Officers and Bally. A meeting to discuss the progress of Luke (CEO) and to decide on his new objectives for the following 6 months.
5) 4pm City Bar Meeting- In relation to the International party on Sept 10th, meeting attended with Ivor to meet the manager. We discussed the music and door policy, along with entry fee and drinks prices. This is a very positive meeting, the owner has the needs and safety of International Students at the highest level. I look forward to making our final decisions on this venue and this will be a regular event that will continue into the year.

NUS Cuts Confrence, Meeting With VC & Board Of Gov

Monday June 28th - July 4th



This week I have a busy schedule but split over 3 days. Will give me a chance to catch up on my swimming and gym. The first day is Tuesday its the NUS Cuts Conference at the NEC.

I attended the cuts conference with Hazel. Very informative day and we have a lot of useful info. I have compiled a report on this for further discussion next week with Hazel and Luke. A copy of my report can be found in my personal folders. The main themes are that we are all expecting cuts and the next important date is October 22nd when the Brown Review is expected to be published. Following this the NUS plan to do a national demo in London in response to HE funding cuts and increased tuition fees.



The following day I have a 1-1, well actually its a 1-2 meeting with the Vice Chancellor and Bally. We go mainly to introduce myself formally and to set the table for the coming year. We are fortunate to have a monthly meeting with the VC. This I feel is a good thing as there is no one higher than the VC so if I ever feel like the student voice is not being heard, I can go straight to the top. I look forward to our next meeting in Aug.
The end of the day was a meeting on the working group for the new staff handbook. We are making great progress on this and hope to have this completed ready for the new term.

Thursday- Freshers planning meetings, Board of Governors and office stuff. No need to elaborate, but more freshers planning, followed by Board of Governors meeting in MC. This was a chance to meet some of the university governors and also Bally presented his Annual Report for the SU. This went down well and was in the format of a DVD, I'll probably continue this format next year.

The end to another week, nothing left to do apart from continue with the freshers planning and digest the information from this past week.

A busy week-June 21st- 28th

The Week Begins
After a weekend of ideas, reading and planning for this week, here I am bright and early heading into wolves. Ok its not as early as normal, its 9:45 b4 I get in, but Ive been to asda for some supplies, chocolate, fruit smoothie and cookies. The first meeting is cancelled, but Im off to Oceana with Ivor to knock out a deal for freshers Sunday and Tuesday. Its a good meeting, we have a great discussion with the two people at the top. I think we have managed to work out a mutually beneficial deal. Im happy.



Now its back to uni for a quick lunch, b4 heading straight over to the council room for Academic Board Meeting, Matt Ward was in attendance and Dave Anson sent his apologies. This is a very big and important meeting, its where all the big guns at uni work out the academic details for the university. Most of the things discussed are confidential, but rest assured that student needs are always met and your SU are always representing you.

Tuesday and Wed
This is like my day off. No journey into to uni, but Im still working on ideas. Emails sent out to Dez at Cov SU, invitations sent to Christina NUS International Student Office & Kanja NUS Black Student Officer. I explained the two International events and World Food Day, also invited them both down to our AGM during freshers week. The rest of the evening and the Wednesday I researched questions for the quiz night, ideas for the food day and games for International Day. Went over some of my notes and leaflets/brochures form NUS and compiled a progress plan for Thursdays meeting.

THURSDAY MEETINGS
Here we are another day, another meeting. Just so its not all sounding the same, but its more freshers planning with the focus on the International Party on 10th Sept. This is a full meeting with Ivor, Jayne and Joanna. Its a nice day so we take the meeting outside. Which was a good thing because after this meeting I have another meeting with Luke and Matt Ward in preparation to presenting our report to the Employment & Finance Committee at 6pm. That meeting went down well, with the board happy with the financial status of the Union and our plans for the year. This was another opportunity for me to meet and be introduced to some of the key people involved in the university, this also gives me a better understanding of what to expect for the the future.

FRIDAY MEETINGS
Friday is here and Im back (do I ever leave?) I have a meeting with Ivor and Babylon. Discussing the details for Freshers and the possibility for a continued weekly programme. The meeting goes well. Freshers is looking to be a huge week filled with lots of variety and activities. The best thing about the meeting is that I have stressed the importance of increasing employment opportunities for our students. He assures me that he will continue to seek to fill his vacancies with our students. That' s all good from where I stand. I also offered to try to arrange some Deaf Awareness training for his staff and he fully embraced this offer.

I think I deserve a relaxed week next week.

June 14th-18th 2010

Another week of meetings and Freshers Plannings.

The Week started off on Monday with continued research into freshers events. Nothing major to report, just checking out some contacts, such as possible acts to book etc. Onto Wednesday....

I'm in from 9am for a meeting with Jayne & Ivor, freshers planning and deciding on the content., followed by a 10am meeting with Luke. This was a great meeting and we are now confirmed as to what we will be doing on all the days for the evenings events, acts are decided on and the bookings will now take place. The only thing left to do now is finalise the details such as timings of each activity, how to organise tickets for these events and dotting the I's. The remainder of the morning was spent bouncing ideas around with Ivor as to the finer details of the Talent Show night and choice of club venue and what prizes we will be giving out. Final part of the afternoon was spent summarising over my reports and speaking with Caroline Burke to make arrangements for our presence at the International Student Welcome Week, most importantly working out what information we will be giving out during our presentation on Sept 10th.

The end of a full day, its now 4pm and its time I went home.

Now its Friday and Im in once again. Its more planning meetings, today its a 1030 meeting with Jane from the International Office, Jayne and Joanna. We are discussing freshers and Internat Party on the Friday. One of the themes we are working on, is identifying that some Internat/EU students arrive to UK and are often stumped by some of our slang. This will make for a perfect presentation/game and also a chance to work on an idea for a theme that I have "Best OF British", basically a celebration of all thing British, a themed day on the Friday. Just some finer details to work out, such as the availability of BestMates during freshers week.

Another week over with. I have scheduled a busy week of meeting for next week. so I have a stack of meeting notes to read over the weekend.

More June Activities

June 7th till 12th

So here we are, its June, Im still a busy boy. Been into uni now for about 5 or 6 days attending various meetings and stuff. From freshers week planning, to visits to Bham checking out the International Food Festival.

So the meetings started on the Monday and this began at 1030 with, a meeting to discuss ideas for the International Students Party that will take place on Friday 10th September. Thoughts on venue, theme, and activities were discussed. In attendance was Jayne Yuruker, Jane Dunn, Joanna Zielinska. Was a very productive meeting and we have come up with some amazing ideas for this event. More to be discussed at a later date, but all looks positive.

This meeting was followed by an Exec meeting over in the SU. Very breif and was really just an update on the progress of the SU redevelopment.

TUESDAY- VALE FESTIVAL

Today I attended the Vale Festival at Birmingham Uni. I was taking part with the Capoeira Society and also looking to get some ideas for freshers. Whilst there I met with Ed Sparkes- VP Housing and Community. He informed me that he is currently planning their freshers. We will meet again in the next few weeks and discuss some ideas etc.

THURSDAY- INT FOOD FEST.

Spent most the morning looking up contacts and discussing options for freshers. Had meeting with Luke, Jayne and Ivor. Spoke to some agents about posible bookings (we wont be bbooking Olli Muirs or Twist and Pulse) then played around with some figures. The rest of the morning was a 2 hour meeting with Ivor and Jayne, where we looked deeper at the freshers schedule and tried to figure out fair pricing and event orders. We are agreed apart from the band night and wed nights entertainment. Meeting rearranged for next week for final decisions and then booking. You lucky students, we have so much planned for you guys.
So the afternoon ended with a train journey into Brum to see what the Int Food Fest has to offer. Mainly just an ideas visit to see what is on offer, sample some food, and see about potential people to have for our World Food Day. Attended this with Jayne Yuruker and Jane Dunn.

SATURDAY- OPEN DAY

Ahhhh, another day, another me working hard for students. So its open day and Im here at 9:10 am. Coffee first (of course) then its trying to find out where we are. Turns out we are in a tent in the quad area. Julia (ASC) is here and we attempt to setup outside. The wind is doing us bother and blowing down our plans and stands. So eventually we make an exec decision to move inside and set up in our building. It doesnt please Danielle from Uni Marketing, but eventually she sees the positive side of it and that we have the publics interests in mind. I enjoy talking to lots of potential new students, explaining the plans for the new build, services and my life as a student. Thanks to Bally, Matt, Arun, Julia, Matt Knight and Ivor who were all in attendance. Im now getting more and more excited about finally getting started. Even made a contact for a comedy magician who wants to take part during freshers week. Class!!!

Staff Handbook Working Group + New Website Provider

02/06/2010
Today I attended a meeting with Luke Gilbert (CEO) and Matt Knight (GM) This was a group setup to look at our current staff handbook and look at updating and bringing this up to date. Some of the things in it were pretty dated or not appropriate to the SU of today. We discussed a lot of options and have scheduled a second meeting to continue to make sure that we create a staff handbook that is suitable for outr needs.

This was followed by another meeting with a new website provider. The current sabs were also present along with Jas and Darsh. This looks very promising and is a big improvement to our existing website. It will give us more creative content, functionality and the capability for increased revenue through advertising, marketing and ticket sales. This is definitely a good thing for the SU and most importantly for students. Students will have a more user friendly website that will have more features that they can access, edit and utilise.

I cant wait for the final decision on this.

NUS Black Students Conference

May 22-23 2010

Another day, another conference. So here I am at the Black Students Conference, back at the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool. Its a great opportunity for networking, learning and of course voting for the new NUS BLack Student Officer (BSO).

I am very inspired by some of the speakers that are here, especially Lee Jasper. This is a two day conference and its jam packed with events, workshops and talks. One of the most impressionable workshops I attended was a session on how to increase black student involvement in Students' Unions.

Voting took place and the best candidate for the job won, Kanja Sesay is the new BSO.

I also ran for an open caucus position within the NUS, but this was not the day for me and I did not get enough winning votes, although I did write a cracking speech. The position would have enable me to get elbows deep into NUS campaigns and work along side the BSO and others in delivering a strong campaign for the coming year.

Overall this was an enjoyable conference and I will encourage more students to attend next year.

NUS International Students Conference

April 28-29th 2010.

I Attended the NUS international Students Conference, with Arun (Democracy VP). So some people might be saying "hey Ken you're not an International Student, why go to the conference?". Well quite simple, I want to be a president for everyone and will not just focus on one type of student. I knew that I would still benefit form attending this conference and be able gain valuable insight and info that will help me to better understand the needs of International Students.


This was an interesting conference with lots of contacts and information available for International Students. The first session was by Dominic Scott of UKCISA. She talked about issues affecting International Students (I.S.) areas covered Fees, Teaching and Learning, Student Services, Visa & ID cards and employment. She feels that Universities should declare the total price of fees and study/course costs for the whole term of study. Other sessions and talks were by, Kristine Murray- International Exec at UCAS, Academic Representation & International Students by Mike Heffron, Workshop by Joanna Purkis-NUS Project Officer- How To Make SU’s more International and a workshop titled Listening To International Students by Mike Heffron of NUS Scotland.

I was not eligible to Vote as I am a Home Student, but I enjoyed speaking to the candidates. I was happy that Christina Yan Zhang was elected with a hugh majority.

I also wrote a policy Motion for confrence on Cultural Shock. We did not have time to debate it, but I called for it to be passed over to the NEC. Since then it has passed and will become part of NUS policy for the next 3 years. Details of the motion can be found on NUS website, http://www.officeronline.co.uk

At the end of the confrence I made some really good contacts that I'm sure will help me through a busy and productive year in office.

NUS Confrence

NUS Confrence was back in April. This was my first NUS National Confrence and believe me it was awesome. I travelled by train from B'ham leaving at an early 630am (yawn) arriving in Gateshead around 11am. Eventually I met up with the rest of the guys, (Alex Blower, Ellen Marshall, Matt Ward & Bally Singh). Confrence started at 12pm and lasted for 3 days.

So after debating, voting and deciding on many issues and policies that will lead the NUS over the next year we also voted to elect amongst others the National President and VP's, the results were as follows:

• National President= Aaron Porter





• VP Higher Education = Usman Ali





• VP Further Education= Shane Chowen





• VP Union Development= Ed Marsh





• VP Welfare= Ben Whittaker





• VP Society & Citizenship= Susan Nash

Full list available at http://www.officeronline.co.uk/

Newcastle was amazing, such a beautiful city (that's not just the historian in me speaking). One thing I still cant get my head over is the amazing drinks offers. Now I'm in no way condoning irrisponsible drinking, but the offers were 3x tripple vodka and cokes for £4.99 or 3 x skittle cocktails for £4.99. Now that is a drinks deal. I do confess that I decided to buy my drinks one at a time so paid £1.95 each. But hey it wasnt all about drinking, after the first night out its back to the Sage to continue on with the conference.

Welcome

Hey everyone, welcome to my blog. I intent to use this as a running record of my activity during my year in office as President of Wolves Uni Students' Union.

So first off Id like to say thank you for voting for me and thanks for taking an interest in what I am upto.

So Most of you will not see me in place until the start of the first semester and Freshers Week 2010, But the planning and training for me has started pretty much since the end of the elections. The following paragraphs will give you an idea of what Ive been upto since winning the elections. From attending the NUS National Conference, to visits to other Students' Unions across the region..........