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.