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.