Friday 30 November 2007

The NUS Reloaded

In a mere four days, students from all corners of the UK will be gathering in Leicester for the NUS Extraordinary Conference. The reason this has been called is to discuss the NUS Reform, which has been met with a very mixed response from Student Unions. This is the largest restructure of the NUS in 100 years, so naturally feathers have been ruffled.

But the seventeen Birmingham delegates know which way they will be voting. Yep, we will be saying a big phat YES to change! Policy was passed in November Guild Council which mandates our delegates to support this restructure.

And rightly so :)

The introduction of subject-specific zones will allow more informal and less intimidating discussion of issues, as opposed to waiting until the foreboding NUS Conference like usual, where inexperienced delegates are alienated by process.

Plus, a flavour can be gained at the Zones, as to whether a motion will be well-received at Conference (or Congress, as it will now be known). This will allow ammendments to be made before delegates arrive at Annual Congress and much discussion/evidence-gathering can be thrashed out in advance, saving people's time and trauma.

So let's say YES to change and YES to more of these awesome pop-culture posters!

Thursday 29 November 2007

The Sound Impact Award --> A Greener Guild



You may or may not be aware that the Guild is participating in the Sound Impact Awards this year. Ignore the misleading name, this is actually an environmental accreditation scheme designed to reduce the carbon footprint of the Students' Unions in the UK.


Myself, Julien "Captain Planet" Pritchard and our Buildings Manager Mike Carolan are working tirelessly at completing the workbook, which contains 176 criteria!


Last year, we got a Working Towards accreditation, whilst Loughborough claimed the Gold (boo!).


This year, we have set our sights high but the important thing here is to make the Guild more environmentally-friendly and save some energy. Awards are merely the cherry on top of the cake :D

December --> complete the workbook


February --> be visited & assessed.


March --> pick up our award at NUSSL convention (fingers & toes crossed)


I'll keep you posted, as always.

Blog Pledge


As part of my ongoing attempt to win the approval of this man (pictured right), I have received blogging lessons in order to improve this page. Therefore, I am pledging to you, dear reader, that my blogs will become:
  • more frequent.
  • more entertaining.
  • more snappy.
  • more informal.
  • more interactive (photos/videos)
  • less dull.
Watch this space and come back soon.

Change Your Guild, Change Your World

Hello all,

On Monday 21st January, the Guild is hosting its first Change Your World Fair. It is a chance for campaigning student groups and our own representative processes (RAs, Delegates, Guild Councillors, Student Reps, Mentors) to shout about that they do and how their campaigns have helped change the world, either locally, nationally or internationally!

It will be held in the Deb Hall between 10am and 4pm. If your group is interested in having a stall then e-mail 'I Have Changed My World' to both myself (s.fairbanks@guild.bham.ac.uk) and the charming Ben Whitehouse of Student Development (b.whitehouse@guild.bham.ac.uk).

Display boards and stalls will be provided (standard!) but we are particularly looking for creative, innovative and unique ways to decorate each stall and interact with students. Rumour has it that People & Planet are making a tree out of coat hangers on which students can sign a leaf. Genius!

Also, Deb Hall has a stage and if you have a wish to speak on the stage or talk to the masses about a particular campaign or beautifully-painted banner (remember the 2006 pre-Q LBGT march banner which students marked with their own painted footprints?) then the stage is yours!

Let's change the world but keep it real :D

Monday 12 November 2007

NUS Regional Conference

Last Thursday, the Guild of Students sent delegates to the NUS Regional Conference at Leicester Students' Union.
hgh
The day began with meeting & greeting and 60-second round ups from all of the Unions who were attending.
kv
Gemma Tumelty, the National President, then gave us a presentation about the NUS Reform, which involves evolving the current structure of the NUS in order to make it more constructive and efficient. It will remove dated positions such as Secretary & Treasurer and replace Regional Conferences with Zone (issue-related) Conferences. We will be voting on whether to support or protest the NUS Reform this Thursday in Guild Council. Naushabah Khan (VPHC) will be presenting Gemma's presentation on Thursday evening to give you greater insight into the proposed change.
hk
After lunch, we debated the NUS' Higher Education Funding priorities and whether we should campaign for free education or compromise at focusing on 'Keeping the Cap' where it is. Arguments were put for both sides, however there was general agreement that there needs to be consistency in the NUS' messages, therefore regressing back to free education might not be the best idea.
jhk
Also after lunch, we elected Laura Sadler (VPEA) as a representative on NUS Council, who meet three times a year to hold the NUS to account in between Annual NUS Conferences.
jk
We ended the day by attending different workshops. I attended a workshop about Sexual Health Week campaigns, where each Union shared a variety of colourful (and in some cases, a little whacky) campaign ideas. These included hiring in a rocking-penis rodeo bull, using student radio to host a version of Radio One Sunday Surgery and also offering free club entry to students who have had a chlamydia test.
jk;
It was an beneifical day and most useful of all (as is always the case when visiting other Students' Unions) was the variety of ideas that are ripe for stealing :) I took a copy of their bar menu to help with our research for developing catering in the Building Redevelopment plans and took some of their publicity material for advertising their Council and AGM. Evidence-gathering like this always provides great inspiration for our own projects!
kko
Speak soon,
kp
Simon.

Sunday 4 November 2007

Blogging Expands

This morning I created blog pages for the other six Sabbatical Officers. Links to these pages will be found on the Executive Officers page on the Guild website underneath our profile pictures. These links should be active by Tuesday.

The non-Sabbatical Officers will have similar blog pages created for them over the next few weeks.

And yes, I am working on a Sunday because I am that dedicated!