The Last Guild Council of the Year

o

It's strange to think how quickly this year has passed. There were times during e-voting crashes when I thought I wasn't gonna make it and there were other times when the weeks were just flying by.

But now the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight.

And in many ways, the last Guild Council of the year is the season finale of a Sabbatical's year. It is the time when they receive their Guild Life Membership and they are given free reign to bore the Councillor's with their 20-minute speeches (or 35-minutes in my case).

Nevertheless, it was a memorable, celebration of a year's work and I will remember it for the following reasons:-

• We began with a free BBQ for all of our Guild Councillors.
• We took photographs of Guild Council in Mermaid Fountain beforehand.
• The Guild bye-laws were approved - due to accompany the new Memorandum & Articles of Association and therefore the new Guild itself on the 1st of August!
• Lizzy Ralph engaged in a fierce debate with Tom Whittaker (Chair of Debating Society, no less!) over whether we should remove Standing Societies from the new Guild bye-laws.
• Rhea received a long-overdue commendation for her work on Governance this year. Rhea then asked that we commend all of the Exec instead.
• Rhea and Lizzy received a commendation for their work aiding Carnival hitch-hike Coordinator Johnny Davis when he was battling against fraudulent Newquay hostel-owners trying to steal our deposits.
• Steve Streatfield was commended for generally being awesome - admittedly he isn't an Exec Officer but we gave him a ruddy good round of applause anyway!
• My motion, Now Is The Library of our Discontent, was approved, which aims to provide better provision of Shakespeare critical texts in the Main Library as English Students currently have to travel all the way to the Shakespeare Institute for these texts.
• We received our Sabbatical Life Membership - thank you Guild Council.
• We were permitted to bore people with our incredibly long leaving speeches. I managed to make four out of the six remaining Sabbs cry - happy days!
• We thanked our amazing Independent Chairs by awarding them each an engraved gavel.

Overall, it was a great end to our year as Sabbatical Officers.

Thank you to all Guild Councillors who have participated this year. We couldn't do anything without your valuable attendance as Student Representatives.

I will miss being interrogated by each and every one of you!

o