Merry Christmas to all!

The Guild has now closed for Christmas and will re-open on Thursday the 3rd of January.

Have a great holiday everyone and good luck with all of your essay work!

Here's a few Christmas facts...

• Traditionally, German children are not allowed to see the Christmas tree until Christmas Eve.
• The rumour that Santa's red and white outfit was created by Coca-Cola is actually false. The red and white Santa was around in the 1920s, a whole decade before Coca-Cola advertising.
• In Russia, Santa Claus is called Dedushka Moroz, meaning Grandfather Frost.
• Boxing Day is so-called because the day after Christmas is also known as St Stephen's Day, when certain families go to Church and donate money in the collection boxes.
• Only six Christmas Number Ones in the past forty-seven years have had the word Christmas or Xmas in the title.

Feel free to plagiarise the above facts and bore your families over the holidays.

Let me end by saying, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! See you in the New Year!

A Weekend with the RAs

Last weekend, Student Development took the newly-elected RAs on a weekend of training, rope-climbing and bridge-building at an activity park in the Shropshire woods. It was a great few days of flipcharts, marker pens, group-bonding and new experiences.

Here are a few of my highlights:-

1) negotiating an assault course whilst wearing a blindfold (top right).
2) hopping across suspended platforms with Tennis Court RAs.
3) supervising Maple Bank building a bridge over a pond.
4) getting RAs excited about Guild Council!
5) being dressed in tin foil, toilet paper and bin bags for the winning game suggestion.
6) hiking for an hour in the dark in search of the pub.
7) rediscovering basketball on the court outside.
8) actually having the RAs cheer at the mention of the word 'Referendum.'
9) watching Hot Fuzz with the gang (can't believe I missed out on Children of Men though).
10) climbing the high ropes with the Presidents.

The curly fries on Monday were pretty special too :D

RAs, if you're reading this, it was a joy meeting you all and I'm excited about working with you over the next year! Good luck guys! x

The Sound Impact Award Workbook -> Done!

Step One... done!

Yesterday, we filled out the Sound Impact Award Workbook and sent it back to NUSSL. We have now assessed ourselves against the criteria and we believe we have achieved 307 out of the 466 points available. This could potentially be marked down when we are visited by the auditors next Semester but it is a promising start.

Last year, a score of 307 would have achieved a Gold Award (pictured right and made out of recycled glass by artist Adele Billinghay), however Student Unions are likely to have improved their game since the 2006/07 Sound Impact Award season.

The deadline for the Workbooks passed at noon today and all Unions' Workbooks will be assessed over Christmas. Dates for the audits will be released over the next few weeks, so I'll keep you all posted as always.

The quest to save the planet continues!

How to Look Good in a Mortarboard

Graduation ceremonies are being held this week for post-graduates and students who did not graduate in the summer. It is tradition for two Guild representatives to be present at each ceremony and therefore myself and Laura attended the Humanities ceremony on Wednesday.

Here is a picture of me in the Guild Presidential robes (see right) complete with mortarboard and the Guild medallion.

It was great to be seeing the ceremony from the other side. Back in July, I was one of the excited Graduands sitting amongst the crowd and hoping my parents didn't scream too loudly when I got my 2.1 (and hoping even more that I didn't trip on the steps when I collected my degree from the Chancellor!)

But this time I attended as a Graduate. Me & Laura were part of the procession, marching down the aisle with the Professors and Chancellors. It was a great experience and I was genuinely proud to be representing the Guild up on the stage, as students received the qualifications for all of their hard work.

However, one thing had not changed since my own ceremony back in July -> I will always have trouble keeping a mortarboard balanced on my head. So when you guys graduate in the summer, remember to bring hair clips. Lots of hair clips :)

SUEi -> Are you a Non-Involved Student?

We made a lot of progress with SUEi today.

(SUEi is the Student Union Evaluation Initiative, which I introduced yesterday. See my post yesterday for more details).

All of the line managers, along with cameos from myself and Lizzy, were locked in a room where they scoured the organisation and their memories for evidence for each of the SUEi criteria. I'm relieved to say that the evidence folders were looking mighty full by 4pm today.

50% of the audit will assess the content of these evidence folders. The other 50% will be assessed through interviews. And it is here, dear reader, where you students can help us :)

We need 15 non-involved students to take part in a 45-minute interview, at some point in March. These non-involved students will be asked questions about the Guild's performance in various areas and will be paid for their involvement in the audit.

What do you mean by non-involved students? According to SUEi, a non-involved student must not be part of a Union Committee, Student Staff or have a Committee position in a society. However, if you are part of a society but do not have an official position then you can participate.

If you are interested in helping us achieve this accreditation, please e-mail "I am a Non-Involved Student!" to s.fairbanks@guild.bham.ac.uk.

For more on SUEi, you can visit their website at http://www.sueinitiative.co.uk/ Enjoy!

Blogs are Bloomin'!

It's early days yet but the Exec blogs are beginning to bloom!

Alex Wright (LGBTQO) has given feedback on both the Homophobia is Gay bar crawl and his thoughts on the last Guild Council. He has even included an opinion poll about the bar crawl! Did you enjoy Homophobia is Gay? Let Alex know by visiting his blog!

http://alexwrightlgbtqo.blogspot.com/

Want to see a picture of the President's mum? Check out the Rhea Keehn (President) blog for snaps of the Frankfurt Christmas Market and Rhea's thoughts on the Great Gatsby, our last Guild Council and working on a Sunday :)

http://rheakeehnthepresident.blogspot.com/

And if you want to see Will Bastin (VPS) in action, check out his blog and witness the skills of our ex-basketball captain. Dunk that badboy! Nothing but net!

http://willbastinvps.blogspot.com/

Point is, the blogs are taking off in a big way. Watch this space because Lizzy Ralph (VPSAD) is working on a photo album blog of all her recent activites.

The future's bright, the future's blogging!

Simon Fairbanks, Carbon Ambassador

On Friday, I attended Carbon Trust training at Manchester Student Union.

This is part of the NUSSL Carbon Academy scheme, which sends Carbon Ambassadors (of which I am 1 of the 12) to different Student Unions to locate areas in which they could save energy and therefore money.

It was an activity-fuelled day of presentations and team exercises (like all NUS training!) The day ended with us looking around Manchester Union and assessing areas in which it could save money.

Everything from a broken diary-deck blind on a fridge in their shop, to leaving the door wide open on their beer cellar, contributes to wasting energy and it is these little improvements that will save a Union thousands of pounds in the long run.

I promised to keep my blogs interactive so below I have added a link to an interesting and thought-provoking debate about the environment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBro4dANNGU

And if you have any further interest in the Carbon Trust, then here is their website:

http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/default.ct

Guild Council -> December

"Oh, what a night! Late December back in '63. What a very special time for me..." - Frankie Valli

kk

Well, it wasn't '63, it was '07, but it was nevertheless a very special time. Guild Council voted and decided on the structure for the Guild's new Trustee Board, as part of the change in our Guild Governance (to be voted on in the Referendum next Semester).

The Board composition had proven to be a contentious area of Governance for quite some time but now a structure has finally been agreed upon.

Another factor by which this Guild Council stands out in my mind, is that the whole meeting was over by 9pm! Through a combination of effective chairing and electronic voting, Guild Council is becoming increasingly efficient and less time-consuming.

Long gone are the days of 2am meetings and good riddance :D

SUEi

SUEi (pronounced soo-ey) stands for Student Union Evaluation Initiative.

It is basically an accreditation scheme that assesses how well a Student Union is performing in a variety of areas, including representation, reputation, innovation and fun. The Unions are then awarded a Working Towards, Blue, Silver or Gold award depending on how good they are.

Myself, Lizzy, Jo Thomas (our GM) and Nick Bailey (our Finance Manager) spent the day in London on Wednesday with reps from the rest of the First Cohort to learn about how we are going to get assessed, early next Semester.

SUEi is a brand new scheme and we are among the first six Unions who will participate and be awarded accreditation, therefore we are providing ideas and input that will ultimately help shape the scheme.

By March, we will discover what award we achieve. I'll keep you all posted as ever :)

NUS Extraordinary Conference -> Change was Chosen!

Change was chosen!

The NUS Extraordinary Conference took place on Tuesday and over two-thirds of the delegates voted in favour of the new NUS structure.

All 17 Birmingham delegates (elected only one day before Conference!) were mandated by Guild Council to vote for change and we therefore all supported the NUS Reform on behalf of all the students at the University of Birmingham.

Why was the old structure rubbish?

The NUS have heard no short amount of complaints about how they are run for years and years. Criticisms include:-

• NUS Conference is inefficient. The format is too complex for 1200 people. It is intimidating for new delegates and hard to engage with.
• The NEC are an all-engulfing powerful body. There is no separation of powers between the political side of the NUS and the admin/legal side of the NUS.
• Anti-racism work needs more focus. International Students, Mature Students and Part-time Students are pooly-represented.

Why is the new structure so much better?

• Zone Conferences have been created. Each Zone will focus on a different issue: Higher Education, Further Education, Welfare, Society & Citizenship and Union Development.
• These Zone Conferences are smaller and more informal. Students can debate in workshops, gather evidence and construct more careful motions to be submitted to Annual Conference.
• The Zones will therefore be more accessible to new members, Unions can collaborate on policy and contentious issues can be resolved in debate before the motions even reached Conference.
• There is indeed a separation of powers and the new Trustee Board for the NUS has external, experienced and informed lay members who can assist in administration and legal decisions.
• This allows the NUS Officers more time to run campaigns and actually make change! The new structure has a full-time International Students' Officer, part-time roles for Mature & Part-time Students and a taskgroup dedicated to ARAF work.

Overall, it was a very exciting day and most was spent addressing changes or ammendments which Unions had addressed. The good ammendments were accepted (Bristol suggested an ARAF Committee be created) and the bad ammendments fell (Bradford suggested all delegates should be elected by cross-campus ballot but this is not possible for many FE colleges!)

As the day progressed, it looked like we were not going to reach the final vote because it was common knowledge that we were getting kicked out at 6pm. Those opposing the Reform therefore began filibustering and stalling by voting for no confidence in the Chair and asking for a secret ballot! Luckily, both were rejected and we reached the final vote with 30 minutes to spare!

This was the most exciting day of politics I have ever had and we left knowing that we had made a real difference. The largest ever change in NUS democracy had taken place and we (and therefore Birmingham) had helped it happen.

Three cheers for change!

E-voting, E-mazing!

Last Monday, I was a candidate in the NUS Delegate election. Check out my highly-sensible manifesto (pictured right).

It was a great day for two reasons.

Firstly, the hard work paid off and I got elected! You can view the results on the Guild wesbite and (smug alert!) I came top of the polls with forty-one first preference votes. Thank you to all who voted for me :D

Secondly, Monday was also great because I got to experience our new e-voting system as both a candidate and a voter. I can now give a personal view on our move from paper voting to electronic voting. And I found our new e-voting process very beneficial.

And here's why. E-voting made the election accessible to a lot more people than if it had been a paper vote. During the 9am-5pm voting time, I had the following students vote for me:-

• my Engineering mate who is on a placement year with a company.
• a girl who is studying in France on her year abroad.
• a Home Student who would normally have had to commute from Worcester.
• several Medics who have hospital placements all-day, every-day.
• a friend who is studying a PGC course, which again requires 9am-5pm studies.

I also know many lazy people who did not want to leave their warm living rooms in order to head to a ballot box in the freezing December weather. E-voting allowed them to vote from their homes, wrapped up in a duvet.

From looking at the figures, 462 students voted in this election and roughly only 100 voted on one of our e-ballot stations. So all in all, the benefits of e-voting are starting to become apparent.

Democracy is merely a click away!

The Road to Leicester

The NUS Extraordinary Conference is tomorrow and I was elected today as one of Birmingham's 17 delegates.

The White Paper is due to be discussed and whether it passes or not will decide the future of the NUS for many years to come.

I'll report back on tomorrow's proceedings in due course, however I'm just taking the time now to comment on how awesome the NUS Marketing for this reform has been. Pop culture has been utilised to convey what could be a dull politics-heavy campaign into a relatable, colourful and quirky triumph!

The posters are simple and familiar, using both the branding of a popular band (Status Quo, see a few blogs ago) and hit 90s films (see left). These iconic images are well-known and allow the campaign to be much more engaging and exciting than if we were given a dull, text-heavy alternative.

So nicely done, NUS! Choose change :D

Ugly Betty Supports the Writers' Strike!

In America, as I type, the writers for major studios are on strike (pictured right) because they are not receiving royalties for the shows and films that they write.

A novelist receives royalties for his novels, a musician receives royalties for his lyrics, so why shouldn't a screenwriter receive royalities for his scripts?

Many actors have supported the writers in their strike, which has led to some impressive campaign videos, such as this one featuring the cast of Ugly Betty:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BrCy5jxO3o

It made me realise that videos are such great campaign tools and something that we don't use enough of in the Guild. I'm therefore gonna start keeping my camcorder by my side wherever I go. Fade out...

The RA Election Results

Last night, I announced the results of the recent RA election. It was a very loud and passionate evening and served to thank last year's RAs for all of their hard work whilst wishing the best to the newly-elected newbies.

It was an exciting evening and I had to report some truly close election results, where ties and three-way ties led to both coin tosses and straw polls being used to decide outcomes.

New for this year, the results were interspersed with videos hosted by last year's RAs, with clips showing off some of their best events and achievements. It was sad to see so many of them move on but equally great to welcome in the new committees. They have a long year ahead of them but, as always, the Guild is there to train, support and advise the new teams in all that they do.

So congratulations RAs of 2007/08! You have a great year ahead of you and don't forget to write :D