Signing Over

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This morning we signed the relevant legal documents to dissolve the old Guild and form a new Guild, Limited by Guarantee with shiny new governance structures and a lean, coherent Constitution.

It was a historic - and slightly boring - moment.

I was half expecting fireworks or champagne but it was a short, simple, five-minute job.

Nevertheless, we were all happy to know that it was finally over: a new Guild has been formed!

The official creation of the Guild is tomorrow at midnight, smack bang in the middle of our leaving party. Maybe we'll get that champagne after all!

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Sabb N Wedding!

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Last Saturday, myself and Will Bastin (Vice-President of Sport) went to our mate Ben's wedding in the mighty Nottingham.

Will was an usher and I was a mess!

And it got me thinking. Being married is a lot like being in a Sabb team.

• There's always lots of bickering.
• You share a bank account (for stationery).
• You have to remain faithful to each other, even if you disagree with decisions.
• You're stick together (especially in Guild Council) in sickness and in health.
• Eventually you have kids (Elects) and have to teach them the ways of the world.

You also kind of get the feeling that you're married for life and I just know that after the 1st of August I'm still going to be e-mailing the Sabbs daily!

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Baroness Morgan

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Last Wednesday, I met my second Baroness in five days!

The Baroness this time was Baroness Morgan and she had asked the NUS to arrange for a group of students to meet with her at DIUS (Department for Innovation, University & Skills) in London to discuss reducing carbon emissions.

We basically sat down and talked to Baroness Morgan about the environmental initiatives that take place in the student movement. These included descriptions on Sound Impact, Carbon Academy and NUSSL's other upcoming schemes, such as the coca-cola-sponsored Equipment Efficiency Scheme.

The Baroness was very interested to hear about all of our best practise.

Unfortunately, the meeting was quite poorly-structured and nothing was decided by the end. It felt like more of a conversation than a meeting with clear action points for moving ahead.

But a conversation is better than talking to yourself. Hopefully, more meetings will follow with Baroness Morgan and the DIUS, meaning that students are leading the initiatives to prevent climate change.

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The Degree Congregation Dinner

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To mark the end of the many degree congregations, the University held their annual Degree Congregation Dinner in the Great Hall last Friday evening. And the University were kind enough to invite the Sabbatical Officers.

The evening was par excellence.

We arrived with our guests and were announced by the Master of Ceremonies as we entered on a red carpet. We were then greeted by the Vice-Chancellor and the Chancellor himself, Sir Dominic Cadbury.

After a Reception of champagne and exquisite canapes (see right), we were escorted to the Great Hall for a five course dinner, honorary speeches and much free wine & port.

The evening ended with entertainment from a Birmingham choir.

Parfait!

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Baroness Amos

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Last Friday, the University gave Baroness Valerie Amos an honorary doctorate for her work in development issues, human rights and equality.

Here is what the degree program said about her:-

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"Valerie Amos was Leader of the House of Lords until 2007. She has a particular interest in development issues, human rights and equality and was Tony Blair's special representative to the G8 on Africa and recently represented Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the European Union/African Union Summit in Lisbon. In 2003, she became the first black woman in a British Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development."

So we thought whilst she's in the neighbourhood, we might as well ask her to officially open the Amos Room here in the Guild! After all, it was named after her through a Guild Council motion two years ago.

Baroness Amos accepted our invitation and after receiving her doctorate she visited our Guild for the official opening and a tour. She thanked us kindly and in her speech mentioned that she was truly honoured. She also spoke about all the great work that we do ourselves in the Guild for our students and how she is very impressed by all the different ways we help people.

It was a true pleasure meeting Baroness Amos and I hope she visits again soon. We gave her a free Guild of Students mug so if you see her drinking out of it on the news then you know where it came from!

Now we just need to get Nelson Mandela to open the Mandela Room...

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Doctor Zephaniah, I Presume

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The highpoint of my week presiding over graduation ceremonies was definately Dr Benjamin Zephaniah's acceptance speech when receiving his honorary doctorate.

Dr Benjamin Zephaniah is a British Rastafarian writer and dub poet - a type of performance poetry spoken over reggae beats that originated in the 1970s. He is a well-known figure in contemporary English Literature and has said that his mission is to fight the dead image of poetry in academia and take it to all of the people, even those who don't read books.

The degree programme features the following description of Dr Benjamin Zephaniah:

"Benjamin Zephaniah's first poetry collection, Pen Rhythm, was published in 1980, followed by The Dread Affair: Collected Poems (1985) and Rasta Time in Palestine (1990). He has been Writer in Residence in Africa Arts Collective in Liverpool and Creative Artist in Residence at Cambridge University. His first collection of poetry for children, Talking Turkeys, went into emergency reprint after six weeks. He has also writeen novels for teenages, including Face (19990, described by the author as a story of 'facial discrimination.'"

I was particularly excited by Dr Zephaniah's speech because I have been reading and studying his work since I was in Year 7. His poetry always provided great analysis in English lessons ( especially during modules on racism in literature) and was even more enjoyable to watch.

And his speech last week contained that same energy and spontaniety that I have to come to expect from Dr Zephaniah. Here are the highlights of his speech:-

• after being introduced by Kate McKluskie as an anti-establishmentarian, angry, disruptive poet, Dr Zephaniah turned to the audience and gave an innocent, cheeky shrug.
• "I was asked to mention something positive about Birmngham. Here it is: Aston Villa."
• "I am a poet and would love to reach out and touch you all... but that would be illegal."
• "I was once told that normal people see... but poets observe."
• "I then started observing things everywhere I went. I stood outside a police station observing the people inside. And they stood inside observing me. And I thought... this place is full of poets!"
• "I was expelled from school when I was thirteen. Nowadays they call it being 'excluded' because it doesn't sound as bad."
• "My teacher told me that I was a born failure. I want you to think about that for a moment. I wasn't developing into a failure. I was a born failure. Can you imagine how that made me feel?"
• "Myself and my tutor at Cambridge were once rowing slowly down a river with sticks. Posh people call it punting. But you're actually just rowing slowly down a river with sticks."
• "I've rejected five honorary degrees before now. However, Birmingham means a lot to me. It was where I grew up and I am proud to except this one."
• Final words: "Mum, I know you worked hard when you came over here. You got qualified and became a nurse. Well, you may be a nurse... but now I am a doctor!"

Well-deserved, well-said, well done. Legend!

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Congratulations Graduates!

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Last week, over twenty degree congregations took place in the Great Hall of Aston Webb. Two of the seven Sabbs attended each ceremony as representatives of the Guild, which involves donning the Guild ceremonial robes and marching with the procession.

It also involves a heck of a lot of clapping.

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I sat in six ceremonies myself and thoroughly enjoyed each and every one of them. I was surprised how many people I knew, despite graduating myself over a year ago.

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The Medic graduation was memorable because it ended with the graduates standing and reciting the Medic Oath.

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However, the most memorable was the Drama graduation for two reasons: firstly because the Drama students are so loud and flamboyant that every single graduate was congratulated with a chorus of whoops and hollers. Secondly, my girlfriend graduated in this ceremony!

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This meant that I got to impress my in-laws by marching on stage with the rest of the processions. Bonus points!

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Overall, presiding over degree congregations gave me the same sense of pride that I felt back in December. You really feel attached to the students after a year in office, especially after sitting through plagiarism appeal hearings and listening to students' hardship.

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But when they finally get that degree and shake the Chancellor's hand, you see how happy, relieved and proud they are after years of hard work.

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Definately one of the perks of the job :)

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Nice Weather For A Jog

Last Wednesday was the University Well-Being Day, designed to care for the health of all of its employees. This meant the welcome return of the Farmers' Market and the Annual Corporate Relay.

Not wanting to be outdone by the University, the mighty Guild of Students entered the Mixed Corporate Relay. Our team consisted of:-

• Simon 'Fast Food' Fairbanks - VP Democracy & Resources.
  
• Will 'The Bullet' Bastin - VP Sport.
  
• Rich 'Wild West' Walker - VP Student Activities & Development Elect.
  
• Rachel Hares - a last minute addition from the Munrow Sports Centre.

And happy days, we came third!

After twenty-five minutes of running around campus in the rain, each of us ran a mile and we picked up the bronze medal! We were each rewarded with a pair of very short running shorts and the satisfaction of beating the University.

And our team name? We were called The Removal of Sabb Spread!

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Hydrogen Cars!

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Two Tuesdays ago, the Sabbs were invited to the University's Marketing & Communication Department's yearly shindig, which takes place in a marquee on campus complete with the usual chocolate fountain, buffet and free wine.

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The event was the launch of the University's new campaign called Original Thinking. This celebrates the innovation and research accomplishments of the University that have taken place over the past century. There is a huge sign of this at New Street Station and numerous black cabs have it tattooed on their side.

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But the most exciting part of this event was the University's innovation hydrogen cars! These were invented by students of the University a few years ago and will hopefully become mainstream in the next ten years.

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The cars, roughly the size of Smart Cars, are run on hydrogen and are therefore carbon neutral. They are also extremely silent. Therefore, they cut down on both environmental pollution and noise pollution!

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We were allowed rides in the cars around campus. See right for a picture of student Steve Streatfield in one of the cars!

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I was very impressed that the University are taking steps to save the planet.

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Original Thinking indeed!

I Passed My Driving Test!

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"Get off the road!" - Frodo Baggins, The Fellowship of the Ring.

This is completely unrelated to Guild life and student politics...

...but I finally passed my driving test! And only eleven minors!

The roads will never be the same again.

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The Students Have Left The Building

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The year officially ended for our students on Friday 20th June when results were announced and sad farewells were exchanged.

I had to accompany my housemate to get her results because she was physically shaking with nerves and it reminded me so much of the intensity of my own results day the year before!

The last day of the year - and particularly the last day of University ever! - is always an emotional whirlwind and there was much crying at Fab N Friday in the evening. It was particularly strange for me because I had already lived through my last ever week of University once already and my Exec 'bonus' year has now put me through another one.

But once again, I felt a bit numb to it all. Last year, I knew I had another year to go as an Exec Officer. Whereas this year, I finally feel ready to leave, as the Exec year has eased me out of mainstream University life.

So it was a strange day!

But even more strange will be July. The Guild is only open 9am-5pm, Selly Oak becomes a ghost town (see picture) and campus is practically deserted. The students have left the building!

Nevertheless, I'm still here in office until 1st August so I'll continue to blog. I seriously doubt anyone is reading anymore...

...but that's never stopped me before!

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The Circus Comes To Town!

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I embarked on my thirteenth Carnage on Wednesday 18th June!

Carnage, organised three times a year by our RAG Society Carnival, is a particular highlight to many students' time at University and brings students together for a night of fancy dress and excitement.

Carnage also remains the only bar crawl that welcomes all students, whereas the rest are usually confined to a Course or a Hall or a Society.

And most importantly, each Carnage raises between £8k-£10k for local Birmingham charities!

As an ex-Carnival Committee member (I was an Ent for a year and then Vice-President for a year) I chose the fancy dress theme for two years running. Nevertheless, I was mightily impressed by this year's theme: Carnival! Not only did it offer a wealth of opportunity but it was the name of the society itself!

Naturally, every interpretted it as a Circus theme and there was no shortage of clowns and mime artists on Broad Street! Myself and Will Bastin (VP Sport) are pictured above!

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The Grad Ball 2008!

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The Grad Ball was phenomenal this year!

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I even enjoyed it more than my own Grad Ball last year. Here are some of the reasons why:-

• the Hoosiers were quality.
• the Foundations were even better!
• the Silent Disco was an awesome new introduction and was rammed after midnight.
• the Fireworks were a second awesome new introduction.
• the usual free fairground was as great and free as ever.
• the casino was particularly hilarious with people looking serious as if they were playing with real money.
• the food was much better than last year.
• and the Exec were sat on the alcohol-laden VIP tables!

Most exciting for me, however, was the opportunity to write the speech in the menus. I hope my words resonated with people and they realised just how much they had done with their three years of University.

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Here is the speech:-

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"Tonight marks the end of your time here at the University of Birmingham and I sincerely hope that you enjoy the food, fireworks and fairground. We have excellent entertainment provided for you by the Hoosiers, not to mention the Grad Ball’s first ever silent disco. With only a few days left before the end of term, I know you will make the most of this evening!

I’m sure, like me, you look back on the past three years as an exciting and unique period of your life. Whether you joined a student group, represented your fellow students in Guild Council, volunteered in the local area, competed on the Sports field, worked as part of our Student-Staff team or even just drank at our bar – I hope you enjoyed your time at the Guild of Students as much as I have.

If this year’s Grad Ball is anything like mine last year, then tonight will be full of laughs, tears and sad farewells. I will certainly miss Birmingham but I have enough fond memories and Facebook photos to last me for a lifetime! And remember, it’s not goodbye. It’s just goodbye for now.

Good luck with your results and see you at graduation!

Simon Fairbanks

Vice-President (Democracy & Resources)"

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The Last Guild Council of the Year

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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!

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The Newquay Hitch 2008

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The roller-coaster of activity in the final weeks of Semester Three continues!

At 4am on Wednesday the 11th June I was waking up and dressing as a hula girl for my eleventh Carnival hitch-hike! And it was as good as ever!

I did the following things:-

• My hitch three-some arrived fourth after getting lifts from several people.
• I hired a wetsuit & surf board and rode some phat waves.
• Myself and Rich Walker (VPSAD Elect) buried our friend Jinesh Lal (see right).
• We watched The Apprentice Final and cheered when Lee McQueen won!
• We had a BBQ on the beach.
• We played crazy golf and I came second.
• We drank quite a bit.
• I ate an ice-cream.

Another classic hitch-hike and it's always nice to have three days away from the Guild :)

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Vale Festival 2008

One of the highlights of the year took place on Tuesday 10th June --> Vale Festival!

Now in it's fourth year, Vale Festival has always taken place to bring students together through their passion for good music, the environmental and sustaining the earth. Vale Festival remains true to the mentality of reduce, re-use and recycle.

This year was no exception and the theme was orientated around providing clean drinking water for under-developed countries. The total amount of money raised therefore was split three ways between Water Aid, Pump Aid and Play Pumps International.

The average person in Africa uses just 5 litres of water a day. Yet look at how we waste even larger amounts of water:-

10 litres - used with every toilet flush.
19 litres - wasted every minute a tap is left running.
50 litres - used in a single dishwasher cycle.
90 litres - wasted by a dripping tap in a week.
95 litres - used in a single washing machine cycle.

Pretty shocking statistics!

Anyway, Vale Festival was as great as ever, with a wide variety of activites and music styles. The capoeira was particularly impressive but the Jungle Jam tent remains my firm favourite.

The Sabbs felt we should do something for Vale Festival this year, so we hired some big squashy bean bags and brought along Molly the Mermaid (made from chicken wire and re-used plastic bags)!

Overall verdict: H2-O yeah!
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Molly the Mermaid

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Myself and Lizzy (and my girlfriend Laura Clark) came into work on Sunday 8th June to create a Mermaid made out of chicken wire and used plastic bags!

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This was to be the centre piece of our stall at Vale Festival. We thought making a structure from old plastic bags fitted in perfectly with the Festival's history for encouraging a more environmentally-friendly, recycling and sustainable world.

We named our Mermaid Molly.

The day ended with the FOCSOC BBQ on the Underground Lawn and we ate burgers & partied on an inflatable disco bouncy castle.

Being a Sabb is great!

Pritchattsbury 2008!

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I only blogged twice last month so I've got some catching-up to do!

Let's nip back in time to Saturday 7th June... Pritchattsbury!

I'm ashamed to say that this was my first ever experience of Pritchattsbury and I had such a good time that I can't believe I had not been before.

These are some things that I did:-

• had my face-painted at the Oxfam tent.
• played with Circus Society's juggling balls.
• played with Circus Society's poy.
• congratulated Pritchatt's Park President, Frank Wilcox, on organising a great festival (see right)!
• bought three bottles of beer for £5.
• ate a burger.
• didn't see a single band all day!

All in all, it was a very impressive day and I will definately be there next year.