WMANUS January 2009

Despite it being February, for those of you who I haven’t seen HAPPY NEW YEAR and I hope you all had a very merry Christmas?

I am not sure if you have heard of an organisation called Brook? Brook is a sexual health charity; they offer free and confidential advice to young people (anyone under the age of 25) across the UK. Penny Barber, Brook in Birmingham’s Chief Executive and former Finance Manger at Aston Students Union, emailed me before the Christmas break, inviting me down to the Birmingham centre to have a chat about sexual health in FE. On the 6th January I braved the snow, ice and blizzards to visit Brook - I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I arrived, Penny gave me a grand tour of the centre; it’s a fantastic space with private consultation rooms, counselling services and space to run training session for both staff and the public.
Brook is partly funded by the NHS and Primary Care Trust, who have both coughed funds to run awareness days in Further Education Colleges across the West Midlands. What a great opportunity for WMAUNS Colleges! As we are all aware colleges are not as well resourced and staffed as Higher Education unions. So Brook offering a FREE, relevant, and engaging campaign for FE Colleges – what a treat! http://www.brook.org.uk/
Following my visit to Brook I have met with Newcastle-Under-Lyme and Walsall Colleges; firstly to brief them, and then help them plan there campaigns. Newcastle-Under-Lyme and Walsall Colleges, we will be trailing Sexual Health Awareness Campaigns at these two colleges, once the events have been evaluated I will be working with other FE members to run Sexual Health Awareness Campaigns.
Here are the dates of Newcastle-Under-Lyme and Walsall Colleges Sexual Health Awareness Days:

Newcastle-Under-Lyme College Thursday 12th February
Walsall College (St. Pauls Campus)Monday 09th February
Walsall College (Shelly Campus)Tuesday 10th February

The officers at both colleges have planned some fun and also political activities for there campaign days, including a Blind Date skit with Chlamydia Cilla introducing Harry Herpes and Sarah Syphilis, a condom tossing competition (excuse the pun) and a petition to lobby there corporations, primary care trusts and local MP’s for improved sexual health provisions in there colleges and local communities. I will fully review of the events in my February blog.

Every month I meet with the wonderful and infamous Emily Cannon. January’s meeting however was very different to any we have had previously – before the Christmas break I was often finding myself stretched, not enough time and with there only being one of me I couldn’t be in two places at once. At this meeting we discussed everything – from what WMANUS’ priorities should be, how I can better use my Exec to how NUS can assist WMANUS more effectively. WMANUS is committed to its members and are evaluating its democratic and operational structures allowing me to plan for the future and for WMANUS to have maximum impact on members. Presently I am action planning the next 6 WMANUS months.
The first WMANUS Executive meeting of 2009 is going to be held on the 16th February at Birmingham Guild of Students –if there is anything you feel the WMANUS Exec needs to address? If you would like a copy of the minutes, or a copy of WMANUS plans? Then please drop me an email: wmanus@hotmail.co.uk. (It may take me up to 7 days to respond to a request).

The week beginning the 12th January saw me all over the place, Newcastle-under-Lyme College for there Refreshers Fair, Staffordshire for Broke & Broken photo shoots and Coventry for the first NUS Higher Education Conference.
Staffordshire University Students’ Union are running a fantastic campaign around the Broke & Broken report. They have began there own photograph lobbying project, where they photograph students holding up a board with there debt – 42 students, 2 hours of speaking with students resulting in £800,000 of debt! Nearly every student I spoke to was disgusted with the amount of debt they were in, many stated that they would reconsider going into Higher Education if they had the opportunity again. Staffordshire Students’ Union have photographed 140 students and the total debt so far is a staggering £2.8 million pounds! It is only the beginning of the Higher Education Funding Review and you need to make sure your students are aware what will be happening in 2009 and 2010... I will be contacting all members to discuss your Broke & Broken action so far and what you are planning for the future very soon.

The NUS Higher Education Conference, 15th- was the best attended conference outside regional and national conferences. It was fantastic to see so many delegates from the West Midlands. Aaron Porter hosted some fantastic debate and the work shops were relevant and interesting. Among the workshops I attended were ‘How to better engage International Students’ and ‘Postgraduate Students’ – both these session really opened my eyes and are areas I would like to see WMANUS working on in the future. Engaging both International and Postgraduate students in student union activity is something all students union struggle to do, but this does not mean they are any less important than the 18-21 full time tradational student. The documents from the conference are available on http://www.officeronline.org.uk/.

Newcastle-Under-Lyme College held a Refreshers Fair on the 13th January – due to WMANUS being in high demand in September we were unable to attend there fresher’s fair. The officer team asked me to run a Citizen16 stall; the students union will be running a campaign day later on in 2009. The fair had a mixture of external and internal services available to the students – including a on the spot Chlamydia testing service and the TA. A number of officers at the college had never ran a stall or spoken 1-2-1 with students. Kristy, the Communications Officer transformed in just 3 hours from standing on the margins to recruiting students to the stall and informing them about the campaign and the students union. Citizen16 was a massive hit with the students at the college and I will be contacting Beth Walker during February for a full update on the campaign and what’s happening next.

Tuesday 20th January will go down in NUS history as one of its greatest moments, despite a few unexpected upsets on the day. Extraordinary Conference 2nd was held in Wolverhampton. The Governance Review passed by a staggering 83% and the first Extraordinary Conference – was it going to be so simple the second time? I was in two minds about the second conference being called, should it be fully debated at annual conference in April? Or should we get it all over and done with, after all it’s been a long road since April 2006 when the motion was carried to reform our national union and it is most defiantly the right time for change. As always the debate was rife – the Black Students and LGBT Campaign made some good points to vote against reform, but conference floor was having none of it. Throughout the debate there was another constant theme – the current unrest in Gaza. When it came to the count over 20 students stormed the stage and proceeded to demonstrate there frustrations, as NUS has failed to give a definitive stance on the unrest in Gaza. As a result, the conference became totally inaccessible, Adam Hyland, NUS Disabled Students Officer, was stuck in the middle of the demonstration – his exit to the lift was blocked. A number of Jewish students also fled the hall in fear. The current unrest in Gaza is a very real and important issue – I sympathise and fully take on board the actions of those who stormed the stage, but I fell it was the wrong time; the conference was to reform NUS and make it accessible, engaging and relevant to all. The actions of a handful of students turned the conference into a inaccessible environment where delegates felt threatened and unable to engage. Wes Streeting and the rest of NEC and NUS staff handled the situation fantastically and the review passed by 95%. The future for NUS is looking bright and it will be fantastic to see NUS back to what it does best – campaigning, engaging and representing students!

Midlands and East Regional Conference was hosted by the University of Derby Students Union on Wednesday 28th February. The conference was poorly attended, but had more delegates than the London Conference who only had seven delegates. There were delegates from Derby, Lincoln and UEA and from the West Midlands Staffordshire, Birmingham City and Newman. Aaron Porter gave a update on Broke and Broken – the report has been well received and for the first time a representative from the national union will be able sitting on the Government Higher Education Review Board, a massive success in itself. There is some great news – a National Lobby on March 18th 2009! I will be contacting Presidents to arrange appointment making with your MP’s and how to register for the event. I am also looking to arrange transport in collaboration with unions across the west midlands. The HE Funding Campaign Strategy will be implementing some important upcoming action in 2009:

- Launch of principles which underpin the NUS alternative
- Publishing of the NUS alternative funding model
- NUS fringing all major Party Political Conferences
- Town Hall Debates (involving local press, schools & colleges, lobbying of MP’s and councillors etc)

In addition you still need to be visible on your campuses and continue to lobby your MP’s! They were moaning there mail bags were empty, lets fill there mail bags up!
Susan Nash, NEC Block of 12, delivered a fantastic presentation covering Elections – local and European. A number of delegates were unaware of the impact students can have on elections, one hall of residents could sway a vote away from far right parties… NUS has produced a Elections Pack 2008/2009 http://stage.officeronline.co.uk/strongandactive/articles/275922.aspx you’ll find everything from standing in the elections yourself to monitoring student electoral registration at your union.
The Report & Plan session and feedback from Sarah Burton, from Castle College Nottingham, one of the Midlands and East National Council Observers and Rowena Boddington, from UEA, of our NEC Observers, was a very informative session. I asked the NEC a number of questions on your behalf – at Annual Conference 2008 a motion passed for NUS to create a new website, which is more affective and accessible for officers and students, to be launched in February 2009. Rowena stated that the website development is considerably behind schedule, and will not be launched until June 2009. The NEC were aware of the delays in October/November, yet still have not informed the membership. I asked Dave Lewis, NEC Treasure, the following question:
“The website has been behind schedule for a number of months – why hasn’t this been communicated to your membership? And what financial impact does the delay have on members?”
Dave apologised for NUS letting students down and not meeting the agreed launch date, “this has put the national union to shame”. He also stated concerns over no cultural change and that more training is required. The main implications of such a delay are reputational damage, inaccessible resources and a national effect on members. Dave stated NUS will be making an announcement to members with the new launch date.
A delegate from Derby University Students Union asked a question, in response to the protest which occurred at Extraordinary Conference 2:
‘Why are Gaza liberationists seen as anti-Semitic by members of the NEC? And why has NUS not made a definite stance on the situation in Gaza’?
Richard ‘Bubble’ Budden, NEC National Secretary, gave a brilliant response: the NEC voted in support of a motion to end all conflict and violence in Gaza and call for a cease fire. The NEC is not going to support a motion which causes unrest on campuses – preventing integration and multi-faithism. NUS does not want students to feel its national union is against them.

Well there we are, another month in the life of the WMANUS Convenor. Next months blog will also contain mini reports from Exec members so you can get a full picture of WMANUS outcomes! If you have any questions or would like to discuss anything in this blog then please, please contact me wmanus@hotmail.co.uk / 07837-059-588.

Sophie Kettell
WMANUS Convenor 08-09