Handing over and finishing my degree.

I have to admit, I haven’t made a huge amount of impact or dramatic speeches in the last month. I’ve just been preparing to hand over to the lovely new SSO when mid-June comes around. This year (or half year) I’ve been making sure all the notes and paperwork have been kept organised. All my Guild Council notes are in a folder ready to hand over for thrilling perusing and the epic SSO Black and Red notebook will also be bestowed upon Adam for his information, along with a large explanation for what is incomplete work (for good reason) and what is potential to be developed. I’m quite looking forward to our eventual handover meeting so I can talk about what I’ve done and hopefully realise that actually I’ve made a big change. I believe I have.

Having finished my dissertation in four days (I do not recommend this… well, if I get a good mark, I do), I relocated to Stratford-upon-Avon to work for the RSC for a bit of work experience (go me!) and many people will know that this is the lovely location of the Shakespeare Institute. I talk about it enough, if any reader of this here blog doesn’t know that then I do sympathise with your memory trouble. In one of my breaks, I shot off to Starbucks (other coffee and beverage shops are available – I’ve heard Costa are alright, too) for a boost of energy and I was spotted by John, the treasurer of the Institute Players. Not only did he recognise me but he remembered that I mentioned I’d be here for a while, too. We had a good catch up and went on with our lives. So, what I’m getting it is that it’s a lovely thing when an Officer does their job. The easiest way to see if that’s the case is to pick some students out and see if they recognise their Officers. At that test, I won! Good times. …this test does not apply to all officers, that would just be silly and would undermine the behind-closed-doors work that most of them do.

I intend to write a summary-of-the-year type post at some point when I get back to Birmingham and have my beloved SSO notebook again. You should look forward to that. It’s really edge-of-seat stuff!

And congrats to Owen for winning the tea and biscuit I promised for anyone who actually reads my blog. As he was the only one who mentioned anything to me, I can justifiably say anything on here as no one would read it. Huzzah!

Peace out, beautiful people… person.

—

Vici Royle
Satellite Sites Officer
email: v.royle@guild.bham.ac.uk
twitter: @GuildSSO

Article source: http://officerblogs.com/sso/?p=111

Hi all,

So with only eight weeks left in my term of office I thought I would share with you the projects I am working on between now and then. If anyone has any questions about it then please don’t hesitate to contact me via the usual channels.

NUS Digital

Following my last discussions with student groups about this (and previous blog) we have conducted some more testing and I’m hoping we will have a test site up and running very soon so everyone is able to see some of the features it has to offer. If not, then it won’t be long until Manchester, one of the fellow development partners, will have their site up and running and I will make sure everyone is aware of this. Currently the different admin levels are being developed by NUS Digital which will allow student group committee members more flexibility and control over their groups online content and it will be fully integrated with facebook widgets to allow cohesion with other sites. More info to follow

Media Groups

I am continuing some of the work I’ve been doing with our media groups. This includes working with Redbrick to enhance their levels of media law training so everyone is better equipped to spot potential legal issues and hopefully avoid as many as possible in the future. I am also working with them to look at deadlines for ‘right of replies’ and agreeing firm boundaries as to the role the Guild within Redbrick to improve communication between both groups. I will also be working very closely with the other media groups to create personal development plans to begin improved support for them and to enhance their development at a much quicker rate. I firmly believe that the potential of our student media is not being realised and that the Guild and University have a key role to play in getting more messages out to the student body via these groups and developing their members to help with future media career aspirations and making their time in our media groups as rewarding as possible.

Other Student Group Support
I’ve also got a number of student group committee meetings coming up where we’ll be discussing this term’s rolling grant forms in advance of the annual grant forms which need to be handed in soon. Any groups who are not sure about this then please check your student group email – I’ve seen some groups filling theirs out already so make sure you get yours in too! There are also a large number of student group proposal forms which the committee will be discussing as well. There are also various projects and queries I’m working on with Carnival, Tea Soc,the PGMSA and Students for Justice for Palestine to name a few.

Job Agency/Job Zone
I’ve been working closely with staff in the Guild on the new Job Agency that will be implemented this summer. There are a number of logistics that need to be resolved but it’s all looking really positive and should mean that we have a bespoke space within the Guild that students can go to in the hunt for part time work. I will also be working with the Job Zone on promoting the summer jobs fair and recruiting for a new member of staff to be the Job Zone co-ordinator.

Employability – Careers Centre
Following on from this, I have been working with the Careers Centre to see how we can further develop students that are involved in the Guild. A big thank you to all those student group members who filled in the employability questionnaire that I sent you at the penultimate student group forum and miniforums. They were very useful and appreciated by all. There will be some exciting things happening next year as well in relation to the PSA and for the first time ever there will be a pilot of a PG PSA award for PGT students – so watch this space!

Fresher’s Fest
I will be contacting many groups in the next few weeks about society involvement in Welcome Week and on Fresher’s Fest. We are also looking for some acts to perform in chill out if all goes to plan so it’s important for student group members to keep an eye on their email over the next few days. There is nothing concrete at the moment but we will be formulating it over the coming weeks.

Community Day
Community Day is on Sunday 10th June and it’s shaping up to be a brilliant day – we’ve got loads of student groups doing performances, workshops, a showcase of our archiving project, olympic themed crafting, games on the lawn as well as face painting and hopefully a bouncy castle! This is coupled with all the exciting events that will be going on at the University as thousands of members of the local community will come along to see what Birmingham Uni has to offer. We’re looking for volunteers to help out on the day so if you’re interested then please let me know.

Training
There will also be a final round of miniforums scheduled for after exams. These will take the form of peer led training sessions to allow student groups the best handover possible – sharing best practice, meeting other new committees and doing some role specific work. I will also be looking at the add on sessions that can be provided for next year.

Handover
I will also be formulating my handover folder for Ollie Cosentino, who will be your Vice President (Activities and Development) for next year. He’s going to do a fantastic job and I really look forward to working with him over the coming months.

That’s it for now – best of luck for the remainder of exams if you have them.

All the best,
Fliss

Article source: http://officerblogs.com/vpad/?p=150

Bonjour/Buenas Dias/Guten tag.

Welcome to my official blog, where I share my thoughts and updates in order to keep you, my constituents informed about the work I do, on your behalf. Recently I was lucky enough to attend the NUS Annual Conference, in place of a delegate who could not attend. ‘Conference’ as it shall now be referred to happens every year and all NUS affiliated student’s unions are entitled to send delegates to represent their students. As one of the larger unions in the country we have 8 places allocated to us. Conference votes on policy, sets the strategic direction of NUS for the upcoming year and elects a new National Executive Council, which includes the President, Vice Presidents and ‘Block of 15′ which is akin to our Non-Sabbatical Officers.

In the spirit of transparency and accountability that I have championed amongst Guild Councillors this year, of which many have taken up the mantle to great effect, I shall be publishing my voting record for you to delight in and share my thoughts about the Conference experience as a whole. If at any time you require clarification about what I have said please don’t hesitate to contact me through the usual methods.

*Update to come soon, the weekend got in the way!*

 

Article source: http://officerblogs.com/vpdr/?p=99

Log in
Copyright © 2012 Zuki Majuqwana (VPHC). All Rights Reserved.

Article source: http://students.guild.bham.ac.uk/blogs/vphc/?p=175

“It’s a disgrace.”

“An instance of Zuki undermining the officer team”

“They are supposed to be colleagues, and publicly undermining him like that looks unprofessional.”

“[This] is really petty and hypocritical.”

“It’s all shit, it’s all superficial democracy”

“You asked a question whether (sic) ‘Are you all suggesting that Zuki would wear a t shirt just to spite Ed?’ It is my opinion that yes he was.”

Source: Better Guild Forum (Facebook)

 

Students of the University of Birmingham, I’m truly sorry that I’ve made some of you feel this way about me after wearing a ‘Mercer for Welfare’ T-shirt while I made a speech at NUS National Conference about Post-Graduate Council Tax Exemption.

After being elected with 34% of all votes cast in the 11-candidate NUS Delegate Election in the first round and with double the number of votes of the second-place candidate I went into conference fairly confident in my mandate to vote, speak, and act on behalf of University of Birmingham students. It would appear that this confidence was misguided and that I’ve inadvertantly upset a lot of people and for that I can only apologise. However, I also feel that there is a lack of context and some of the aforementioned strong words are undue and, to be perfectly honest, downright disrespectful. I take no qualms with being held to account, don’t get me wrong. In fact most of the time I enjoy it provided it is constructive and there are genuine lessons to be learned. But when I have Guild Councillors; constituents; students making arrogant attacks on my professionalism and drawing impertinent conclusions about my character without giving me ANY opportunity to have my case heard beforehand then I cannot help but feel just a liddy bit annoyed.

Now I’m going to clarify some things and answer some questions that have raised on the Better Guild Forum over the past two days. As I type this it has been less than 1hr since I stepped off the coach back from #nusnc12 and this is the first chance I have had to respond:

 

“Who is Pete Mercer?” and why the **** did you support him?

Pete Mercer is the incumbent and now re-elected (woo!) Vice-President (Welfare) of the National Union of Students. He assisted in training me at a number of NUS events and I have gone to him for advice on a number of Housing Community issues. He has placed the NUS Housing Community agenda at the forefront of his work this year and has worked tirelessly against the threats of the Article 4 Directions and Localism agenda which could affect student communities across the country, including ours.

 

Why did you not support Edd Bauer, fellow Sabbatical Officer at the Guild NUS VPW candidate?

In the build up to conference I did a fair bit of manifesto reading particularly for the Welfare candidates and, while I support a lot of what Edd mentioned in his manifesto and agree that cuts to the NHS can only be a bad thing (although admittedly my understanding of the reforms is fairly limited), I simply felt and feel that Pete’s manifesto was stronger and more relevant to the needs of students. Edd did not mention housing once in his online manifesto and this was a crucial determinant of my support, for obvious reasons. I spoke to Edd about this last week after speaking to Pete about joining his campaign team and Edd expressed no concerns provided I did not come out and publicly attack him and even asked me to leave his office and cut the conversation short so that he could continue some other work. I made a conscious effort to avoid damaging our relationship. To me, this made it clear that Edd himself took no issue with my intentions and therefore I didn’t foresee this to become an issue.

 

But I’ve never even heard of Pete Mercer. ipso facto he is awful and you should support Edd instead.

Well, this is a bit silly. 99% of students have never heard of any of the Guild Officers or what they do, let alone NUS Officers. That’s why we send delegates, that’s why I’ve been doing my research on behalf of students, and that’s why I stood for election – because as an Officer I have more first-hand experience of the work NUS Officers do than the lay student. Having said that, I accept any criticism that I should have made more of an effort to consult and educate students and take a steer from them. Unfortunately, time has not been on my side.

 

Pete has done nothing to fight against the cuts to the NHS and Edd promised he would, ipso facto he is awful and you should support Edd instead.

NUS works on policy set at National Conference. There has been no policy set mandating Pete to bat away the NHS cuts and this year, once again, no policy on the issue which, considering the sheer volume and breadth of other policy that was passed, suggests that this really isn’t a priority for students. Pete has limited time on his hands and has to prioritise spending it on the battles that students want to win most. I think I speak for most students (especially considering Pete was re-elected) when I say that I would rather he spent his time meeting his mandates rather than plucking his own priorities from the ether and failing to do what we, his constituents, asked him to do.

 

“[The] majority of UoB students don’t [know] any of the policies of any of the candidates, so supporting one of our own Student Union VPs seems like the obvious decision.”

I’m not going to respond to this directly because I think it’s a really rather silly but will propose a counter question. If I ran to be NUS President myself and proposed in my manifesto to fight to entirely remove the cap on tuition fees, create a privatised market in higher education, remove the student loans system and shut down the University of Birmingham within 6 months then should the UoB delegates really be voting for me, just because I’m from the same Union? Exactly.

 

Of all the candidates for all the elections, why did you have to choose someone running against Edd Bauer?

The NUS VPW covers all elements of NUS Housing Community policy. I am the Vice-President (Housing Community) of the Guild and therefore I have a real vested interest in this area and wanted the best candidate with the strongest Housing Community agenda to win. That candidate was Pete. I also campaigned for Liam Burns for NUS President.

 

You weren’t elected to join any campaign teams or support any candidates, so why did you?

See above. I also have first hand experience of working with various candidates and have an opportunity to scrutinise and develop an in-depth knowledge of their agendas. I want the best for UoB students and through actively supporting those candidates who I deem to be the best then I’m simply going that one step further to ensure that they win. Voting for a candidate and educating fellow delegates on why I am voting for that candidate are really not worlds apart…

 

Even if you were supporting Pete, you did not have to go on a public platform in front of all of the Conference which was being streamed live wearing one of his T-shirts.

You are right, I did not and I briefly considered taking it off. But why? I was supporting Pete, I wanted him to win and many other delegates had made speeches in campaign T-shirts. I was going up to speak on an issue in the Welfare Zone of NUS about postgraduate council tax exemption and I was confident this would be something that would get a lot of support from the floor. I therefore wanted conference to know that I, a delegate proposing policy on an important Welfare Zone topic was supporting Pete. Also when I spoke to Edd he said he was fine with me supporting Pete provided I did not attack him publicly so I felt that considering this Edd would not feel undermined as I was not attacking him. Of course if I was wrong and he did feel undermined I wholeheartedly apologise.

 

Why did you not make your reasoning for supporting Pete public before Conference to avoid all this hoo-ha?

I will admit that this would have been a good idea and had I not been heavily preoccupied with the dozens of other things I am currently working on I would have done. However, the reason I did not prioritise this was because I did not want to draw undue attention to the fact that I was supporting Edd’s rival for fear of embarrassing him. I did not expect there to be such upset as I presumed, perhaps naïvely, that as I was elected on a mandate as a delegate I was trusted to vote, speak, and act as I deemed appropriate and if I started shouting about the fact I was backing Edd’s opposition then this may have highlighted the issue unnecessarily. Moreover, as I had already spoken to Edd personally and he had said he was fine with the move then I honestly did not anticipate the uproar. Having said all this, in hindsight I accept that I should have made more of an effort to pre-emptively address this issue and apologise for this failing.

 

Before I shut up, I would like to draw some attention back to the reason I was stood on stage in the first place. At NUS Conference I spoke in favour of Amendment 602b which mandated the NUS to campaign nationally and support student union campaigns locally for postgraduate (research) students in their write-up phase to be granted exemption from Council Tax, like every other student in the country. This problem stems from a truly terrible definition of what a ‘student’ is for council tax purposes and has increased the cost of studying for PGR students across the country at a time when financial barriers to higher education and PG study more specifically are preventing more and more students from being able to develop themselves academically. This amendment passed unanimously with just 2 abstentions.

 

So there, that’s that. I do hope that clarifies my position to some degree. If you have read this and still feel I acted inappropriately as an Officer then I am going to politely ask that you call for me to be censured at the next Guild Council. Otherwise, I’m going to ask that the people who made the comments quoted at the start of this blog give me a public written apology. Why? Because the fundamental principles of democracy and justice entitle me to have my voice heard before being smeared as a disgraceful hypocrite. This may be news to some of you, but Sabbs are people too

Anyway, good night comrades!

 

 

Interesting Fact of the Week: The newly elected NUS Full-Time Officers are:

President – Liam Burns
Vice-President (Union Development) – Vicki Baars
Vice-President (Higher Education) – Rachel Wenstone
Vice-President (Further Education) – Toni Pearce
Vice-President (Welfare) – Pete Mercer
Vice-President (Society Citizenship) – Dannie Grufferty

My full voting record will be published in due course!

Article source: http://students.guild.bham.ac.uk/blogs/vphc/?p=163

So i thought i would keep these seperate to the Motions.

 

Elections

 

Presidential Candidates in order I voted

 

1. Usman Ali

2. Liam Burns

3. Ed Marsh#

4. Kanja Sesay

I did not allocate a number to Re-open Nominations

 

 

Round 1

 

Usman 149

Liam 302

Ed 133

Kanja 120

RON 6

 

Round 2

 

Usman 149

Liam 303

Ed 146

Kanja 121

 

Round 3

 

Usman 183

Liam 335

Ed 186

 

Round 4

 

Liam 387

Ed 295

 

Liam Burns was duly elected as the President of NUS

 

 

Union Development Candidates in order I voted

 

1. Rebbecca Bridger

2. Tom Holloick

3. Luke young

4. Vicki Baars

5. Christina Yan Zhang

I did not allocate a number to Re-open Nominations

 

Round 1

Vicki 225

Luke 171

Rebbecca 180

Tomb 110

Christina 53

RON 0

 

Round 2

 

Vicki 246

Luke 181

Rebbecca 192

Tom 115

 

Round 3

 

Vicki 291

Rebbecca 237

Luke 196

 

Round 4

Vicki 385

Rebbecca 325

 

Vicki Baars was elected as the Vice President of Union Development

 

Higher Education candidates in order I voted.

 

1. Rachel Wenstone

2. Michael Chessum

3. Sophie Richardson

I did not allocate a number to Re-Open Nominations

 

 

Micheal – 134

Rachel – 202

Sophie – 168

RON – 4

 

Rachel – 257

Sophie – ???

 

Rachel won and was elected Vice President of Higher Education

 

 

 

 

Society and Citizenship candidates in order I voted them.

 

1. Dannie Grufferty

2. Jamie woodcock

I did not allocate a number to Re-open nominations

 

Danny – 374

Jamie –  191

Ron –  68

 

Danny was elected the Vice President Society and Citizenship

 

 

Welfare Candidates in the order I voted them.

 

1. Pete Mercer

2. Edd Bauer

3. Sean Rillo-Raczka

I did not allocate a number to re-open nominations

 

 

Pete – 388

Ed – 78

Shawn – 145

RON – 25

 

Pete was elected the vice president Welfare.

Article source: http://students.guild.bham.ac.uk/blogs/vpw/?p=155

Hello all,

so cause im trying to be accountable and all i am publishing my votes. I am sat here typing it down as i go. i only decided to type it as i went along halfway through today, so currently the below is not all of today but i will update it when i get a chance to.

This is now up to date with everything so far.

This is my voting record for the motions that went through council. Enjoy

Occasionaly there is some little notes about my thoughts or what has been said but mostly this is just a simple how i have voted on each motion and the amendments and the procedual motions.

Link to the motions here (it can take some time to load but it does load)

http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/pageassets/conference/about/info/NUSC_NC2012_final_proposals.pdf

you can also watch it live link here

http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/conference/

If you would like more info on how i voted or why please feel free to ask me.

Email me on vpw@guild.bham.ac.uk

please note i will not respond to this question until i return from conference as there is barely enough time to upload this and i think it is important to pay attention to what is going on at conference.

 

So the info you want.

 

 

 

 

 

WELCOME TO NUS NATIONAL CONFERENCE 2012

Some lovely opening and welcoming speeches

 

New Members and Constitutional Ratification

 

Vote to accept new member unions

 

Voted: For and members accepted

 

Vote on the minuets from last conference

 

Voted: Abstention

 

101 – Constitutional Ratification

 

Voted: for and motion passed

 

 

Union Development Zone

 

Vice President Union Development present Union Development Zone report and answered questions.

Voted: to accept the report and this passed.

 

Union Development Policy Recommendations

 

501- Don’t just widen participation – deepen participation

 

Amendment 501A,

Procedural motion to take in parts and remove resolves 1 and 2. Voted: abstention and amendment passed.

Vote on amendment: for and amendment passed.

Vote on motion: for and motion passed.

 

 

502 – Students’ Union Development; More important now than ever

 

Amendment 502A, Voted: abstained and amendment fell

Vote on motion as proposed: for and motion passed

 

 

503 – NUS; Developing students as well as unions

 

Amendment 503A, Voted: for and amendment passed

Amendment 503B, Voted: for and amendment passed

Vote on amended motion: for and motion passed

 

 

 

 

504 – Building a generation ready to say ‘I am the change!’

 

Amendment 504A, Voted: for and amendment passed

Amendment 504B, Voted: for and amendment passed

Vote on motion in amended form: for and motion passed

 

Union Development Ordinary Motions

 

505 – NUS is not the National Union of sabbatical Officers but there should be one!

 

Reading and speech for made sense but speech against raised decent problems about how it wouldn’t be able to sustain its self even if all sabbatical officers joined it and other issues such as no expertise and conflict of interests.

Summation speech about it said it is an investigation into this and getting unions to understand sabbatical issues and bits.

Motion clearly says to initiate creation of a body.

Voted: against and the motion fell.

 

506 – Supporting small and specialist Unions

 

Amendment 506A,

Speech for and against both sensible

Procedural Motion to take this in parts,

Conference Resolves 1 but didn’t get enough cards shown to hear this procedural Motion.

Vote on amendment: abstention as didn’t feel best placed to decide on policy for small institutions, amendment passed.

Vote on Motion: for and motion passed.

507 – Democratic students unions

 

Amendment 507A, voted: for and amendment passed

Fringe break, went to find the hotel and get rid of my bag and also got some food as was hungry and needed a drink, so unfortunately got back late.

Missed the Below:

Amendment 507B, passed

Amendment 507C, fell

Motion passed

508 – prioritise FE student union

Motion passed

This is where I was back and had caught up with what was going on.

 

509 – New Income, financial management, RAG

 

Procedural motion – parts on resolves 1 and 2 to be removed

Voted: for this and this passed so parts removed

Procedural motion – parts on removing resolves 4

Voted: abstention as didn’t feel had appropriate knowledge. This passed so parts removed.

Vote on Motion: abstention and the motion fell.

510 – Right to protest on campus

 

Voted: for and motion passed

Time for zone had lapsed.

Procedural motion to increase time for this zone, Voted: against and motion feel.

 

Procedural motions to defer rest of the motions to NEC for approval or not. Voted: for and this passed.

 

511 – Membership data

512 – FE students affiliation

513 – Global union development

514 – 433,000 students

515 – Transnational education

Moving onto the FE and HE Education Zone

 

Vice President for Further Education to deliver Further Educations committees report and answered questions.

 

Voted: to accept the FE zone report this passed.

 

Vice President for the Higher Education delivers the Higher Education Committees report and answer questions.

Talked about charters on technology in HE, Academic support, worked with liberation officers on inclusive curriculum and widening participation. Mentioned in passing bursaries not fee waivers. Put together a new aim higher type group called national education xxxxxxx (slide changed before I got chance to type it) network.

Voted: to accept the HE zone report

Education Zone Policy Recommendations

 

201 – Keeping colleges in check

 

Voted: for motion and it passed.

301 – Postgraduate funding and support

 

About 20% of students are postgrads do NUS and the government spend 20% of their time on postgrads. No but they should rather than postgrads being an after thought

 

Amendment 301A, Voted: for and amendment passed

Amendment 301B, Voted: for and amendment passed

Amendment 301C, Voted: for and amendment passed

Amendment 301D, Voted: for and amendment passed

Amendment 301E,

Procedural Motion to remove resolves 3 from the amendment: voted yes and this procedural motion passed, resolves 3 was removed from this amendment.

Vote on amendment as amended: for and amendment passed.

Vote on motion as amended: for and motion passed.

202 – Offender learning

 

Voted: for and motion passed

 

Procedural motion to move all the FE motions behind the HE motions.

Voted: against and the procedural motion falls.

 

302 – The public role of Higher Education

 

We need to do the research on the public good and benfit to the public the higher education gives. And we need to prove this and let the public know and then next time we fight on an issue like fees the public will be on our side and we can win the debate on higher education.

 

Amendment 302A, Voted: for and amendment passed.

Amendment 302B,

Procedural motion to remove resolves 1. Voted: for and this passed. Resolves 1 removed from the amendment.

Vote on amendment: for and amendment passed.

Amendment 302C, Voted: against and amendment falls.

Vote on motion as amended: for and motion passed.

203 – Free education

 

Amendment 203A, Voted: for and this passed

Amendment203B, Voted: abstained and the amendment passed

Vote on motion as amended: abstain and motion passed.

303 – Student engagement in teaching excellence

 

 

Amendment 303A, Voted: for and amendment passed

This is where we started Wednesday morning.

Amendment 303B, Voted: against and amendment fell

Amendment 303C, Voted: against and amendment fell

Vote on motion as amended: for and motion passed

 

204 – Lifelong learning

Voted: for and motion passed

 

304 – Access and admissions

 

Amendment 304A, Voted: for and amendment passed

Amendment 304B, Voted: for and motion passed

Amendment 304C, was withdrawn

Break

Amendment 304D, Voted:

Vote on motion as amended:

 

Came back late so missed the last two votes.

 

305 – Higher Education bill

 

Amendment 305A, Voted: for and amendment passed

Amendment 305B, Voted: for and amendment passed

Amendment 305C,

Procedural motion to delete resolves 2. Voted for the procedural motion which passed and resolves 2 was deleted.

Procedural Motion to move resolves 4 into the main motion. Voted for and this passed.

 Vote on amendment: against and amendment fell

Amendment 305D, Not disscvussed due to time running out for this zone

Vote on motion as amended: for and motion passed.

Procedural motion to pass left over motions to NEC for decision as guillotine was about to fall. Voted for this motion and it passed

 

Education Zone Ordinary Motions

206 – Security in Colleges

306 – Education now and then: Tear it down and start again

207 – International FE

307 – Education: Public, not for profit

308 – Employment and employability

309- Mature students, we hardly know you

 

 

Welfare zone

 

Vice president welfare spoke about the work of the welfare zone and its report. Ran out of time cause they had done so much, but mentioned localism and housing andf pound in your pocket.

Vote to accept the report: for and report was accepted.

Welfare Zone Policy Recommendations

 

601 – The pound in your pocket

 

Amendment 601A, Voted: for and amendment passed

Amendment 601B, Voted: for and amendment passed

Vote on motion as amended: for and motion passed

602 – Localism

Amendment 602A, Voted: for and amendment passed

Amendment 602B, Voted: for and amendment passed

Amendment 602C, Voted: for and amendment passed

Amendment 602D, Voted: for and amendment passed

 

Vote on motion as amended: for and motion passed

 

 

603 – Faith and Sexuality

 

Amendment 603A, falls as proposers weren’t here.

Vote on motion as proposed: for and motion passed

 

604 – Prevent

 

Amendment 604A, Voted: abstained and motion passed

Amendment 604B, Voted: abstained and motion passed

Vote on motion as amended: for and motion passed

 

Welfare Zone Ordinary Motions

 

 

605 – Stop and Search

 

Amendment 605A, Voted: for and amendment passed.

Vote on motion as amended: for and motion passed

606 – Support for students’ taking a year from study

 

Vote on motion: for and motion passed

607 – Cyber Bullying

Vote on motion: for and motion passed

 

Procedural motion to pass all left motions onto NEC to vote on due to the guillotine was about to fall. Voted for this and it passed

 

608 – Nations

609 – Retention

610 – Against discriminatory immigration

 

 

Society and Citizenship Zone

 

Vice President society and Citizenship delivered the report for the zone and answered questions.

Society and Citizenship Policy Recommendations

 

 

401 – Access and Citizenship in the committee

 

Vote on motion: for and motion passed

 

402 – Defend the right to protest

 

Amendment 402A, Voted: abstention and amendment passed

Amendment 402B, voted: for and amendment fell (by 2 votes)

Vote on motion: abstained and motion passed

Procedural motion to pass all left items on to the NEC for decision as the guillotine was about to fall. Voted for and motion passed

 

403 – Living Wage

404 – Eden Springs

405 – Gap Years

 

Society and Citizenship Ordinary Motions

 

406 – Fight the far right

407 – A Generation lost

408 – Opposing unpaid internships in the creative arts

409 – Citizenship

410 – Move your money

411 – Peace one day

412 – Solidarity with Syria

413 – Student fuel poverty

414 – Don’t attack iran – Fund education not war

415 – Defend the welfare state

416 – International students activism

417 – Twin with Egyptian universities

418 – Tarsands

419 – University of Sanctuary

 

 

 There where some closing remarks and job was a goodun.

Article source: http://students.guild.bham.ac.uk/blogs/vpw/?p=146

Hiii homies sorry its been a while since I last blogged!

So third term now down to the serious end of the year! First off best of luck with all your exams and revision
Its a very busy time for us all so I hope you are looking after yourselves. Don’t forget to give yourself regular breaks from work and make sure you eat well and stay hydrated, plenty of water.

As you (should) know by now the Library is running for 24hour as a trial during this busy period. So if you are able to work better at 2am but you don’t want to disturbed the other people in your home why not come to Uni and take full advantage! Remember buses and trains do not run that late so make sure you have adequate means of getting home! If a group of your friends go there’s safety in numbers if you are able to walk back. Or if you have friends in Selly Oak who will let you crash at their house, don’t be afraid to ask

I am currently the interum Home Students Officer Liason officer obviously I graduate this July (woooo) and so will have to reliquish that role. So come and take it off my hands Speak to the new HSA committee about the role or myself of course. The liason officer is basically the person who links the HSA with all other  associations that will have a vetted interest in the HSA such as FOCSOC, PGMSA and SPCA. Come and get involved! Only for people who are not graduating this year…

After exams Uni gets very exciting with end of year celebration balls, festivals, trips, bar crawls, other events and shows. Be on the look out for these events and don’t miss out!

Best of Luck Homies you know where I am if you need to chat or anything.

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Article source: http://students.guild.bham.ac.uk/blogs/hso/?p=119

Hi all

Sorry for the late blog – its that lovely time of year when the library becomes so busy you can’t move and revision becomes the only thing on your mind!

Anyway… I want to blog about exams or more specifically the support the university offers for your exams.

If you have special arrangements for exams, Student Support Services should have put these in place for you. An alternative exam timetable will need to be picked up from the student support counter in the Aston Webb. The university website has some really useful information on arrangements possible: http://www.as.bham.ac.uk/studentlife/disability/staff/index.shtml.

The Disability and Learning support team asked for students to contact them for alternative arrangements before the end of last term. However if this hasn’t happened for whatever reason – you can still contact the team and they can help to put arrangements in place. As long as there is (I think) 48 hours notice they will be able to help and in exceptional circumstances I would imagine that alternative arrangements can be made quicker than that.

Extenuating circumstances:

If things aren’t going to plan, then you can submit extenuating circumstances to your school so that the Board of Examiners take these into consideration when reviewing progress decisions. The Extenuating Circumstances form MUST be backed up by third party evidence, for example from a doctor, or the counselling and support service. More information can be found here: http://www.as.bham.ac.uk/sca/extcirc/index.shtml

The ARC in the guild can help with supporting through applying for extenuating circumstances.

Good luck! Jen

Article source: http://students.guild.bham.ac.uk/blogs/dso/?p=117

Hi all,

Please see below my foreword for ‘The Lion’, Redbrick’s 8-page full colour sports pull-out which comes out this Friday. Full blog to follow soon, I promise people!

Welcome to this year’s second edition of The Lion, your biannual 8 page colour pull-out focusing exclusively on sport.

Last year we achieved an outstanding 2^nd place in the BUCS rankings, the University rankings for performances in BUCS sport, behind only Loughborough. We’re likely to fall slightly this year; this was always likely as our performances last year were simply exceptional, and some other institutions have dramatically increased funding for sport this year, however whatever our final result all of our student athletes in every sport can be thoroughly proud for representing their University, and doing the best they can possibly do.

We had our fair share of heartbreak in this year’s BUCS Championships. Both women’s Hockey and women’s Lacrosse lost out by 1 goal in their respective Championship finals. Our swimming team got more PBs and an overall better team time than last year, yet fell down the rankings. However, we also secured medals in many sports including Judo and Karate, plus our first ever points in Mountaineering.

Away from the Championships themselves, both Triathlon and Cycling have continued to improve year-on-year with their points haul for the University, whilst there is also continued achievement within our non-BUCS accredited sports; Lifesaving have won their National Championships, American Football reached their 4^th consecutive UK Universities Bowl final and Ice Hockey have risen from a quiet few years to give a strong showing at their recent Nationals. Not only did our Cheerleading squads win their Future Cheer national event, but have also represented UoB on Soccer AM and in the opening titles of Britain’s Got Talent.

These are just a few of the fantastic achievements made by our clubs this year, and there are so many more. I simply haven’t got space to mention them all, but we will do our best to celebrate them all fully in the upcoming Sports Ball and Awards evening.

Our University, with help from myself, staff and countless volunteers, continues to give strong support for sport at every level. This is exemplified by the work this year increasing participation sport through the ‘Get Involved’ Sports Fair, through the building of a £55million new sports facility which aims to inspire all students to get active regularly, and through the commitment to nurture new sports clubs set up by students through the Guild. We can be exceptionally proud of this commitment which gives all students opportunities to partake and excel in sport.

This edition also looks forward to the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which obviously need no introduction. It will be an honour to host the Jamaican track and field team for their pre-Games camp in July, and I am very glad that many students have taken up opportunities to get involved in the camp itself. Furthermore, best of luck to all of the University of Birmingham alumni competing in the Games; we wish you every success.

Yours,

Tim Smith
Vice President (Sport)

Article source: http://students.guild.bham.ac.uk/blogs/vps/?p=174