NUS Conference 2013…

Posted on April 5, 2013 by president

So 9 of us are off on Monday morning to Sheffield to NUS conference as delegates of the Guild of Students. As President, I go automatically and am “delegation leader”. The other 8 students are elected by cross-campus ballot earlier in the year. We’ll be joining other delegates from all over the country mon-wed to vote on national NUS policy and to elect the executive committee for next academic year.

In the spirit of transparency and all that, I will be posting my thoughts on motions and officer candidates as stands. There are some things which (where directly in line with Guild policy) my position will be fixed. However for others (and probably to a large extent the officer elections) – my mind is not totally made up yet and my vote will be formed based upon policies and manifestos as written, but also, I expect my opinions to be changed over the coming days as the candidates make themselves known in person and through debate etc. (Motions to follow over the weekend – time permitting!)

Elections

When reviewing candidates for elections, i’m looking for a number of things: How their policies and politics match up with those of the Guild of Students. Their records and personal styles and the ability that I think they will have to make an impact and finally I look at the likelihood of them having an impact locally if elected, whether that’s to to us in Birmingham or to less fortunate unions that need a boost elsewhere. The final point is personally important to me as I haven’t felt especially connected to the NUS this year and i’m keen to see how students might benefit from it locally where it has previously been London/National-centric as an organisation.

President – Toni Pearce

I’m immediately discounting the carbon rod which, whilst amusing and a protest vote, is a bit of a sideshow to the fact that the office does need a serious holder. Toni tips the balance for me. Aside from her experience already as deputy president of the NUS, that she comes from an Further Education (FE) background is a rarity. The majority (4.5 million) of NUS’ membership are FE students. Yet the major players have traditionally been large, well-funded HE unions such as ours. Toni’s candidacy offers an opportunity to reach out to that large group of students, both to represent and support them – a group that may well be facing the challenges of the new HE market and one that will likely be increasing in size as mandatory education until the age of 18 is gradually introduced. Her manifesto also looks forwards to general elections and the scottish independence vote – heartening foresight of potential challenges/opportunities for students in electoral politics.

#1 - Toni Pearce

#2 - Vicki Baars

#3 - Peter Smallwood

#4 – Inanimate Carbon Rod (Borne by Samuel Gaus)

#5 – RON

VP Welfare – Undecided


At the moment, i’m undecided about who to back in this election. On credibility, i’m finding it very difficult to pick between the candidates – they’re offering very different approaches to tackling many of the same issues. Al Hussein uniquely comes from an international student perspective and seems to have a lot of campaigning experience. Rosie takes a seemingly more radical approach to campaigning. Her manifesto details campaigning on liberation issues and raises the issue of the living wage (resonating discussions at Birmingham) She seems to have experience, but (similar to Al Hussein) there is little on her manifesto which tangibly details her record of achievement. Colum has made some demonstrably good achievements as a sabb at Kent. By contrast, he seems to favour a lobbying and research-based approach and talks about engaging smaller and FE unions. I’d be interested to hear thoughts on this and see how my views are impacted as conference progresses.

#1 -

#2 -

#3 -

#4 – RON

VP Union Development – James McAsh

Having read through the manifestos of both candidates, James’ resonates with me more as having some good ideas, that might be suited to nationally led projects, but would trickle down to impact positively at Birmingham. I find his thoughts interesting on improving engagement in the running of students unions (i’ve seen a lot of activity from him throughout the year on referenda and democracy) and also a priority campaign around autonomy and (esp financial) independence of SU’s from their institutions – something, which I suspect might be increasingly on the agenda as we look beyond the traditional surplus generator – the bar. When talking to him recently, his ideas on regional collaboration were also interesting (especially as this year, there’s been comparatively close work with the other 4 HE unions in Birmingham) and he has had experience of such collaborative work in Scotland.

#1 - James McAsh

#2 - Rachael Mattey

#3 - RON

VP Society and Citizenship – Dom Anderson

My personal experience of Dom is an incredibly positive one and in my early days as an officer (whilst he was beginning his second term at derby) provided some excellent support and I know he’ll be an excellent national officer. Dom talks about his experiences of getting to University in the first place, as a mature student-parent and this seems to shape much of his manifesto. His thoughts centre around tangible and localised campaigns, which involve the community but also aim to make achievements for students and students unions financially and as part of general citizenship education. His thoughts and work on the living wage also echo with recent discussions at Birmingham.

#1 - Dom Anderson

#2 - Shereen Prassad

#3 - RON

VP Higher Education – Rachel Wenstone

Now is clearly not the easiest time for HE campaigners but Rachel seems to have been steering the course successfully during her first term as VPHE. I have felt her to be a credible person, who in my personal experience empathises with problems that we face here at Birmingham, but also shows understanding of the myriad of localised issues on campuses across the country. She works on large-scale campaigns, but also more focused initiatives such as work around the introduction of Grade Point Average (GPA) degree classifications. Her manifesto lays out a clear vision of what she hopes to achieve, following on from her first term. It also has specifics for postgraduate students, a group that face unique challenges and as a postgrad, she is well placed to work on, especially with regards to PG (taught) funding. Her credibility, mixed with her vision makes her my candidate of choice.

#1 - Rachel Wenstone

#2 - Tomas Evans

#3 – RON

 

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Incompetence and Deceit?

Posted on March 28, 2013 by president

On the evening of Thursday 21st, I was subjected to almost 2 hours of continuous questioning on 3 censures during questions and scrutiny in Guild Council (in itself a huge departure from how censures have previously been handled). With one censure passed and two fallen, my character and actions are again being questioned on the same issues: How I came to chair elections committee recently and on the sanction of candidates for (what transpired to be) calling out sexism.  It’s important that I write down my version of events as there are some major contextual things that have not been discussed. I apologise for the length of this post, but if anyone cares enough to attack me, I hope you care enough to read my defence also. (quotes are from a blog attacking me, with my response following):

Becoming Chair of Elections Committee

Following the GM (General Meeting) Proxy vote-rigging allegations, (in which the VPDR was implicated) I discussed with Leander about how this might impact upon elections and/or confidence in their integrity. He agreed it would be best for him to not be involved in elections-related activities whilst investigations were taking place. This also meant there would be one less full-time officer to do the considerable work around running elections.

“Afterwards DF came to my office and told me that due to “procedural reasons” someone else would take my place”

For these reasons I asked Leander if he would agree to resign from the committee in order that we could hold an election to replace him at SOG (the sabbatical officer group meeting) until investigations were over. He agreed. I requested his permission (if asked) to make that known publicly. He agreed, but said that he did not wish me to describe it publicly as a resignation as “it may make him look guilty” (re proxy votes). The following Monday, the VPAD was elected to elections committee by SOG.

Why I didn’t Ask for Resignation in Writing

This was my mistake. Partly, I had faith in Leander’s agreement, particularly as it required the whole of SOG to know about it when electing a replacement officer. Partly, I didn’t realise that a resignation in writing to me was the correct course of action in this instance as Leander was the chair of the committee and I was only a member. My understanding was that resignations are normally to the chairs of committees. Especially as there have already been resignations this year from GC/Sub-committees that weren’t sent to me in writing. (Including elections committee) And so mistakenly worked on the assumption that there wasn’t a formal process in place for this situation.

Investigations

“Furthermore DF has violated the Officer Disciplinary Policy (the ODP, passed with 100% in favour last year at Guild Council) by threatening to start a disciplinary against me for two months when the policy says it should be done “as soon as possible after the events complained of (and ideally within ten working days of the occurrence)”. I see no justification for drawing this out so long”

I can’t go into great detail here, because of the nature of investigations. (The ODP only permits me to discuss whether an investigation has been initiated and what stage it is at.) However, the initial investigation following the GM was into the proxy vote system only. This was something that has been clear for a long time. Even on the night of the cancelled GM I said in an interview “things may fall out of the initial investigation, that lead to subsequent investigations”. I further clarified this in response to questions in the subsequent Guild Council meeting (February) and at a later meeting (March) in response to a question from a Guild Councillor. Therefore, the investigations following the GM were not and still are not over. 

To be clear, deciding whether or not to launch a disciplinary process was also not something I had control over. Neither was it “a threat”. A disciplinary investigation is as much a way of allowing someone to clear their name as it is to punish someone. It was in this vein, that I wished to keep Leander as informed as possible about how things were getting on. But problems kept arising until just after a month after I initially informed him about the ODP situation:

At that time the ODP (officer disciplinary policy) was not fit for purpose and the ODP process could not be triggered. Due to vacant positions (such as deputy chair of GC, or student trustee) some committees within the process were not going to be quorate. There would not even be a quorate appeals committee should the ODP process be launched. Therefore it was impossible to launch one at that time. There had to be a delay for elections from Guild Council and for other confusing/contradictory elements of the ODP to be interpreted by the chair and deputy chair of GC before one could possibly be launched. Something that was only completed last week.

The VPDR’s Return to Elections Committee

I had emailed all candidates informing them of the situation. The elections committee report to Guild Council was also written by me. So it was clear that I was chairing. There was a question at Guild Council in February about who was chairing the elections committee, I responded that it was me. I would have accepted a further challenge from GC and happily obliged if GC wished Leander to chair again, however no challenge came. The following day, I spoke to Leander about his wish to return to elections committee. I made it clear that I had no authority to “allow” him back on. Nor had I ”removed” “suspended” him or “forced him off” the committee. As far as I understood it, he had resigned. The VPAD had been elected to replace him by SOG and so in order for him to return, the VPAD must resign and SOG must elect Leander back on.

I also discussed my thoughts that, as investigations following the GM still weren’t complete, with Leanders name still not cleared, I felt that the original justification for him stepping down remained.

“On Friday when I returned, and tried again to assume Chair of the Elections Committee DF told me that there’s too much responsibility for me to take on chairing both EC and catching up with the work I missed whilst ill.”

“At no point did DF give me the option of going back on the committee.”

This is just not true. I discussed two possible options with Leander, as clearly there was a dispute in understanding between us.

  1. In the absence of GC (as a body with higher authority) we present our cases to the elections committee (minus those of us who may be conflicted) and let them decide on the situation. Had they decided that Leander should chair, i’d have stepped down and been perfectly content with that decision.
  2. That Leander attend the committee as an “observer”. This had no real hinderence on his ability to have a meaningful voice within the committee as (from memory) almost all decisions were made by consensus, without a vote.

We discussed the situation and Leander agreed with option 2 as “the pragmatic decision”, particularly as it may have been difficult at that stage for him to catch up on the physical side of running elections and get up to speed with everything. This is what he meant when he told elections committee that he “did not have time” to be chair. (I accept that this may have been misinterpreted last Thursday, as I rushed it into the remaining 5 seconds of my censure defence speech) However, he did go back onto the committee as an “observer” and at meetings he attended, was treated no differently to any other member of the committee.

To Conclude on Chairing.

 ”If DF said that my exclusion from the committee was of my own choice, and not imposed by him, he has outrightly lied to Guild Council.”

Leander was not, is not and shall not be excluded from the elections committee. The discrepancy is over whether or not he should be considered to have resigned as chair. I accept the mistake of not getting that resignation in writing. I am further happy to take this dispute to any democratic structure with authority to decide upon it and accept its decision. I do not have the authority to remove VP’s from committees on my own. Nor to “allow” him back. This is why I deliberately sought to work with Leander in this situation.

I also fail to see why I would do this, unilaterally. As someone whose focus all year has been on integrity, consensus building and empowerment, there is no advantage to me, to undermine my colleagues on a professional or personal level. There is also no advantage to me, to lie. Nor could I ever hope, when holding a public position, that a lie would remain undiscovered.

On the Sexism Case…

I have already attempted to defend a censure on this, and failed…however I may as well write up my defence.

“Despite him admitting that he was suspicious about what that complaint was about he took it to Elections Committee and got them to impose a sanction on candidates for someone associated with them calling out misogyny after telling us almost nothing about it other than that someone had been negatively campaigning and the complaint was substantive.”

I have admitted that I thought a related complaint may come before the committee (as I did for a lot of things during elections). But I did not take the complaint to the committee. It came before us on the penultimate day of elections. Neither did I get the committee to impose a sanction. It was a consensual decision by all of us based on anonymised information, which had more detail than as described above. We followed exactly the same procedure as we had for every complaint prior when reviewing it.

As Chair DF had far more access to information than any other member of the committee, indeed on many occasions during Elections Committee meetings he left the room to get more information about complaints from Guild staff if he felt he needed more, yet he did not do so this time despite suspected what it was about.

I had absolutely no idea who the complaint related to, during the meeting of the elections committee. In this instance, I did not feel it necessary to access any more information. Some may view this as a flaw, as it may have meant decision making wasn’t as informed as it could be. However, I felt that I wanted to preserve my own integrity and objectivity as much as possible and knew that the returning officer was always available for independent appeal.

Furthermore after passing on very incomplete information to the Returning Officer to make a decision with he imposed a massive sanction on candidates when he admits he knew full well what it was about by this point.”

I’m not sure what this means at all or how I can be construed to have passed on “incomplete” information. The complaint and the decisions of elections committee were communicated to the returning officer (as many decisions were) for the purpose of making a decision on the application of a sanction. The returning officer reviewed the decision and (presumably) the evidence and upheld the complaint, twice, with a slightly altered sanction. At this point it was impossible for me (or the elections committee) to challenge the decision. I did not discover what the complaint was about until later that day.

Incompetence and Deceit?

So, I found myself as chair of elections committee. In addition to being the President. In doing so, I aimed to act as I have tried to do all year thus far. I see no benefit to lying. To misleading. I know, that if I try to impose a personal agenda where I have no authority to do so, I will be found out, stopped or reprimanded. So in all decisions, I try to be consensual. To seek permission and agreement. This is exactly what I did regarding elections. I even discussed my defence to the “chairing” censure with Leander around an hour prior to Guild Council last Thursday. I have no interest in undermining him or our good relationship for my sake, or that of the sabbatical team. He told me that he didn’t think the chairing censure was “much of a big deal.”

In the end, I had suggested a democratic option to sort out the dispute (as good as we could get at the time). The eventual situation that occurred ensured elections could operate effectively and efficiently. AND that Leander could be involved in the decisions of the elections committee.

I do think there’s a lot of confusion as to the power and authority that sabbatical officers actually have. (http://officerblogs.com/president/first-term-review-frankly-part-2-being-the-president/) I had three censures submitted to me last week. All to do with things that, were either nothing to do with me (such as the editing/writing of Redbrick articles for anything other than legal issues) or things that I hadn’t unilaterally or maliciously done. I regret not getting the resignation of the VPDR in writing. It would have cleared a lot of things up. I also regret the decision of elections committee on calling out sexism. We were victims of our own procedures. And I hope that we can work with relevant associations to prevent a similar thing from occurring in future.

But I am NOT deceitful. I am NOT malicious. And I do NOT lie.

This is not about blame. This is about facts.

Make your own minds up.

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Official Statement Regarding The Guild’s General Meeting…

Posted on January 30, 2013 by president

Statement from the University of Birmingham Guild of Students:

“Last night (Monday 28th January) the General Meeting (GM) of the University of Birmingham Guild of Students took place at 6pm in the Avon Room, University campus.

Prior to the meeting the Guild received allegations surrounding the legitimacy of the proxy voting system. In light of the allegations a procedural motion was submitted at the start of the meeting and attendees were asked to vote on whether it should be adjourned to a later date.

One hundred and nineteen students voted ‘for’ the General Meeting to be adjourned until further notice. Eighty voted ‘against’ and three voted to ‘abstain’. The General Meeting was therefore adjourned.

The Guild of Students is unable to comment further whilst an investigation into the allegations takes place.”

______________________
David Franklin
President
University of Birmingham Guild of Students

Tel: 0121 251 2304 (PA)
Tel: 0121 251 2300 (main switchboard)
Email: president@guild.bham.ac.uk
Website: www.guildofstudents.com

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The General Meeting – A Few Thoughts On Voting…

Posted on January 15, 2013 by president

So the Guild’s holding it’s first General Meeting (GM) for years on 28th January, at 6pm in the Avon Room. This is a meeting, where any member (almost every student) can turn up, debate and vote. For more info, see the Guild website. Whether you agree with my thoughts or not, it’s important for the sake of the legitimacy of the meeting that you DO vote. Or if you can’t attend, you can submit a proxy vote by filling in a form and handing it in to the Guild or another member: http://www.guildofstudents.com/main-menu/representation/general-meeting-gm-2013/nominate-a-proxy-voter

There are 6 items on the agenda and for the sake of getting some debate going, here are my thoughts…

Special Resolution 1: Inclusion of a requirement to hold a general meeting once a year – VOTING FOR

Many other Unions do it, many other charities do it, many other companies do it, even football clubs do it… yet we don’t.

On the assumption that it is well attended, this is a great addition to our democratic structures, which enables items to come before all members of the Guild for consideration and voting. In terms of democracy, legitimacy and power, nothing can trump it. I’ll be voting in favour of this, to bring more direct democracy, engagement and empowerment of more students. 

Special Resolution 2: A change to the percentage of students required to call ageneral meeting. VOTING AGAINST

This motion aims to reduce the number of students needed to call a General Meeting (in addition to the one we’ll already have if resolution 1 passes) from 5% to 2%.

On the assumption that UoB has around 28,000 students. This practically means reducing the number of students required to call a general meeting from 1400 to 560.

I’ll be voting against this because we already have numerous democratic structures to give students a voice – The Officer Team, Guild Council – which should be relatively representative if councillors are canvassing their constituents – Referenda (which all 28,000 students can vote in) and (presumably) an Annual General Meeting. If something is so important, that it requires a mandate from *the whole* student body and can’t wait until an AGM, then only requiring 560 students to call it is in my view, not nearly high enough.  I should also add in that (subject to approval) the percentage of students required to call a referendum has been reduced recently to 2% from 10% making it easier than ever before for students to engage in direct democracy.

Add to that, that the meeting itself only needs 0.5% of students – 140 students – to be quorate (to legitimately pass policy) and that if the meeting is not quorate, the process is to have another meeting in the weeks following where quoracy is set at whoever turns up…suddenly we are in a situation where a proportionately tiny number of students can be legitimately passing policy, which has the political power of it having come from a GM.

In short, if something is important enough, that it needs a general meeting to pass, 1400 students is not an unreasonable number to ensure that even staging the meeting has clear legitimacy.

Special Resolution 3: Changes to the composition of the Board of Trustees. VOTING FOR

The Trustee Board is constituted under Charity Law to be *entrusted* with the long term future of the Guild. It is a feature present in many charitable organisations. Ours is made up of students and lay members (to impart expertise in areas such as law, finance and auditing) Its remit should not be political, but rather to look at our activity in the frame of ‘legal, financial and reputational’. That is to say, whilst it legally has an immense amount of power, it *should* only be blocking policy from other democratic structures on those three grounds.

‘legal and financial’ are pretty clear-cut. But ‘reputational’ is more subjective. To that end, having a student majority (including all sabbs) on the board is important in that it ensures it is students who are in control of the board. Also expanding the board to create an extra student position (for an international student) gives another perspective from a large, often marginalised group of students. There are already positions reserved for undergrad and postgrad students.

From a practical point of view, having all sabbs on the board also makes sense. At present, only 4 are trustees which means they have different legal obligations to the other 3 and can present difficulties in the instance of a Board vote, where only 4 sabbs can vote.

Special Resolution 4: Removal of the position of University Trustee. VOTING AGAINST

The University currently has a nominee as one of the Guilds Trustees.

Now, there are all sorts of philosophical reasons why some may say this is problematic. (the University should not have a voice on the Guilds highest governing body…the Guild is autonomous…we are being spied on…etc.)

However,  let’s be pragmatic for a second. Assuming the board is enlarged, we are talking about 1 vote out of 18 (of whom 11 will be students). Some might argue that the University Trustee will ‘sway the debate’ or perhaps make veiled threats. However, the University Trustee, like all other members of the board is held by exactly the same legal obligations. This means, confidentiality. It means respecting the structures of the organisation and it means a remit of intervention ‘legal, financial and reputational’ reasons only.

Let’s also think about the legal obligations in the 1994 Education Act for the University to ensure that the Guild is accountable for its finances, that our activities aren’t breaking charity law, that elections are properly and fairly conducted. This is how UoB chooses to satisfy those obligations in a way that is fairly easy. Let’s also bear in mind that myself and one other student are Trustees of the University also.

At a time that we are asking for more influence on University policy and less University intervention in our governance (such as bye-law changes) elsewhere, we need to pick our battles and this seems to rock the boat for no practical reason whatsoever.

Special Resolution 5: Change to the procedure for electing Student Trustees. VOTING AGAINST

At present, student trustees go through an appointments panel (which has elected members on it from Guild Council and the Officer Group) and final candidates are approved by Guild Council. Now, I admit, the appointments system probably isn’t perfect, and we could certainly amend it. But I oppose election of student trustees for a number of reasons.

Firstly, assuming resolution 3 passes, there will already be 7 elected students on the Trustee Board. So we are only discussing the remaining 4 student members.

We talk constantly about how the sabbatical officer team in particular isn’t ‘representative’ and that there are significant problems with elections in this respect. Evidence of this is 3 female sabbs out of 21 in the last three years. Fair enough. Therefore, until we’re at a time where cross-campus elections are more accessible, I can’t see how this won’t then translate this difficulty to the trustee board.

At present, there are 2 postgrads and 2 students from the Medical school on the board (2 underrepresented areas), a situation which I would argue might not have been as possible from a cross-campus election given time constraints, previous ability to engage in Guild Politics etc. So until we solve the problem of students from varied backgrounds (esp. non-white, non-male, non-undergrad) widely participating in elections, the current system, albeit not perfect, helps to bring different perspectives to the board.

Furthermore, as discussed, the board is *not* a political body. I disagree with the idea of ‘running’ for the board on a manifesto, or political platform. It is one that comes with legal obligations and restrictions and the quasi-democratic appointments system we have ensures that we can get expertise and diversity on the board whilst making it more accessible than an election.

Special Resolution 6: Administrative amendments to governing documents. VOTING FOR

These are only administrative changes with regards to the other special resolutions.

 

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First Term Review: Frankly – Part 2… Being The President

Posted on December 28, 2012 by president

Location: Leeds, UK

Mood: Resting                        Music: “Milla’s Dream” – Parov Stelar

So this is the second installment in my much promised end-of-term-one blogging extravaganza. In this section, i’d like to focus on the role of the President, what the job entails, how it might differ from expectations and so on and so forth… I’m particularly bearing in mind that there may be some individuals mulling over the idea of running for the office in the next few weeks, so this may be of use in providing an insight into the role. (admittedly, I only first thought about running for election around 2 weeks before the application deadline) If anyone is thinking about it, do drop me an email or come in for a chat, i’m more than happy to go through things in a bit more detail.

‘Like A Kinder Egg’

The role of the Presidency has been described by predecessors as far back as Mr Fabian Neuner (2009?) as being:

“shiny and looks awesome from the outside, but there is a lot of stuff underneath that, stuff that people do not see, do not appreciate, nor some do not care about, however it is there and it is part of the job, but if you work at it, the egg cracks and you get your reward at the end.” (Harrop, M., 2011)

Duties

Meetings, meetings and more meetings. The role of President is a strange one. In one day, you can be chairing officer meetings, chairing joint Guild/Uni meetings in the morning, before lunch, you spend a couple of hours going along to a misconduct/exam irregularity/appeal committee along side a student giving them support. Over lunch, you can be meeting someone from the local community or a business in order to talk about how they might better engage with students. In the afternoon, you might get whisked off to a TV/Radio station to do an interview representing not only your views but Guild Policy also (which aren’t always one and the same), you come back to be met by a student who has an issue that needs sorting out fairly soon and perhaps something that a number of other officers are working on that you need to help them take to a stakeholder (it canbe quite hierarchical in that sense, not very efficient)

and then your evening can be taken up with paperwork, a formal dinner, Guild Council, GOG, a meeting of the trustee board or even in the rare event you have nothing to do, you might, just might get the opportunity to either relax and see some of your long-suffering friends (a rarity) or have the pleasure of going to a student-group event or some other such event. All in all, when they said you’re paid to work a 36-odd hour week… they lied. If you do less than 60, you’re probably doing well!

Expectations

The difficulty in the course doing Presidential duties is not having a remit as such. The Vice-Presidents all have their areas in which they have expertise, appropriate meetings/contacts/engagements and generally projects to work on. As President, it’s difficult to be working on anything without stepping on the toes of at least one of those remits.

Most of the things that I tend to have input in to are ‘strategic’ as opposed to ’operational’. This is corporate jargon-speak, which basically means, you’re not sitting on committees which talk about running events, the colour of the wallpaper, how the budget is carved up and so on. Rather, ‘strategic’ meetings talk in general terms about what we want to achieve, key goals and aims of projects and initiatives. The rest of the work is done beyond that on a more localised level. Whilst that means that you’re dealing with quite large and complex ideas, which is really interesting, it also means that quite a lot of the discussions you have a regards to things that will be taking place (sometimes) years into the future. Not only does this pose challenges, knowing full well you might not be around to see the fruits of your labour, but it can also be a bit frustrating knowing that very few students might see the immediate value of your contribution either.

The other thing to contend with, is the expectation that people have of you as President. You’re single-handedly expected to have a fairly intimate knowledge of almost everything going on in the Guild, at the University and in the Higher education sector in general; i’ve lost count of the number of times that i’ve been asked “what do students think?” about something, most often where there is no research or policy about the issue… which often leads to a very interesting situation where I try my best not to refer to anecdote and only my own experiences when putting ideas across.

Power

Borrowed from UEA’s Wikipedia page (Ignore the bit about ‘Management Committee’)

Following on from expectations, power is also an interesting one. As a democratic institution, the structure of the Guild is constituted to try and reduce unilateral and individual power as much as possible, which often leads to a situation where external expectations of your power don’t quite match up with the reality. What this means in practice, is that you are faced with a wide array of decisions with regards to issues on which there isn’t policy, with regards to small, low-level projects, things that are in your manifesto etc. One of the key aspects of the Presidents role is also being responsible for all external Guild publications, which means having to legally proof and (in some instances draft/edit) most things that go out centrally. But on everything else, you are subject to the will of students as articulated through Guild Council and to endless amounts of process. (For the record, I have no issue with either of these things in theory, it’s absolutely right that as elected officials we operate in this manner, mindful of our responsibilities and accountability to students and particularly as trustees, the organisation. Though, i’m not going to go into my thoughts here on the democratic legitimacy or accessibility of Guild Council in it’s current form…) With regards to ‘getting things done’ therefore, one of the most important skills to have is the ability to build positive and productive relationships…basically, you become epic at small-talk. But this enables you to persuade, to argue, to stand your ground, bargain and ultimately get wins for students, if you engage effectively, respectfully and intelligently. Though to be clear, engaging in this manner won’t necessarily get everything you want, and it can sometimes feel, when talking to external stakeholders, that you aren’t even particularly being listened to, or considered meaningfully, but it’s a step along the way, and a few weeks down the line, it can sometimes be surprising, how this impacts on your ability to get other things done also.

Being an Officer in a working environment such as the Guild can be extremely challenging for a number of reasons:

  • Firstly, you’re a student on a university campus. This means that your “constituency” are largely of a similar age to you, are often experiencing things that you have experienced (or perhaps where it is more difficult, when students are experiencing things that you have no way of fully understanding), all have issues that are directly within the remit of your role and are largely living and working on your doorstep. It’s not like being a city councillor or an MP, where you’re locked away in a building miles from your constituency and are relatively unknown on a personal level by all but a few of those that you represent. Being an elected officer in a students union means living and breathing the closed bubble of a University community, it means dealing often with people who you know personally and it means that your personal and ‘professional’ life become almost unavoidably intertwined – *ahem, Guild Gossip*. However, on the flip side, due to the vast size of the University, it is an even greater challenge still, to engage with the majority of students, to communicate with them in a meaningful way and present the business of the Guild in a way that is relevant and interesting to them, rather than the much smaller number of people who constitute most of Guild activities.
  • Secondly, you are not just elected to do only the things you want to do but are also a ‘representative’. Again, this is extremely difficult from other formal representative political institutions in the UK. The clear separation of powers and lack of any formal ‘party’ or whipping system means that you are held to account and mandated by Guild Council in a manner that can be quite unpredictable. It also means that you can be mandated to do things or take a stance that you disagree with, which leads to interesting situations such as making arguments to external people in line with Guild Policy, that you don’t necessarily agree with or have a complete understanding of yourself or on other occasions, quite literally having words put into your mouth as you speak to the media.

  • Thirdly, you only have one year. By Christmas, you’ve just about got a handle on the role, the pressures, the personalities, the stakeholders, the issues and your direction. A month later, and people are submitting their applications to run for your position. By march, you know who your successor is and suddenly people are less interested in what you think, and more interested in what they think. Needless to say, a year is also an extremely short space of time to get something done in many areas, especially in institutions as bureaucratic as Student Unions and Universities. (Not least if it involves money… or ‘resource’ as it’s called in corporate-jargon)

Having A Life

This is the one thing that admittedly, i’d suggest i’ve neglected to give as much importance to as I might or should have done, but that’s a lot to do with my slightly workaholic nature. Having a social life is extremely important. Living and working within such a close bubble as the Guild and the University can become all-consuming. It’s incredibly important to make sure firstly that you socialise with the people that you work with as this can really break down barriers and make you seem much more accessible, whether this is with other officers, students, societies. (or even sometimes, staff)

It’s equally as important that socialising isn’t just at Fab or in Joes, or even with people who are involved in the Guild. I’m incredibly thankful (in some respects) that my housemates have very little to do with the Guild. Going home (albeit after 8-9pm on many occasions) means literally shutting off from work… well, Facebook forums aside. Having friends who don’t live in Birmingham is also a lifesaver as is coming into contact with ‘normal’ students experiencing day-to-day issues, talking about things that aren’t hyper-politicised is a breath of fresh air. Most of all, never underestimate, or take for granted friends, girlfriends/boyfriends and the fantastic support network that you built up in your time at uni, when you were running for election or since. That is of course, in the 1 or 2 hours a day you’ve got free… and the weekend, when you’re not catching up on a weeks worth of sleep.

Look out for my third and final thrilling installment of end-of-term blogging ‘the future’.

Best Wishes and a Happy New Year to all,

David.

In the meantime, please do feel free to contact me with any questions and queries:

Email: president@guild.bham.ac.uk

Twitter: @Guild_President

Facebook: BhamGuild PresIdent

 

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First Term Review: Frankly – Part 1…So Far

Posted on December 23, 2012 by president

I’m wary that it’s been a little while since i’ve written a fairly comprehensive blog, so I apologise in advance for what I expect will become quite a lengthy post. However, I think it’s as good a time as any to sit back, take stock and write a few of my thoughts down. For fear of writing an essay, which will become boring about a quarter of the way through, i’m going to write this blog in three parts over the next few days, and I hope to cover a number of things; firstly a review of how the first academic term has gone, secondly a few thoughts about the role of President (particularly, as i’m mindful that some may be considering running for the office over the christmas holidays) and finally about my priorities and thoughts for the next term and beyond. I hope to be as honest and frank as possible and as ever, am more than happy to recieve comments on and challenges to views expressed here.

So Far

As with any year in a role like that of a Guild Officer, things aren’t always as you expect them to be when you start. It can be surprising what issues come along, that can take over a period of time, though not always necessarily in a negative way. This year has been the first one in my view, that Higher Education has really begun to feel the bite of the economic downturn, and in particular the consequences of government policies of austerity.

With students arriving, who are paying £9000+ per year for their degrees, none of us truly knew what to expect, what issues would come along and how the needs and priorities of these students might differ. My initial feeling, is that it has made a difference. Welcome week was noticeably not as raucous as it has been in the past (a feeling echoed by many of my colleagues around the country). This trend has continued, although FAB and Sports night are more popular than ever before, incident reports are at a lower level to past years. Furthermore, membership of student groups has shot up and I sense that interest in personal skills development, employability and shock horror, serious study, has also been on the increase. I guess, as we’re less certain about the economic situation in the ‘real world’ and our job prospects for the future, we’re all increasingly concerned with standing out from the crowd, having transferrable skills and impressive CV’s. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing, although I do fear for non-vocational programmes in particular and I wonder what sort of interest there might be in academia, research and education for educations sake in the future.

The difficulties haven’t been helped by government policy, which has introduced tough rules from the UK Border Agency, increasingly giving a sense that international students (who can pay vastly more than their home counterparts) aren’t on a level playing field as they study in the UK. Shock stories from other universities include consideration of tough regulation on attendance, not limited to proposals to introduce finger-print scanning to record attendance at Newcastle: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2248264/University-students-face-fingerprint-scanners-prove-attending-lectures–theyre-illegal-immigrants.html?ito=feeds-newsxml (The Daily Mail was the only national-press source I could find immediately on google, by no means an endorsement!)

 

With UK students arriving, paying 3x more, but with Universities not receiving much in the way of additional income (as government subsidies are gradually being reduced) an expectation that universities should be delivering 3x as much ‘value’ as previously is not something that can be met. Furthermore, the reduction in students achieving top grades at A-level this year has strongly affected many Russell Group universities, who play their own part in the UCAS gambling-game that we all were faced with when applying to Uni. As such, with many facing reduced intake of home students in addition to challenges in attracting international students, the sector as a whole (in line with many other sectors, particularly from publicly funded areas) is becoming much more about money, the attraction of it and the efficient use of it. This leads on to many of the other challenges that have arrived on campus this year, particularly with regards to provision, course reviews/restructuring and so on.

Internally, I feel that the Guild is coping exceptionally well. Already mentioned, is the increase in student group activity and social activities, with the ARC and Shac also fairing positively. We’re also making great progress on what was one of my main priorities this year; putting on alternative events/attractions/social provision, which are in line with what student unions around the country are rapidly realising: many, if not a majority of students don’t necessarily fit the stereotype of an 18-21 year old binge-drinker. It’s been fantastic to see alternative freshers/refreshers weeks take place (Such as Post-grad and BEMA) and from what I can see, associations are flourishing in giving a voice to groups of students that have traditionally been underrepresented in the Guild. With the establishment of the democracy & engagement/entertainment committees, which have now been formally constituted, I hope to see this great work go on to another level as we move forwards. With Ollie, the VPAD, we’re also working on “give it a go” and an enhanced refreshers experience in January, giving more students more opportunities than ever before to get involved in what goes on at the Guild.

One of my other priorities, in addition to social provision by the Guild for students of differing opinions and backgrounds, has been the ability of the Guild to facilitate and support students who wish to engage in political debate and activity in as wide a context as possible. Again, I would like to suggest that students have felt more empowered than ever before to bring up issues that we’re passionate about, to discuss them, debate them and where appropriate, to try and change the world around us. This is not just necessarily in terms of social or international politics, but also local issues that affect us. We had a fantastic win at the beginning of the year with Virgin Media and a massive investment in selly oak internet infrastructure on the back of work by the previous officer team. Furthermore, i’m working hard on negotiating with a local public transport provider to try and get a better deal for students. (and no, it’s not London Midland, although they could do with bucking up their ideas too!) Targeted campaigns on more easily winnable things (such as with postgrad council tax last year) can be a great way for us to be effective as a collective organisation. The challenge sometimes, is pinpointing what those things are, and then finding out the best way to go about affecting positive change.

Finally, with regards to my manifesto. Whilst the 2nd hand textbook fair is admittedly my biggest challenge (it’s a logistical nightmare) i’m working hard to come up with a plan of how to operate it, and i hope very much it’ll be in place for the start of next academic year. WIth regards to other commitments, many of them, including improvements to printing/print top-ups, entertainment, a greener guild and an improved library are largely integrated either into Guild or University strategic plans and will definitely become reality in the very near future thanks also to the hard work of many of my colleagues. (Expect to hear much about a “cashless campus” in the next year or two!)

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Update…

Posted on October 26, 2012 by president

Location: Birmingham, UK

Mood: Reflective          Music: “As” – Stevie Wonder

I figured, whilst penning my Guild Council report for 15th November, that as it’s a fairly comprehensive account of what i’ve been doing for the last 100 (yes, 100!) days, it’d be a good basis for my latest blog post. By which I mean, i’ve copied and pasted it over. So here it is in all its glory!

 

What duties have you been carrying out which tie into your manifesto pledges?
Printing and LibraryMy manifesto detailed changes to the way that the Library and printing work at the University. In particular, to create a printing system, which would be campus-wide and accessible only with a swipe card and any computer. Safe to say that this is very much on the agenda now, in the University’s far reaching and ambitious IT strategy. There are a few logistical issues holding it up, but this will happen along with other exciting ‘cashless card’ developments.

With regards to the Library, in terms of getting the right books in and getting increased loan allowances for students who need it most, things are looking up also. The response rate from academic staff in getting reading lists shared over the summer means that more of the right books than ever are available, along with proposals for other schemes that will allow for flexibility and ‘client sourced purchasing’. I.e., if we let the library know what we want in our numbers, they’ll get it. Well in time for the opening of the new library, the allocation allowance aspect is also due for review, with a comprehensive look at the needs of different constituencies of students and a re-evaluation of the fines system including but limited to asking the very question ‘do we really need fines’? Expect to see more news here later in the year.

Entertainment and Events

It’s been really useful that Leander the VPDR also has diversifying and increasing Ents and Events in his manifesto. He was instrumental in getting our first ever Ceilidh up and running, which was a great success. We’ve got a second one occurring soon. Following on from the Ents survey earlier this year, things are gradually making progress as I expect they will once the Ents committee finally meets. In terms of live music and comedy, it’s become clear to me that with Deb hall at a 700 capacity being our largest venue, our aspirations of being a Leeds or Cardiff any time soon are perhaps a little over ambitious at the moment. So, very shortly I’m going to be offering the opportunity on alternate Friday nights to groups/individuals or societies to perform live in the Beorma Bar, which should build up a reputation for Friday nights in the Guild as somewhere to come for great live entertainment. The new club night is also very much not off the agenda, we’re finalising plans for how it will work, when it will be and what sort of music will be played. Similarly for alternative trips/visits and alternative offerings, we’re getting together a way of organising a centralised programme of events in an accessible way, which should make it easier to organise things.

Associations and societies as ever, have already been putting on some great events, which as the new website develops should have more advertising prominence than ever before. In terms of headline events, it’s a similar story. We do have access to the Bramall Auditorium, though in its inaugural season, it seems that it might be quite difficult to book unless it’s a long time in advance, so this is on the agenda, but hasn’t happened yet.

Food

Making immediate change to the food on campus isn’t always easy or something in our control as strict short-term tenders ensure that change can only be made when it is time to sign a new tendering contract. However, we have had discussions regarding the price of food in university outlets and there seems to be reception to this, although bearing in mind that quality may have to be compromised. Once the time is right for negotiations, I’m fairly confident that I’ve ensured the price agenda will be addressed very seriously in consultation with students. Internally, myself the VPS, VPW and VPDR have been working hard to re-evaluate the offerings in outlets including Joes, Spar and Subway. We were successful in getting subway to offer halal sandwiches for the first time and the Joes menu is ready for an imminent refresh with some interesting and healthy items on it. Jimmy has ensured that nutritional information is now more readily available wherever you choose to eat on campus.

2nd Hand Textbook Fair

Without a doubt, this has been the hardest of all my manifesto pledges to make progress on, and I hold my hands up when I say I still can’t provide a timeline for this starting. Mainly, this has been because getting this going requires a huge amount of thought, the creation of processes, structures and operational procedures and potentially has quite a significant resource implication in terms of investment of staff time. I have been in preliminary discussions with Guild staff in terms of how we’re going to get this started and I’ve looked at other examples of unions doing book fairs including Manchester and Warwick. So whilst I admit, this is unlikely to occur before the end of this term (we’ve pretty much missed the boat with the start of the academic year), it’s definitely not off the agenda for the near future.
What other duties have you been carrying out within your role?
Joe’s Plus CardI’ve been driving forwards the expansion of the Joe’s Plus Card scheme ahead of schedule into its third phase of operation. A Service Level Agreement has been drawn up in order to allow for accreditation of outside businesses to use the scheme. Although this has been in operation in Gatecrasher since the start of the year, I’m principally going to target local, independent businesses and services. In particular, this will provide a conduit for independent businesses, which are increasingly threatened to offer exclusive deals to only UoB students, it will provide those businesses with an exclusive means of competing with each other, giving UoB students a better deal and value, it will allow us to promote those independent businesses as being accredited by the scheme, it will increase the guilds presence in the local community, it will foster relations and it will deliver surplus to be reinvested back into the guilds student-facing, membership and support services and.

Transport

I’m currently in very preliminary discussions with a local public transport provider with regards to providing a better deal for UoB students who use its services. Unfortunately, I can’t be more detailed than that at the moment, but expect to hear more soon.

External Representation

On a daily basis, I represent and present the Guild, students and Guild policy to the university and external bodies. This includes, physically going to meetings, taking calls, writing statements/emails and signing off external publications. Whether my representation has been to businesses, the media or individuals. It can sometimes be quite conflicting to balance the interests and relative power of everyone you talk to and negotiate with, whilst still trying to get the best outcome for students. Whilst I’ll never be able to get absolute victories on absolutely everything I’d like to, on small operational issues and creating higher level strategy, there have been countless small victories or reasonable compromises in negotiations, which very often never get heard about.
What do you aim to get done before the next Guild Council?
Keep doing what I’ve been doing. Making progress with my manifesto, issues I’ve picked up along the way and ensuring to the extent of my abilities that the Sabb team are working as effectively as possible. This includes, but isn’t limited to the NUS Demo, enhanced support for Guild Media groups, looking at ways of engaging traditionally underrepresented groups in the Guild (with help!) and seeking out areas in which students could be getting more value in these times of increased fees and austerity!
 

______________________
David Franklin
President
University of Birmingham Guild of Students

Tel: 0121 251 2335 (direct)
Mobile: 07774 556382
Tel: 0121 251 2304 (PA)
Tel: 0121 251 2300 (main switchboard)
Email: president@guild.bham.ac.uk
Website:www.guildofstudents.com
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VC College Address Speech – “More Than Just A Bar”

Posted on September 27, 2012 by president

Location: Birmingham, UK

Mood: Frantic            Music: Robbie Williams – “Let Me Entertain You”

 

Hello everyone!

It’s blogging time again. In the spirit of the new academic session, I felt it would be apt to share a speech that I made, to all 5 colleges of new students during welcome week. Take what you wish from it, I can only hope you’ll feel inspired!

 

 

“Welcome to the University of Birmingham. In the next week or so, when you leave this hall, I want you to promise me one thing. That you’ll stop for a minute and look around, take it all in, you’ve made it! Your hard work has all paid off and now you’re here. Where you were before doesn’t matter, what matters now is you, welcome to our community.

There will be tough times, and great times; highs, lows, joy and sadness. But these three years will be the biggest blank canvas and greatest opportunity of your lives, and you need to grasp it!

So, where does the Guild of Students fit in with all of this?

Well, yes, we have a bar. Three to be precise. And quite a few societies too, around 200, and if there isn’t a society to suit your passion or idea, with 20 other people, you can set one up with Guild support and funding. We also offer plenty of opportunities to volunteer. Frankly, UoB students are amazing, last year alone, we gave over 67,000 hours of our time to helping others, whether that was helping each other within the Guild, on campus, or within the community of Birmingham and beyond. And I guess, this might hint at a wider point. Each one of us is unique, you have your own passions, interests and priorities, I have mine. But our power, our ability to influence and create positive change is amazing. When we leave this university, we will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to go out into the world, not just to keep it ticking over, but to aspire, innovate and improve it.

Though, why stop at what just we as individuals can do? As a Guild, a Union, a collective of 28,000 students, working together only strengthens our ability to improve our lives and the lives of others. So whilst we do provide club nights and other great entertainment, cheap drinks and a few shops, the Guild is so much more than that.

In our time, we’ve successfully lobbied to get a number of wins, from representation on university committees to wifi in halls, a commitment from Birmingham city council to exempt PhD students from council tax and getting a 6 figure investment from Virgin Media to give selly oak the fastest fibre optic broadband in the UK. All this on the back of campaigns that have come through the Guild of Students.

Every single day, your officers undertake projects and meet the University and other stakeholders to try and improve our time here. The ARC is available to give you advice on your issues, visas and academic procedures, if you wish, we can accompany you to any disciplinary panels to ensure that you’re receiving fair treatment. SHAC, our letting agency is there to help you move into the community when you leave halls with no fees and a great landlord accreditation scheme to ensure you’re going to be in good quality houses. Centrally, through student groups and through your Residents Associations there are fantastic entertainments, sessions, trips, visits, cinema nights, sports competitions and much more. We have regular club nights, live entertainment and non-alcoholic events too. Don’t forget, in addition to a grant from the University and your hall fees, 23% of every penny you spend in the Guild gets reinvested back into you, so we quite literally work for you.

But we’re only as good as the information you give us. We are a democratic institution, so we’re run by you. We have Guild Council to ensure that your officers work for you. I’d strongly encourage anyone to stand for election to the Council, it’s a great opportunity to develop yourself and your passions.

We also realise that the world isn’t a perfect place, there are groups and minorities that have been traditionally underrepresented or oppressed and whilst we work to try and educate people about that, we strive locally to ensure that the Guild is a safe space. For LGBTQ, BEMA, International students, women, and disabled students, we want the Guild to be somewhere where ideas can be articulated, heard, debated. People can socialise without fear of judgement or harm and it is a great place to come.

We will be here to provide for you, support you and stand up for you. That’s not to say you have to agree to everything or do things that go against your values. But, be open minded, try new things and take opportunity when it comes knocking. Most of all, never let anyone tell you, that there is something you cannot do.

Don’t forget, it’s never too late to try something new. Student groups run activities all year round and are always on the lookout for members, ideas and energy. Anybody can turn up with an idea to one of the Guild forums, submit a motion to Guild Council or speak. No idea is too silly, or something that will be cast aside without being considered. We’re always looking to improve our democracy to make it more empowering, engaging, relevant and successful. The officer team are always happy to hear ideas too. You’ll be seeing us out on campus, but if you don’t catch us there, you can always find us on the top floor of the Guild, up the stairs near SPAR. Anyone is welcome.

So, when you leave this room, go and enjoy yourselves, throw yourselves into your work and the extra-curricular activities that the Guild and UB Sport needs your energy, passion and input for. Become the people you know you can be and in three years, when you graduate and look back… have no regrets.”

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Here we go…

Posted on September 14, 2012 by president

Location: Birmingham, UK

Music: ‘One More Time’ – Count Basie        Mood: Excited

 

 

 

 

 

Just a quick hello to everyone ahead of welcome week,

Campus is already starting to get busy and there’s a great buzz to the place. Some of you will be making the big move as soon as tomorrow. I was in your position two years ago and I know exactly how you might be feeling, it might be a huge change, slightly nerve wracking but really exciting. Myself and you other Guild Officers will be knocking about all week to answer questions, help you settle in and make your time here unforgettable.

Get stuck in, check out everything that’s going on and have fun, we’ll see you all soon!

Best Wishes,

______________________
David Franklin
President
University of Birmingham Guild of Students

Tel: 0121 251 2335 (direct)
Mobile: 07774 556382
Tel: 0121 251 2304 (PA)
Tel: 0121 251 2300 (main switchboard)
Email: president@guild.bham.ac.uk
Website:www.guildofstudents.com

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Progressing…

Posted on August 24, 2012 by president

Location: Birmingham, UK

Mood : Optimistic          Music: “Put Your Lights On” – Santana

Hello all!

I’m blogging slightly earlier than I’m mandated to, but this is for a whole plethora of reasons. Firstly, I’m going to be relaxing under the Greek sun for a week from next Tuesday, so with Monday being bank holiday, this is my last chance to Blog for a little while and certainly, I’m expecting Welcome Week to be fairly hectic, so it’s always good to get ahead of the game. Secondly, I genuinely do have some exciting things to talk about. Well, exciting in my mind anyway, whether you share my enthusiasm might be up for debate.

So the big news of this week relates to Virgin Media. On Tuesday afternoon, myself and the VPHC James Robertson, met with three senior executives from Virgin media who had travelled up from Hampshire especially to meet us. During a long discussion it became clear that Virgin media are beginning to take responsibility for just how badly wrong they got their Student services strategy last year, across the country. On their part, it’s unfortunate that it took so long for them to address their issues, certainly their reputation is damaged amongst students. In some cases, irreparably. However, they have and will be investing heavily into the Selly Oak area in time for the start of the academic term and the data we were shown indicates that not only will we experience no more bandwidth issues for the foreseeable future, but that Selly Oak will actually have the fastest fibre-optic broadband in the United Kingdom. This is a huge win.

However, what makes this such great news, is that this isn’t just a win for students as consumers, but a win for students as a movement, specifically in Selly Oak and through The Guild. The investment that has and is taking place, is largely on the back of campaigns run by local city councillors and the Guild of Students to highlight the issues regarding internet in the local area. This is an issue that has plagued student communities all over the country, but we seem to have had the best action. In particular, one of the tipping points seems to have been a Guild Council motion submitted by the previous VPHC Zuki, which prevents us from engaging in business with Virgin Media until we’re convinced they’re providing value for students. With that in mind, that remains our line until at least a term from now, when we can see a tangible difference in service to students. Virgin won’t be appearing at our Freshers fairs, but still, this is great news!

More generally, things are really starting to get busy again. Our first Vlog congratulating A level successes has had nearly 550 views at the time of writing. Also excitingly the #HelloBrum twitter tag is really gaining momentum; we encourage everyone to use it until and during Welcome Week. I’ve been heavily involved in providing quotes and promotional information to various stakeholders with regards to the Guild. I’ve been particularly keen on emphasizing that firstly, the Guild of Students is more than just a bar. From democracy, to campaigns, to student groups and representation, we need to get better at explaining what we do and the relevance of what we do. In light of the Virgin media win, it became clear to me how much collective power we have for positive change to ourselves, on campus and in the local community. This will certainly form a large part of my speeches during welcome week and don’t be surprised if there’s some sort of marketing campaign to that effect at some point either. The second message I’ve been trying to relay is that we are a union of students, not a union for students. Every level of our democratic structures should be willing to accept input and direction from our membership. With that in mind, the sabb team have been actively trying to change the approach of the Guild in this respect. I’ve done work with the VPDR in particular on our democratic structures and introducing more direct democracy, to increase engagement and empower ourselves as a student body. This, Birmingham ballot still requires work and consultation before it’s perfect, but it’s certainly something that will be coming to Guild Council at some point soon. If you want to see what we’re aiming for, we took our inspiration from Leeds “Your Ideas”, though naturally tailored to our own democratic structures. (http://www.leedsuniversityunion.org.uk/yourideas/)

The third thing that is probably worth mentioning is that I’ve begun what will probably become a large piece of work for International students. I’ve noticed a number of things coming from the Government and the UK Border Agency, which, in my opinion, really make it hard to have a level playing field for International Students. In particular, given that 4000 (15.3%) of Birmingham students are from abroad and in a globalized world, I predict that this won’t be a figure that will be declining, I feel we need to seriously look at how we treat international students.  It is time we evaluate the support given to international students and make a concerted effort at reaching the Holy Grail, which is breaking down barriers to mass engagement with home students and our local communities. Keep an eye out for more news on this front in the near future.

Anyhow, there is much else I could talk about, but I feel this post is long enough as it is.

Feel free to contact me with any questions, ideas or thoughts. Though bear in mind my responses will be very limited until early September due to being away.

Enjoy the rest of your holidays,

______________________
David Franklin
President
University of Birmingham Guild of Students

Tel: 0121 251 2335 (direct)
Mobile: 07774 556382
Tel: 0121 251 2304 (PA)
Tel: 0121 251 2300 (main switchboard)
Email: president@guild.bham.ac.uk
Website:www.guildofstudents.com

 

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