I wasn’t really sure what to expect at the first National Council but what occurred didn’t surprise me. It was a mix of useful motions and sensible debate piled next to bureaucracy for the sake of appearing clever and profiling veiled as representation. I deliberately took a bit of a step back on the day so I could gauge how it all worked and I hope my report doesn’t seem overly negative or positive – my feelings are very much mixed about the event.
As a heads up to exactly what National Council is…
“National Council directs the work of the NEC and can hold them to account for
their activities and responsibilities during the year between Annual
Conferences. The Council meets at least three times a year and can ratify
decisions taken at liberation and other conferences, as well as making
recommendations to Conference regarding the accounts and estimates. Any
ratifications that are not passed by National Council revert to the next Annual
Conference.
National Council may also pass policy, in exceptional
circumstances.”
…As taken from the NUS Website. One thing I was surprised at was the absence without apologies of many NEC – the blasé attitude of some towards the event suggested that the ability of Council to hold officers accountable wasn’t quite as forceful as officer online leads you to believe.
Here’s a bit of a rundown of the day…
The first point of business was the Election of the Chair, and this went to Ben Ward who was also chair last year. One of Ben’s things seems to be added structure to Council and the agenda moved to some By-laws that he’d worked upon. These all seemed very sensible to myself – they reminded me in many ways of our own Standing Orders at RUSU, but what occurred was that they were applied for this Council only and then revoked so people could have a proper look. This was slightly frustrating – the issue was one of accessibility. The by-laws stated that all paperwork should be available in good time for Council, but the by-laws themselves weren’t and this became a debate. How far you can criticise something that aims to improve access for being inaccessible I’m not sure… I hope that the by-laws do get passed without too much fuss for good next time. Also at this time was a discussion of whether NEC can vote at Council. The first democratic NUS Event I went to was last year’s Extra-Ordinary conference in Wolverhampton and I can remember the NEC right to vote being removed then (subject to ratification at Conference). This was done but not written in the constitution so NEC did vote throughout the meeting. To me this seems like working in the framework of the law but not its spirit – though fair play to Sian and Veronica who chose to abstain from all votes as Council requested the NEC to do. The agenda was changed and the affiliation of new areas was bought forwards so that Bubble could have his vote as Areas Rep… the vote was unanimous and Katie and I cheered.
So the first 40 minutes or so felt like just an exercise in bureaucracy and showing off who knew the constitution best. But it did get better…
Commission Sessions
So that questions could be asked about the Report and Plan, Council split into groups for the next section. Firstly there were 3 discussions: Welfare, Strong Students’ Unions and Liberation Campaigns. Katie attended Welfare, Claire went to Strong Students Unions and I attended the last one and everyone else in the room was a liberation officer or on the committee… I have a huge interest in Liberation work, but it’s not my background so I didn’t feel I could engage fully at this session. However, Sian and Jo Salmon updated us on what was going on in the priority campaigns. The Women’s campaigns are aimed at fighting the gender pay gap and supporting women in the workplace and a pro-choice campaign. Sian described her work for Student’s With Disabilities (SWD) including the Sexual revoLOOtion stuff about providing disabled toilets with condoms and sanitary products, involvement in student activities for disabled students and ‘Don’t Diss my ability’ which campaigns against negative attitudes about SWD. There wasn’t really much controversy about these campaigns as work seems to be going well on both. We had some NUS coffee and reconvened in two groups ‘Education’ and ‘Society and Citizenship’. I went to Education with Katie. I was somewhat annoyed that the whole conversation seemed to be about why Julian Nicholds (VP Education) was referring FE questions to Ellie Russell (VP FE) when she wasn’t there. If the best response is to be given surely the best person needs to give it?
After Lunch the National Treasurer Joe Rukin gave a statement from Will Page who officially offered his resignation. I don’t think this came as much of a surprise, but I must say that I don’t think some of his comments about the NEC weren’t really fair, I’m not sure anyone should have to declare which political party they vote for if it doesn’t affect the way they vote, debate or represent students.
We had updates on the Welfare, Education and FE campaigns which was interesting, but not much new from the Regional Conferences. All the information is on t’Website so I’m not going to replicate it all here.
We moved into the Motions session next, which, as expected was the most exciting bit of the day by far. The motions can be summarised as…
1) Access to National Council – for Council to become more accessible. I voted FOR and it PASSED.
2) Stagecoach and NUS Extra – this caused the most debate and points of information. Stagecoach a well known funder of the homophobic pro-Section 28 campaign has a discount on NUS Extra currently. The motion was to remove them. I voted FOR (with some waving of my hand) and it PASSED.
3) Support for Terence Higgins Trust (THT) – the motion was for NUS to support the removal of luxury item status from condoms as championed by the THT. This would reduce or remove the VAT on them. I voted FOR and it PASSED.
4) 7/7 terrorism attacks – this was a motion of thanks to the NEC for their work on the post 7th July response. I voted FOR and it PASSED
5) No to terrorism and Racism – in a similar vein, supporting the NEC’s response and re-iterating the dedication of the movement to work against racism and terrorism. I voted FOR and it PASSED and quite right too.
6) OFFA – campaigning to support the Office of Fair Access and increase its powers. I voted FOR the motion PASSED.
7) NUS Successes – I liked this one, a mandate for the NEC to talk about when they do cool and groovy things. I don’t think we do concentrate on the good works enough – they do happen but we aren’t really told (unless you’re facing disaffiliation). The motion PASSED and I voted FOR.
8) Blogs – A moan at officers who don’t update their blogs and a crackdown on it. To be honest, I have an issue with the idea that a blog every two weeks that says nothing is better than one every month that is done properly. Sian noted that people moan about the number of blogs, but not their contents, and it does seem that it’s more accountancy than accountability. I don’t think this was really considered in the motion, but some NEC (Sian, Gemma, Dan Randall and Wes particularly) do manage to blog regularly and fully. I ABSTAINED and the motion PASSED.
At the last section, the Reports Motions there was a motion to censure Gemma Tumelty for organising Regional Conferences during Ramadam. Jamal spoke against the motion and it was withdrawn.
And that was that! I then went to Warwick University to meet with my friends Jenny and Maria and had a very nice evening. If anyone’s got any questions then give me a shout.
Nickers
07980 986 7088
posted by South East NUS @ 5:14 AM
1 Comments:
At 11:25 AM,
South East NUS said…
National Council – the extension of Regional Conferences with a bit more added on
I went to National Council on the 14th November, very optimistic and very ready for what I was sure to be a similar event to a mini National Conference. Arguments, disagreements, constitutional rulings and people getting very agitated. I was expecting a proper democratic NUS event with all the trimmings. I should take this opportunity to explain that I have been to 4 National and 2 Extraordinary conferences before so could be classed as a hack.
Anyway to the day itself and a very very cold hall in Coventry. We started with the straightforward election of a chair, which was Ben Ward who ran unopposed. We were then faced with some bylaws to govern National Council with. People kind of picked these apart on the grounds of accessibility and them only being presented to us that morning. We agreed to adopt the bylaws for this meeting, then undo them for them to be brought back next time. One particularly sticky area was whether NEC could vote at National Council, according to them the Constitution has not been changed so they can. I however challenged this and said they should respect the conferences that it had been put through so that they can’t vote. I asked for all NEC members to abstain and found only Sian and Veronica to do so, with the others taking a full voting part in Council, which I found very disappointing.
Anyway, onto better news, the next part of Council allowed SEANUS to pass unanimously (except for the abstentions) and be accepted as an area once again.
Then we moved to the Commission sessions, or what could more accurately be described as look at the report and plan here is what we are doing on it. It was however far better than the sessions at Regionals and I took a lot from these. The first one I attended was Strong Student Unions and heard various plans and models for work that was to take place. It was very encouraging to hear that BUSA wants to remain student led (as a former Activities sabb who was on the BUSA national disciplinary committee) and that regional development is very much being looked into. I questioned Joe Rukin about the fact one budget had been stopped and was informed that it was the International Budget as it had overspent already. (After reading this please do let me know your views on this)
The second commission session that I went to was Internationalism. I found out a lot about the wider movement and E&E (unfortunately Flick, nor Will: See later: were there) I then questioned Joe Rukin about how the smoking ban would influence Unions and we are very much playing a waiting game it seems, with NUS offering advice rather than forcing the hand of CM’s.
After lunch we were read a statement on behalf of Will Page issuing his resignation form the NEC. Not entirely unexpected but he used the opportunity to get some things off his chest. I was not sure how well this was really received and I personally was disappointed that just because things were not changing at a rapid pace it seemed Will gave up. I am of the view, as were others around me, that to change things you have to be involved in them.
We were entertained by Veronica, Julian and Sian (standing in for Ellie) on the Welfare, Education and FE campaigns. All I can say is that it took up some time and was nothing really new.
Then to motions of which we had eight. The first was about accessibility to national council, all very obvious and passed through. I voted for this.
The second motion was brought forward by the LGBT reps. It was about Stagecoach and the fact we were in discussions with the company famous for their homophobia and campaign regarding section 28. It called for NUS to end negotiations.
Joe Rukin spoke against the banning of Stagecoach saying since then they have changed ownership, however it was realised that the previous owner was still a director. It was pleasing to see many people get passionate and really hit home how this company had operated and discriminated. It passed with myself voting for it and so negotiations with Stagecoach should be put to an end.
I can’t say I remember a huge amount about the third motion regarding the Terence Higgins Trust except that Veronica pretty much said all of it was already happening. Still it passed and I voted for it.
Motion 4 praised the NEC on their work after 7/7 and was also passed. Again I voted for this.
Motion 5 regarding terrorism and racism was very straightforward, however we did have several parts called regarding the 90 day situation and 28 day situation with us voting to remove any timeframe. I had an issue with the wording of one of the points and asked for it to be changed from stating ‘University’ to read ‘Institution’ so as to encompass college students as well. This was where the NUS fun began, we had to vote to remove the standing orders, vote to then pass the change, and then restore the standing orders. Anyway after that fun we got down to the vote and again it passed with me voting for it.
Motion 6 regarding OFFA was very straightforward and was passed through, yes I again voted for it (can you see a theme)
Motion 7 was about NUS celebrating its successes and creating a section on the website for this. I think it is about time that we can see what NUS is achieving so that people are not constantly questioning what we as an organisation do. So I voted for and it passed
The final motion was on everybody’s favourite subject- Blogs!!! So we wanted to name and shame those who did not blog in line with conference policy. The debate continued as to who should report this, the Secretary, Treasurer, or President as to who’s area it was. Then we got onto what people actually want from a blog and from the NEC. A Diary, a story, a view, a rant etc. In terms of the actual motion I honestly could not say if I voted for or abstained as it seemed a bit of a nothing motion to me in terms of the resolves.
There was only one report motion and this was to censure Gemma Tumelty due to Regional Conferences being during Ramadan. It wasn’t a personal censure on Gemma but she was the one with responsibility for this area and as the delegate explained many FE students could not attend the North regional conferences due to this. Gemma was not there having had to leave early so Jamal spoke in her defence explaining to us the length of the festival but said that he would take this up through the appropriate channels in NEC meetings. The delegate was happy to then withdraw the censure and that ended our day.
It was interesting and informative and I would really like some motions etc coming from our areas for the next National Council on 14th February. Hopefully there will be some more controversy as its going to be nearing National Conference season
Richard ‘Bubble’ Budden
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