SEANUS Summer Council 2006
“The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft a-gley”
You can prepare for most things at a democratic event. You can plan for opposition to your motions, for heckling in your speeches and for factional voting. You cannot prepare for the M25, and with many council delegates trapped for 5 hours on Maggie’s favourite car park the start was put back even more than if you factored in NMT (NUS Mean Time).
Scott Farmer (NUS staff member) gave an update on the way regions would work in the future and also how this interacted with Areas. I think it’s positive to see some of these big changes, and the focus shifting on organising Unions and bringing them together rather than the NUS being more of a stationers for campaign materials and a help line for legal issues, though obviously there is still a need for that direct support.
We had an idea-storm of the way delegates wanted SEANUS to move ahead next year. Clear planning including a SEANUS Calendar, more networking and sharing of best practice and working closer with local institutions were all high up on the wants. Updating the website and working together on commercial events (not least Summer Balls which are often problematic for many Unions) were also in there. I can’t remember them all but they will hopefully appear in full on here soon.
After a quick break we went to the motions. The Area re-affirmed its dedication to a South East Weighting campaign and a campaign on appropriate housing. The need for Weighting is increasingly obvious; I certainly know that some costs in Reading are as high or higher (in the case of transport for example) than London and students are deciding not to come to SE institutions where their loans, EMAs or other funding simply do not stretch far enough. With the motion, the Area is dedicated to hold termly events, have a presence for weighting at the National Demonstration and fight for a weighting on EMAs for FE Students.
The housing motion mandates the area Executive to support Unions facing housing problems, to actively support NUS’ campaigns on housing and co-operative housing projects and also to oppose the privatisation of halls accommodation.
Another motion was to mandate the Area Executive to inform CMS on the background to Coors in preparation for their potential renewal through NUSSL for the multi-million pound beer deal. The Coca-Cola debate at this years Conference was fierce, and many delegates felt confused and uninformed. Hopefully, by having unbiased information available by February 2007 this can be avoided to some extent.
There was a reform motion put in to help the way the Area runs. Now the Area can have between 1 and 3 Councils a year, will (once ratified) have a Mature Students position, and rename the liberation groups “LGBT” rather than “LGB” and “Disabled Students” instead of “Students with Disabilities”.
Election results to be blogged later.
Nickers xx
You can prepare for most things at a democratic event. You can plan for opposition to your motions, for heckling in your speeches and for factional voting. You cannot prepare for the M25, and with many council delegates trapped for 5 hours on Maggie’s favourite car park the start was put back even more than if you factored in NMT (NUS Mean Time).
Scott Farmer (NUS staff member) gave an update on the way regions would work in the future and also how this interacted with Areas. I think it’s positive to see some of these big changes, and the focus shifting on organising Unions and bringing them together rather than the NUS being more of a stationers for campaign materials and a help line for legal issues, though obviously there is still a need for that direct support.
We had an idea-storm of the way delegates wanted SEANUS to move ahead next year. Clear planning including a SEANUS Calendar, more networking and sharing of best practice and working closer with local institutions were all high up on the wants. Updating the website and working together on commercial events (not least Summer Balls which are often problematic for many Unions) were also in there. I can’t remember them all but they will hopefully appear in full on here soon.
After a quick break we went to the motions. The Area re-affirmed its dedication to a South East Weighting campaign and a campaign on appropriate housing. The need for Weighting is increasingly obvious; I certainly know that some costs in Reading are as high or higher (in the case of transport for example) than London and students are deciding not to come to SE institutions where their loans, EMAs or other funding simply do not stretch far enough. With the motion, the Area is dedicated to hold termly events, have a presence for weighting at the National Demonstration and fight for a weighting on EMAs for FE Students.
The housing motion mandates the area Executive to support Unions facing housing problems, to actively support NUS’ campaigns on housing and co-operative housing projects and also to oppose the privatisation of halls accommodation.
Another motion was to mandate the Area Executive to inform CMS on the background to Coors in preparation for their potential renewal through NUSSL for the multi-million pound beer deal. The Coca-Cola debate at this years Conference was fierce, and many delegates felt confused and uninformed. Hopefully, by having unbiased information available by February 2007 this can be avoided to some extent.
There was a reform motion put in to help the way the Area runs. Now the Area can have between 1 and 3 Councils a year, will (once ratified) have a Mature Students position, and rename the liberation groups “LGBT” rather than “LGB” and “Disabled Students” instead of “Students with Disabilities”.
Election results to be blogged later.
Nickers xx
posted by South East NUS @ 2:11 PM
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