What I'm up to....

There has been criticism recently that the sabbs are too secretive about what they do. So here is my diary for next week. Enjoy!
(and, I've been trying to blog since 8.30am...and its now 3.13pm - yup, I get that many interruptions!)

Monday:
-Prepare for budget meeting with R+D manager
-Vale Fireworks meeting
-Elections committee briefing
-Elections committee
-Finance committee

Tuesday:
-AMG pre meet
-Environmental Advisory Group
-Grad Ball meeting
-121 with R+D manager
-Selly Oak hustings
-Budget chat
-Candidates meeting

Wednesday:
-AMG (accommodation management group)
-Elections committee briefing
-Elections committee
-Budget meeting

Thursday:
-Sabb catch up
-Team 10 (where the sabbs meet with the SMT to discuss ongoing projects and priorities - both this and Sabb meeting happen weekly)
-Elections committee briefing
-Elections committee
-Elections catch up
-Deb Soc hustings
-candidates meeting

Friday:
-Finance manager 121
-meeting my university council mentor with the president
-discipline meeting
-elections committee briefing
-elections committee
-catch up with tech about results night
-equality and diversity meeting
-finance meeting with all sabbs

As you can see its a busy life! Of course in between all of this I have to answer emails (which is why a blackberry is good - I can do it on the move!), talk to students and work on projects.

If I do this regularly, I hope you'll start to see that its not us being secretive, we just have lots on our plate....

Your View

When you elected me last March, one of my manifesto promises was based on research - i.e. finding out more about our members. Because it struck me, as a "normal" student, and is commented on by the Guild every year, that we don't have any conclusive information on what our students actually want from the Guild.

I'm sure many of you reading this think you know what students want - but I'd argue that the best way to find them out is to ask them themselves - and also give them a reason to do so. My target was to ask 3000 students, and also make sure they were representative of the student body.

In January we held focus groups to get qualitative data - and these groups focused on different groups of people, such as postgrads, international students, mature students, med students, and of course, guild councillors - as well as undergrad students.

We are now doing the your view survey, which I invite you to fill out on www.guildofstudents.com. By filling it out to win £1000. I know this attracted some controversy at the last Guild Council, but as always, I'd say come and speak to us before getting in a stress - we aren't here to waste money or for any negative reason - but to help students. Not everyone cares about the Guild as passionately as some people do, and as a consequence, need a good incentive to fill in this survey. And as I set the target at 3000 students, it needed to be VERY good. And although it seems a lot, the net returns will be much greater for students.

And if you voted for me, but didn't like the idea of research or my target of 3000, why did you vote for me?!

One more....

I have just had the joy of reading Tom Marley's latest post from http://tommarleyvpea.blogspot.com/


"The job of a sabbatical is an incrementalist, not a revolutionary. We may want change now but there are very few easy wins, in fact someone once said if it wasn't hard it wasn't worth doing.. or something like that. Despite this very few people seem over the moon"

I can't reiterate this enough - although it may seem that we aren't doing anything or our changes to small, trust me, we're all here to fight for students, and whilst what we are doing may not be visible or seem significant to you at the time, we are doing it, often at the expense of many other things (such as blogging!)

I must say that it would help me if people commented - I think I have recieved around 6 comments for what is now 25 blogs. If I don't know that people are reading, then blogging isn't going to be my number one priority, is it?

Just a thought.

Yours in democratic love,

Hannah x

Another "what have I been up to?" post....

Hey all,

Again, apologies for lack of blogging. I have the best intentions, but have been rushed off my feet with....elections!!

So, what have I been doing?

- Elections - I have led the officer team on doing lecture shouts and doorknocking to publicise both the fact they can stand and also that the elections will be happening in a few weeks. This is something that most of us who were candidates last year said we would find useful. I have also run candidate meetings for anyone who was interested in standing so they could ask questions about the job to current officers, and have also advertised on facebook and other networks we have. I also had loads of help from the non-sabbs who have been getting involved in getting people to stand for their role - because as I say all along, relevance works! We recieved 36 nominations, and many of the non sabb positions are contested, which is something that hasn't happened in quite a few years! We reopened nominations for DSO and SSO - I am pleased to say that we recieved two for SSO, but not so pleased to say we recieved none for DSO.....
Since nominations have closed, I have been involved in candidate training, dealing with other issues that arise and sorting things for the upcoming weeks. Voting is 9th-13th March.

-I've finally completed the Sound Impact award evidence along with Pippa (EEO) and we will now be able to turn our attention to other environmental projects...

-GC review hasn't been forgotten about - I just felt that the result could be something that the organisation really needed to be ready for and have asked people to prepare accordingly. Will keep you updated...

-I've been to several uni meetings, including University Council and the Joint Safety Advisory Committee (where we talk about safety on campus!).

-I took part in the halls fees campaign. Amazing!

-Other Guild committess have taken place, like student groups committee and health and safety committee, both of which I sit on. I like student groups committee because you know about all the new societies - I am particularly excited about benchball!

-I met Gordon Brown at Downing st!

-I went to a meeting of the National Postgraduate Council (NPC) to discuss their future in relation to the NUS reforms. It was interesting to say the least - I hope that the members of the NPC will do the sensible thing and merge with the NUS as it will be far better for all PGs.

And much much more! If you have any questions please email h.lazell@guild.bham.ac.uk

Guild of Students Officer elections 2009

Do you want to lead the Guild and make change for students? Nominations are now open for the Officer Group elections for the 09/10 team.

Being an officer means that you have a unique opportunity to get involved in an area of student life that interests you. Positions are either full-time (sabbatical) which require you to take a year out of your degree or do a year when you finish, and these roles focus on general areas such as Welfare, Education or Student Activities. Part-time positions (non sabbatical) are more specific, such as focusing on women’s issues, ethical and environmental issues or anti-racism anti fascism, and are done alongside your degree.

Both full time and part time roles are great ways to get more involved and also develop skills that will enable you to stand out to future employers. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t been involved in the Guild much beforehand – ideas and the ability to lead are far more important qualities. All positions are elected by the student body in March – but again don’t worry about taking part in an election – we give full training and support to our candidates throughout the process to ensure that everyone has an equal chance of being elected. Most importantly, you’ll have fun whilst standing in an election and also being part of the Officer Team.

Sounds good?

There is a meeting for anyone interested on Wednesday 4^th Feb at 6pm in the Guild Council Chambers (1^st floor above Spar). This will be an informal chance to meet current officers, ask questions about what its like to be an officer and find out a bit more.

E-mail h.lazell@guild.bham.ac.uk to find out more and to get in contact with current officers.

Visit http://www.guildofstudents.com/content/index.php?page=98615 where you can download a booklet about the positions and also download a nomination pack.

Pick up a nomination pack from Guild Reception!

The full list of positions available are:

President
Vice President (Democracy & Resources)
Vice President (Education & Access)
Vice President (Housing & Community)
Vice President (Sport)
Vice President (Student Activities & Development)
Vice President (Welfare)

Non-Sabbatical Officer Team:
Ethical & Environmental Officer
Satellite Sites Officer
Womens’ Officer
Ethnic Minorities’ Officer
Disabled Students’ Officer
Community Action Officer
Home Students’ Officer
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans & Queer Students Officer
Anti Racism & Anti Fascism Officer
International Students Officer