Hey one and all,
This last week along with 16 other people from Birmingham University I have been at the Annual Conference of the NUS (National Union of Students). The NUS exists to represent all 7 million students who belong to their member institutions - of which we are one of them. Annual Conference is where policy is passed and Officers are elected - and brings over 1000 people to Blackpool, where it is held!
I've got several different aspects to blog about - the first will be about the fun side of it all!
We travelled up uneventfully, after a very early start (think 6.30am at the Guild) with delegates from all over the West Midlands. When we got there it was a matter of waiting about for a while in the Winter Gardens (where conference is held) looking at the stalls that were there with information about various groups. The Winter Gardens is well, past its best - I'm sure it looked good about 50 years ago but nowadays it needs some serious TLC! Just the place for a bunch of students then....
Our hotel was similar, in that it had seen better days. We also had a sea view room, which was nice. But that bit is boring.
On the Wednesday night (second night we were there), it is tradition to go to the party at Flares (I swear you find Flares in every town and city!) where lots of people who are running for election the next day (more on that later) campaign, and everyone gets generally merry, including our own president elect, who embraced the mood well....
On Thursday, our last day, we left mid afternoon on what we thought would be a comfortable ride back....we were all tired and all just wanted to get back home to sleep! But a few miles out of Blackpool, it emerged that well, not all windows on the bus (a double decker one, none the less) were secure. One of the upstairs windows was coming loose, and aside from the hour spent in a service station, we also go to sit on the side of the M6 for a bit...very exciting!
Thats it for the "fun" bits - the next posts will be about motions and elections, but apart from that, I'm off to Liverpool for the NUSSL (NUS Services Ltd - they supply our bars) AGM tomorrow - wow!
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