Weekly Update: Courses, Meetings and Training

Monday 1st October to Sunday 7th October 2012

What a week!

Zero Tolerance
I met up with a member of SU Management to talk about implementing the Zero Tolerance policy in the Union. The security codes of conduct already match up with the Zero Tolerance approach, so now it's just about getting accredited by the Women's NUS as a Zero Tolerance Union. We've also emailed around a leaflet I made explaining ZT to the SU staff, and I'm about to start printing off hard copies to hand out to staff, students, and student staff. VPComCam has set up a working group to work on the ZT Campaign - if you would like to get involved and come to the meeting, please just send me an email!

ACA + Exec

Claire loves Zero Tolerance

I went to the Anti-Cuts Alliance meeting on Monday - it's very important to stand up against the government cuts, as they seem to be attacking women, people with disabilities and the poor. I'll write a blog post later to explain why I think this, filled with statistics to win you round. I promise, you won't have to wait too long for it. If you would like to get involved or find out more in the meantime, get in touch.

Exec in the evening was fine, got it done in an hour (would you believe it!?) and starred some motions for the next GM.

Disability 
I also met up with some lovely people to talk about making our Union more accessible to students with disabilities. It seems that many students do not self-define as disabled, even though under the eyes of the law they are titled as such. It is very important that we make our Union as accessible as possible; so far, the position as Disabled Students Rep is still vacant on the I&R Senate, though ideas are in the pipeline for a name change. If you would like to get involved or have any ideas, contact me!

General Meeting
Then - the GM! Jess Goldsmith was elected as Gender Rep for the I&R Senate (and rightly so, I just know she'll do a great job!). Thank you to those who stayed until the end - it was a long session (but not as long as last year's, believe it or not!). Congratulations to all of you who got new positions, this will be a very exciting year!

NUS Black History Month Poster

Insanity Radio Training
I've also had some very exciting Insanity Radio training - yes! You guessed it! I have my own radio show! It's where I will be interviewing people from the community such as yourself - staff, students and locals, about their lives and favourite songs. If you would like to be on the show, please email me and I'll send you an application form I have designed. The form takes 10minutes, the show is an hour long, and the first one is on Wednesday at 11am! (Really quite nervous!).

Black History Month & BME Rep
I also met up with the President of ACS, to talk about Black History Month and increasing BME representation in the union - the BME Rep is still vacant on the I&R Senate, and we have lots of great ideas so if you're interested, get in touch! Check out the Black History Month posters around campus, and also the YOLO event held by ACS on the 10th October - looks to be a great night! They've also got a great line up of events for the month, ending with a live music session on the 1st November. Check out what they get up to and show your support!


Feminism Society & a talk on "Change"
Finally, I went to Fem Soc on Thursday, and it was great to see so many new faces! It looks like we have several great ideas for campaigns this year. Get in touch with Feminism Society if you're even mildly interested - they're a great laugh (contrary to the stereotype) and very friendly. They's also got a fantastic blog and society magazine, which you get for free when you sign up!

Me & my diary!

That evening I went to the talk called "Change!? How do we fight austerity?", which was pretty interesting. I had to stand at the back by the end though - I'd run out of soothers and my cough was getting worse! So that distracted me, and I can't tell you what the conclusion was.

Other News
In other news my course has also started and I have two essays to hand in before mid-Novemeber (argh!), and I also work part-time on campus on the weekend. I'm not complaining, I love being busy, but here's a photo of me with my colour-coded diary (yes, it's a grasshopper in the bottom corner!).

Oh, and I went to the Steam Fair on the Englefield Green. IT WAS EPIC!

Bye!