Gary updates everyone with what the Officers are up to this week and reviewing last week.
I am writing this weeks Officer update from one of the kitchens in the On Suite Accommodation at the University of Leeds as Rochelle and me are currently at the Workers In Democracy and Representation (WIDAR) 2012 until tomorrow.
Last week we began the start of the final countdown before the beginning of the new academic year and somehow we are 21 days away from having International students on campus and 24 days away from the start of Welcome Week (25 if you are based on our Stafford campus). So it is only fitting that I congratulate all of those students that have received their A Level results last thursday and will be joining Staffordshire University Students' Union in September, I can not wait and I know the team of Officers can not wait to meet you when you get here (I will jargon bust of what an officer is and what we do shortly).
As well as the minor event of results day last Thursday the rest of the week was very productive once we all caught up with our emails. Rochelle has been liaising with the Stoke on Trent City Council looking a travel plan which ties in with the Bicycle scheme. This is a project that has been taken over from Emma last year and we will be launching it around Welcome Week.
Rich has been working with our marketing team for the majority of the week on a project that me and Rich are very excited about and can not wait to reveal it to you all and what it is.
I have been putting the milage in as I was in Leeds for Unipol training. Unipol is an student accommodation service that is based in Leeds, Bradford and Nottingham that offer housing advice to students finding accommodation in the private rented sector. Housing in the local area is a major focus of your officer team and the standards of accommodation that students live in is an area that we feel can improve. The course offered an insight to the directions that we can take to achieving our manifesto points that we were elected on back in March and I will be following up the training by research accreditation schemes and presenting back the findings to the rest of the officers next week.
This week we started with a day down at Birmingham City Students' Union learning about how to maximise our digital engagement and to ensure that it was relevant to students while keeping a person but professional touch.
Today (Tuesday) Beth has met with the University to talk about a student shopping night in the Potteries Shopping Centre which is taking place in October and how the Students' Union can be involved. As mentioned before Rochelle and me are are Leeds University on the WIDAR course which continues into Wednesday while Richard will be apart of an panel that will be interviewing for the manager of the Student Advice Centre.
On Thursday, Beth will be with the Activities team including the new volunteer intern to have a look at the plans ahead for clubs and societies, Active Universities and Involved while myself, Rich and Rochelle will be heading down to the Lichfield campus and working from there for the day.
Friday it will only be myself and Rich in the Office as Beth and Rochelle will be having a long weekend at Leedsfest.
Gary