Hey everyone, this week the officers have been attending lots of meetings and getting things done to ensure your voice is heard.
Monday
Mel went to an Education Annual Monitoring meeting that lasted all day to ensure the quality of the programmes that the university is providing is of the right quality.
Dayo attended an Academic Review of Professional Doctorate Clinical Psychology which lasted all day to ensure that the student voice was heard when checking to see if the quality of this programme is good enough.
Yash was in Stoke on Monday morning, and then jumped on the minibus to Stafford to hold a Union Coffee slot for members of union staff based in Stafford.
Tom, Lou and Yash all attended a Student Academic Representative Fora in Stafford to speak to Student Reps and tease out any issues.
Tom went along to a university meeting in Stoke regarding open days with key members of university staff in order to get the student voice heard.
Dayo and Mel went along to the Remembering Eni Mevish event that was held in the LRV. All of the union would like to offer our sincerest condolences to her family and friends, and please – if you need to talk to someone, go along to the Enabling Centre and you will be welcomed with open arms.
Mel met with our Vice-Chancellor – Michael Gunn – as part of their monthly catch ups and discussed a range of things including Varsity, Recycling, our Eco hub launch that goes live on Friday (21st Nov), the data breach and what that means for students and a lot more.
Mel went along to the Honorary Awards Committee that decides who will receive an honorary degree at this year’s Graduation ceremonies.
Tuesday
Mel finished the presentation for the Union’s Annual General Meeting, printed large print copies of said presentation for the visually impaired and had a few catch ups.
Dayo, Lou and Tom all went along to Blackout training in preparation for the University wide blackout. This basically means that on Friday (21st Nov) these three will lead teams who will go around the university turning off all unnecessary lights, power supplies etc in aid of environmental friendliness.
Yash popped along to the Staffs All-Nighter event in LRV.
Tom went to a meeting with the university regarding data loss.
Lou met up with a group of students to talk about a campaign they are hoping to run.
All officers attended catch-ups and met with students throughout the day.
Wednesday
Dayo went along to the Student Staff Consultative Forum where representatives of our different venues and outlets can speak about any issues with members of our Senior Management Team and officers.
Yash was in Stafford, down at Black Heath Lane, then he went to speak to members of his faculty – Health Sciences – in a student voice forum.
Tom is the officer contact for Students with Disabilities Network, so went along to their meeting for support.
Lou was in Stafford in the morning and Stoke in the afternoon.
All officers attended the run-through for the AGM and then the AGM itself which as a charity, we are required to do by law so that our members (you) know about the financial state of the union, what we’ve been spending our money on and how well we are effectively doing.
This was followed by the Future Staffs Forum, where we were joined by Linda Degg (Director of Campus and Commercial Services) and PC Simon Stone (on campus police officer). Later on we were joined by Michael Gunn (Vice Chancellor of the University). This was well attended with nearly 150 people engaged with the process. We are currently following up some of the issues that were raised by students, including if societies can get free entry into LRV/Legends like clubs currently do, and also the state of Hockey pitches.
Thursday
On Thursday, all the officers had a team meeting to discuss lots of different issues that have come up over the last week. This includes clubs and society forums, staffing updates, AGM review, bylaw issues, Stafford officer cover etc.
All officers also helped with the preparation for the opening of our new Greenhub on Friday.
Lou went along to a Quality briefing with the committee regarding clarification of officer roles in meetings and what we can contribute.
Tom went to a meeting with Hastings McKenzie, dean of the faculty of Computing, Engineering and Sciences.
As this was written on a Thursday, we have not yet got to Friday. However, this is what we are planning to do:
· Mel will be attending an elections planning group
· Then the eco hub opening
· On Saturday she will be coming along to a meeting with Alistair Campbell and Tristram Hunt with student media groups
· Dayo will be going to a meeting regarding partnership in Croatia
· Also catching up with emails and meeting students
· Yash has Research Degrees Sub Committee in Stafford
· Attending the Eco hub opening
· Tom has a 1 to 1 with a member of SMT
· Then a Versity planning meeting
· Then an IT steering briefing
· Then the Eco Hub opening
· Lou has a dentist appointment but will be spending the afternoon catching up on emails and meeting students, as well as completing a student safety blog.
Most of the officers will be about on Friday night turning off lights and switches that aren't needed for the blackout.