Welcome back to everyone!
The 16th of January now means that nearly all of our students are back into the swing of their studies, so to everyone that didn't see last week's update, a Happy New Year to you all!
The main focus of the Team's energies this month will be the formation of our 5 Year Strategy. As our two days away (30th and 31st of January) creep ever closer, there's been a real gear change as we step up the information gathering we'll be doing to make sure we get it right. Along with our staff, we've been completing short workshops with core and student staff to gauge perceptions of the SU as an organisation - with positive and interesting results.
Alongside this, there is also the large piece of research we have commissioned to identify the expectations of those students who are currently less engaged with the SU, a refreshing of our risk management processes, using all of the current data and information we have to hand; University surveys, our own system and usage data as well as general "Future Scoping" (which is a smart way of saying making educated and informed guesses about the future).
Thinking broadly like this, the team and myself are also aware of the leadership race in March where the new team will be elected to represent and work for students at Staffs. If you love the SU as much as we do, want to get further involved, want to change something or think you can do a better job than we are I can't persuade you enough to throw your name in the hat to be one of next year's Officer Team; grab anyone of us to find out the detail of what we do and even shadow us for a while if you wish.
And so, to the week ahead - there's always the short term stuff too! This week is also Employability Week, so head to: http://www.staffsunion.com/employability/ for some info and case studies of students who are more employable thanks to involvement with the SU. Wednesday sees Kim attending the University's final Feedback Academy group to discuss implementation of better feedback to improve your academic experience, Emma will be meeting several staff from across the University to discuss getting your art work out around campus more, Gary is (as we speak) helping out our student groups at RE:Freshers Fayre, Vic will be attending a Higher Education discussion group with people from around the country, including the Vice Chancellor of Keele University, and I shall be away at an NUS "Strategic Conversation" Event over Tuesday and Wednesday.
Busy busy, and only more to come - loving it!!
All the best,
Jamie