The return of the Nightbus....

The Guild of Students Nightbus service will relaunch on the 8th of June for the last two weeks of term.

The service will run from 12:30am - 3:30am on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, picking up from Oceana, Risa and Gatecrasher every 15 minutes, dropping off to all halls of residence, the Guild, Selly Oak (Tesco, Soak, Hubert Road) and Pershore Road.

Voter Registration

Over the Easter holidays, I spent time planning the activities to get students registered to vote.

This week has been the start of the final push to get students registered to vote in time for the next set of elections and the whole officer team have been helping me out.

We have set up a unit outside Spar as a voter registration station- this is open and manned 12-2 each day and students have been coming along to sign up to vote!

Gradball queue- The whole sabbatical team are going to be taking on the gradball queue tomorrow, offering incentives to register and hopefully getting as many people to register as possible!

Academics- I have been working with academics from the European Research Institute, and will be doing a voter registration session along side Margot Wallstrom, Vice President of the European Commission at conference they are holding on the 14th of May. If any first time voters are interested in meeting Margot Wallstrom, please get in touch with me at h.jones@guild.bham.ac.uk

Press Releases- Press releases for Redbrick and local papers have been prepared to highlight the work we have been doing to increase voter registration. The electoral commission are also sending us a giant inflatable X to do some photo opportunities with next week.

Selly Oak- All students in University accomodation are automatically registered to vote, so we have been targeting Selly Oak.
I wrote a letter to residents on behalf of the whole officer team with information about registering, including deadlines etc. With these letters will be registration forms and a stamped addressed envelope.

The electoral commission have marked our registration forms especially so that we can measure how effective our efforts have been!

So if you haven't registered to vote already you have until the 19th of May to do so. Visit the about my vote websiter here to fill out a registration form, or come along to the Guild!

Taking on Taxis

I often hear about students who have been overcharged by taxi drivers, particularly companies who claim to offer student specific fares and then do not deliver.

I have been working with trading standards in Birmingham to try and conquer this problem.

Before my term of office ends, I will create a section of the website for students to report being overcharged, or other problems for us to collate and take forward, working with trading standards to overcome the problems.

I am also working on a simple card that can be filled in and left at reception, for us to use in the same way.

The section of the website and system will hopefully take off properly during Welcome Week next academic year, where full attention can be given to promoting the new reporting scheme!

European Parliament: Capping Mobile Phone Charges

I have been commuting into work over Easter, and found out the following from The Metro one morning:

People on holiday or travelling in Europe will now be able to send texts home for 9p- enjoying a 60% cut in the cost of texting.

This came after a decision made by MEPs to cap the cost of roaming texts from July.

The rules also hold companies accountable in internet usage about (mandating them to be clearer about the costs) and also hold them responsible for letting customers know once they have spent 50 euros.

Caroline Flint, Europe Minister said "This is a good example of how the EU can bring real benefits to the British people"

Who said Europe was boring!!!

NUS Conference-> A selection of Birmingham speeches

Some of the speeches made by Birmingham delegates at NUS conference are online (although there is some trouble with Jen's- hopefully that will follow soon). A range of speeches from Blackpool are available here

Worth Voting for an MEP?

In a recent poll, 30% of Brits said that they definately would not vote in the upcoming European elections. I found this article from the BBC Euro Blog that begins to examine why. Pretty interesting.

Follow us on Twitter

The Guild of Students now have our very own twitter account.

You can follow us here

Not only can you can keep up to date with the guild, Carnival, BULS, BUCF, the University, NUS, 10 Downing Street, MPs and many more all use twitter.

David Lammy even sent us a message! How very exciting!

NUS Conference-> Part time officer elections

At conference we also elected 15 non portfolio part time officers. Below are the video clips of the successful candidates.







Congratulations in particular to Ed Marsh, Tobin Webb and Jak Codd

NUS Conference-> Society and Citizenship Zone

The final zone to be discussed was society and citizenship. Unfortunately, because other zones were extended, there was under an hour to discuss the motions in this zone. They have been referred back to the National Executive Council for discussion. Debate arose in this zone regarding votes at 16.

The full motions doucument can be viewed here. The society and citizenship zones are from page 83-87. In the interest of transparency, here is how I voted on each of the motions (some were Guild mandates and are marked accordingly).

Operation Student Vote-> For (Guild mandate)
Amendments:
Let’s put power into the hands of young people-> For
Beat the BNP-> For
Students Want to go Green-> For

Susan Nash, current member of the block of 12 was successfully elected to be the first Vice President Society and Citizenship

NUS Conference-> Welfare Zone

The third zone to be discussed was welfare. Unfortunately there was little time to cover the whole zone. Extra time was given to education and strong and active unions, meaning there was little room to extend the debate. All remaining motions have been referred to the National Executive Council to discuss. Debate arose in this zone around the issue of responsible drinking and minimum pricing.

The full motions doucument can be viewed here. The welfare motions are from page 68-82. In the interest of transparency, here is how I voted on each of the motions (some were Guild mandates and are marked accordingly).

Student Employment-> For (Guild mandate) and I delivered the speech for
Amendments:
Students at Work-> For
National Minimum Wage-> For
Students at Work- the Revenge-> For
A Living Wage-> For
Student Housing, it's OUR NeighbOURhood too-> For (Guild mandate)
Amendments:
For goodness sake stop hating students-> For
Student Cooperative Housing-> For
Responsible Drinking is More than a Poster-> For
Amendments:
One tequilla, Two tequilla, Three Tequilla, Floor-> For
Responsible Drinking-> For

Ben Whittaker, from the current block of 12 was elected as Vice President Welfare.

NUS Conference-> Education Zone

The first zone that we discussed was education. Delegation leaders voted prior to annual conference to determine the order in which zones were discussed.

The zone as a whole, was very consensual, with conference united in it's aim to protect students in the economic recession and enhancing the learning experience. Debate arose around the issue of free education: whether NUS should go back to fighting for free education and grants for all, or continue with Broke and Broken and call for a fairer funding system.

The full motions doucument can be viewed here. The education motions are from page 51-67. In the interest of transparency, here is how I voted on each of the motions (some were Guild mandates and are marked accordingly).

Supporting Students in the Recession-> For (Guild mandate)
Campaign Alliance for Lifelong Learning-> For
ULN Got Your Number-> For
Postgraduate Study-> For
Arts Education Funding and Hidden Course Costs-> For
Stop Ripping off those on ALG and EMA-> For
The Student Experience-> For (Guild mandate)
amendments to this motion:
The Learner Voice: A Valid Voice? -> For
IAG-> For
Enhancing Feedback-> For (Fabian Neuner, President elect and Tom Marley VP Education and Access clearly persuaded me with their oratorical genius!)

Healthcare-> For
Placement Students-> For
Fair Academic Provision for All-> For
Course Reps-> For
E Learning-> For
Degree Classification-> For
Bin the Broke and Broken Funding System-> For (Guild mandate)
amendments to this motion:
For a Free Education-> Against (Guild mandate)
Radical Action-> Against

Aaron Porter, incumbent Vice President Higher Education was successfully re-elected. Below is a clip of his election speech:

NUS Conference-> Strong and Active Unions Zone

The second zone to be discussed was strong and active Unions. Debate arose in this zone around the issue of supporting or prohibiting iniation ceremonies.


The full motions document can be viewed here. Strong and Active Unions motions are from page 34-50. In the interest of transparency, here is how I voted on each of the motions (some were Guild mandates and are marked accordingly).

Campaigning for Change- Activist Academy-> For
Amendments:
Supporting Student Activism-> Against
Campaigning for Change- the Activist Academy-> For
Greening Students Unions -> For
Amendments:
Greening Students Unions- Ultra Vires-> For
Sustainable Finances-> For
Ethical Investment-> For
The Future is in our Hands? We'll have representation then-> For
Amendments:
Dual membership, HE in FE-> For
NUS Arts Representation and support for small and specialist students’ unions-> For
Student Activites Development-> For (Guild mandate)
Amendments:
Open University Access to NUS HE Unions Sports Clubs and Societies-> For
Student Activities Development Volunteering Opportunities and Student Media-> For
Initiations- to ban or not to ban-> For
Amendments:
Accessible Activities-> For
Safe Space is a Right Not Just a Privilege-> For (Guild mandate)
Amendments:
Equality Impact Assessments-> For (Guild mandate)

Richard Budden, current National Secretary was elected as the first Vice President Union Development

NUS Conference-> Fred Jarvis Holding Trustees Address

NUS Annual Conference

This week I attended NUS Annual Conference, as part of the Guild delegation.

The official report of conference can be viewed here

There were four main areas of policy debate, education, strong and active unions, welfare, and society and citizenship.

Wes Streeting, NUS National President opened conference with these remarks.











On the second day of conference, Wes Streeting was re-elected as NUS National President for the year 2009/10. To read more, click here



Each conference is addressed by a speaker offering fraternal greetings. This year, conference was addressed by Matthew Collins. Matthew will be speaking in the Guild during May.





In my next few blogs, I will outline key areas of debate, show who the officer leading that zone will be for the next year and indicate how I voted on the motions.