Johnny Davis- VP Welfare Candidate

Check out Johnny's website here
Check out Johnny's Faceboook group here

"Welfare is about access, opportunity and defending student rights! A role that not only defines itself through the campaigns it promotes; but through working with groups such as Nightline, Student Advice and Student mentors, promoting and developing the services that help students like the Arc and Jobzone, and by liaising with the VP Education and Access, Student Activities and Development and Housing and Community. Central the role is taking a well rounded approach to welfare, covering all aspects of student life. So please check out my manifesto pledges below or visit my website and protect your welfare with a Johnny!"

Top 3 manifesto pledges:

1) Bring the National Blood Service back to campus- I pledge to have them in the Guild during fresher’s week! Targeting people on mass, doing positive work and setting up regular habits to donate. I will however support groups such as LGBTQ to communicate the unfairness and need to update current policy (policy based on research from 1984!) and endeavor to get other groups in the Guild such as the Anthony Nolan Trust which has fairer policies in the area of donation.

2) Create a Joint Honours Office- If you are a student on a joint honours degree and have issues with mitigations, clashes in timetables, exams and deadlines, or you need to go on work placements then most of you will end up traipsing from one department to the other. I want to make an office that will do this for you, they will liaise with departments, and it will be the one place you need to go to sort out all your problems.

3) More Prayer facilities on campus- It is appalling that the Guild has the only room available for all 28,000 students. I will lobby the university to provide more facilities as soon as possible, and prove that they are committed to supporting the diversity and cultural differences in our student body!

"If you were a type of cheese, what type of cheese would you be and why?"
If I were a cheese I would be Brie - for three reasons –
1) I go with pretty much anything - I don’t care about political affiliation or anything else like that it’s about getting the job done. 2) I can appear hard on the outside whilst being soft on the inside – taking a tough stance to make sure I defend student’s rights whilst being sensitive to more delicate issues. 3) I’m suitable for any occasion - whether it be a meeting with the University or a drink down the pub.

Election Time

It's that time of year again, where people come and shout out in your lectures, hand you leaflets outside the library and knock your door in fancy dress... Guild elections!


Information on all candidates will soon be available on the Guild of Students webpage

I will be using my blog to post information about the candidates to suceed me as Vice President Welfare, including clips from hustings and the GTV videos! So if you can't make a husting check it out here!

To begin I asked each of the candidates to send me a short statement, their top 3 manifesto pledges and if they were a type of cheese, what would they be and why (both with very deep responses- concerning!)

To make sure that everything was fair, Sparky helped me decide the order in which I would publish the first blogs! So please find photographed the candidate names, Sparky with the candidate names inside a trophy and finally me picking the name for my first blog to go up.

Enjoy the blogs!

Multicultural Week Update

Me and Rich have been hard at work planning Multicultural Week. It is a long process and there is still much to be done.

We have firm plans for the first two days now which is very exciting. As usual if you have any ideas please get in touch.

We already held a forum for interested members of student groups- thanks to everyone that came along- you gave us some great ideas!

Some of the things you can expect to see->

*Debates on europe in line with the get the vote out campaign for the european elections
*International Film Festival
*Farmers market in Mermaid Square
* International Volunteering Fair
*Key note speakers on international topics (we have a number of ideas but what would YOU like to hear?)
*An international Fashion show in a marquee outside Underground
*Muuuusic, lots of Muuuusic
*Workshops in music, dance, language......

That's all I will give away for now.
Get excited!

Volunteer With Student Advice

Student Advice are a student led volunteer project that provides trained volunteers for the ARC helpdesk (at the Guild of Students) to advise student clients on any query or problem they may have.
They run an eating disorders listening service (bEAT) and a housing clinic (which checks housing contracts). They also run campaigns on welfare issues that affect students.

Volunteering at the ARC is a great opportunity to enhance your CV, develop your skills through training and on the helpdesk. They also have group socials.

If you're interested in volunteering with us, just drop into the ARC (next to reception and the Jobzone in the Guild) and ask for an application form, or fill in the form online at the Guild website.
(Click Advice and Representation Centre, then Student Advice Recruitment Form) and email it to Student Advice (Student advice at guild.bham.ac.uk)

Look forward to hearing from you!

My Diary This Week...

Writing blogs on specific campaigns and events and a half page Guild Council report doesn't really give you an idea of what I get up to on a day to day basis.
I've been looking at the way officers in other unions use their blogs and am going to trial publishing my diary on a weekly basis- highlighting key meetings and activities, or things that may be of interest.

Monday 9th-
->Updated Guild of Students Facebook group (part of our wider communication strategy and something I do every Monday morning)
->Set up stalls for PCT and prepared leaflets and condoms for sexual health week volunteers to distribute throughout the week
-> We had our termly meeting with Emily Cannon- our regional organiser
-> 1 2 1 with Mentor Scheme Co-ordinator, discussed use of the web in the future of the scheme
-> 1 2 1 with CEO followed by GOG in the evening, where we discussed progress on mandates from previous meetings of GC, upcoming motions
-> After GOG stayed later to prepare for an academic hearing on Wednesday

Tuesday 10th-
N.B- Student Loans Consultancy Board and F1 Neighbourhood Meeting (Police) were both scheduled to take place today but were cancelled due to the snow. This freed up time to catch up on emails, which was very much needed!
-> 1 2 1 with Jobzone manager, caught up on progress with on campus agency, including briefing regarding upcoming meeting with University and feedback from student staff working group, and a briefing on the new student staff forum
-> Out on campus talking to students about upcoming officer elections, handing out nomination packs and chocolate!
-> Attended candidates meeting- spoke to a number of prospective candidates about being an officer
-> Started to write agenda, and made arrangements for the second meeting of the Equality and Diversity Committee- 6th March

Wednesday 11th-
-> Represented a student in an academic case
-> Welfare Practitioners Forum at the University
-> 30 minute catch up with WMANUS convenor, updated her on Guild campaigns and arranged free transport to the Parliamentary Lobby on the 18th of March (email Tom Marley for info)
-> Student Development and Support Forum at the University
-> Meeting to discuss Job Evaluation (part of my role as Chair of the Guild HR and Renumeration Committee)
-> Attended Annual Police Dinner for HE reps- was awarded a certificate of thanks =]

Thursday 12th-
-> Attended Student Parents Research Launch, was invaluable in the Student Parents Strategy that I have started work on.
-> Left the Launch briefly to drop in on the Guild Diversity Group (for staff)
-> Sexual Health Week -> Thursday Therapy at Shakleton

Friday 13th-
-> Started to plan a "GOATING" (Go Out and Talk) strategy for the officer group (as part of our wider communication strategy) and prepared questions on the Nightbus for "GOATING" purposes once "GOATING ABOUT VOTING" is over
-> Meeting with IT staff to outline proposals for Mentor Scheme and the website (as discussed in 1 2 1 earlier in the week)
-> Set up for a representative from HGL as a part of Sexual Health Week
-> Met with a rep from Be Sure regarding plans for meeting Chlamydia testing targets for the student population in Birmingham
-> Briefing on Papers and documents for an appeal to Council, for which I am on the panel
-> Multicultural Week meeting with interested students, to moot ideas for the event. Further work on the MCW briefing document which I hope will be completed next week!

Nightbus

COMING SOON

=]

Annual Leave

I'm using the opportunity of free wifi in Vancouver airport to catch up on my blogs..

I have taken annual leave for the past week and visited my friend on her year abroad in Canada. It was great to take time out of the office and chill out a bit.

I stayed at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver with my friend. Whilst there, I couldn't resist but check out ams-> the student union (sad act I know).

I thought I'd share some of the stuff I am hoping to bring to the Guild from my visit.

-> Elections... ams were running their annual exec elections while I was there. It was really interesting to watch and it would appear that campaigning is pretty similar either side of the pond. I picked up some new ideas though, and I will be catching up with Hannah about how they promoted the election, in addition for some campaigning techniques for this years campaign training.

-> Vancouver/Whistler are set to host the 2o10 winter olympics... the student union are doing a lot to ensure that students in Vancouver are able to get involved and utilise the opportunity. I will be catching up with Sparky about these initiatives for him to pass on to his successor.

->Women's/Student Safety Schemes... there were a number of safety scheme for students on campus, some specifically for women. I will be doing some research and having some meetings about establishing similar stuff here so more on that later.

Anyway I'm happy to be back- sorry if anyone has tried to be in touch while I've been out.

Money Flushed Away- REDUCE HALL FEES

On the 26th of January we saw students taking direct action against the ridiculously high hall fees imposed by the University.

The march took place across campus to deliver a petition signed by over 2000 members of the Guild of Students. I spent a lot of time last week helping with preparations for the campaign.

This included door knocking halls of residence- I visited Elgar Court, Aitken Wing, Tennis Courts and Victoria Halls. I also created the e peition and Facebook event, in addition to making calls to gain media coverage.

I did a bit of banner painting and placard making as well (and spilt purple paint over my new trousers (gutted.)

The march was a big success... it was great to see the number of students prepared to come out and campaign. There were some brilliant chants led by key activists in the campaign and the atmosphere was fantastic. Ed Marsh from NUS came along to the event to show his support and I know was very impressed with the level of enthusiasm displayed.

Well done everyone who got involved!

Local MP supports the campaign here
Coverage from the Birmingham Post here
Coverage from the Birmingham Mail here
Coverage from Kerrang Radio here (go to afternoon/drive with Kate Lawler and listen out for the news bulletins)
NUS Coverage of the event here

On Campus Agency Update

Back in November (?) Guild Council I put a motion to support the establishment of a Guild run Job Agency.

We have been working hard to make this a reality and a model has been agreed and will be written into next years budget.

Students will apply to the agency through Jobzone recruitment, and will be trained courtesy of the Guild. A new member of staff in Jobzone will be responsible for finding these students temporary work. All of the employers will have to go through an accreditation process in order to recruit through the agency, will be subject to continuous scrutiny and will be expected to be demonstrably responsive to our feedback.

To begin with, we are going to trial the model with on campus jobs, and as the agency develops there will be scope for external employers too. Hopefully everything will be good to go in September so look out for it next freshers!

Walk in Health Centre - VICTORY

Manifesto promise: "to promote the ongoing campaign for a sexual health clinic on campus or in Selly Oak".

I have mentioned a few times both in my blogs and my Guild Council reports my progress with this promise, and how I have been lobbying the PCT to address sexual health provisions for students at the University of Birmingham, either on campus or in Selly Oak.

The PCT have now officially announced the opening of a walk in centre in Selly Oak for June 2009!

This centre will operate 8am-8pm 7 days a week and provide GP and Nurse services, in addition to bookable apppointments for both registered and unregistered patients.
The centre will also offer sexual health services, including emergency contraception, referrals and testing.

NUS Extraordinary Conference Take 2

This note isn't the first to go up about EC2... and I'm pretty sure it won't be the last.

Birmingham sent 17 delegates to conference, on a mandate to vote in favour of NUS reform proposals. I'm happy to say that they passed with an overwhelming majority.