Ok….so its been a month. Sorry.

Ok – so the last time I wrote my blog I apologised for the length of time it took for me to update it – and this time its been an entire month.

BUT – this symbolises how the last month, and indeed the month to come, are officially the busiest months of my life (no joke…)

I have had meetings/events/conferences/everything else coming out of my ears and, alot of them, aren’t even in Plymouth! But without wanting to whinge too much, alot has been achieved both from my own to-do-list but also as a team of officers who are still working really well together and achieving progress for your union; you should be very proud of the officers that you elected this year, they really have done a great job.

So, what have I got coming up….

Well this afternoon I’m off to London, then tomorrow I fly out to Boston, Vermont (USA) for an international conference on sustainability and entrepreneurship in higher education (which is very exciting indeed!), then I’m in Dartington for two days with the others sabbs and our senior managers for a ‘development’ day or two, then I’m off to Barnsley for a weekend conference!!

So all in all, very busy! Please feel free to check out www.upsu.comfor my weekly reports to UEC and my monthly reports to parliament.

Any questions/comments/suggestions, give me a shout!

O how time flies…

So firstly an apology….I know its been weeks since I last posted a blog, which is a total reflection of how busy it has been!!

For detailed information on what I’ve been up to check out http://www.upsu.com/content/index.php?page=43285

So what has happened since I last blogged?

1) I had lunch with MUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2) I spent a whole week dressed in robes, sat on the Hoe, clapping/smiling/speeching for all of this years graduates

3) I had my training for the Board of Governors (for the University) and attended my first full Board meeting, which was actually quite good!

4) I’ve made a fair bit of progress on the community front, with my weekly column in The Herald and via various coffee mornings at sheltered houses.

5) We had Sports and Societies fair, which is very good but very busy!!

6) I took part in a couple of documentaries / films for various people (apparently I’m a natural!!)

7) I attended a presentation that showed UPSU to be the 5th best SU in the country (and 25th best in the world!) for services to international students and I also attended a reception for international agents.

8) Meet with / interacted with the Yacht Club, Labour Students, Climate Change Society, Amnesty International and Taste for Life

9) Made great progress on the green agenda and governance and sac it in

10) So much more besides….

Now I know that bullet points isn’t a great read which is why I promise to make sure that I get a blog up every week from now on where I’ll be able to discuss my week as opposed to bullet point my main activities for the weeks prior.

So until next Friday!!

Au Reviour!

The Arrival of Arrivals Week!!!

So here it is…the first of the three week phase of Freshers, Arrivals Week. The week when the masses of first years (‘Freshers’) and international students arrive on campus with their parents and their life belongings to start their journey through Higher Education.

I remember it well (believe it or not!) and its certainly a hectic time!! Coming to University for the first time, for some the first time away from the parental home and being bombarded with information from the University, the SU and all of the companies vying for your business – it all happens at this time of year. And on top of all that you have the job of speaking to pretty much all new people and having to make friends all over again – which can be quite daunting – but a great experience and a great social learning curve.

So this week has been as hectic as them all really, to read what I have been up to feel free to check out my official report by clicking here.

You can also read my on line blog at The Evening Herald by clicking here (my on-line blog and the bit in print this Friday is the same this week).

The reason for the picture at the top, if you don’t already know, is that the UPSU Freshers’ Angels are in full swing, all out helping in any way that they can – they’re all doing a great job and I’m sure I speak for all at UPSU by saying that we are truly grateful for the work that they all do and the positive image that they represent for UPSU and all of its members.

I’m going to leave it there for now because its now 7:39PM on a Friday night and its just too sad, even for me, to be still in the office working.

As always, any questions to president@upsu.comor come and say hi (I’m going to stop for a few Plymouth GnTs in the Union on my way out so do say hello!).

All the best,

Darren

The Week Before the Beginning.

Well this week was officially the final week of the summer before the start of the new term and the arrival of this years Freshers’ – and what a quick and rather unsunny summer it was too!!

So, what have I been up to this week?

Monday was a governance away day for all of the executive officers. You might no from either me or from reading some other documents that I have put together that UPSU has started its governance review – which is basically a review of the Board of Trustees and the Senior Management Team to make sure that we are fit for registration as a full charity with the Charities Commission in the next coming years.

The away day was good, we made some progress, but it is the start of a very long process of discussion and consultation and advice before implementation. We were looking specifically at the make up of the Board on Monday and by the end of the day came to an agreement, for that day, that it might consist of the following:

• Five elected full time executive officers (the sabbs)
• Two elected lay student trustees (for a revolving period of two year tenure)
• Three appointed, by AGM, non-voting external trustees (for a revolving period of three years tenure)

The contraversy at the moment is around the external trustees – specifically if they have voting or non-voting rights. This is something that we will come back to I’m sure!

Tuesday and Wednesday involved a staff briefing day at UPSU and writing my blogs for the Herald (both online at www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/blogsand in print in every Fridays issue in the comments page, called “UPSU in the Community”) amongst meeting with the parliamentarians that I support and getting some stuff sorted for them. I also had various conversations with some people in the community regarding student issues – some good, some bad!

I also met with Sarah Jones (UoP Acting Director of Finance) to discuss how we might get more cash machines on campus – a task that was in my manifesto! Its certainly a possibility but we will not be able to get anywhere until Jan ’09 because this is when the new banking tender process starts. I’ll keep you all up to date with that as it comes along.

Thursday morning (@6AM!) I set off to London for a three day business trip where, amongst other things, I did:

• A Leadership Foundation seminar in ‘HEI Governance’ as training for being a Governor for the University of Plymouth
• Another meeting with Baroness Morgan at DIUS (Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills) on climate change campaigns
• Attended Co-operative Party conference in Westminster (I’m the NEC Youth Representative for the SW) to listen to and discuss co-operative policy in areas such as education, childcare and climate change and internationalisation.

On the Saturday I had a Co-op NEC meeting and then spent the afternoon enjoying the sun on the Southbank opposite the Houses of Parliament and meeting my friend Soph (who did the same degree as I) who had just moved into halls at Kings College London to start her Medical degree (all very exciting stuff!!!!).

Then, with a couple of Plymouth Gins and Tonic, I got the train back from London to Plymouth in a rather comfy first class seat (First Trains do a weekend £10 upgrade to first class – and you get free food – keep an eye out for that one!!).

So thats about it from me until next week when the start of term fun really kicks off!

To read my official weekly report click here

Have fun,

Darren

The Plymouth Pear Tree, Bouncy Councils and Line Management

For my full report on this weeks work please click here

Yes thats right!! All of my reports, plans and associated documents are now online at www.upsu.com so that you can get access to everything that I report on here at UPSU. I’ve even put my manifesto online so that you can check what I was elected on (so hopefully I achieve it!!).

So – this week – another week that has flown by without me even realising what day or time it is now writing my weekly reports before I get kicked out of the building at 5:30.

I was supposed to be away for most of this week – on an Institute of Management and Leadership course on Student Union Governance at DeMontford University on Monday and Tuesday (although this was cancelled because I was the only Officer in the country that wanted to do it!!) and at the NUS HE Funding Summit in London on the Wednesday. So in the end I was here all week!

As always I chaired our Board meeting (UEC) on Monday morning which was pretty uneventful. I then spent a good deal of my morning writing the letters for audit tender for our governance review which needed to be sent out. This took quite a while as I had to learn how to print on our headed paper (which is easier said than done!! There were quite a few copies that were either up side down, on the wrong side or printed over the UPSU heading!). I also went to the PCMDKnowledge Spa on Monday night with Aleshia and James to talk to the medical students that have had to move to that site for the year but we were quite late due to a fallen tree on the A38!

We also moved into our office properly this week and all sabbs are settled in (white boards and things to still be put onto walls though!) so you can now find us all in the Sabb Office in The Hive (which you will also see when you walk through the corridor as you can see us through the windows!).

Other exciting things this week have included getting moving on some of our campaign areas – such as meeting with PCSO Sarah Nicholson to discuss how we can promote a Sshh(Silent Student Happy Homes) campaign to promote community awareness by our students after nights out etc. Also met with Ele Gould from the local police diversity unit to discuss how I can support her role in her LGBT campaigns through the union. I also set up the first Fair Trade Steering Group meeting to get the UoP/UPSUregistration back up to date and met with key people to help organise the regional anti-plastic bag campaign (“Sac it in”).

I have also contacted the members of Student Parliament that I have support responsibilitiesfor and met withthe new Parliament Chair to arrange some training time with him. I’ve had a personnel brief on UPSU, started my line management meetings with our General Manager, met the Postgraduate Society chair and been involved in meetings about Postgraduates and One World Week. I have furthered the UPSU Training Academy concept and written the first draft of my speech for graduations.

In other news, we all went to the Plymouth Evening Herald (no pun intended) where it turned out I was in the paper that day!! (Check it out here). And we agreed that we would put more information to the Herald for UPSU exposure and confirmed some blogs, one UPSU and one International Students one online and a “UPSU in the Community” blog in print for every Friday’s issue. Keep an eye on that to find out more about UPSU!

Besides all of that there was much much more that I wont bore you with and/or I’ve forgotten including a discussion on where to plant the ‘Plymouth Pear Tree’ on campus and where, exactly, we can put the UPSU Freshers’ Bouncy Castle. We are getting very close to the start of term now which I’m excited about – bring on the 15th September!!

Later,

Darren

A Week of Rest….and a Few Meetings.

Well this week I have nothing exciting to report…its been a quiet week with me having Monday, Thursday and Friday off (in principle – although I have had to come in for various meetings and the like).

This week I have met with Shane Cowen (FE President of Plymouth City College) and various University people, including a one-to-one with Anita Jellings (Dean of Students), a meeting with Martin Berken and Frank Tolen (from the Department of Learning Facilities) and a meeting with Marian Hayes about accomodation and the start of term.

In addition we have written our submission on the NUS Reform program and discussed our involvement with Volunteering England about their Plastic Bag Free campaign.

Thats all for now – September next week!! No more rest of me!!

Another Week, Another Plethora of Meetings and a Murder!!

Another week has passed before my eyes with my previous to-do-list looking rather healthy but my current to-do-list certainly not!!

This week I have had a variety of meetings with people in the University, including our Vice Chancellor, and with external people such as auditors for our planned governance review of UPSU and the General Manager of Oceana.

Amist all of the meetings (only a few mentioned above!) and writing stacks of plans / reports / articles etc I’ve also had a life coaching session, a report with the Plymouth Evening Herald on the pub crawl company Carnage (www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/news/CARNAGE-EVENT-SHUNNED-CLUB/article-271927-detail/article.html - where I got accused of being a hypocrit!!) and a session of Murder Mystery where I played the italian mafioso vineyard owner, Roco Scarfazzi. Thankfully, it wasn’t me that murdered Pipo, it was Bo the French Man!! (James!!).

So now the week has come to an end, with a new stack of reading to do and another set of documents to write…fun times!! But, September is just around the corner and students are on their way back, exciting times ahead!!

O, and in other news, I was elected as the youth SW NEC representative for the Co-operative Party!

See you all then!

Darren

The Great Floods of UPSU

The Great Floods of UPSU returned to our beloved building once again – not once but twice!! For those of you not in Plymouth at the moment, UPSU is having extensive building work to the North end of the building. The program includes the removal of the glass pyramid and the old building behind that.

Trouble is, when you remove your roof (especially when your building is on an underground level) and when you get severe rain the possibility of flooding increases somewhat. So not only did the flooding damage tens of thousands of pounds of equipment (over the two flooding incidents) it also saturated our walls and floors putting our building program five weeks behind schedule!!!! All was a bit tense at this point, especially because an additional five weeks would mean the union not opening for the start of term – bad news!

But with every cloud comes a silver lining, the builders and project managers are working full steam ahead towards getting the entire building ready for the 18th of September – the date identified as being the crucial point for student engagementat the start of term. The University have also been a great support and have worked really hard to try and make sure the union gets ready in time, their support being greatly appreciated by all at UPSU. So fingers crossed that it stays to plan as from now!!

You may want to know that with the changes to the rooms the names have also changed:

- Ignition will now be known as Sub:Lime based on the decoration choices (wait for the surprise when you come back….)

- The Fuzzy Duck will now be known as ‘The Snug’

- Drakes (or Fish Bowl depending on how old you are) will now be ‘The Lounge’ and will be a coffee shop / food takeaway type room.

- Illusion will remain as Illusion

Thats all for now people….have a great weekend!!

Darren

Leadership, Silver Service and the Role of Britain in the World Today….

Since my last post I’ve had the pleasure of more NUS training in ‘Leadership and Governance’ (Report available on request) at UWE in Bristol, a day’s rest with my family, a ‘Labour Students’ Sabbaticals Away Day’ in Westminster on Sunday (where I ended up singing karaoke in the basement of an all you can eat Chinese!!) and a week away at the Foreign Office estate of Wilton Park!! Busy times!!

Wilton Park, which was the venue for the North Atlantic Youth Forum, was an amazing experience which, whilst sounding rather cheesy, truly left me inspired. A full report on my week away is available on request.

Sorry its a bit of a boring post! Until next week!

Darren

My Week (From a mid-week perspective)

Well its Wednesday and I’m away for the rest of the week at more NUS training on Leadership and Governance in Bristol (@ UWE) so I thought I’d write my blog now!

This week has been a bit more formal – training on budgets, annual accounts, financial regulations, governance and trustee responsibilities – so a bit heavy all in all! We’ve also had our first Union Executive Committee (UEC) meeting and Finance and Staffing meeting; both of which I chair as President.

The meetings went swimmingly, plenty of questions were asked to senior managers on the work they’ve been doing over the last few weeks and certain policies on training etc were passed.

All in all another week gone by before I’ve realised – off now to pack for training.

All the best,

Darren

PS – I’m away all of next week at the Foreign Office acting as a Youth Representative for Britain (there are delegates from around the world attending) discussing Britain in the world today (big topic!) – so a blog may not be up for next Friday.