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
