This last week of term has brought much excitement and a fair bit of stress for me personally, as one of my big campus-wide campaigns for this year came to fruition!
You may have noticed the 1000-doughnut-giveaway on Talbot Campus this week - the Donuts 4 Darfur campaign - during which me and many of my friends from the Jewish Society, SUBU exec and RAG were doing our bit for the suffering people of the world by raising money and awareness of the terrible genocide in Sudan that has left 400,000 people dead, created almost 3 million refugees and 80% of the villages in Darfur completely destroyed. Whilst guns are used to kill, rape is being used as a weapon of torture, and the international community continues to stand idly by while it happens.
I thanks those of you who made it to the candle-lit vigil where we made a stand against genocide, and hope that the rest of you will do your bit by visiting www.aegistrust.org to find out more about the crisis and what you can do to help.
I should also take this oportunity to thank Danya Taylor at the UJS and Sophie Leedham of Aegis Students for travelling down from London to speak to us, and also to thank the many of you who donated to Fund-4-Darfur this week. The total raised was in the region of £300, which will go towards humanitarian aid in the region, including the purchase of anywhere up to 20 slow-burning stoves, which will save women from needing to leave the camp and risking rape, torture and murder for firewood to cook on. To find out more about the Fund-4-Darfur Stoves Project, visit www.fund4darfur.org/stoves.htm.
But it's not all depressing stuff today! NO SIREE!
This week was the LAST WEEK OF TERM!!! and of course, the end of the first term brings the much anticipated Dylans v TOFS football match (which it pains me to say Dylans and the Shop lost 2-1 to the Firestation) and the end of term Xmas party in Dylans followed by Bedlam at TOFS!
Whilst compared with last year, the Dylans party was a relatively muted affair, the atmosphere was still electric, and I had great fun running the Karaoke for 2 and a half hours! Thanks to everyone who took part.
Finally, I wish everybody a very happy holiday period. Try not to work too hard!
I'll be busy working on your Environmental Campaign, and as always, I'll keep you posted on how things are going!
Much love,
Dan!
Monday, 15 December 2008
Friday, 5 December 2008
The contuinuing plight of the red squirrel (or something like that...)
So I'm still working hard on improving and promoting the environmental side of your Students' Union, and now everybody seems to be on the bandwagon!
Lots of progress has been made over the last few weeks, and though I don't want to spoil too much of what we're doing to improve our environmental impacts before next term (when all will be revealed), I can tell you that we're very close to completing and ratifying our new Environmental Policy.
Watch this space for more news!
Dan
Lots of progress has been made over the last few weeks, and though I don't want to spoil too much of what we're doing to improve our environmental impacts before next term (when all will be revealed), I can tell you that we're very close to completing and ratifying our new Environmental Policy.
Watch this space for more news!
Dan
Monday, 17 November 2008
SUBU is going green(er)
So here it finally is - a way to keep your elected officers in check. A way of holding the Students' Union accountable for the decisions they make and the opinions they voice on your behalf.
You have the right to know that we're actually representing you in the way you expected us to when you voted us in, so I congratulate Ads and Bryony for getting this blog thing off the ground.
I know that for my part, I made big promises when I ran for Exec, and you voted me in hoping that I'd deliver on the following issues;
- Raising the awareness of who SUBU are and what they do, and increase student involvement across all our campuses.
- Lobbying the people with the power to help improve the facilities you use, and to save energy by switching off lights and computers that are left on all night.
- Increasing international student involvement, and awareness of global opportunities.
- Representing your voice through improvement of the Rep system.
At this point I have to congratulate the sabbatical officers, Fred, Adelaide and Scott for having done so much of what I set out to do before I even set a foot through the door. Over the Summer, when they stepped into office, the three of them brought dozens of fresh ideas to the table, and as a result, tackled a lot of the big issues.
Scott championed a massively improved Student Rep system long before I returned from my summer holiday, and during Freshers' Fortnight SUBU launched the Front Door, the Week and the Word, massively increasing student awareness and involvement. Those of us elected in March spent as much time as we could spare over those two weeks helping students get settled in, and making sure that they knew where we could be found if they had any issues to raise, or wanted to get involved.
Now, for the first time in at least a couple of years, we have a full Exec committee, dedicated to making change for the better.
At the same time, the University has been preparing for the official launch of the Centre for Global Perspectives, and playing with a number of exciting initiatives to help increase international involvement.
It feels a bit like somebody has been trying to put me out of work!
So what have I been doing?
Well, at about the time when the bi-elections closed, I was presented with the opportunity to get stuck in on the one area nobody else seemed to be focussing on - the Environment. We don't have one "Environmental Officer," but a team of us is currently working on a new Environmental Awareness campaign that we plan to launch at the start of next term, and making sure we tick all the right boxes for the Bronze Sound* Environmental Impact Award.
Over the last fortnight, I've been designing some of the graphics for the campaign, created a traffic-light system to help us identify and tackle our negative environmental impacts, and put together the first draft of the new SUBU Environmental Policy. By the end of term, we'll have turned all of our red and amber lights green, and applied for the Bronze SEI Award.
You have the right to know that we're actually representing you in the way you expected us to when you voted us in, so I congratulate Ads and Bryony for getting this blog thing off the ground.
I know that for my part, I made big promises when I ran for Exec, and you voted me in hoping that I'd deliver on the following issues;
- Raising the awareness of who SUBU are and what they do, and increase student involvement across all our campuses.
- Lobbying the people with the power to help improve the facilities you use, and to save energy by switching off lights and computers that are left on all night.
- Increasing international student involvement, and awareness of global opportunities.
- Representing your voice through improvement of the Rep system.
At this point I have to congratulate the sabbatical officers, Fred, Adelaide and Scott for having done so much of what I set out to do before I even set a foot through the door. Over the Summer, when they stepped into office, the three of them brought dozens of fresh ideas to the table, and as a result, tackled a lot of the big issues.
Scott championed a massively improved Student Rep system long before I returned from my summer holiday, and during Freshers' Fortnight SUBU launched the Front Door, the Week and the Word, massively increasing student awareness and involvement. Those of us elected in March spent as much time as we could spare over those two weeks helping students get settled in, and making sure that they knew where we could be found if they had any issues to raise, or wanted to get involved.
Now, for the first time in at least a couple of years, we have a full Exec committee, dedicated to making change for the better.
At the same time, the University has been preparing for the official launch of the Centre for Global Perspectives, and playing with a number of exciting initiatives to help increase international involvement.
It feels a bit like somebody has been trying to put me out of work!
So what have I been doing?
Well, at about the time when the bi-elections closed, I was presented with the opportunity to get stuck in on the one area nobody else seemed to be focussing on - the Environment. We don't have one "Environmental Officer," but a team of us is currently working on a new Environmental Awareness campaign that we plan to launch at the start of next term, and making sure we tick all the right boxes for the Bronze Sound* Environmental Impact Award.
Over the last fortnight, I've been designing some of the graphics for the campaign, created a traffic-light system to help us identify and tackle our negative environmental impacts, and put together the first draft of the new SUBU Environmental Policy. By the end of term, we'll have turned all of our red and amber lights green, and applied for the Bronze SEI Award.
We've been co-operating in the preparations for the upcoming "Fairtrade Fortnight" and raised your concerns regarding Fairtrade in the SUBU shop, and we're continuing to lobby the institution on energy efficiency, and are working closely with the University's Energy and Environment Officers to encourage them to minimise the huge overnight power wastage in the Library, Weymouth House and Poole House.
All in all, I've been a pretty busy little bee, but I guess that's all for now.
I'll keep you posted on any progress!
Monday, 10 November 2008
Welcome
Hi!
This is the blog for Your Students' Union Officers to let you know what they're doing for you as students of Bournemouth University.
This is for Dan, one of your non-portfolio officers.
This is the blog for Your Students' Union Officers to let you know what they're doing for you as students of Bournemouth University.
This is for Dan, one of your non-portfolio officers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
