Blog
My First Officer Blog :)
I've wanted to write an officer blog for a long time. In fact, it was one of the first things I wanted to do when I got elected. Then I found out that the officer blog system wasn't working. It is now!
I'll start by saying that officer blogs are a great idea. They allow ordinary YUSU officers to connect and communicate directly with students, rather than just being occasionally quoted out of context by the campus media. They also provide the campus media with more opportunities to quote YUSU officers out of context.
So what have Aimee and I been doing since we got elected? A lot of things really. But I don't have the time or memory to list it all, so for now I'm just going to do what everyone else seems to be doing - I'm going to copy and paste our officer report from this week's UGM. Enjoy!
Matthew Pallas
Since our last officer report…
We have organised our re-freshers event LGBT: Broken Ice, held jointly with the LGBT Social Society. This was very successful and enjoyable event which saw many new faces, including students for whom it was their first ever LGBT event.
We have taken 5 students to an NUS LGBT Regional Training Day held in Liverpool. This involved:
• Discussion of the problems facing LGBT students and LGBT groups in different universities.
• Discussion of how to make LGBT groups more inclusive of groups such as disabled students, bisexual students, international students, non-drinkers and women.
• Information about ways to build the capacities and strengths of LGBT groups
• Information about the impact of new LGBT Rights legislation
• Training in how to run more effective campaigns
• Information about the NUS LGBT Campaign – who they are, what they do, what campaigns they are running at the moment, how they can support us, and what resources they can provide us with.
• A chance to network with LGBT groups from other universities, including Newcastle & Northumbria Universities, who we have organised a joint social with, taking place in Newcastle tonight.
We have made significant updates to the LGBT Section of the YUSU website – www.yusu.org/lgbt. This now contains useful information on sexual health for LGBT students, a guide to trans issues, details of the LGBT Committee and of college LGBT reps, including contact details so that students know who they can turn to on a college level. More work will be done on the website over the rest of this term.
We have continued to represent LGBT students on YUSU Senate and Exec, held regular LGBT Committee meetings and continued to provide welfare support to LGBT students.
We are now very busy planning for Sex and Sexuality Week in week 7 of this term – a week of events, lectures and socials celebrating LGBT history and culture.
Aimee Gamble & Matthew Pallas
