February '09 Guild Council Report

The latest installment in my ever fascinating Guild Council Reports!

"Arft’noon Guild councillors

This Guild Council sees two motions written by yours truly come before you. My aim here is to give us some policy in areas in which I have already been working over the past few months. This will be for the benefit of future officers and students. I would urge you to help in passing these motions, and to forward any questions you may have about them to myself.*

In other news, an informal student group at the Shakespeare Institute has approached me for information and advice about obtaining funding for their annual BritGrad conference. I am working to assist them as best I can. Snow has temporarily closed the Ironbridge Institute, so nothing much to say from there.

With the joy of elections on the horizon, I have been generally making myself useful. Last week I met with a number of sabbatical and non-sabbatical candidates; it is my hope that I shall meet more and see fully contested elections. With much appreciated help from staff within the Guild and on the site, I have been working to organise and official candidate hustings on Selly Oak Campus. This will have the double benefit of engaging the students there, in addition to giving candidates a first-hand tour of the site.

Last Friday, myself and other members of the officer group battled the elements to go door-knocking about Selly Oak. This was intended to both inform students of elections, and encourage some to come forward as candidates. Most likely we just annoyed them by dragging them away from warm duvets/dinners/partners.

At time of writing, I am yet to hear of any candidates for the position of SSO. My advice would be, even if you are only contemplating running, just bloody go for it. I can honestly say that running (and winning) is a decision I definitely don’t regret. I would even consider re-election if that were possible. If you still aren’t sure, drop us a line on c.nash@guild.bham.ac.uk, and I’ll supply further encouragement.

Finally, to all prospective candidates, I leave you with this encouraging quote from Hazel Blears:
“Campaigning is like sex; if you aren’t enjoying it, you’re doing it wrong.”

Cheers all.
Chris Nash
SSO"

* The Indy Chairs made me cut this bit. I therefore gave no endorsement on motions I conceived, wrote and proposed. Can't censor the internet though :P