Anyway this week I have done a whole host of things outside my normal routine, on Wednesday I got involved in the Re-use initiative along with the rest of the sabbs, we spent a couple of hours at Jarrat Hall sorting through all the bits and pieces kindly donated to this years cohort. It was some good banter, and we got that warm fuzzy feeling from doing something worthwile...good times!
Thursday saw the Best Bar None awards, we were nominated for best surburban bar. The awards are based on our policies regarding safe and responsible drinking, customer satisafaction and the like, essentially making us a responsible venue to drink in, the fantastic news is that we won!!!!! and narrowly missed out on overall best venue in Birmingham. Congratulations go the all the staff and student staff that worked so hard this last year and here's to next year...could we win the big one?
Saturday saw Open Day and once again all the sabbs were out in force manning the sports and Guild stalls in the Great hall as well as welcoming people to the Guild and showing them round our sexy new retail area...it was a huge success talking to both prospective students for next year as well as some of the freshers arriving next weekend.In other Guild goings-on, I chaired the first R and HR committee of the year, discussing all things from equality to job evaluation. I also met with Jane Tope the Equality and Diversity Advisor for the University. We covered a whole host of issues that we hope to work together on this year:
- Black History Month is taking place in October and we are plannign to host a Guild launch party for the University's activities in the second week of October, keep an eye out for more details soon
- We are marching ahead with out plans to host a networking event for student parents in the first couple of weeks of term, this will be a great chance or student parents to meet up, get to know each other and also talk to the Guild about issues they face and how we can help. I also intend to lobby the University to collect data on how many student parents we have at Birmngham which would be a great start to assessing their needs.
- I will also be working closely with the Universtiy on how we can make better provision for disabled students along with a report on how accesible we are. I am also on the hunt for a Disabled Students Officer and to get the Disabled students assosciation active for the first time in a few years...if you are interested please let me know.
- I discussed the provision of LGBT housing in halls for the first time this year, it was interesting to discover that there was minimal interest in the scheme. I want to work closely with the LGBTQ society this year to look at how we can make active LGBT communities within halls without segregating students into their own specific accomodation.
Finally I have been working closely with the LGBTQ society with regards to how they would like to make their voice heard when the National Blood Service return to campus. I feel it is important that they have the opportunity to make people aware of the unfair donation policy of the NBS whilst not discouraging students who can donate blood from doing so. The LGBTQ society have decided to do just this and will be launching their 'donate because I can't' campaign on Friday 25th September, go visit them on the front car park for more information. In the meantime I will be meeting with the Marrow society this week to discuss bringing the Anthony Nolan Trust to campus who have a much fairer donation policy.
That's it for now any questions or ideas on anything that I have discussed above please email me or leave a comment.
johnny please can you change either the text colour or the background colour of your blog it is hard to read !!
ReplyDeleteJust made the text darker, hope that is ok now :)
ReplyDeleteyeh it is- thanks from all of us with crap eyes!
ReplyDelete