Update

Well this post is a little behind schedule, but it arrived in the end! It's been an interesting week, though academically a lot quieter as I've not got both an exam and coursework due in at the same time! Now that's out the way (at least for a bit anyway!) I've been busy with a RAG raid to Reading for the Meningitis Research Foundation (MRF) on my birthday last Saturday. It's an usual thing to do on your birthday bit I have to admit it was well worth the trip as the group of us who went raised a substantial amount for charity.

On Monday I attended the NUS regional conference with several others from BU. It was a great chance to meet the majority of the National Exec Committee (NEC) face-to-face and raise our profile as an active Students' Union. It was also a useful experience in that I found out that NUS has substantial ideas for postgrads in the future and are in talks with the National Postgraduate Committee (NPC) to merge their services into the NUS framework. It sounds promising and it's likely to be of great benefit to us as a Union as we would no longer need to have two seperate affiliations.

Tuesday featured an exec review meeting, where performance for last term was discussed along with proposals for changes in the coming year. Some of which are likely to be revealed at the upcoming UGM on the 12th February. All are welcome to attend and any ideas, opinions and suggestions are welcome. There's still time to get motions in for the meeting by collecting a motions form from the Union office.

More to come later!

Postgrad Plans

Well it's a short post this week as I'm pretty busy with coursework (well trying to be at least) and also an upcoming exam on Friday, which I'm certainly not looking forward to!

Last weekend, I went down into Poole town centre on a RAG raid for the Foundation into the Study of Infant Death (fsid), which is a charity that aims to prevent and eliminate cot death in children. It was a pretty successful day with many unsuspecting shoppers being caught (quite literally!) at the level crossing in the centre of town and we managed to raise a substantial amount.

There are also plans to found a postgraduate society, that would benefit from the opportunities provided to clubs and societies, extra promotion, funding for activities and also help to leave a lasting presence and increase involvement as a whole for both current and future postgrads at BU. We're also looking at becoming an affliate of the National Postgraduate Society (NPC), who are a nationwide, non-profit organisation that aims to promote postgraduate study and support both current and future students in postgrad education by campaigning for better funding and better support.

I'll include more details of this in next week's post but meanwhile after all the work has been done, I need to plan my birthday party for this coming weekend...ack 25, is it really as bad as it sounds? Is it really a quarter of a century?!

Until next time!

New Year, New Term!

Well it's the start of a brand new term and this means it's about time I made an update to this blog!

I don't know about you but I had a great time at home for Christmas and New Year, in fact I'm still here until tomorrow when I'll be travelling back from Plymouth. Some of us postgrads have it fairly easy...well perhaps in timetabling at least! :P

While its nice to be home, I've certainly missed life at BU and look forward to getting back in the swing of things during this week. This term should be busy, both with work and social events. The first exec meeting of the term (and the year) is this coming Thursday, so as usual if there's anything you'd like me to mention there, just send it along in an e-mail. Also, there's plenty of volunteering events including two upcoming RAG raids this month, which is likely to be in both Poole and Reading. It's also my birthday in less than two weeks so that should be an event in itself! Heck almost 25...I so wish I was an undergrad again in some ways but would I really want to go through it all again? Maybe I would if I had studied at BU and not lived at home!

Anyway, as per usual I'll continue to post up regular updates on what I'm up to both in general and in regards to the Union. It would be great to get some more postgrad-oriented events organised this term and also start the foundation of a Postgraduate Society, something that may keep a continuing presence for all postgrads to be involved in for this year and the future.

Happy Holidays!

Well, what can I say? What a term! It sure has been a busy one for me and it's ended so quickly! I'm pleased to say that I've already learnt a great deal since I began my time at BU in September and I hope that next term will be even better for all of us.

I have been feeling a bit under the weather this past week so I haven't been quite so active. Even so, I've helped out a bit with both Donuts for Darfur and the Food for the Homeless collection and did manage to help decorate Dylans for the Christmas Party yesterday.

The postgraduate Christmas meal was also a great success, with around 25 attending. There will no doubt be many more events to come next year!

I'd like to say a big thank you to all who have helped out the Union this year, from volunteering to entertaining, from representing to communicating and also all those who will continue to help in the New Year.

Well I'm off back home to Plymouth tomorrow, if the trains are running at least! It sure hasn't been a good day today for travelling. Bloody weather!

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Dan :)

Christmas is coming!

Well, it's that time of year again and it won't be long now until it's here!

Meanwhile, this week has been somewhat quieter. Now, I'm not sure if it feels like that because I'm meant to be doing coursework...perhaps it is. Even so, I can sense a couple of late nights coming up this weekend in order to get my assignment in on time. I expect all of you are in the same boat right now, as it's just that time of year! We'll all get through it though I'm sure as the festive season fast approaches...bah when am I going to get time to get all those presents!

Nevertheless, I've still had time to do some community work. I had a busy weekend with the Southampton RAG raid that proved to be a really worthwhile experience, as it's the first street-based raid I've done so far. Even so, it sure can't beat last Thursday's raid where all of us had a fantastic time at the McFly raid at Wembley Arena, where we all managed to get tickets as a reward for our hard fundraising work. Now, I'm by no means a McFly fan...or at least I wasn't before the night, but even I really had a great time!

I attended the opening ceremony for the new About Face Centre (opposite Poole Hospital) on Wednesday, a new support centre for a charity who is one of the core RAG charities this year. We were welcomed with open arms and it's great to see how the money we raise this year will go towards such a good cause and maintain the centre for years to come. It was also time to deliver some boxes to the Lansdowne Campus for our Food for the Homeless campaign this year, and I hope all of them are full by the end of term. Please give whatever you can to your 'local box'!

Is it really almost the last week of term already? I guess time flies when you're having fun! There sure is plenty coming up in the final week with the Christmas Ball, Donuts for Darfur, the Dylan's & The SU Shop vs. The Old Firestation grudge match and much more. I hope you all manage to find time to come along to these great events in between all the coursework, after all, coming to Uni is about having fun as well as finally getting the piece of paper we're all here for at the end of it all!

Finally, there's a Christmas Meal for postgraduate students tomorrow, where the plan afterwards is to move to Aruba...no not quite the island but the bar (oh if only!), so please come along if you can as it should be a great night and a great opportunity to get to know some more students who are in the same boat as you.

As always, I welcome your comments on the blog or alternatively feel free to send any feedback to me via e-mail at supostgrad@bournemouth.ac.uk. After all, I'm here as are the rest of the exec committee, to do our best to represent you and make your Union a better one!

Running and Raiding

Well I've certainly had a busy week, what with actually having some lectures and lab sessions for once! I attended the RAG committee meeting on Monday to propose a range of events for World AIDS Day this coming Monday. This was well received and I hope that the RAG committee will get together to raise plenty of cash for various AIDS-related charities and promote awareness of the condition.

As I'm off to Wembley Arena in London this evening on a RAG raid for the Meningitis Research Foundation (MRF) I won't be at tonight's Union exec meeting. However, it should be a great night where I'm hoping to raise as much as I can for our four core charities this year. I'm hoping to do even better than in Bath a few weeks ago at Southampton this Saturday where a group of us RAGgies are off to raise money for Shelter. 

I also hope to be helping out with the food collection for the homeless around the local area this Christmas along with Donuts for Darfur in the last week of term. I'll write up more about those nearer the time!

Student Experience and Winton Forum Meetings

I attended the Student Experience Committee Meeting yesterday in the main conference room in Poole House yesterday along with several other representatives from our Union and found it a rewarding and useful experience. We managed to get across a number of issues that students have raised, such as buses, timetabling, ALN, myBU, e-registration and accomodation. It's great that the committee are aware of these pressing issues and the feedback we received was positive so we hope to see a number of positive changes in the coming weeks.

Last Wednesday I was at the Winton Community Forum Meeting, where the main topic of discussion was the problems associated with large numbers of students living in the local community. It certainly was quite an interesting meeting, with a few more-militant attendees. However, it seemed to have a positive outcome and I know those of us from exec who attended did our best to improve the image of the Students' Union and the University to local residents.

Some of you may have seen that a Christmas meal has been kindly arranged particularly for our postgrad community by Mory Cisse. There's a Facebook event set up for this and places are available on a first-come, first-saved basis. Find out more information here. Stay tuned for more events coming next term!

That's it for this week, more updates coming soon. In the meantime, feel free to e-mail me at any time at supostgrad@bournemouth.ac.uk.