Newman Students' Union Sports Development Officer 2008-2010

So you want to be the next Union Sports Officer?

2010-04-05T08:45:00.000-07:00

The Brief:

Supporting and training team Captains, as well as acting as Chair for Captains' Committee.
Publicising sports teams and increasing participation from students and new teams.
Monitoring expenditure and activities of all teams.
Acting as the main channel of communication between NSU and British Universities Colleges Sport (BUCS).
Supporting student groups participating in the Student Training and Activity Reward Scheme (STARS) system.

The Background:
During my time at Newman I have been able to witness a massive shift in culture and attitude towards Sport at the instituion in the provision of facilities and focus team coaching from the University’s side. Whilst I have been the elected officer during 2008-2010 I have been able to focus on improving professionalism within the volunteer base of students, pro-actively leading on funding sport ensuring its survival for the future, leading on student group rewards and development, increasing our institution’s involvement regionally within the young BUCS West Midlands group, and motivating those involved in sport.

The Future:
Whilst the future is generally uncertain what we can forecast for next academic year is that the Sports Officer will be expected to pro-actively lead on sports fundraising along with the Captains Committee, continue to build relationships within the institution for the development of Sport, supporting growth and participation in teams and start the preparations for how Newman will be involved in London 2012.

What do I need to know?

Being an Executive Officer is an unparralleled experience but I would ask whether being a Part-Time officer is right for you? You will need to be able to manage the demands of your course and the Union alongside each other (which may sound easy) but you’ll have to take into account the unexpected and the unimaginable during your year of office to be accurately prepared.

There will be a lot of responsibility on your shoulders and students will either love or hate you for your decisions, or lack of decisions, and ultimately you need to be aware and prepared for that before you decide to run. However there is a lot of good you can do whilst in office but I’d rather you put your ideas down in your manifesto.

I’ve had the ability to meet new people, travel around the country and deepen my understanding of the student movement as well as student activities which will be key for my future career plans. There are a lot of skills and experiences that you’ll pick up during the job but my advice to you is: don’t stand unless you want to give your 100% best.

My Advice

Stand if you want to make a difference.
Stand if you can take students hating you because of the hard decisions you’ll need to make both as an officer and as a trustee.
Stand if you want to improve support and learn more skills about how the real world works outside of your lectures and placement.
It’s so important you know everything you need to know while your doing so don’t hurt your chance of success by job sharing.

Previous Sports Development Officers

2009-2010: Rowan J. Draper (2)
2008-2009: Rowan J. Draper (1)
2007-2008: Niall Caheny (1)
2006-2007: Job Share - John Harrison (1) and Ger Noone (1-Resigned)

Union Awards Night

2010-03-18T09:54:00.000-07:00

The Students' Union is holding the annual Union Awards Night!

Bartley Green Social Club

Friday 26th March 2010

With a drinks reception, buffet, photographer, disco and the all important awards ceremony!

The first 60 tickets will be at a special reduced price of £12.50*, with the remaining 60 tickets on sale at £14.

Last year there was great demand for tickets, so get down early and make sure you get yours!

Come along and support your friends, sports teams and societies for this great ceremony!

*Maximum of two tickets per student.
*No refunds or ticket transfers

Paddy's Day is gone but Newman's campus is green?

2010-03-18T09:48:00.000-07:00

Newman Students’ Union is an organisation that is run by students for the students, and it’s time you had your say!

Newman Students' Union is holding its annual Executive Elections in April 2010.

The Executive Committee is elected every year by the students of Newman University College.
The Executive Officers have their own specific jobs to do; they have their own job title and job description.
Each Executive Committee member is also a Trustee of Newman Students’ Union.
The Union has its own constitution and policies to ensure that the day to day running of the Union is a smooth one, for the benefit of the students.

http://www.newmansu.org/elections

Or for more details or contact r.d.balding@staff.newman.ac.uk or su-president@newman.ac.uk for more information.

Vote for Students: Higher Education Funding

2010-02-19T03:59:00.000-08:00

The National Union of Students (NUS) are asking students to use their vote in the forthcoming general election to support candidates that would vote against any increase in fees in the next parliament – and would pressure the government to introduce a fairer alternative.

Some politicians don’t want to talk about their views on university fees at this election.
We think that’s what elections are for.

In a matter of weeks the British public will be going to the polls, and every vote will make the difference.
Students represent nearly 15% of the voting population, and in some constituencies students will determine who wins and who loses.

But who has your interests at heart? Which candidate will protect and preserve education?

NUS is calling on all students, parents and concerned members of the public to pledge to use your vote.

Vote for a candidate that will fight for a fairer education system.

Vote for a candidate that will oppose an increase in top up fees.

You can sign the pledge that will help NUS put pressure on candidates to come clean, and outline their position on fees.

You can find out more information here:
http://www.voteforstudents.co.uk/

British Universities Colleges Sport Results: Week Fourteen

2010-02-19T03:49:00.000-08:00

This week marked the fourteenth week of competition for the British Universities Colleges Sport (BUCS) League. Newman University College fielded 3 of the 8 BUCS teams who compete in the Autumn - Winter programme. All results found via http://www.bucs.org.uk/fl/api.asp?apiStartCode=msoclubsteams:200

Women's Badminton
Lost 3-5 against Oxford Brookes' University 1st team.

Men's Badminton
Lost 0-8 against University of Birmingham 3rd team.

Men's Basketball
Aston 2nd team withdrew from the game.

Women's Hockey
Lost 12-0 against Oxford Brookes' University 4th team.

Your Union wants you...

2010-02-15T16:48:00.000-08:00

This year it could be your turn to shine! Whether you're into Sport, Politics, Music or anything else, there is bound to be a role for you! This years election will be the first to have all new positions... they will be:

Executive Committee Positions:

President
Vice President
Activities Officer
Democracy Officer
Education Officer
Sports Officer
Welfare Officer

Other Available Union Roles:

Union Secretary
Union Chair
Student Governor

All these positions will give you great experience, and add some valuable CV skills to your repertoire.... it's got to be worth it, right? Pop into the Students' Union Office located in the HUB, above the Sanctuary for more details, or contact r.d.balding@newman.ac.uk

British Universities Colleges Sport Results: Week Thirteen

2010-02-10T03:40:00.000-08:00

This week marked the thirteenth week of competition for the British Universities Colleges Sport (BUCS) League. Newman University College fielded 1 of the 8 BUCS teams who compete in the Autumn - Winter programme. All results found via http://www.bucs.org.uk/fl/api.asp?apiStartCode=msoclubsteams:200

Women's Badminton
Lost 1-7 against Nottingham Trent University 2nd team.

British Universities Colleges Sport Results: Week Ten - Twelves (3 Week Catch Up)

2010-02-05T05:12:00.000-08:00

This week marked the thirteenth week of competition for the British Universities Colleges Sport (BUCS) League. Newman University College fielded 6 of the 8 BUCS teams who compete in the Autumn - Winter programme. We also have catch-up results from weeks ten, eleven and twelve.
All results found via http://www.bucs.org.uk/fl/api.asp?apiStartCode=msoclubsteams:200

Week Ten: 20-01-2010

Men’s Football
Lost 1:11 against Worcester 1sts

Week Eleven: 27-01-2010

Men’s Badminton
Lost 0:8 against Leicester 1sts

Men’s Basketball
Lost 50:57 against Loughborough 2nd

Women’s Basketball
Lost 39:66 against Worcester 1sts

Week 12: 03-02-2010

Women’s Badminton
Lost 1:7 against Warwick 2nds

Men’s Badminton
Lost 1:7 against Aston 1sts

Men’s Basketball
Lost 89:94 against Northampton 1sts

Women’s Basketball
Lost 22:51 against BCU 1sts

Men’s Football
Won 4:0 against Staffordshire 4th

Netball
Won 33:31 against Aston 2nd

RAG: Cupid's Carnage - 4 Bars, 1 Club, 1 Night all for £7!!

2010-02-03T02:51:00.000-08:00

Revolution
Sports Cafe
Risa
'O' Bar
I LOVE Tom's Mum @ Walkabout!!

Ticket price includes tshirt and 1 free ticket entering you into our Valentine's Day raffle for which the prizes are:

1st Prize - £60 Bullring Vouchers
2nd Prize - £40 Bullring Vouchers
3rd Prize - Bottle of Wine

Join us for something a little bit different...

Newman are going on a bar crawl!!

At least £1.50 from every ticket sold will be donated to the British Heart Foundation

Limited availability of tshirts so get yours from the Students' Union from Monday!!

Tickets are non refundable.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=278428112157&ref=mf

Men's Football FIFA '10 Tournament (24/02/2010)

2010-01-14T10:27:00.000-08:00

The Newman Men's Football team is hosting a FIFA 10 Tournament on Wednesday February 24th 2010.

Entry costs £1.50

For the winner there is a £10 HMV voucher but more importantly the title of Newman's FIFA 10 Champion!!!

To enter you should sign up at the Students' Union located in the Hub.

For more information: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=254609992521&ref=nf

Bin Bag Ball 2009 Review

2010-01-04T12:26:00.001-08:00

Women's Badminton and Hockey

2009 Bin Bag Ball

Pictured: Women's Badminton 1st team Captain Emilie Spooner and Women's Hockey 1st team Captain Michelle Wileman with the Union's Sports Development Officer 2008-2010.

Women's Badminton and Hockey teamed up on the 4th December to give Newman students the complete Bin Bag Experience! Complete with vodka shots, Hockey stick and Badminton racquet cakes the night had a good atmosphere leading upto the Bin Bag Catwalk.

Here are some select photos that are available at: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4382362&op=1&o=all&view=all&subj=29466846202&aid=-1&oid=29466846202&id=567198645#/photo_search.php?oid=29466846202&view=all courtesy of the Sanctuary Bar team.

Thanks to everyone who came and made it a great night, as well as Emilie and Michelle (and their teams) for making it all happen!

British Universities Colleges Sport Results: Week Nine

2009-12-10T12:21:00.000-08:00

This week marked the ninth week of competition for the British Universities Colleges Sport (BUCS) League. Newman University College fielded 1 of the 8 BUCS teams who compete in the Autumn - Winter programme.

All results found via http://www.bucs.org.uk/fl/api.asp?apiStartCode=msoclubsteams:200

NEWMAN RESULTS:

Women's Hockey

Lost 0-7 against Nottingham Trent University 4th team.

2009-12-05T01:11:00.000-08:00

Flash Mob - Birmingham Town Takeover

On Thursday at 2pm Newman Students' Union President Ben Nicholas lead available Newman University College students to voice their opinion, and connecting to a National Union of Students campaign for students to, affect the debate on Higher Education Funding.

Due to final year lectures I was not be able to attend the event, and I want you all to know that if you can go then you should go and support it too! With the British General Election due to come next semester during April and May 2010 students have a real tangible ability to get involved and influence how the decisions are made!

For more information please contact Ben Nicholas at SU-President@newman.ac.uk

British Universities Colleges Sport Results: Week Eight

2009-12-03T12:15:00.000-08:00

This week marked the eighth week of competition for the British Universities Colleges Sport (BUCS) League. Newman University College fielded 5 of the 8 BUCS teams who compete in the Autumn - Winter programme.

All results found via http://www.bucs.org.uk/fl/api.asp?apiStartCode=msoclubsteams:200

NEWMAN RESULTS:

Women's Badminton

Lost 1-7 against University of Worcester 1st team.

Men's Badminton

Drew 4-4 against University College Birmingham 1st team.

Men's Basketball
Won 62-60 against Birmingham City University 1st team.

Women's Hockey
Lost 0-4 against De Montfort University 4th team.

Netball
Won 51-17 against Staffordshire University's 3rd team.

Bin Bag Ball: 04-12-2009

2009-11-29T09:10:00.000-08:00

Photo courtesy of Toni Ansell

Newman Women's Badminton and Newman Women's Hockey Bin Bag Ball!

Friday 4th December at the Sanctuary Bar. Crowning the King and Queen of the Bin Bag Ball.

In their own words: "Last year we had the fab Bin Bag Ball fundraising night for Badminton and Hockey, which showcased everyone's artistic skills when it comes to Bin Bags!

The night will include a Bin Bag King and Queen for the best dressed, vodka jellies and much more...."

For more information please have a look here at the event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=200478227111

Are you Newman's Team of the Term?

2009-11-29T08:42:00.000-08:00

The Students' Union feels that it is vitally important to recognise the efforts, performances and achievements of all of Newman University College's sports teams, alongside the Student Training and Activity Reward Scheme (STARS), and it is in this vain the Students' Union will be celebrating the achievements of one sports team for their action over the October - December 2009 period.

If you think your team deserves to be Newman's team of the term then you need to contact the Sports Development Officer at R.J.Draper@newman.ac.uk and nominate the team you think most deserves it the award.

The Winners of the Team of the Term award will be selected based on a variety of factors, which will include, but not be solely limited to: impacting the student experience, results in BUCS, social activities and supporting team development and morale.

Winners of the Team of the Term award will receive:

Public recognition at the Sports and Societies Awards Night 2010 among all NSU sports teams and societies.
An exclusive certificate recognising the achievements of the team during October to December 2009!
An exclusive promotional video for their sports team created by the Sports Development Officer!
One free framed photo of the team at the Sports and Societies Awards Night 2010.

Withdrawal of Men's Rugby Union

2009-11-29T08:33:00.000-08:00

It is with deep regret that Newman Students' Union have withdrawn the Newman University College Men's Rugby Union 1st team from active competition in the British Universities Colleges Sport Midlands Conference, specifically League 4A, for 2009-2010.

Men's Rugby Union has been influential in the stable programme of sporting activities supported for by Newman Students' Union over a number of years. From all at NSU we wish for the team to come back bigger and stronger but that needs you!

Rugby Union training takes place on Mondays on the All-Weather Pitch, behind the Newman University College Sports Centre, between 5pm and 7pm every week during term-time. If you are interested in getting involved with Rugby Union at Newman please contact Captain Luke Sale at L.Sale@newman.ac.uk or myself at R.J.Draper@newman.ac.uk

http://www.newmansu.org/rugby

British Universities Colleges Sport Results: Week Seven

2009-11-26T23:22:00.000-08:00

This week marked the seventhweek of competition for the British Universities Colleges Sport (BUCS) League. Newman University College fielded 4 of the 9 BUCS teams who compete in the Autumn - Winter programme.

All results found via http://www.bucs.org.uk/fl/api.asp?apiStartCode=msoclubsteams:200

NEWMAN RESULTS:

Women's Badminton

Lost 0-8 against Aston University's 1st team.

Men's Badminton

Lost 0-8 against Wolverhampton University's 1st team.

Men's Basketball
Won 55-39 against Staffordshire University's 1st team.

Women's Basketball
Lost 34-47 against Anglia Ruskin University's 1st team.

Both Ladies and Men's Football fixtures were cancelled for the day due to water-logged facilities at Newman University College's home ground, Rowheath Pavillion.

Netball
Won 44-10 against DeMontfort University's 3rd team.

From the Sports Development Officer:

"Congratulations go out to all our teams that played this week for getting their team out and competing!

I'd especially like to say well done to Netball for winning this week 44-10 against De Montfort University's 3rd team and Men's Basketball who beat Staffordshire University's 1st team 55-39 after a close loss against the University's second team."

Student Training and Activity Reward Scheme (STARS) Workshops

2009-11-22T06:35:00.000-08:00

The Students' Union will be running a series of workshops for students who are interested in the Student Training and Activity Reward Scheme (STARS) scheme.

We welcome all members of the Sports and Societies in attending these sessions as well as Captains, Chairs and other relevant committee members to find out how groups can advance through the scheme, improve their activity group and get their advice and support from Executive Officers.The first of these sessions shall be held on Tuesday 24th November at 4pm-5pm in The Hub meeting room.

The first session will focus on the Bronze STARS level and how Sports and Societies can get started achieving STARS, how they are awarded and what role they play. One of the areas we will deal with in this session is how to go about writing a mission statement which will form the basics of your group's Constitution and much much more.

However if you have any specific questions on the STARS scheme itself please don't hesitate to come down and join in!

British University Colleges Sport Results: Week Six

2009-11-20T08:23:00.000-08:00

This week marked the sixth week of competition for the British Universities Colleges Sport (BUCS) League and 2nd KnockOut Cup week of the calendar. Newman University College fielded 4 of the 9 BUCS teams who compete in the Autumn - Winter programme.

All results found via http://www.bucs.org.uk/fl/api.asp?apiStartCode=msoclubsteams:200

NEWMAN RESULTS:

Men's Basketball
Won 68 - 42 against Oxford Brookes University in the Cup.

Women's Basketball
Lost 25 - 74 against Oxford University in the league.

Men's Football
Won 4 - 2 against Staffordshire University in the Cup.

Women's Netball
Lost 14 - 56 against University of Nottingham in the Cup.

NUS Union Development Zone Conference Report

2009-11-17T04:39:00.000-08:00

National Union of Students
Union Development Zone Conference Report
Day One: 29th October 2009

After taking some time to consider the impact of attending the first National Union of Students (NUS) Union Development Zone Conference I believe that the overarching theme that we need to take for Newman Students’ Union from the zone conference was and is a question of relevance. The zone conference took the theme from the NUS’ National Conference 2008’s priority motion – Campaigning for Change and so its workshops and speakers were looking at how Students’ Unions can campaign for change.

So let’s begin: What was relevant to Newman? There were a number of practical, philosophical and political questions that were raised throughout the day and I’ll begin at the start. We started our day with a plenary from a TUC organiser looking at the importance of activism & participation in the modern students’ union.

The major difference, I believe, between a trade union and a students’ union can be defined by the difference in its membership status. The TUC’s members pay for their membership and the services therein whilst our Union’s constitution, and the Education Act 1994, prescribes that all students must be members of the Union unless they choose to opt out. It is this facet that greatly influences the activism within both Unions. Is it relevant that our members do not opt-in or pay for the service the Union provides? Is it relevant that you don’t pay unless you are involved specifically in Entertainments, Sports and Societies? Is it relevant to our Union that workers’ pay for their membership?

Does it change the nature of the relationship of the worker from activist to consumer? Having listened to the TUC’s speaker I feel that both organisations have something relevant in common: they both fall short with activists at a ground level in organising their campaigns and representing their membership but it is wholly relevant how both organisations revolve around activists on a ground level.

To bring in an example from current affairs: we have all witnessed the recent postal strikes and for many of us this has been an undue hindrance to receiving important communications, books for our courses or most notably the delivery of NUS Extra Cards.

News programmes have shown pictures of workers campaigning on the picket line because of an ingrained culture within their Union fighting for change or reasonable working conditions however this is something that our Union has as yet not delivered. The relevant difference that I would like to highlight between the postal workers’ union and our own Union is the strength and activism of the membership and this is something I feel that both Unions can definitely work on for the future.

Why is it that Newman Students’ Union doesn’t have a campaigning culture? Does it want one? Does it see as relevant to its existence or to its development? If there was an issue big enough to campaign on – how would the Students’ Union go about it?

Following on from these questions I feel that it is relevant that we both ask ourselves the following vital questions, and we need to:
• Are activists valued by the organisation?
• How much would it cost to run the Union without those activists?

You all here at the Union General Meeting are activists of the Union. Do you feel valued? Why is it relevant that our membership is valued? I think that it is essential that all of our activists feel valued because we will end up with a situation where nobody wants to be involved, nobody will be enthused about the potential opportunities that the Union can and does provide and nobody will take the Union forward.

That, strategically, will have worse impact on our Students’ Union then anything else that I could forecast for the future because it is our activists that make the Union what it is. We all attribute traits to the style of the Executive Committee’s leadership in a particular year and sometimes that spurs us on to get involved and make a difference but without those activists even daring to put their head above water so to speak and lead the Union then what else will the Union have?

And I think that is relevant to the Students’ Union today and for the future. We must value our activists, we must respect our activists, and we must reward our activists regardless of how you get involved if you’re contributing your time towards the Union you should be rewarded be it in a certificate, a recognition of skills, a letter of reference or any other formats of recognition.

This leads me onto the second question. The Students’ Union revolves around the activism of its members be they the sabbatical or student officer team, the leaders of our clubs and societies, our course representatives, our student information and advice centre officers, our student councillors and most importantly its active students who may not be any of these but still contribute their hard earned money, time and effort to collectively shape and forward our Union. These our activists: is it relevant that our activists feel and are valued?

In a movement such as ours I believe it is critically important that we value each member who contributes to the Union. Without those members, what is the Students’ Union? Without members, what is the Students’ Union? Does the membership feel relevant to the Students’ Union? How can the Students’ Union become relevant with the membership? Does the membership want to be relevant to the Students’ Union?

This leads me onto the first workshop of the day that I attended looking at the best practice of union democracy, which was lead by the Chief Executive of Exeter Students’ Guild. Last year (2008-2009) they improved their election turnout of voters to 4,000 students which was 34% of their student body, this was the leading percentage of all students’ unions in the country for the year and as a Union who receives less than 12.5% of 3,000 students in voter turnout in the executive elections I felt it was highly important to our Union to find the best practice of a Union who had dramatically increased their turnout.

This issue comes back again to relevancy. After all: if we can only gain around 8% of a mandate for our elected officers then what sort of relevancy do we have for our institution? This is an important question when you consider the relationship between the Union and the University College Directorate, which informally knocks on to our block grant from the institution, which is then ultimately divided by the Union’s Annual General Meeting between its services.

If we want to set a realistic strategic plan for the development of the Union then how must the Union plan to realistically go about achieving those plans? How relevant are those plans to the University? How relevant are those plans to the students? What do students see as relevant for the Union to be doing?

There were a number of factors that contributed to the success of the results at Exeter’s election. They were:

100% student run through an Elections Committee.
Action Plan and Targets to achieve – focusing on communication networks through both institution staff and students.
Drop in sessions with Guild staff and student officers from October and that gained a 70% conversion rate impact on candidates who stood, which ultimately meant: 33 candidates and 710 campaigners.
Used an online voting system.
Streamlined and simplified the election regulations
Hosted and organised a number of pre-Christmas marketing efforts
Lecture talks
All-student emails
Advert in the student paper
Website
Facebook
Agreed targets with current student officer team for the number of candidates for their individual position.
Continuously delivered a high profile in the student media.
Got involved with a careers fair at the University to influence students’ thinking about seeing the sabbatical job as a viable career path once they had finished their studies.
Ensured that the elections were ‘unmissable’ on campus.
Developed and maintained good working relationships with IT Services Department who provided ‘Vote Now’ desktop wallpaper on all campus PCs and computers were programmed to give reminders about voting when students logged in and before they logged off.
They also delivered multi-lingual publicity so that they were reaching a larger amount of students.

There were a number of questions that were posed during the discussion phase of this workshop. In the group I was in we specifically looked at how we could promote interest for the elections and for candidates outside of the election period.

After looking at simple ways of running meaningless votes during the first semester I offered the idea that if you throw elections or voting at students they will get tired quickly and will not respond well to you in the future however if you were to focus on themes and concepts that are important to students all year round you can develop the interest around how the Union is run and who by.

I suggested the idea that for many Union’s we were stuck in traditions or conventions that work and the only reason we pursue them is because of the ingrained easiness for our staff and officers and that we needed to challenge those traditions to bring about new forms of communication and promotion to our membership.

For example: how many people sat through their Freshers’ Week with a long line of talks? I did. I am an ambassador of our Union now but as a Fresher I still remember seeing the old Union power-point with the mantra of ‘Representation, Advice, Support, Welfare, Sports, Societies” and being turned off.

I feel that a better way of approaching students’ is through workshops, like we experience at conference, looking at the difference opportunities the Union can provide for students so that you are actively discussing and working with your membership on how they can improve themselves and their educational opportunities whilst at the institution.

It also provides a secondary opportunity for executive officers, clubs and society leaders and course reps to be involved in this process and facilitate the learning of new students who will become their active membership in the years to come.

An Update

2009-11-14T16:28:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

It’s coming close to being a month since I posted details about how my term of office this year is going, and my blog is intended to contribute towards providing greater accountability to the students, so I should really make with some more details and keep all of you students up to date with all the latest goings on of your Executive Officer responsible for Sports Development.

Publicising Sports
Part of my role as Sports Development Officer for the Students' Union is to publicise the sports teams which I feel that I'm taking a better crack at this year. I'm glad to say that I am current on all the team's weekly fixtures putting them up on the various Union notice-boards around the institution and that this has been part of fulfilling my manifesto promises to students by Improving Professionalism and Building on Success.

I'm happy to say that I have found a good routine which is the key to the success of this. Specifically: posting the results on the Thursday when they've been input onto the BUCS system to my blog, which also links to facebook, and then getting them on the boards by Tuesday. Small highlights have also gone into the Union mini-newsletters that you'll find in the Sanctuary and Sanctuary Bar but I understand that if you've got any ideas on how else the Union can effectively post the scores and publicise the teams that way please drop a comment and let me know by contacting me at R.J.Draper@newman.ac.uk.

Captains Committee

I've been regularly communicating with the Captains again this year and we've had two of our meetings already with our third before christmas already planned and I'm quite happy with the development of this years' group as well as the captains themselves.

Want to join the A-Team?

As I have been promoting for the last couple of weeks I have been looking to put together an A(ction) Team that will specifically look at sporting events, fundraisers and other projects sporting at Newman Students' Union... I'm looking for as many people as are willing and I've got a couple of projects I'd like some help with. If you're interested email me at R.J.Draper@newman.ac.uk, drop a comment on here or via Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=168620621172

Overseeing a number of developments
I've been looking over a number of different developments within the sports teams at the institution and this has been part of my manifesto promises to students to Develop Sport and Build on Success.

I’ve been supporting the Cheerleading setup and trying to get them up and running again, and for those of you involved I apologise for how long its taken, but we should have some good results in the very near future so please do keep your eyes peeled and check your Newman emails. If you’re interested in getting involved with this then contact me at R.J.Draper@newman.ac.uk.

For the second year running I’ve had interest in setting up Ladies Gaelic Football. We’ve got equipment for the girls to get involved with this at Newman and anybody who is interested should contact Samantha Maguire at MAGU203@newman.ac.uk.

This year we’ve had an interesting request looking at Fencing. There’s a meeting coming on Thursday 19th November at 12.30pm in The Hub for students who are interested in getting involved with this. If you can’t make it the person to contact is Nick Kennedy at KENN205@newman.ac.uk.

The Students’ Union and the PESS Department, Newman Sport, are looking at the advantages to students of Rowing for students and we’re trying to organise a possible development looking at building up to outdoor rowing in the future. If you’re interested in getting involved with this then contact me at R.J.Draper@newman.ac.uk.

Elected a Council Rep for Sports from the student body!
Again I’ve been attempting to fulfil my manifesto promises to students by Developing Sport and Building on Success and this year I’ve been successful in recruiting and organising the election of a student representative to Student Council for Sports. If you’d like to get in contact with your representative please contact Sarah Addly at ADDL200@newman.ac.uk and she’ll be able to bring your concerns both to me to deal with the Executive Committee and to Student Council.

Alongside Sarah we also have Victoria ‘Tors’ Coley the Women’s Basketball Captain who is the Captains’ Committee representative for Sports at Student Council. She can be contacted at V.Coley@newman.ac.uk

NUS Union Development Zone Conference
On the 28th October on behalf of the Students’ Union I attended the Union Development Conference in Manchester put on by National Union of Students. I attended the sessions on Best practice in Union Democracy and Best practice for Governance and Institutional Relationships and I’ll be providing my speech to Student Council about one of the sessions in the next few days.

BUCS West Midlands
On November 3rd I attended a our BUCS conference competition meeting at University of Birmingham where we discussed a number of topics. The most relevant to Newman at the moment regards Wednesday afternoon lectures and what institutions around the region are doing which I made a significant contribution to the discussion of. Our forum chair will be looking into BUCS stance and what they can BUCS do for us as a region? We also agreed that student officers should collate examples of ‘best practice’ from across the region and report back at the next meeting so that there was a resource for officers (examples given include Birmingham City-walk out of lectures day and Staffordshire University-lectures in sports kit).

Constitution Review
The Union is required to undertake a review of a constitution every five years and since the last constitution was approved in 2002, we’ve been well overdue an update, so I and the sabbatical officers alongside the invitations given to members of Student Council and the institutions Board of Governors we‘ve been looking at the main body of the constitution and making good progress on the first appendix also. I’m hopeful that we’ll have a constitution ready for approval by Annual General Meeting for the end of this academic year.

Strategic Plan Review
The Union has a strategic plan, which outlines our intentions and mission, which needs to be looked at every 3 years. The strategic plan has featured in many Executive meetings already and I think it’ll be good for when students get their chance to ask questions about the direction of their Union and the answers that they get.

Please do note that this is not a report but just an update of how I’m getting on and please do feel free to ask any questions.

British University Colleges Sport Results: Week Five

2009-11-13T08:22:00.000-08:00

This week marked the fifth week of competition for the British Universities Colleges Sport (BUCS) League calendar. Newman University College fielded 5 of the 9 BUCS teams who compete in the Autumn - Winter programme.

All results found via http://www.bucs.org.uk/fl/api.asp?apiStartCode=msoclubsteams:200

NEWMAN RESULTS:

Men's Badminton
Lost 2 - 6 against University of Warwick 3rd team.

Men's Basketball
Lost 53 - 61 against Staffordshire University 2nd team.

Men's Football
Lost 9 - 1 against University of Derby 2nd team.

Women's Hockey
Drew 1 - 1 against University of Lincoln 3rd team.

Women's Netball
Won 36 - 20 against Worcester University's 4th team.

From the Sports Development Officer:

"Congratulations go out to all our teams that played this week for getting their team out and competing!

I'd like to say well done to Netball for winning 36-20 against Worcester University 4th team and Hockey drawing 1-1 after a dominating performance against University of Lincoln 3rd team this week.

Commisserations to Men's Basketball who narrowly lost 53-61 against Staffordshire University 2nd team."

Want to join the A-Team?

I'm looking to put together an A(ction) Team that will specifically look at sporting events, fundraisers and other projects sporting at Newman Students' Union... I'm looking for as many people as are willing and I've got a couple of projects I'd like some help with.

If you're interested email me at R.J.Draper@newman.ac.uk, drop a comment on here or via Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=168620621172

British University Colleges Sport Results: Week Four

2009-11-06T11:40:00.000-08:00

This week marked the fourth week of competition for the British Universities Colleges Sport (BUCS) League calendar. Newman University College fielded 8 of the 9 BUCS teams who compete in the Autumn - Winter programme.

All results found via http://www.bucs.org.uk/fl/api.asp?apiStartCode=msoclubsteams:200

NEWMAN RESULTS:

Men's Badminton
Lost 0 - 8 against University of Birmingham 3rd team.

Women's Badminton
Lost 0 - 8 against Oxford Brookes University 1st team.

Men's Basketball
Won 66 - 57 against Aston University 2nd team.

Women's Basketball
Won 38 - 33 against Aston University 1st team.

Ladies Football
Lost 1 - 13 against University of Derby 1st team.

Men's Football
Won 3 - 1 against University of Birmingham 3rd team.

Women's Hockey
Lost 0 - 6 against University of Leicester 2nd team.

Women's Netball
Won 29 - 24 against Staffordshire University's 4th team.

Men's Rugby Union
Scheduled to play Cranfield University 1st team but Cranfield were unable to play.

From the Sports Development Officer:

"Congratulations go out to all our teams that played this week for getting their team out and competing!

I'd like to say well done to Men's Football who've continued their impressive start to league competition with a third successive win against University of Birmingham's 3rds this week as well as Men's Basketball who have finally got their first win of the season with a team built predominantly by Freshers from 2009.

Commisertations to our Men's and Women's Badminton teams who are continuing to improve but came up against stern opposition this week. Also noted should be Women's Hockey who continue to improve especially with their second half performance against the University of Leicester 2nd team.

I'd like to spotlight and extend my personal congratulations both to Women's Basketball and Women's Netball who I must say are both starting up on a bit of a winning streak in their respective leagues, which is fantastic considering that these are the teams' second only competitive season ever! So well done girls!"

Want to join the A-Team?

I'm looking to put together an A(ction) Team that will specifically look at sporting events, fundraisers and other projects sporting at Newman Students' Union... I'm looking for as many people as are willing and I've got a couple of projects I'd like some help with.

If you're interested email me at R.J.Draper@newman.ac.uk, drop a comment on here or via Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=168620621172

British University Colleges Sport Results: Week Three

2009-10-30T09:19:00.000-07:00

This week marked the first week of competition for the British Universities Colleges Sport (BUCS) KnockOut Cup calendar. Newman University College fielded 2 of the 9 BUCS teams who compete in the Autumn - Winter programme.

All results found via http://www.bucs.org.uk/fl/api.asp?apiStartCode=msoclubsteams:200

NEWMAN RESULTS:

Women's Hockey
Lost 0 - 14 against University of Bedfordshire (Bedford) 4th team.

Women's Netball
Won 35 - 34 against De Montfort University's 2nd team.

Men's Rugby Union
Scheduled to play University of Nottingham's 4th team but were unable to play.

I'd like to take the time to note that Netball after a couple of week's of close matches in BUCS competition have got the better of the opposition this week and won a close match progressing them to the next round. Congratulations to them for their continued improvements and good luck for the next round of the competition against University of Nottingham's 4th team.

British University Colleges Sport Results: Week Two

2009-10-22T06:24:00.000-07:00

British University Colleges Sport Results: Week Two

This week marked the second round of competition for the British Universities Colleges Sport (BUCS) calendar. Newman University College fielded 7 of the 9 BUCS teams who compete in the Autumn - Winter programme.

All results found via http://www.bucs.org.uk/fl/api.asp?apiStartCode=msoclubsteams:200

I'd like to say that "It's been very good to see the improving performances of all the teams here at Newman University College. Both our Men's and Ladies Football team won this week with our Ladies gaining the best of an 11 goal thriller and our Men's Football team continued on with a 3-1 result. Though some of our teams may have lost this week I know that they will have put 100% into their performance and will continue on their development throughout the season."

NEWMAN RESULTS:

Women's Badminton
Lost 0-8 against University of Warwick’s 1st team.

Men's Badminton
Lost 1-7 against Aston University’s 1st team.

Men's Basketball
Lost 56-71 against University of Northampton’s 1st team.

Women's Basketball
Did not play – next game 04/11/2009 against Aston 1st team.

Men's Football
Won 3-1 against Staffordshire University’s 4th team.

Ladies Football
Won 6-5 against University of Derby (Buxton)'s 1st team.

Women's Hockey
Lost 0 - 12 against University of Bedfordshire (Bedford) 4th team.

Women's Netball
Lost 21 - 24 against Aston University’s 4th team.

Men's Rugby
Did not play – scheduled to play University of Derby 1st

British University Colleges Sport Results: Week One

2009-10-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

British University Colleges Sport Results: Week One

This week marked the first competitve week of the British Universities Colleges Sport (BUCS) calendar and Newman University College fielded 8 of the 9 BUCS teams who compete in the Autumn, Winter and Spring programme.

NEWMAN RESULTS:

Women's Badminton lost 1-7 against the University of Worcester 1st team.

Men's Badminton drew 4-4 against University College Birmingham's 1st team.

*Men's Basketball's score against Birmingham City University has yet to be input*

Women's Basketball won 71 - 67 against Staffordshire University's 1st team.

Men's Football won 2-0 against University of Derby (Buxton)'s 1st team.

Ladies Football lost 2-3 against University College Birmingham's 1st team.

Women's Netball lost 24 - 25 against Staffordshire University's 3rd team.

Men's Rugby lost 5 - 40 against University of Derby's 2nd team.

All results found via http://www.bucs.org.uk/fl/api.asp?apiStartCode=msoclubsteams:200

I'd like to say "Well done to all of the Newman sports teams who got out there and played on Wednesday! I hope your performances and results the hard work that you've put into the season so far. With the continued hard work and determination I know comes from Newman students I anticipate a very colourful and enjoyable season ahead."

Review of Freshers and Returners

2009-10-04T03:16:00.000-07:00

The past two weeks have really been an enjoyable experience for me. Meeting all the new Freshers that will go on to take the Union forward in a couple of years (whether they know it now or not) and all the Returners that are enjoying their final degree years. All of the events have run pretty much smoothly, which is a good thing, and they weren't half as intensive as last year which from a personal point of view is another positive.

I organised two events, one of which has had a small review for the Freshers Sports Open Day, and then Question of Sport, which happened on Thursday.

It was the first time we'd done anything like that and I think it went well considering all the technical difficulties. I'd like to do it again with some more audience participation so I'm looking for ideas how.

This week gets me back into lectures and meetings so I'm going to go and prepare for both. Ciao.

Review of Freshers Sports Open Day '09

2009-09-27T03:03:00.000-07:00

I'd like to say thanks to all the students who attended the Freshers Sports Open Day last Friday. There are photos available from the day that can be found on the Newman Students' Union Sport facebook group. So do please do join and show your support for Newman Sport: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=29466846202

If you were unable to attend but still want to get involved then please see www.newmansu.org/sport which has all the information of our teams and our Captains or the facebook group link as above.

Freshers' Sports Open Day 2009

2009-09-19T01:42:00.000-07:00

The Students' Union hopes to promote Student Sport to all incoming students at Newman University College.

The event set to kick off from 12.30pm onwards will provide students the chance to get involved with a selected number of sports and use the facilities; all you need to bring is a willingness to get involved and the appropriate kit (i.e. t-shirt, shorts and trainers) and we will do the rest!

Sports Development Officer, Rowan Draper, said: "Please do come and have a look at what Newman Sport can offer you during your experience at Newman University College whilst you work towards your degree. As well as the great relationships and friends that sport can provide, it can also prepare you with skills that will get you on the career ladder quicker once you've graduated and most of all - it will give you a memorable experience that University should be about."

The Details:

All Weather Pitch

12.30 - 13.15 Cricket
13.15 - 14.00 Football & Gaelic Football
14.00 - 14.45 Hockey
14.45 - 15.30 Rugby Union

Sports Hall

13.15 - 14.00 Badminton
14.45 - 15.30 Netball
15.30 - 16.15 Basketball

Advertising Union Sport 2009-2010

2009-08-01T19:56:00.000-07:00

How can you get involved with Union Sport at Newman?

The quickest and sure fire way to get involved with Sport at Newman University College is to attend your Fresher's Fair held during September! The Union will host its Freshers Fair for Initial Teacher Training students on Tuesday 22nd September and Thursday 24th September Undergraduate students.

Whether you want to continue playing your regular sport from home or whether you want to take up a new one, whether its something to keep you fit during term-time or whether you just want to have fun Newman style! - you'll find something here specially for you! We want you to get involved whether you just want a regular kick-about, a weekly competitive game in the British Universities Colleges Sport (BUCS) league or whether you just want to tone up throughout the year.

During Freshers Week

After all of your enrolment and induction activities for your course on Friday 25th September Newman Sport, a combination of both the the Students' Union (NSU) and Newman Leisure Facilities, will be hosting an Sports Open Day to promote Student Sport to all incoming students at Newman.

The event set to kick off from 12.30pm onwards will provide students the chance to get involved with a selected number of sports and use the facilities; all you need to bring is a willingness to get involved and the appropriate kit (i.e. t-shirt, shorts and trainers) and we will do the rest!

Please do come and have a look at what Newman Sport can offer you during your experience at Newman University College whilst you work towards your degree.

The timetable is still to be confirmed but please don't hesitate to get in contact with us at R.J.Draper@newman.ac.uk

During Returners Week

On Thursday 1st October the Union will be hosting a Question of Sport in the Sanctuary Bar starting from 7pm onwards. This will give students a chance to get involved with the comical and quizical aspect of student sport at Newman. If you'd like to be involved please don't get hesitate to get in touch with the Union at R.J.Draper@newman.ac.uk

Finding Out More

You can find more information about Union Sport via our website NSU Sport at http://www.newmansu.org/sport or through Facebook group Newman Students' Union Sport, which is located here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=29466846202&ref=ts, which provides links to individual teams' facebook groups, details of what's going on with Sport and much, much more!

For your viewing pleasure:

We have two promotional videos to wet your appetite for sport that'll give you information about Sport at Newman and who to contact to get involved whether you're interested in a kick-around or weekly BUCS competition.

Promo Video A backed by Creed's My Sacrifice: http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=125855380663&h=RklTP&u=H-GkX

Promo Video B backed by a mixed version of Tatu's All the things she said: http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=132382891030&h=-AvxO&u=hG85K

Thanks

We hope you enjoy the videos and if you need any more information or fancy a chat about how Sport can fit into your lifestyle at Newman then please don't hesitate to contact us at R.J.Draper@newman.ac.uk

An Introduction to Freshers 2009

2009-07-09T11:15:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

I'm Rowan Draper and I'm your Sports Development Officer for 2009-2010.

I’m a third year Drama student and I come from Stafford in the West Midlands. For the last two years at Newman I have been actively involved with the Men's Rugby Union Club and the Men's Gaelic Football Club.

During my first year I was a member of the Entertainments Committee and a Course Representative and I also got involved with Student Council, which I am still a member of as a member of the Union’s Executive Committee.

This is my second year as the Union’s Sports Development Officer and it is my job to promote, develop, support and represent Sport at Newman University College for the Students’ Union. It is also my job to work closely with the other members of the Executive Committee supporting them in communal efforts like campaigns and promoting the Union.

I do this by:

Leading, supporting and co-ordinating the efforts of the Captain’s Committee.
Encouraging participation in sport as well as supporting and developing new teams in to Students’ Union.
Publicising the sports teams and developing the efforts of the individual Captains.
Monitoring the expenditure of sports teams.
Acting as the main channel of communication for the students to BUCS (British Universities Colleges Sport) and vice versa.
Developing and supporting teams to achieve STARS (Student Training and Activity Reward Scheme) Awards.
Assisting where I’m needed helping out with the Union brand events like the Winter Ball, Stars in the Bar and the Summer Ball.

5 Favourite Facts:
Sport: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Football Team: Arsenal
Rugby Team: Leicester Tigers (Union) / Bradford Bulls (League)
Musical: Blood Brothers by Willy Russell
TV Series: The West Wing

Report from the Union's Annual General Meeting

2009-06-21T07:19:00.000-07:00

Executive Summary
This academic year has been very kind to Sport and it has also been very successful. It’s been a pleasure and a privilege to have been elected your Sports Development Officer for this year to witness the quantity and quality of activity from Newman students’ this year. The Union is moving forward in the right direction and I am positive that this will continue to progress through the years to come. Our support around the institution has grown which has meant that the Union has been able to deliver better quality coaching, equipment, training times and facilities to our sports teams which has been of great benefit to developing sport.

Captains’ Committee
The Union has improved the involvement and the efficiency of the Captains’ with the Union by introducing a new Captains Committee with a professional outlook and a specific remit.

The committee has been successful in delivering:
· Leisurewear
· Tours
· Valuable input to Captains Training
& their Handbook

This year your Captains have regularly met and they are meeting about issues that concern you, and they are helping guide sport.

Fundraising & Socials
This year sports teams have held more social and fundraising events with a variety of positive results for example:
· Ladies Football Karaoke, Car Wash, Raffle;
· Cheerleading;
· Netball’s Logic Quiz;
· Gymnastics and Trampolining Darts and Pool competition;
· Men’s Football 5-a-side competition;
· Badminton and Hockey’s Bin Bag Ball).

This is a massive improvement overall from previous years and looks positive going into the new academic year.

Campus Facilities
The use of facilities has exploded this year. The Union has been able to secure training times for sports teams at peak times and develop a larger number of teams this year.
· Badminton have seen success this year thanks to their hard work as well as an improved training slot and are ready to enter a Men’s side into BUCS next year.
· Men’s and Ladies Football, Men’s Rugby and Hockey have all benefited from the use of the
synthetic pitch behind the Sports Hall.

New Teams
The Union has wanted to develop sustainable sports teams. By introducing measures and fail-safes to ensure that teams are serious about training and serious about sport has contributed to two new developing teams being affiliated this year:
· Men’s Badminton
· Triathlon.

We’ve had interest from students involved in Scuba Diving, Squash and Ladies Gaelic Football.

Training & Development
The quality and relevancy of training for your Captains has improved this year and has been implemented prior to the summer break, which is massive step forwards. The Union has also been able to send a number of students including myself to a variety of different conferences throughout the year. This has included the Annual SRFU Conference at Twickenham and a BUCS Football Development Conference held at Anfield contributing to greater exposure to ideas from outside Newman and personally developing themselves.

Student Training and Activity Reward Scheme
Wanting to ensure that your teams give you value for money the Union introduced the Student Training and Activity Reward Scheme earlier this year. At the end of the first year of operation we, as a Union, have awarded so far:

Bronze (6): Christian Union, Women’s Basketball, Badminton, Ladies’ Football, Gymnastics and Trampolining, MaDSoC.
Silver (3): Christian Union, Gymnastics & Trampolining, MaDSoC.

Platinum Distinction – Katie Healy, Badminton Captain

Sports & Societies Awards Night
Thanks to the efforts of our Entertainments Officer and her committee we were able to celebrate the year in style at Bartley Green social club. I am proud to have witnessed Simon Laidley and Ladies Football being recognised as the 2008/2009 Sports Person of the Year and
2008/2009 Sports Team of the Year respectively. My thanks go to all of those involved in making sure that the night went fantastically and all of you who came to witness the festivities.

A Thought for the Future
The future is positive for the Students’ Union and with the continued support of staff, officers and students Sport will continue to thrive. What we have seen this year has been fantastic and what Sport is all about: the team supporting each other, ensuring that the team receives good results and above all – the enjoyment of sport.

As your elected officer for 2009-2010 I look forward to meeting all of the new students and working with the new Captains to continue to build on the successes of this year and to build Sport.

Final Note
This year has been a successful year but must be contributed to a number of passionate individuals (Union President, Vice President, Activities Administrator, Development Manager, Sports Facilities Manager and Head of Physical Education and Sports Studies) as well as YOU who have ensured that this year has been great! For their, and your, involvement in the development of sport I give my thanks on behalf of all of the student body at Newman University College.

2009-05-30T00:51:00.000-07:00

It's been just over a month since my last post and a lot has been going on. I was heavily involved with MadSoc's Schools Will Rock You production. I've got my own production project next week and I've also been running around like a blue arsed fly to make sure that I have a Captains' Handbook for next year and a few other things.

So - AGM is coming up ...

What have I been upto?

Without going into too much detail about madsoc and my production, that's been on the schedule the last month.

As well as in the last couple of weeks we got my first set of democratically elected Captains in their jobs and started training them with a session yesterday. So I've had to prepare training plans so that it's useful for captains to attend. For any who didn't get to see them the full results are here:

Election results are as follows;

Men's Badminton Captain 09/10
3 valid votes were cast
David Burns - 3
R.O.N. - 0
David Burns is elected Captain

Women's Badminton Captain 09/10
10 valid votes were cast
Emilie Spooner - 7
Charlotte Townsend - 3
R.O.N. - 0
Emilie Spooner is elected Captain

Women's Basketball Captain 09/10
4 valid votes were cast
Victoria Coley - 4
R.O.N. - 0
Victoria Coley is elected Captain

Cricket Captain 09/10
3 valid votes were cast
Jack Newman - 2
R.O.N - 1
Jack Newman is elected Captain

Cricket Vice-Captain 09/10
3 valid votes were cast
Kieran Charratt - 0
R.O.N - 3

Ladies Football Captain 09/10
9 valid votes were cast
Lucy Spurrier - 9
R.O.N. - 0
Lucy Spurrier is elected Captain

Ladies Football Vice-Captain 09/10
9 valid votes were cast
Keira Killingworth - 9
R.O.N. - 0
Keira Killingworth is elected Vice-Captain

Men's Football Captain 09/10
2 valid votes were cast
Simon Laidley - 2
R.O.N. - 0
Simon Laidley is elected Captain

Gaelic Football Captain 09/10
4 valid votes were cast
David Cooney - 4
R.O.N. - 0
David Cooney is elected Captain

Gymnastics and Trampolining Captain 09/10
3 valid votes were cast
Ashleigh Blount - 1
Kelly Moorcroft - 2
R.O.N. - 0
Kelly Moorcroft is elected Captain

Hockey Captain 09/10
15 valid votes were cast
Lisa Clamp - 6
Michelle Wileman - 9
R.O.N. - 0
Michelle Wileman is elected Captain

Hockey Vice-Captain 09/10
14 valid votes were cast
Rhiannon Walker - 14
R.O.N. - 0
Rhiannon Walker is elected Vice-Captain

Netball Captain 09/10
2 valid votes were cast
Katie Morrison - 2
R.O.N. - 0
Katie Morrison is elected Captain

Netball Vice-Captain 09/10
2 valid votes were cast
Lynsey Dinsdale - 2
R.O.N. - 0
Lynsey Dinsdale is elected Vice-Captain

Rugby Captain 09/10
7 valid votes were cast
Luke Sale - 5
R.O.N. - 2
Luke Sale is elected Captain

Rugby Vice-Captain 09/10
7 valid votes were cast
Andrew Clarke - 4
R.O.N. - 3
Andrew Clarke is elected Vice-Captain

Thank you to all who took part in the elections and voted and congratulation to the newly elected Captains and Vice-Captains.

What being re-elected means to me:

2009-04-12T21:16:00.000-07:00

Photo: Rowan receiving the 2009/2010 election results from the Deputy Returning Officer

Rob Balding, NSU Development Manager, and Lewis Palin, a former Newman Students' Union President (courtesy of Jo Hardman's facebook album).

Being elected meant so much more to me this year for a variety of reasons. Approaching this election I was much more worried about defending my position than assuming the position because I'd been in office for a year which gives both positives and negatives, and I'm somewhat pessimistic when it comes to viewing my own achievements as many of the Union staff will tell you.

I think it was all-important to me because it was a validation of all the work that I've been doing this year. It says to me that students want to see carry on next year in the form of building on success, developing sport, improving professionalism, defending against failure and achieving success (which is what I campaigned on).

It was also very emotional for me because Student Council and U/AGM are not as well attended as I would like so I found it hard to gauge real student opinion as to whether they would want me for a second time. I know that some of the more engaged students have seen the work I've put in this year and the effort I've contributed to ensure that sport is made a success. With a mandate of more than half of the vote I think it's a strong signal that students at Newman want me to continue what I'm doing.

I can remember being very emotional in the lead up of the results being announced (as they were the penultimate results to be announced save that of the Presidency, which goes to show the pre-eminence that sport has gained this year) because like many other sabbatical and part-time students in Unions' around the country they don't want the experience to end.

I have learned so much this year and I know that I've got so much more to learn before I even finish the first-term of office before thinking about a second term of office. I can only thank the people around me who've helped contribute to my personal development throughout this year that has gone to making me the best officer I can be.

It is definitely an experience I would recommend and if you want to know more please just give me a shout and I'll give you my story on what it's like to be involved with the elections, the elation of winning and the emotions leading up to the results.

Team of the Year: 2008/2009

2009-04-08T20:06:00.000-07:00

Newman Students' Union:

Team of the Year Award 2008/2009

This award must recognise several factors, which have all greatly contributed to influencing the final decision of this award. Many of our teams have shone brightly this year but none more so than the winners of this year’s award.

Shining Brightly:

Badminton have continued to excel as team and their hard-work and effort has culminated in a well-deserved win against Staffordshire University but it is their will to battle on and fight for the spotlight that has earned them a good reputation at Newman. They are also the only team to have run several intra-mural competitions in the past year. To Badminton: we salute you.

Hockey have come into their own with the addition of a coach. Their unique team-spirit and identity has come to the fore-front this year and they have been continuously one of the rising stars from sports. Developing to include a Men's side and bringing in lots of new players from a whole range of different courses and year groups Hockey have battled well this year and for this we applaud them.

Men's Football should be proud of themselves having developed a strong competitive performing team with a large number of new players to the squad. After the expectations set out for the 2007-2008 season that were not realised it has been refreshing and exciting to see our Men's Football side do so well.

Gymnastics and Trampolining has really gone from strength to strength this year and really challenged all of the boundaries. They have been up there with all of our other teams who've shone brightly this year by hosting fundraising events like the Bar Sports: Pool and Darts competition night and also achieving the Silver STARS award granted to them by the student body. This is on top of adding an extra sport or discipline to their existing range. This has helped to bring in more members and helped to ensure they competed this year, and they performed very well at the Loughborough Open competition earlier this year.

Our winners have significantly improved over this year as a team and as a team they have increased their enterprising range of fundraising events and initiatives as well as being involved in them as a team. As well as fulfilling weekly fixtures in the British Universities Colleges Sport Midlands Conference they have also continued to stretch their ‘wings’ outside of Newman to include more social and competitive fixtures.

The team has improved all-round from the previous year and knowing the hard-work, effort and commitment that went into making it possible I know that this year’s Captain has not only filled the shoes of the previous Captain but also increased the size of those shoes to fill for next year.

Ladies Football are our Team of the Year for 2008-2009.

Ladies Football have had an exciting and complete calendar this year, which has involved running successful Karaoke Nights, Car Wash and Raffle fundraisers as well as their regular socials throughout this year. They have also attended a six-a-side Ladies Football tournament at Warwick University this year as well as organising and going on a second consecutive tour to Salou Fest as well as managing to secure themselves additional sportswear for their tour.

Ladies Football are: Joanne House. Victoria Coley. Lynda Brittles. Della Moloney. Liz Stevenson. Laura Knott. Laura Bromley. Lucy Spurrier. Claire Skett. Kiera Killingworth. Rachael Heitzman. Cath Venning. Captain Rachael Green.

Apologies if you've been missed off, please leave a comment and I'll sort it out for you.

Raise and Give Week

2009-04-03T04:02:00.001-07:00

R.A.G. (Raise and Give) week is starting on the 20th April 2009! Just after Easter when we all return.

The four causes we are collecting for this year are:
British Heart Foundation
HCPT
Make a Wish foundation
Newman Sport Africa

To help raise awareness and funds for our causes we are running many events throughout each day and night, which should ensure that R.A.G. week is an enjoyable week for all!

Monday:
Coffee Time 12pm - 3pm: Come to the bar and buy a hot drink with 50p from each cup going straight to R.A.G week!
Also happening, Face Painting and Stocks: throw wet sponges at members of our University College as they stand in the stocks!!

Monday Night: Race night. 7pm in the Sanctuary; come and chose your horses and jockeys!

Tuesday:
Games day: 11-3pm
Come and compete in R.A.G. week's pool, Wii and twister tournaments, or take part in the Bartley Green scavenger hunt, fantastic prizes to be won - Visit Newman Students' Union Office for an entry form to the Scavenger hunt.

Tuesday Night: 7.30 Celebrity Pairs, in the bar; Come and find your celebrity pair!

Wednesday Night: Lifeguard night to Risa, Cost is £6 which includes your Lifeguard T-shirts and your entrance ticket to RISA with approx £2.40 going to R.A.G. Week.

Other entertainments on the night in the Sanctuary Bar from 8pm, head to RISA about 10.30pm. T-shirts available in advance from NSU Office.

Thursday: Auction; Visit Moodle from NOW until Thursday 23rd to bid on items and add items, http://moodle.newman.ac.uk/08-09/course/view.php?id=2314 Live auction on Thursday 23rd at 1pm in the Sanctuary Bar. More items coming soon! We are still taking donations and favours so either feel free to upload them yourselves or contact the Students' Union.

Thursday Night: Film night, join us in the Chapel to watch Mamma Mia at 9pm!!

Friday: City Centre collection. We are going into Birmingham City Centre to raise funds and awareness of our causes. If you are interested in getting involved in this then please contact Cath Venning.

Friday Night: St. Georges party! Get your armour on and join us at the bar for some medieval fun! Prizes for best dressed and a sheild decorating competition. Join in the Gladiator 'Jousting' tournament.

If you would like help out in R.A.G. week please come and see the Students Union.

Thank you

The R.A.G. Team 2008/09

Sports and Societies Awards Night 2008/2009

2009-03-28T05:49:00.000-07:00

Billed as a night where awards and recognition would be given to those individuals who had represented Newman and worked to help enhance the students' experience for all! And it was. I got up at around 8am yesterday morning to make sure that we had the finishing touches on all the speeches for the night and to be around for the entertainments committee to make sure that the setting up went smoothly.

When I got to the venue the entertainments committee, with help from the executive-elect for next year, the place looked really nice and of a good size for our awards night. I was really happy with how it'd gone and how it was looking.

For £10.50 it was an immense buffet (not that I ate lots due to giving loads of speeches) but along with the awards, the DJ and everything else that went into the night it was really fantastic!

As many of the Executive will tell you about the job there are highs and there are lows. This year I've faced really bitter lows with a number of different issues and this will stand out for me as one of the ecstatic highs that I hope for next year we not only re-create but surpass. I'm glad that Newman re-elected me for a second term of office otherwise that night would have been filled with more emotion for me but thanks to you guys I'm here to do it all again next year and make sure that sports and societies gets the recognition it deserves!

I hope those of you who can do come to Student Council on Monday 30th at 6pm because that will be the best place to tell your Executive and the rest of the student body what you thought about the 2008-2009 Sports and Societies Awards Night!

What I've been upto?

2009-03-17T02:23:00.000-07:00

Well ...

I found that last week was extremely busy what with having to juggle my DR503 Community Theatre project work. This took the main bulk of my time on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and then we all had to present the project proposal on Thursday and this was as well as running a re-election campaign to stay in office as Sports Development Officer with the Students' Union into next year.

Through all the trials and tribulations with the dr503 group we worked very well and got a lot of work done during the module and received a good 2:1 for the project, which makes me happy, and should keep me on course for a 2:1 overall for my degree if I can keep it up through to next year.

Campaigning was more fun this year round with experience this time and it's something I'm going to look forward to next year too. Going with the comic book film, for those of you who didn't catch any of the elections, I campaigned as The Juggernaut from the Marvel Universe. "Vote for action, not words ... once again" was my campaign slogan and it got the message across I think as I was re-elected on Friday night.

Being re-elected meant so much to me because it's a validation of all the work I've done this year that students want to see carry on next year in the form of building on success, developing sport, improving professionalism, defending against failure and achieving success. Because Student Council and U/AGM are not as well attended as I would like it's hard to gauge real student opinion. I know that engaged students have seen the work I've put in this year and the effort I've contributed to ensure that sport is made a success.

Next week on Monday I'll be attending another regional West Midlands sport meeting, which will be good to catch up with all the other student officers to find out how their elections have gone and such-like.

The week after will be Student Council so make sure you've got your motions in place for Student Council and all your paperwork ready to send over to the Chair, Sunny Bhogal.

Election Results

2009-03-14T05:31:00.000-07:00

Election results are as follows;

290 Votes received, Candidates require 145 votes to be elected.

President

· Paddy Byrne 72
· Ben Nicholas 142 Elected
Re-Open Nominations 75 (does not transfer*)

Vice-President

· Martin Cornbill 231 Elected
Re-Open Nominations 59

Entertainments Officer

· Kelly Ashby 210 Elected
· Emma Hale 70
Re-Open Nominations 10

School of Community and Professional Development Officer

· Lizzie Morgan 262 Elected
Re-Open Nominations 28

School of Education Officer

· Gemma Simpson 243 Elected
Re-Open Nominations 47

School of Science and Humanities Officer

· Jemima Caleb 189 Elected
· Josh Clare 89
Re-Open Nominations 12

Societies Development Officer

· Michael Ratcliffe 242 Elected
Re-Open Nominations 48

Sports Development Officer

· David Cooney 117
· Rowan Draper 154 Elected with 53.1% of the vote
Re-Open Nominations 19

Welfare Officer

· Tom Brown 276 Elected
Re-Open Nominations 14

Chair of Student Council

· Chris Hillman 266 Elected
Re-Open Nominations 24

Student Governor

· Isabel Hayward 264 Elected
Re-Open Nominations 26

Election Time

2009-03-09T03:56:00.000-07:00

Please get involved and look at your potential new Executive next year: http://www.newmansu.org/elections

Update

2009-03-03T02:46:00.001-08:00

It’s been a while since I posted a decent entry, by my own standards, on this blog so I thought I should.

As I reported at Student Council this month I have been preparing a revision of the sports handbook for students. This was at the request of Council in January. At the last Captains’ Committee I presented a draft that was considered by the committee to be on the right lines with only a couple of changes needed here and there, which is a plus for me.

I also took time to attend the Activist Academy setup by the National Union of Students, which was looking at how students can become active and can affect social change. This was a very interesting experience and would recommend to any student if the opportunity comes along again.

I’ve also been assisting the Development Manager of the Union looking about a future of sport report that’s been targeting how we as a Union can improve Sport and its’ foundations for the future.

It’s also coming up to Elections so I’ve been thinking hard about whether to re-stand and if I do – where?

Upcoming Events

2009-03-03T02:33:00.000-08:00

STARS IN THE BAR

One of Newman's best nights!

Get on stage and perform your heart out!

Show starts at 10:00pm!

All acts are required to attend a sound check at 6:00pm and need to be ready in the bar for 9:30pm!

NOT TO BE MISSED!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=50867450605

THE BIN BAG BALL

Make your outfit out of Bin Bags and join Newman's Hockey and Badminton Teams on Friday 13th March!

There will be a catwalk for you to show off your outfit and the best dressed will win a prize (50p to enter).

Don't forget its also RED NOSE DAY so get your Red Nose and help us raise some record breaking money like we have on all our other Charity events this year!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=70990939740

UGM Reschedule

2009-02-09T08:42:00.001-08:00

As you know due to the weather conditions last week the Newman Students' Union (NSU) UGM was cancelled and rescheduled for this coming Monday 9th February. But it has come to out attention that due to Newman being closed it is not fair to hold it on this date, Therefore the UGM will be held on THRUSDAY 12th FEBRUARY. That is this coming Thursday at 6 pm in the Dance Studio 1. (Refreshments provided!) (Sweeetts!!)

Sorry for any inconvenience coursed but we felt that at least you all have time to read over the PowerPoint found on http://www.newmansu.org/council and be made more aware that the meeting is talking place.Links to documents for the meeting:

Powerpoint http://newmansu.org/files/minisites/2286/UGM_feb_09.ppt

Job Motion http://newmansu.org/files/minisites/2286/Job_Descriptions_Motion.doc

Annual Report http://newmansu.org/files/minisites/2286/Annual_Report.doc

Draft Constitution http://newmansu.org/files/minisites/2286/Draft_nsu_constitution_08.doc

If you have an apologies or if you have any questions or problems do not hesitate to contact Jemima Caleb at j.caleb@newman.ac.uk

Coming upto UGM

2009-01-21T07:43:00.000-08:00

I think it's my third week back at uni since the christmas break.

I'm doing my placement, which is going well enough and I'm enjoying it (and i'll enjoy it even more when I kick it up a notch - but at the moment it's going well).

I attended a west midlands higher education sport meeting on Tuesday, which was good and thanks to Ashley (of UCB) for hosting the event.

I'm working on a couple of projects at the moment and looking forward to the Union General Meeting: where you can have your say!

2009 in Prospect

2009-01-02T17:40:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again and many of us feel bound to resolve to promise to do things in hopes of making us (or others feel better). This can range from stopping smoking or drinking to skydiving or learning to roller-blade depending on the individual. I've made some resolutions that relate to my own personal happiness like competing more, training more and earning something that I want very, very much.

Achieving those goals are something I look forward to - as well as all of the prospects that 2009 holds for Newman.

I'm very excited at the challenges that are on the cards at the moment, and all the developments we are yet to see ... I think it'll be really great to be within the Union at this time.

Also; just to point out ... NSU's Student Council is on the 12th January at 6pm and it'd be great to see you all there! I mean, what better place for you, at the start of this New Year, to get involved and voice your opinion on what improvements can be made for your student experience here at Newman?

As well as the Re-Fresher's Fair being held on the 9th January; with all the information you need to get involved with any of our activities here at NSU what better chance do you need to get involved and influence your experience?

Season's Greetings

2009-01-02T17:35:00.000-08:00

Image Courtsey: 123Greetings.com

For everyone at Newman

2008-12-23T15:17:00.000-08:00

Executive Profile: Campaign Promises and making them happen!

2008-12-13T05:38:00.000-08:00

As you may or may not have read on my blog in my previous two instalments of my Executive Profile I have already looked at why students would look at running for office in the Students’ Union and also what students should be looking at if they were interested in standing for a role on the Executive when I looked at how I ran for office.

You will of course understand that my portfolio on the Union Executive as Sports Development Officer is only a starting block. As an Executive Officer I am asked to assist other members of the Executive team in activities such as; helping the entertainments committee setup the ball, overseeing and managing the student training and activity reward scheme, being an active campaigner in charity fundraising and much more.

I believe that this is key to understanding that whilst you may wish to ignore my advice because I’m not in the area that you’re looking at – the majority of themes I will explore will heavily influence your ability to run a successful campaign and/or be a successful executive officer. However the best person to talk to about the job you are interested in is the current officer.

The current officer will now be six months into their office and should be fulfilling their campaign promises. With only another six months until the next officer comes into the post this instalment is going to look directly at campaign promises and how you can make them happen.

Your first experience of campaign promises will be identifying the kinds of things you ultimately want to be promising to the electorate who seeing your promises should wish to see them carried through and be successful. So how do you make a campaign promise and what kinds of things should you promising.

What did I promise?
· Increased participation (both in BUCS and social sport)
· Market sport and make it inclusive
· Develop and brand the idea of inclusive sports
· Manage the production of a Sports Awards Evening
· Introduce a club management system in to sports
· Manage fundraising avenues
· Source and contract one sponsor for the Union Sports
· Hold health and fitness drives
· Provide non-competitive social sport
· New professional kit for all teams
· Assist in the development of the BUCS sides
· Hold regular office hours

As it currently stands I promised to ensure that 12 actions were performed through my year of office and that roughly works out at about one per month but as students we are only here for roughly nine months on campus. So - six months into my term of office I have worked hard towards performing these actions, for example: holding regular office hours, assisting in the development of the BUCS sides, managing fundraising avenues and managing the production of a sports awards evening. There are however areas that I know that I need to improve my performance on and ensure that they are completed to a satisfactory standard. However I am confident that I will have delivered the majority of my promises by the end of the academic year.

So how do you go about choosing campaign promises and making them happen?

The training that I have received; both with the Students’ Union and externally in my professional capacity tells me that you should choose actions that are SMART because that is what the electorate will want to see you perform when you are elected.

1. Specific – Objectives should specify what they want to achieve.
2. Measurable – You should be able to measure whether you are meeting the objectives or not.
3. Achievable - Are the objectives you set, achievable and attainable?
4. Realistic – Can you realistically achieve the objectives with the resources you have?
5. Time – When do you want to achieve the set objectives?

By talking with the current Executive Officer you will be able to find out what they had planned but didn’t manage to get done, and they’ll also be able to tell you what’s realistic and what’s not. For example: I wanted to contract one sponsor for the Union sports but through the year I’ve found it increasingly difficult in stages to actually complete this goal but I have setup the foundations for it to be completed in later years. Now – that is something that Executive Officers have to concern themselves with that perhaps general students won’t because they know how much an achievement it is to do the leg-work to ensure that the finished product is delivered the year after.

So with your campaign promises you want to make sure they are SMART – that way they are not only general campaign promises but they are promises that can happen and you can also ensure that they do happen because you’ll have your deadline set on them. Each student will have their own ideas of how to improve the Students’ Union and its areas but until you find out what is actually happening now you won’t now how best to approach your campaign promises. If you promise extraordinary targets and you don’t fulfil them it only reflects on you but if you are researched and you promise what needs to be done and deliver it then you’ve done what you’ve promised – 100%.

Executive Profile: How I ran for Office

2008-11-22T10:55:00.000-08:00

EXECUTIVE PROFILE:

HOW I RAN FOR OFFICE

As I previously discussed in my last instalment: Why I ran for Office?

I touched on the demands during my campaign week I generally campaigned from 7am to 11pm, making sure I was available in the Uni campus Bar, obviously with some breaks throughout the week for five days of the election campaigning. Honestly: I believe that kind of hard work, dedication and gut-check does not lie within all of us. So you have to be realistic with yourself how much you want the job if you feel you’re not willing to put 100% into your campaign. There are factors that contribute to this because sometimes it’s not necessary especially if you’re running against the ‘Reopen Nominations’ candidate.

The reason that I would like it to highlight the kind of determination and spirit that will you need for campaigning is because when you get to the middle of the week and you think you can step your foot off the peddle and give yourself some time off or time to relax it really is gut-check time and makes you work that much harder to achieve your goal. Each day – you are the only person who is there to make sure you get elected! Your Campaign team, should you use one, will be there to help you but it is your job to use them properly and make sure you are elected.

So I have previously looked at why students will choose to run for Office on the Union Executive but how do you actually do it? Many of you who will be interested in running for Election may not know what it actually entails or some of you maybe interested in what you have to do as a member of the Executive – either way it’s here for you to find out.

The most important part of being a candidate in an Election is your Manifesto.

Your Manifesto is a document that outlines the principles of how you aim to work in the position, what goals you have to achieve for your year in office and what students can expect to see from you during the year. I would advise that you talk to the current Executive Officer and see what they have planned, what they’d like to do and find out the kinds of things that just aren’t possible with the budget and other resources you have. That way: you are making an informed choice about how you are going to act in that role.

I also cannot stress how important this is to the students who vote! In my opinion: If you provide a short 1-page Manifesto it shows the Students, who will be deciding whether to vote for you, how much effort you are going to put into the role if elected. On the other end of the spectrum you probably don’t want to submit an 8-page manifesto (like I did in 2008) as it may be difficult to grasp the students attention and keep them interested all the way to the end.

I believe that what you are looking for is at least 2-4 pages with short but solid points of what you want to achieve and how you are going to do it.

Next it’s important to have a selling point or ‘Gimmick’. If you are lucky you may be able to find some good inspiration from how other Union’s candidates have campaigned in previous years. You also may have a name that it similar to a brand name that maybe easy for you to advertise and promote and that may give you an idea of how to go about your campaign. This can help you in so many ways by giving you campaign slogans, election material and/or multimedia opportunities which will all help you connect with the students who you will want to vote for you.

Some good gimmicks that I have seen:

“1966 World Cup Winning Team: They would have …”
Vote for Phil Richards, AU President at University of Nottingham

“Carlsberg don’t make Activities & Sports Officers...

but if they did she’d probably be the best in the world!”
Vote for Nicky Hedley, Activities & Sports Office at BCU

“Where there’s a Will there’s a way!”
Vote for Will Thomas, AU President at Loughborough University

“The only Gamble worth taking”
Vote for Ashley Gamble, Guild President at University College Birmingham

“You’re nuts if you don’t vote for KP”
Vote for Kirsty Paignton, Entertainments & Publicity Officer at UCB

So - what did I use?

Well I’ll be honest I wasn’t as prepared as my opposing candidate who had a funny, catchy and brand name slogan to his campaign. I tried to make something up out of my recognition as a fighter and make it something witty however it just didn’t happen. It wasn’t until my opponent came down that day to campaign that my slogan for the rest of the week came out.

Inspired by the Sainsbury’s slogan: Taste the Difference my campaign took a positive turn when I started using “See the Difference” as my marketing gimmick and slogan. When I would talk to students about what they would be voting for, my manifesto and how I could be a benefit to them my slogan would always come out … “Yes, you’ve been promised this, but with the dedication I’ve already shown in my Manifesto – you really can see the difference.”

Would I use it again? I don’t think so. That slogan was for that campaign and I believe that you should dedicate specific attention and focus for each campaign. I can’t recreate what happened in the lead up to the campaign nor what happened in the campaign because I’ve learned from my experiences and I would expect very different opponents to challenge for the role.

What’s next? Campaign Team.

Once you’ve got your slogan or gimmick and your manifesto sorted you should find a group of friends – no more than about 7 to help you promote your message and get you elected. You should preferably use people you can trust and people who will find it easy to be managed by you through the week. As I say they don’t have to be with you all week but if you have a stable group of three or four and people who help when they can then you’re looking good.

So what do they do? They act like you only they are not you. They hand out posters, leaflets, lollipops, your message and anything else they can to get you elected. You may be able to give out campaign t-shirts, which is a great boon to any campaign because it’s easily recognisable and shows your official supporters.

They can also help you writing your speeches (because you will have to make speeches) and manage your campaign. With a really good campaign manager you can find your campaign as easy as punch but they are hard to come by – but if you can find one – excellent!

Then what? Public Appearances.

You are asking your fellow students to vote you into a position of responsibility where you will face hard decisions and backlash if it’s the wrong choice or unpopular. Being able to make a public appearance can be very daunting for some people and you should understand that it is a necessary part of your campaign – it shows the voters your public side. Will you struggle under pressure? Can you take public questioning on the spot? All very good questions to ask of your candidates.

I’m a 2nd year Drama student and my main specialty is acting. Acting requires you to stand on a stage and deliver lines as a character. As an actor you are protected by sensibilities from an audience that they cannot heckle, that you are only portraying a character and it really isn’t you, and your dialogue has been written for you. One of the most nervous experiences I faced during my campaign was the public appearances, even with my experience as a performer, because if you are rejected, heckled or you can’t think of what to say – it’s not your character that’s on the line. It’s you.

Hustings is a very good example of a public appearance. This is where the students come to hear what you’ve got to say and give you some questions to help make up their mind on how they are going to vote in the elections. Generally you are asked to deliver a 2 or 3 minute speech on your manifesto: what you’d like to do, how you’re going to do it and why you’re going to do it and at the end of it the students can ask questions of you.

Some questions that were posed in my Election hustings were:

“If you were a cheese, what would you be and why?”

“What one word will sum up your time in Office if elected?”

All of these personal experiences of mine should give you a better idea of how you prepare a campaign for an election. If you need any more help then do let me know.

Next installment: Campaign Promises and making them happen!

2008-11-20T15:10:00.000-08:00

The last Student Council for 2008 will soon be upon us (scheduled for Monday December 1st: Contact Sunny Bhogal for more information) and for me that will signal the end of half of the academic year. With the meeting coming up slowly it's also time for me to prepare a report on what I've been doing in the 6 months (or so) that I have been in the Exec job and to look at the next six months of the job and what I want to achieve and what I'm going to be involved in achieving.

Not only that but there's the social event of the year with the Winter Ball 2008: A Night at the Movies. Personally: I'm really looking forward to spending some time on the Casino tables with prizes being donated from VODBULL, who promote I <3 RISA. There's also a free caricaturist, Chris Ryder, who'll be there to sketch some comic pictures. What's more? An unlimted chocolate fountain, a DJ, Professional photograpers with My Favourite Runner Up playing a wide variety of music. If you've not got your tickets .... get yours now - £15 with an NUS Extra Card and £20 without.

I am also very hopeful that we will have the next installment of award proposals for STARS for both Societies and Sports. Earlier this month at Union General Meeting we witnessed the first proposals for six of our activity groups here at NSU with Badminton, Women's Basketball, Christian Union, Women's Association Football and Gymnastics & Trampolining who've received approval for Bronze Awards and MadSoc who received approval for a Silver Award.

The Sports By-Elections took place in November and we now have three new captains for the following sports: Cricket, Gaelic Football and Squash. All candidates were duly elected on a majority and they are Kieran Sharratt, Dave Cooney and James Davies, respectively. Thanks to those who stood and it's given me some good experience and great ideas on how to run the Captain's Elections for 2009.

Update

2008-11-07T02:41:00.001-08:00

This week has been a real busy week for me what with attending the Union General Meeting, Executive Committee Meetings, Tuesday Poker Night, Societies Heads Meeting, Women's Football Karaoke Night, a day in School teaching a drama lesson about the Gunpowder Plot and now to finish off: Sports By-Elections and a Captains' Committee Meeting.

Union General Meeting
I really enjoyed the UGM because I think that it went so quick and went very well. The Powerpoint presentation for reports, agenda items and other bits and bobs made it so much more accessible and fun, I think, for those students who did attend. Some of the agenda points really interested me, which was a plus, and thankfully I had some STARS awards to bring for Union ratification.

Tuesday Poker Night
Whilst a sociable endeavour it is something I wanted to comment on because I just missed out on going to the regionals by 30 or so points but I think I played well after going on tilt at the start of the game.

Women’s Football Karaoke Night
Well done to all of the girls involved and everyone who turned up to support the Newman University College Women’s Football team and helped them raise money. Special thanks from me to Dave Burns, Luke Francis, Sam Baker and James O’Regan for singing ‘Afternoon Delight’ from Anchorman even though Dave did kill a song right at the start of the night.

Sports By-Elections
By the end of today I will have a Cricket, Gaelic Football and Squash captain to give me a full compliment of 13 Captains on the Captains’ Committee. I’ll also have my second representative for Student Council representing sport.

And I’ve got loads more to accomplish over this term to make sure I’m happy going into the Christmas Break.

Interested in representing Sport?

2008-11-02T07:23:00.001-08:00

Activities and sport are a major aspect of our culture here at Newman University College. Each week our students give so much towards their own activities whether it is being involved with our Music and Drama society or with any of our sports teams who regularly play in the BUCS Midlands Conference.

Each team who affiliate with the Student Union operates with a Captain, who is a student who voluntarily leads the efforts of that team, and they are responsible for attending and organising training and match fixtures, fundraising and social events throughout the season and the whole year round.

Currently there are three teams who currently find themselves without a Captain within NSU. No experience is necessary as full training will be given by the Student Union however a willingness to participate and motivation are essential.

The sports that require Captains are:

Cricket

Gaelic Football

Squash

Alongside the Captains Elections also available for election is the role for:

Student Representative

For more information go here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=43152934618

All quiet on the western front

2008-10-28T09:29:00.001-07:00

I'm sat in the office doing my office hours having finished a couple of emails and looking at how clubs and societies are getting on with achieving their STARS awards. Due to it being Graduation Day, and on 'reading week', it's very very quiet around the place. It doesn't help that it's also snowing outside which is contributing to the feeling of today.

If you're interested in the By-Elections please have a look at this:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=30601544796

What have I been upto?

2008-10-20T08:10:00.001-07:00

Just a quick update on what I've been up to:

Today I've updated the http://www.NewmanSU.org/Sport website adding more and more information for you, including details about matches taking place this week on the 22nd October 2008. We've also got more information about STARS (Student Training and Activity Reward Scheme) which has been introduced this year throughout both of our activity groups in both Sports & Societies. If you need any information about STARS you can find out more details here: http://www.newmansu.org/sport/content/index.php?page=23928

I've also contributed to updating our Newman SU website with our G.O.A.T.S to find out some of YOUR Executive's achievements and what they have done FOR you! You can find out more information on what I've done for you here: http://www.newmansu.org/content/index.php?page=59785

I held the second Captains' Committee where a couple of important matters were discussed including the implementation of STARS and fundraising for NSU.

Update

2008-10-14T15:24:00.000-07:00

Freshers' Week
I'm happy to say that it was a pleasure to have been involved with a really good Freshers' week and it's taught me a lot for the future, for running events or planning large day events, which is always good to have on your CV especially post-graduation. When we reviewed the week in the first meeting of the Student Council my contribution for suggestions was that I believe it would work much smoother with more assistance during the events because the week was very long hours and quite a number of days for everyone concerned.

For anyone who's reading this as a way of finding out what responsibilities the Executive have (because they may interested in standing in the Union Elections next year) I found that the Freshers' week was very long hours and hard graft. Even with all of my preparation during the summer break I didn't feel as prepared as I would have liked to deliver as good an experience as I would have liked but it's definitely something I've learned from and it's something I will take forward for my year of office.

Returners' Week

Thankfully Returners Week was a lot more relaxed than Freshers' week and took up less time but was still as demanding for setup and close downs of the Sanctuary areas.

Student Council

I can only reiterate many of the comments that went towards Council. It was good, and will be better and I enjoyed it.

Captains' Committee

I've got it on the go and I'm looking forward to the next meeting this Sunday. I've formulated the agenda and I'm hoping the meeting is well-received again.

I'd like for this to be a little bit longer - but I'm a bit tired at the minute but that's a brief summary update.

Council Report - 06/10/2008

2008-10-14T15:22:00.001-07:00

Council Report
6th October 2008

Sports Development Officer

· BUCS Regional Meeting
· Executive Planning Week
· Event Planning Excursion
· Review of Fresher’s Week 2008-09
· Launch for Newman University College 2008 Kit
· Sports Website Revamp
· Score! Newsletter
· Student Athlete & Captains’ Support
· Student Union Constitution Update
· Student Training & Activities Reward Scheme
· Stash! Leisurewear

A full report is available upon request to Sports Development Officer at r.j.draper@newman.ac.uk

Update

2008-10-07T08:39:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be doing an update soon when I've got a bit more time so please do look for it within the week.

Freshers' Week

2008-09-28T05:47:00.000-07:00

I'm very happy with the way that Freshers' Week has gone this year. I was unable to attend most of the events last year due to having hurt my ankle training MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) on the Monday night of Freshers' Week last year. However I'm happy that all of the Executive Team and those who work alongside us (Jo and Sunny) worked really well over the week and we all pitched in where needed to deliver a really good week.

I was very happy with the turnout at the Freshers' Fairs and look forward to good year of sport for all of our teams and their new recruits whether they're interested purely in the competitive side or just for social sport.

I'm also happy that I can get back to regular training soon. It's been a while since I was in the gym as many of you might have guessed or remarked and don't you worry I'll be back at Gracie Barra Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu before you know it and I'll be training harder than before.

Good Week

2008-09-18T00:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a hard week getting up at 7 or 8am in the morning every day this week but it's been worth it. It's been a fantastic experience and the insight I've gained over the week has been tremendous. I continue to look forward to the next two with Freshers and Returners weeks.

"One day more, another day, another destiny"

2008-09-12T10:00:00.000-07:00

Jean Valjean, Les Miserables

Today is my last day and night at home because I'll be moving back to Newman tomorrow morning-ish and should be settling in around 12ish. I'm rushing around packing but its' all still manageable I find. So I'm just taking a quick break whilst I check my email and write this update. I'm looking forward to next week.

As for this week I attended the PGCE Freshers' Fair, which was a good experience and I hope the PGCE students that came enjoyed themselves and got their hands on some good goodies. It's been a real eye opener for what needs to be prepared so I hope to much better prepared for the next one. I set out a good stall but not as artisticly striking as Ms. Prior's, as she made sure to tell me about, but the information was there and it was presented professionally so I was happy. However thanks to Cazz I've learned what more I can do to make it more appealing and approachable for new students.

An Uncanny Realisation

2008-09-06T07:33:00.000-07:00

Whilst I was in the Office on Wednesday having seen the improvements I was having a conversation with Rob and Lizzy where Rob pointed out that we, the Executive, had been in office for 3 months already. As the topic suggests: its' an uncanny realisation. I believe that this is in part because we've not all had to be in the office since July 1st. However it lead me onto a secondary realisation that's due to coming back soon and talking to other members of the Executive how much I have got done that I wanted to achieve.

Of the goals I set before leaving Newman I accomplished all of them if not in part but completely. There have also been a few other goals that I didn't set that I have been able to accomplish also. Some of them have been unable to be completed in the manner that I anticipated but have still been accomplished to an acceptable level. This makes me happy going into t-minus day 7 before I come back.

Productive Day

2008-09-04T05:40:00.000-07:00

Coming closer to coming back to Newman for the rest of the first term of 08/09 I had a productive day attending a BUCS Regional Meeting yesterday and I also dropped by the NSU Office, which I must say looks fantastic. I envision really good things for the year to come.

At the Regional meeting we elected a Regional Chair for the West Midlands to help represent our views when we attend our Midlands Regional meeting, once per quarter, and we discussed a few topics like the West Midlands Higher Education Strategy Group, which was good to find out about. It was also nice to meet up with some of the other Executive Sports and/or Activities Officers and their Unions' Administrators, some of who I'd met at our Regional training back in Nottingham.

I hope you're looking forward to the year ahead because with only nine days left before I come back I'm really excited about what's to come for the year.

Learning some new skills

2008-09-02T12:23:00.001-07:00

As the topic says I've been learning some new skills and the fruits of this labour can be seen here:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=cWiOVtANPFU
Newman University College Rugby Union Football Club backed to "To Be Loved" by Papa Roach

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JpJkteUiEbo
Newman Student Union Sport backed by Evanescence's "Bring Me to Life"

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=F4srMVhhM9I
Newman Student Union Sport backed by Basshunters' "Now You're Gone"

Benefits of Sport at Newman

2008-08-31T15:47:00.000-07:00

Are you interested in going on a EB Level 2 Table Official course for Basketball?

You could earn at least £5 a game!

DATE : Monday 22.09.08 and Wednesday 24.09.08
TIME: Between 7 - 9pm
PLACE: Leasowes Sport Centre, Kent Road, Halesowen
EXAM DATE: Monday 6.10.08 at 8pm

Due to the Student Union paying for this course and the need to ensure having trained officials for coming years this offer has to be restricted to 1st and 2nd years unfortunately.

If you are interested contact Lizzy at e.n.creevy@newman.ac.uk

DEADLINE : Wednesday 3.09.0

17 days and counting ...

2008-08-27T06:35:00.000-07:00

I, like many others, am eagerly awaiting my return to Newman. Everyone I've spoken to all want to be back at Uni enjoying the social life, taking in the lectures and everything else that comes with student life. However as the title says I've only got 17 days left before I go back but it's really another 31 odd days before I'm really back at University as I'm going back early to assist planning and managing the delivery of the Fresher's Week among the various other things that are going on.

I must remember to send off my cheques to Karen Carter in Accomodation to make sure that I've got the keys to my room for when I move down. I also need to make sure I've got transport to move in and then to actually sort through my stuff. Oh the pleasure! :-)

That's the bare minimum of what I need to get done.

I also need to prepare an Agenda for the First Captain's Committee meeting, as well as book the room (which I will go to do after I've posted this blog), and then prepare some brief information for each topic to get the discussions started. I've got the major points of it finished but I just need to have a look at any other issues that may come up and then invite Captains to raise agenda issues.

I also need to start looking at writing a report for the first Student Council. This is going to be my first Council as an Executive Officer so I want to give the right impression to the students who are elected to Council as well as the other members of the Executive. I think that my problems writing have been sticking too much information into updates, which could turn people off, and cause more problems than they are worth if they're not accessible. I think the way I'm going to deal with it is by writing an Executive Summary which will deal with the items in short detail and then expand as I need to on further pages. That way if people want to read more they can do and if they don't then it's easy for them to access also.

I'd like to get these finished before I need to go back because I know that there's a possibility of me being busy during the two-week period so I want to make sure I have a decent quality report that covers everything that I know should be covered.

I've also been looking at suggesting some improvements for the Council Standing Orders. Sunny Bhogal, our Chair of Student Council, and his Vice-Chair, Tom Brown, have developed some standing orders which dictate how the council runs. It looks at things like who can be a member and how you can submit motions to affect the direction of the meeting for example: send the item to another committee, delete a part of a policy and vote of no-confidence among other things. Whilst it's not specifically in my remit to do this it does interest me as an active student within the Union; and I'd like to see the NSU take on the right direction and have a document that supports that.

During my campaign I promised to deliver regular socials for sports and active students at least once per term. So I've come up with a couple of great social ideas for the first time, well at least I thought they were great; but I've sent the first one off to Kelly Ashby our Entertainments Officer just to get her feedback on the idea. Since its with Kelly at the minute I'm not going to reveal the details on it just yet because I'd like to get her thoughts first and I don't want to dissappoint you by getting your hopes up but I would like to add that I'm happy with the idea and if Kelly and the Executive thinks so too then we'll go ahead with the project then it should a great night out.

That reminds me I've also got a bit more planning and confirming to do for Freshers Week.

I've also got to plan in attending the PGCE Fresher's Fair on September 10th, which I think is very important for me to be out there promoting the NSU Sports and activities to our PGCE students, so I'm going to have to take some time out to have a look at how I'm going to be advertising and marketing our sports to our PGCE students.

Anways that's what I'm going to be up to for the next few days before I move back to Newman.

Executive Profile: Why I ran for office

2008-08-24T04:29:00.000-07:00

Student Union Executive:

Why I ran for Office

I am a part-time trustee and voluntary officer the Student Union Executive at Newman University College.

I was elected in 2007/2008 for the 2008 & 2009 academic year and whilst I would like you to understand that it is not specifically as ‘Sports Development Officer’ in my remit to do this but it is my intention is to provide students with a greater understanding of what it takes to be a member of the Student Union Executive throughout the year.

I believe as a member of the Executive with portfolio it is also my job to ensure that the right candidates succeed in years to come to develop our student union. If I can interest any serious candidates for the upcoming year and or create an election with more candidates I believe I will have succeeded in my intention.

This piece shall serve as part one of a series of executive profiles. This is going to deal with specifically why I chose to run for office.

Hi there.

If you’re reading this and it’s not off my blog or it’s been forwarded to you then you might know who I am or a little bit about me so I’m going to cover that for you now. I’m a second year mature student studying Drama single honours. I played Gaelic Football and Rugby Union for the University last year.

So why did I run for office? It’s got to start with first impressions and I decided early on in the academic year that I wanted to run for office, which is probably the minority of students who do stand for election; without having had very little interaction with the SU at the time. For anybody who is considering standing now, especially at this early stage, I would not advise designing to campaign at this early stage.

I know that this is a bit of a double standard but when I decided that I wanted it I knew I had the passion to carry it through to its end point. If you have the same passion then please learn from my experience and start thinking about it in January at the earliest. By giving yourself until January you have time to think about what you want to do, see what you’ll have to do for the job description and you’ve got time to properly consider whether you want the extra responsibility. The Elections won’t take place until March and beyond so you might as well see everything that goes into the job before you are 100% certain.

For me - I remember having a conversation with another fresher (another member of the rugby team) who was also expressing a desire to do the same and I was explaining my intentions and what I had on my mind. In the end he didn’t stand for election but I’d like to highlight that just because it is your first thought doesn’t mean that it needs to be your final thought. Some of you will think ‘wouldn’t it be cool to be president’ or ‘I’d love to be entertainments officer’ and it will stay there. I believe the key is to see what actually happens with it before you decide you want to do something about it.

Many of you will not gain the urge to stand in Elections, but you may be called upon to vote by the candidates, but I think it is important that the student body understands the motivations of their candidates when they run for office so they can give their vote to the most deserving candidate who will put the best campaign promises into action.

I can honestly say that what first attracted me to standing in the Executive Election was the prestige of the position and the recognisable blue executive Hoodie. I can’t deny that this attracted me and this may attract some of you also. Thankfully for you that’s only where it started and I was serious about delivering what I promised during campaigning.

You quickly learn that it’s not just about the blue Hoodie, people knowing you and wanting to know you or being responsible for something. I soon learned that the skills that I display this year can be accredited by the Student Union and that can go towards my CV, which is a massive bonus for any student, due to the ever-increasing need for a candidate to stand out when they are applying for jobs.

Union Executives make up a small percentage of the student population in any university. They are directly responsible for the running and management of representation, sports and societies, events, welfare and other areas. Being on the Executive gives you access to ‘Board of Director’ style experiences that is so beneficial to take with you into the working world. You gain experience, if you hadn’t already got it, of working within a team and depending on which officer role you stand for you may even get a team to work with like Welfare does with the SIAC Officers and Societies gets with their Chairpersons.

A small percentage of Newman students gain this, and throughout the UK still only a small percentage gain this in their institutes. It is a very valuable experience and tool to help you post-graduation.

Other students choose to stand in the Elections because they want to help change, develop and make the Union better. They have a good experience with the Union and want to give something back. This was part of my reason for standing in the Election but was not as heavy as the prestige or CV benefits post graduation.

As well as these reasons you are also open to great experiences going to conferences relevant to your position, attending meetings to discuss the development of the union or your own specific area. You meet fantastic people and you take the experiences away with you for the rest of your life.

So why did I stand?
· I wanted the prestige
· I wanted the blue Hoodie
· I wanted to make a difference
· I wanted to develop the Union
· I wanted the CV benefits post-graduationI wanted the experiences

All of these reasons are valid. Just make sure that when you stand in the Elections you know what you want and why you’re standing.

I campaigned from 7am to 11pm with some breaks throughout the week for five days of the election campaigning. That hard work, dedication and gut-check doesn’t lie within us all and sometimes it’s not necessary especially if you’re running against the ‘Reopen Nominations’ candidate but I’d like it to highlight the kind of determination and spirit that you need because when you get to the middle of the week and you think you can step your foot off the peddle it really is gut-check time and makes you work that much harder to achieve your goal.

That is why I stood for election and I hope it’s been insightful to you both for explaining why I stood and to help you explore why you may choose to stand in upcoming elections.

Next installment: How I ran for Office

Executive Profile

2008-08-23T17:57:00.000-07:00

NSU SPORTS DEVELOPMENT OFFICER

2008/2009

Rowan J. Draper

Personal Details

Age: 23

Course: Drama, Single Honours

Residence: Halls of Residence

Current roles:

Sports Development Officer 2008/09
Men's Rugby Union Vice-Captain 2008/09
Mixed Martial Arts Chairman 2008/09

Contact Details: r.j.draper@newman.ac.uk

NSU Experience

Clubs: Men's Rugby Union 2007-2008 & Men's Gaelic Football 2007-2008

Previous Roles:

Entertainments Committee Member 07/08
Student Council Member 07/08
Student Representative 07/08
Mixed Martial Arts Chairman 07/08

A Bit About Me

I come from Stafford in the Midlands and I am also second year Drama student.

I love sport and am involved in a number of them both at home and at Newman such as Gaelic Football, Rugby Union and Mixed Martial Arts.

When I'm not training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at Gracie Barra Birmingham under two-time World Champion Professor Braulio Estima you'll most probably see me in the Uni Bar at least two nights a week.

Freshers Fair 2008

2008-08-23T15:38:00.000-07:00

The Freshers Fair is undoubtably one of the most eventful displays during your first month at Newman and serves to educate you about University life; it's sports, societies and events. I remember from last year that companies as well as students come out to deliver their message to you as well as some of them provide you with goodies that never stop being useful.

The first Freshers' Fair will be happening on Wednesday 10th September 2008 for PGCE students and I will be available for this to talk with any PGCE students who wish to discuss what is on offer for them at our institute.

As a Fresher student we understand you are likely to have your own interests carried with you from home. This could be any activity or interest from reading, playing football on sunday or going to the movies. Some of you will also want to carry on your interests here at Newman with like minded people and some of you will want to actively pursue your hobby through Newman.

The next installment of the Fresher's Fair will be taking place on Tuesday 23rd September 2008 for Initial Teacher Training students.

Our activities formed through Sports and Societies try to best cater to our involved Student Demographic. Current Societies affiliated with NSU are:

CU also known as the Christian Union
LGBT
MADSoc also known as the Music and Drama Society
Mature Students
Mixed Martial Arts
P&P also known as the People and Planet Society
RAG also known as Raise and Give

Current Sports affiliated with NSU are:

Badminton
Basketball (available for Men & Women)
Cricket
Cheerleading
Football (available for Men & Women)
Gaelic Football
Gymnastics
Hockey
Netball
Rugby Union
Swimming

The last, but no means least, installment of the Fresher's Fair will be for Undergraduate students who will cover the majority of other courses covered at Newman University College.

If you want any further information from NSU please don't hesitate to visit the www.NewmanSU.org website or post up a comment on the site and I'll do my best to answer it for you.

Bar Sports

2008-08-23T15:30:00.000-07:00

BAR SPORTS is another event that is going on during Fresher's Week at Newman University College for 2008/2009 provided by Newman's Student Union in association with the Sanctuary Bar.

The event will be there to help all of Newman's Freshers to break up their day and kick back and relax after their first official day of Uni, undertaking their enrolment.

During this afternoon you will be able to take part in such bar games that include Pool, Darts, Table Football and possibly even the Nintendo Wii which has access to Wii Baseball, Bowling, Boxing, Golf and Tennis.

Make sure you come to the Sanctuary Bar on Monday 22nd September and show your support for the Bar Sports!

Sports Day

2008-08-23T13:19:00.000-07:00

Newman Student Union

Presents

Sports Day 2008

Whether you are sporty or not! Come along and have a go at the different sports that are on offer here at Newman University College. The day is open for all students with all of the events mixed for males and females' participation of any ability.

So come along and have a fun sporting afternoon. Just remember to bring your sports kit!!!

Sign up sheets will be available all week so you can put your name down for any and all of the events. What this does is help us connect you with other Freshers into teams for the events! If you are worried about not meeting enough other students during your first week of University life then do come to the Sports Day then you'll be on hand to meet a whole host of new students all with differing abilities, backgrounds and interests - some of which may be similar to your own!

Remember though it's all about getting involved and having some fun and just having a go!

Inspired by WWE

2008-08-23T13:02:00.000-07:00

Just listening to these lyrics to Megadeath's Crush Em gives me lots of inspiration, which I feel I will need throughout the coming year, this song was heavily used in the promotion of Bill 'Goldberg' in the Monday Night Nitro days of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) when Eric Bischoff was the ratings king of professional wrestling. At least until he made a fatal error by giving away World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) results and everyone tuned into see it happening 'live'. It was also used for the UFC's Dreamcast video game and here's a copy of the video and an excerpt of the song:

It was also used for the UFC's Dreamcast video game and here's a copy of the video and an excerpt of the song. Another song I use for inspiration is Stemm's Face the Pain; another UFC mainstay used on every UFC introduction video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iNmHpQ_TP1U&feature=related

Iminent Return

2008-08-11T16:25:00.000-07:00

I don't know why I hadn't previously thought about it but there's only like a month before I come back to Newman for the pre-Fresher's Week. I've still got to send off my loan application request, which I intend to do tomorrow, and then I've got to send my cheques off for residency in Halls of Residence. I'm really looking forward to getting back.

So what have I done today?

I've spent a small part of my day responding to a variety of different emails, which has included dealing with a few issues like continuing a couple of discussions on Fresher's Week planning and event details and continuing a few bits of project research and development.

I've also spent a bit of time of looking at what items I would like to and need to report on at the first Student Council on Monday 6th October. This hasn't been as major a project but it's been something I know that I've got to keep tabs on.

I also had the unenviable task of cancelling our involvement with the RFU's Scrum Down on the Beach rugby tournament on Wednesday 13th August. I first let the boys known on July 12th through the Newman Rugby Facebook group and again on the 4th August. I've extended the deadlines twice but with only three confirmed players I couldn't really spend the entrance fee on the possibility of players turning up. This is a blow to the development of the Rugby Club and Sports at Newman however let's hope that there are bigger and better events that we can get ourselves involved in throughout the year.

Full Day in the Office

2008-08-06T13:28:00.000-07:00

I'm really tired at the minute because I've just been to Newman and back today getting up at 7am to travel over to Birmingham in time for a meeting at 10.30am and not getting back till after 7pm but all in all it was worth the trip.

So what did I do today:

Received and filed my 'Executive' post
Took part in a project development meeting
Continued on specific work on the project's development
Looked at the new IRB ELV (International Rugby Board's Experimental Law variations) which came in August 1st 2008.
Held discussions on developing another project
Followed up with a couple of emails here and there
Did a small stock take of the sports kit and equipment

So all in all a fun and busy day! Also got to look at the new Executive Clothing and it looks good, going to be well worth wearing next year and being seen in it too! Also got to see some project plans for the future which I shall leave the details off until it all becomes clear.

So yeah - time for some R & R. I might watch Band of Brothers.

What I've been doing?

2008-08-01T04:46:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to Rugby training again in preparation for the 2008/2009 season. We worked on breakdown and phase play, which I've learnt a lot from to bring to the Newman club in the upcoming season.

Apart from that I've been working on a few projects on a lesser extent than I have previously to make sure that I'm getting in enough R + R before the term starts and so I can come back refreshed. On those lines I've also been filling in my loan form so that I get some money for when I come back in September.

22 days into the job ... what have I been upto?

2008-07-22T19:05:00.000-07:00

So as the title says - it's been 22 days into the job ... what have I been upto?

Personally:
I went to pre-season Rugby Training with Stafford RUFC to help me prepare my fitness, form and skill for when Newman's Men's Rugby 1st XV clash with Oxford Brookes in the opening game of the BUCS competitive calendar on October 8th 2008 at Home against their 4th XV. I took a couple of knocks but overall it was a good experience and will serve to prepare me for more Rugby in 2008/2009 for Newman!

I also went back to Newman to receive my results for the past year. I'm happy that I received a 2:1 overall on my first year. I know that now the work load will need to step up but I'm looking forward to the challenge and hopefully I'll be upto it too - but who knows? We will have to wait till we're back in Bartley Green.

Professionally:

OK so on to the stuff you want to know.

I've been dealing with a few projects here and there and continuing the discussion with Captains over ways we can improve our service to you the students in the upcoming year. Mainly the projects have included documents and guides but it would spoil the suprise if I told you all about them now but suffice to say they're to make life easier and hopefully they will.

I'm going to be dealing with a few more projects over the next couple of weeks and perhaps all of August to try and finalise a couple of projects that I am really confident about and happy of. Again I'm going to try not to spoil the suprise so check back here later for more information from me.

Signing off.

Cross-post: Also available on Newman Student Union Facebook Group page

2008-07-22T19:03:00.000-07:00

Since taking up office at the start of July I have been working through projects here and there, which have included updating the NSU Sport Website (http://www.newmansu.org/sport), updating the Captain's Handbook, Writing a Player's Handbook and preparing training sessions for Captains and Players alike.I try to keep an up to date blog which I hope documents what I'm upto and what I'm dealing with at the time even if it's just reading previous information to come upto speed or announcing what's new for 2008/2009 like I am now.

OK so what's new on the website -

Well we've got up to date information about how you can get involved with sport at Newman, we've got a complete fixture for all of your league fixtures this season, all the forms you'll need throughout the year, information about how to setup a new team and information about the events that we want you to be involved with.

So what else is new?
Brand spanking new is the STARS Scheme, which stands for Student Activities Training Reward Scheme, that basically helps us promote your clubs because your clubs will be fulfilling activities to get you noticed and you'll get rewards in the way of STARS Certificates from NSU. If you're interested in finding out more then go log on now to www.newmansu.org/sport

Alongside the STARS scheme we have SCORE! the new sports newsletter, which we want to cover all of your games with match reports, general tidbits and photo's of you in action whether it be on campus in social sport or competitive sport in the BUCS league. We're looking for help with this project so if you want to get into journalism or you just like creative writing then don't hesitate getting in touch and having a word. As always if you want more information then please log on to www.newmansu.org/sport

One thing I wanted to make sure of this year is that I was approachable and available and by offering office hours during the week at different times within the month as the term goes by (all advertised in advance) so you can come and talk to me about anything you want. If you need to talk to me urgently my email is available on the NSU Sport Site and on the Sports Development Executive Homepage but otherwise my office hours will be advertised on www.newmansu.org/sport

Another thing that I wanted to do was increase the knowledge about democracy and how it affects NSU Sport. I've been preparing a 101 guide to democracy and how it interacts with sport at Newman, which will be released shortly, and alongside that I've provided information about Club Elections for 2009 where you get to elect your club's committee, your AGMs and how to get involved with Student Council.Please check out the site at www.newmansu.org/sport and give us feedback! I hope this is a step in the right direction and with your support I am sure it will be.

Cheers,
Rowan J. Draper
NSU Sports Development Officer

First Day

2008-07-01T09:01:00.000-07:00

So today has been my official first day as NSU Sports Development Officer. It's not been what I thought it would be but I think that's because I' m not in Uni but that's just that. It'll soon be September and it'll soon be time to perform to the best of my ability during Freshers and Returners.

So what have I done today?

Due to my connections and affiliations with a minority sport increasing in popularity throughout the UK I've been offered an opportunity to help co-ordinate efforts for the growth and publicity of the sport. Something that I personally want to see Newman University College spear-heading. As an institute with newly coveted University status its' my hope that we can jump on this initiative and be the foremost leader in this project. This is an opportunity that has come about from being proactive, as a potential and now current, Sports Development Office for NSU. I will write more on this subject as the project pans out but if all works out - it's due to hit Newman in 2009!

I've also been working on a sponsorship agreement that we can send out to companies to gain sponsorship. It's still in its basic stages but its on the way there. If it works out it looks to be a very lucrative deal that could show all the due respect to Newman Sports teams. However I've got to be realistic and if it needs refining then at least the process will have been taken to show that it does need refining before approaching companies with such a project.

Can't say that I've done much else. Would love to but I've had to take time out to do some cleaning around the house after spending last week nearly 100% on the NSU Sport Website. I'll see what the rest of the week holds for me and what I get up to as I do it.

Last Day

2008-06-30T08:49:00.000-07:00

Tommorrow I officially start as NSU Sports Development Officer so it's the last day of me being just a normal student without any responsibilities to Newman's students and it's players. I'm anxious about it because I want to get properly started and achieve everything I want to achieve for Newman and I just want to be back at Newman doing the job and the second year of my degree.

Oh well.

There's that and the fact I need to make sure I can organise my time to make sure I can carry on my training with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu whilst studying in the second year and as Sports Development Officer.

Captain's Handbook

2008-06-30T05:11:00.000-07:00

Last night I took a few hours to adjust, add and re-order the Captain's Handbook for a more linear approach for Captains to read on. For a little taster what we've got in store is our NSU Welcome and then sections about our Sports Clubs, the Student Activities cards, Health and Safety, British Universities Colleges Sport and our team's fixtures and everything a Captain must know about dealing with fixtures, Captain and Vice-Captain's job description, information on the STARS scheme, the Sports Elections for 2009 and the Sports Awards Night.

However this is just the start. It will likely receive more input over the summer as issues become important to let Captain's know of and advise them on certain matters.

Today I'm going to be dealing with the Freshers 2008 Recruitment Plan of Action that's going to be solely for Captains (or selected individuals in the Captain's stead) to deal with Freshers Week. This should hopefully clear up any questions that any of the Captains may have for what's going on during Fresher's Week and how they are going to be involved during the week.

Week of 23rd June 2008

2008-06-27T05:33:00.000-07:00

The majority of what I have been dealing with is the Newman Student Union website specifically bringing the sports pages upto standard.

We now have information specifically for Freshers and Returners on how they can get into sport and why they should get involved with sport at NSU. We've got information for people who want to start in a sport (to see what's on offer), for people who want to start a new sport (and how they go about doing it) and all the information you'll need throughout the season like sample budgets, sample risk assessments and sample team-sheets and other invariably useful bits and pieces.

That's not all! We're going to have information on how you can support the sport (with details of who's playing where when there at Home), information on the newest emerging teams at Newman (to give the spotlight to new and/or developing teams that they deserve).

We've also got information on how you can get your voice heard here at Newman whether it be through the NSU Forum, the Student Council or through myself. All venues are dealt with now on our new NSU Sports Website for all of your potential needs. Not only that! We've also got all the information you need about Healthy Living whilst at University, all the events throughout the year at Newman; Newman's 2009 Tour and 2009 Sports Awards Night.

Wait - There's more? You bet there is! We've got a whole new Newsletter for Sport lined up called SCORE! which is going to have all of your match photo's that we can get, a match report and some other general bits and bobs for all of you to really get behind the Red & Black of Newman!

NSU Website

2008-06-21T13:30:00.001-07:00

Over the last few days and the next few weeks I am going to be adding content and making very basic websites for each of the topics that I would like to publicly address, or have freely available, for students at Newman University College. These topics include getting involved with sport, sport for all, tour 2009.

If there’s any content you think should be dealt with then please get in touch with me at r.j.draper@newman.ac.uk

NSU Executive Training Week

2008-06-21T13:17:00.000-07:00

Monday: This was the first time that the team was together (with the exception of Societies Development Officer, Patrick Byrne, who sent apologies not being in the country) and included the Chair of Student Council, Sunny Bhogal, and the Student Governor, Joanne House, and it felt good to see who I was going to work with for the next year.

With the NSU Development Manager, Rob Balding, we took a tour of the NSU Office and the Campus to highlight any areas we as students may not have come into contact with, which I felt was very helpful.

Monday was the lightest of the days as we recapped most of the previous training leading up to the Intensive Week and we played a couple of games for ice-breakers that also gave us a bit more information on ourselves (such as Shields) and we had an introduction to the National Union of Students (NUS).

Tuesday: We looked at how to run our budgets, keeping track of our spending and how to teach appropriate individuals to manage their own budgets (i.e. Captains and Society Chairs) and we looked at the legal implications that affect us as Executive Officers such as the Charities Acts, Ultra Vires and then we looked at planning the events of the year such as Student Council, Elections and major NSU nights out (i.e. Blind Date and Stars in the Bars).

As I will go onto mention at a later point we also looked at how we wanted to present the NSU Website (http://www.newmansu.org) in the best way possible both in smaller groups and then in the larger Executive group.

We also had a visit from the Principal, Pamela Taylor, so we could all introduce ourselves and build a good-working relationship over the year to come.

Before relaxing and playing poker down at the Sanctuary Bar we also planned Freshers and Returners Week 2008.

Wednesday: In the morning we had a visit from the Director of Quality, Lysandra de la Haye, about the various professional committees at Newman University College.

We looked at the Apathy Staircase, which is how we – your Executive – can get you involved in issues that affect you. It’s our job to make sure that your interested with the four stages we can go through to make sure that you get the best experience out of University that you can do.

We also went shopping in preparation for the evening’s activities. It was a great opportunity for us all to bond, which I think we all latched on to and had a great time doing, and then after sorting something to eat out we got ready for our night at the Newman Grand Theatre.

Early during the week we had been told of the exercise we were going to take on with what turned out to be the Newman Grand Theatre very briefly. Each of us chose our characters with Rob's assistance with the exception of myself who waited till last and was left with Bob, son of Lady and Lord Fitzgerald.

We turned up in our costumes and received our briefs from Rob who was acting as co-ordinator or games master however you'd like to turn the phrase. We all pinned tags on ourselves to let the other players in the game know who we were. I didn't like my character's name so I changed it to Robert, and use Bob as a diminuitive name for friends and family, and the other players looked like the adapted to the change without problem - so that was good.

The first bit of information at the Newman Grand Theatre was that Lord Fitzgerald, owner of the Newman Grand Theatre and my character's father had been murdered. Shock, horror! And it was his lawyer slash part time private eye that was going to investigate the murder. This character was to be played by Sunny, and lead to all amounts of hilarity throughout the night, who ended up offending my character several times accusing Robert of the murder of his father.

Everybody took to their roles and played very well for a first troupe game and I really enjoyed myself. I spent most of my time talking with my sister (who was played by Gemma Simpson) about the rifts between my family and myself. As it panned out I had an argument with my father 20 minutes before the murder over debts that he would usually bail me out of but this time had decided not to.

Tom Mallard's Mr Tress character was the first to be killed. I suspected Mike Ratcliffe's character of his murder and in the end found that I was right. Their sub-plot included that Mike Ratcliffe, who was playing the Newman Grand's Premiere Actor, was completely infatuated with Mrs. Tress the Newman Grand's Premiere Actress. However Mike was a little obvious about his infatuation and it was blatantly obvious that if either character were to die then it would've either have been Mr. Tress or Mike's character.

Later on I heard a rumour that the baby of Mrs. Tress wasn't Mr. Tress' or Mike's character but was the baby of my father. However before I could do much more I was shot dead, before being attempted to be poisoned by Ben (who was conspicuously offering me a toast).

After two alleged attempts on the life of our part time private eye played by Sunny he was murdered for the third attempt.

Apologies if I have not laid out the story well enough but it's some two weeks after that I've come to finish writing this entry and it means that my recollection are not as complete as they should have been.

There were a number of sub-plots that went on and Lisa Murphy and Ben (I believe) received the Murder Mystery Winner's certificate after two rounds of voting for their duplicitous storyline that was going to lead them to ownership of the Newman Grand Theatre.

I was suprised to find out who the murderers were;
Mike murdered Sunny after Cazz's two attempts failed.
Gemma (who was playing my sister) murdered me for the family fortune.
And I murdered my father for not paying my gambling debts with the able assistance of my friend played by Kelly Ashby (who was secretly infatuated with Bob) however I knew that I murdered him all along and only a few people out of the group guessed that it was me - but not one could reason why it was me.

The irony of this was before choosing characters myself and Ben had remarked that it's always the quiet son that offs their father in these types of things and that it would just be my luck for me to be the killer. However I didn't choose my character ... it's what was left so it was completely at random.

Until next time!

;-)

Thursday: Thursday was our day to experience a life in the day of a Student Union Executive. It was another roleplay experience for us to make sure that we can deliver the right response to you and our stakeholders. I felt that this was a very important exercise for me personally as it dealt with a lot of problems that could’ve arisen in the future and gave me ways of dealing with those to make sure that I can serve you as best as I can during my year of office.

I think we all really enjoyed it and then the day culminated in a mock Student Council allowing Student Council Chair, Sunny Bhogal, and Vice-Chair, Tom Brown, the ability to put in place a few ideas they got from Birmingham Guild of Students Council on Tuesday night. What happened on Thursday really makes me confident for an effective and stream-lined Council that helps you the Student!

Friday: Coming to the end of the week we evaluated our performance from the day before to see how we could improve and to see what we did right during the day. We also did a bit more job specific roleplay scenes developed by ourselves for the rest of the team. I dealt with a student issue where a student felt they couldn’t join a club and made only one mistake through the scene (which was not giving an exact date of when I would contact them back) but considering how the rest of the scene had gone I thought was a major plus!

Then we all split up into teams after another team-building exercise and had a task of building a device that would ensure survival of an Egg-Zec. Kelly Ashby (Entertainments Officer) and I paired up and we went about coming up with a design then going on a treasure hunt to make our contraption. After arriving earlier than the other teams we created our encased unit to allow for our egg to hit the floor and not break.

After each team dropping their eggs, none of the eggs had broken (which was a pleasant surprise!) and the judges decided upon Ben & Cazz as the winners due to it’s flamboyant design rather than our “Individual Egg-zec member being protected by the casing of the NSU Executive Team” but all teams received their rewards and I must say it was a fun time had by all!

Preparations

2008-05-23T11:05:00.001-07:00

At the moment I am preparing to speak with the Captains for 2008/2009 at the next (and possibly last Captain's meetings for this year) so that I am able to detail what I have planned for next year, how it's going to be achieved and what everyone can expect from me next year. Also included will be general details and ideas about Freshers and Returners weeks events.

Draft Constitution Amendment - Captain's Committee

2008-05-18T13:51:00.000-07:00

This Union believes:

Student’s Unions up and down the country have committees and groups to organise functions, events, entertainments and fundraising activities.

The Union further believes:

That there should be a committee to decide, organise and arrange what functions, events, entertainments and fundraising activities should be provided through sports here at Newman University College specifically for the current captains.

The Union resolves:

That a Captain’s Committee should be formed, and chaired by the Sports Development Officer (or Exec. Officer appointed by the Executive team such as when in such times as Sports Development Officer is left vacant) with the following terms of reference:

There shall be a Captain’s Committee of the Student’s Union.
The Captain’s Committee shall have the following roles:

To liase with the Entertainments Officer, Sports Development Officer and Entertainments Committee with regard to all events and functions prescribed under the Sports banner.
To ensure that sufficient publicity and information is provided for all Sports functions.
To give support and assistance to all clubs and teams wishing to organise events, as and when required.
To be responsible for forming a Committee (in collaboration with the Player’s Committee) to organise the Sports Awards Evening for 2009 and assist that Committee in its role as and when required.
To report to Union Council and/or the General Meeting on its activities as and when required.
Any action and/or remit deemed necessary by the Sports Development Officer appropriate to their role as a Captain of Newman University College.

The Captain’s Committee shall report on its business to the Executive Committee and the Union Council and shall present its minutes to the Union Council for approval or referral back in accordance with the Newman Students Union constitution.
The members of the Captain’s Committee shall be:

The Sports Development Officer or nominated Executive Officer (in such times as Sports Development Officer is left vacant) shall be the ex officio chair.
Each democratically elected Captain representing a sports team and/or club affiliated with the Newman Student’s Union.

The committee may invite other Union officers or members of staff to attend its meetings as Observers. Unless an invitation is sent then attendance will be restricted to the members of the Captain’s Committee as determined in term of reference #4.
Observers shall have full speaking rights but shall not be entitled to vote.
The Chair will only vote in the event of a tie and they will have the casting vote.
The Sports Development Officer or Committee chair shall be responsible for ensuring that proper minutes are taken at all meetings of the Committee. These minutes shall be taken as the definitive record of any committee meeting.
The Committee shall meet at least six times a term. Notice of meetings shall be given to all members at least 7 (seven) days before each meeting and shall be displayed on the Union Notice Boards.
Any member of the Captain’s Committee who misses two consecutive meetings without their apologies being accepted by the meeting shall be deemed to have resigned as Captain.
If any member of the Committee has an interest in any matter under discussion, they must declare it and abstain from voting on that matter.
The quorum for all meetings of the Captain’s Committee shall be one-half of those members in office.

Draft Constitution Amendment - Players Committee

2008-05-18T13:46:00.000-07:00

This Union believes:

Student’s Unions up and down the country have committees and groups to organise functions, events, entertainments and fundraising activities.

The Union further believes:

That there should be a committee to decide, organise and arrange what functions, events, entertainments and fundraising activities should be provided through the Sports auspice here at Newman University College.

The Union further believes:

That each student regardless of position or ability within their sporting team and/or club has the right to positively influence the experience of other students involved in sports activities and that there voice be as valid as Captains, Vice-Captains and other prescribed leaders and role-models of said teams.

The Union resolves:

That a Players Committee should be formed, and chaired by the Sports Development Officer (or Exec. Officer appointed by the Executive team such as when in such times as Sports Development Officer is left vacant) with the following terms of reference:

There shall be a Players Committee of the Student’s Union.
The Players Committee shall have the following roles:

To liase with the Sports Development Officer and Entertainments Committee with regard to all events and functions prescribed under the Sports banner.
To liase with the Welfare Officer with regard to all events and functions for healthy lifestyle and student welfare regarding sport.
To ensure that sufficient publicity and information is provided for all Sports functions.
To give support and assistance to all clubs and teams wishing to organise events, as and when required.
To be responsible for forming a Committee (in collaboration with the Captain’s Committee) to organise the Sports Awards Evening for 2009 and assist that Committee in its role as and when required.
To report to Union Council and/or the General Meeting on its activities as and when required.
Any action and/or remit deemed necessary by the Sports Development Officer appropriate to their role as a Player of Newman University College Sports.

The Players Committee shall report on it’s business to the Executive Committee and the Union Council and shall present its minutes to the Union Council for approval or referral back in accordance with the Newman Students Union constitution.
The members of the Players Committee shall be:

The Sports Development Officer or nominated Executive Officer (in such times as Sports Development Officer is left vacant) shall be the ex officio chair.
Members of Sports Teams who will be democratically voted in at the time of their first attendance to the meeting, to a maximum number of 30 members.

The committee may invite other Union officers or members of staff to attend its meetings as Observers.
Observers shall have full speaking rights but shall not be entitled to vote.
The Chair will only vote in the event of a tie and they will have the casting vote.
The Sports Development Officer or Committee chair shall be responsible for ensuring that proper minutes are taken at all meetings of the Committee. These minutes shall be taken as the definitive record of any committee meeting.
The Committee shall meet at least three times a term. Notice of meetings shall be given to all members at least 7 (seven) days before each meeting and shall be displayed on the Union Notice Boards.
Any member of the Players Committee who misses three consecutive meetings without their apologies being accepted by the meeting shall be deemed to have resigned.
If any member of the Committee has an interest in any matter under discussion, they must declare it and abstain from voting on that matter.
The quorum for all meetings of the Players Committee shall be one-quarter of those members in office.

Good Intentions

2008-05-18T13:39:00.001-07:00

Afternoon,

My name is Rowan Draper and I’m the 2008/2009 Sports Development Officer at the Newman Student Union. I feel that it is my job is to make sports better for you by making sure you know about it, making the quality of it better as best I can, that you get to enjoy regular socials and get to have a good laugh while representing Newman or by playing in inter-mural competitions inside our own home facilities. I have a lot of plans for the next year and here will be one place that you'll be regularly able to keep up with what's going on in and around Uni and what's going on in the future.

In an attempt to reach more students in the coming year of 2008/2009 and display exactly what I am doing or what I am trying to accomplish for them in my role as NSU Sports Development Officer and as a member of the NSU Executive. My intention is that I can regularly update this over the coming year with information, reviews and reports for all students involved in sport or not can keep up to date with what I'm getting upto when I'm not playing Sport or doing work for my degree.

You can always contact me at r.j.draper@newman.ac.uk