Win or lose, standing for election is a great experience.

So RUSU Elections week is fast approaching and this is a bittersweet time for current Student Officers.

On the one hand, we get very excited about seeing potential candidates come to our offices to talk to us about being a Student Officer next year. However, on the other hand, we realise that we are ‘on the home stretch’ in so far as our tenure in office is concerned.

I have been thinking about my own experience of RUSU elections throughout this period, as I have actually run in two.

In 2011, I ran to be a Student Trustee and in 2012 I ran to for President with different outcomes from each. In my first election, I didn’t win. Emotionally, I am now able to watch both this election and the one I won on RU:ON’s website. As you can see from the stills on this page, the look on my face in both elections at the time the results were being announced is quite different. Note the vast change in the facial expression and choice of shirt.

There is something to be said for my experiences in both elections though. In both, during the campaign weeks, I met some amazing people who I would never have otherwise met. I also learnt a vast amount about a variety of student experiences on our campus. As we all know, no student experience is the same and candidates find this out extremely quickly during campaigning. All the candidates are helpful and supportive towards each other. They drive you on, no matter how tired you are.

There are a variety of activities such as Hustings (candidate’s question time) that may push you out of your comfort zone, but someone much cleverer than I once said, that’s exactly where you are most alive. I suppose what I am trying to say, is that elections are a fantastic experience and it’s not all about the winning, but what you gain along the way.

So have a think. You could be sitting in my office next year, experiencing all the great things I have.

Elections nominations are open until Thursday February 14th, 4.00pm. Student Officers are always available to speak to you about any questions regarding the elections process. All of our diaries are on our doors so don’t hesitate to come and talk to us.

If you do decide to stand for any of the positions, good luck. Win or lose, you won’t regret it.

James Fletcher
President

Being a Student Officer is the Best Job in the World!

Without sounding like a huge cliché, being a Student Officer is the best job in the world! Without starting your own multi-million pound business, you will never be able to have so much influence over the way a large organisation is run for years (or probably decades!)

As President, I am responsible for line managing the RUSU Chief Executive, so it is my job to make sure that the organisation functions on a day-to-day basis.I am a director of the two companies that RUSU wholly owns, including our own nursery.I am Chair of the Trustee Board of the multi-million pound charity that is RUSU and I am a member of the Council of the University; rendering me a trustee of that organisation with a budget of almost a quarter of billion pounds.

It is an absolute pleasure to represent Reading students and I primarily do that through committee work in the University. Whiteknights House is home to the chief offices in the University as well as the two main committee rooms. This becomes a President’s second home and it is at these committees that most of the decisions that affect students’ lives are made.

I also work nationally with the National Union of Students (NUS) as well as NUS Services Ltd (the huge group-buying consortium that stocks our shops and bars). I also am interviewed by the local and national press regularly on a variety of issues that affect students. This is a real buzz and I think it is one of the best bits of the job.

The most important thing about being a Student Officer is that you are passionate about making a difference to students’ lives at Reading. Running in an election is a fantastic experience and, if you win or lose (and I’ve done both), you learn so much and you meet people that you thought you would never meet. I have had the pleasure of meeting a huge variety of people in this job (including HM The Queen) and that’s what makes it so special.

I really encourage anyone who even has the smallest thought that they would like to run to be a Student Officer, to come and speak to one of the current Officer team. You are always more than welcome to come and chat about it with any of us.

If you would like to hear more about what the Students Officers do, then come along to Student Officer Scrutiny (SOS) on Tuesday 22nd of January in the RUSU Boardroom

It truly is a fantastic job and I would recommend it to anyone!

James Fletcher
RUSU President

Who Will Be Next? A Job Representing Students and Leading a Charity with a Multi-Million Turnover!

So the first term is over and your current Student Officers have made it through. It was hectic, stressful but crazily enjoyable to spend the term working for you. Honestly, this is the best job in the world.

It may seem mad but we’re now looking at you. We’re looking to see who will be running your Students’ Union next year! Every year thousands of students vote for five of their peers to represent all students at Reading. Those who win the elections will get the opportunity to be paid to work full-time for one year and lead RUSU.

It only seems a few weeks ago that I was nervously filling in my nomination form and trying to find some way to fill in my Spark* questions for their elections issue. I spent hours trying to create perfect answers that were funny, while keeping within the word limit! I’m pretty sure I failed massively.

I remember this time last year I was about to begin one of the most stressful times of my entire education. My dissertation deadline started to come in sight and my family begun asking what I wanted to do next! I imagine nearly all of last year’s 29 candidates felt the pressure. Running for election was the best choice I made. And the Spring Term of 2012 turned out to be the hardest and greatest time I ever had at university.

And now it’s your turn! This is your opportunity to lead an amazing charity and ensure that the Students’ Union and the University are doing their best for students. This job is like no other. I’ve gone from stressing about my grammar in essays to helping the Student Media streams progress and looking at the ways that students can make change in the Union, University and wider community. I’ve gone from ‘speed reading’ Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake to implementing our Gender Equality Policy that was passed at Student Voice.

It’s weird and daunting to think of leaving this job, but I’m so excited to see who’s going to get the chance to do this next. 

You may have been thinking of running for a while, or maybe it’s something that you’ve just heard about and think you’d be amazing at doing. Either way you’ve still got a few weeks to think about it.

Nominations open the Monday of Week 4 (4th February) and close Thursday of Week 5 (14th February). If you have any questions at all, come into the office when you’re back. The Student Officers are based above the RUSU reception and are always happy to talk to you. Otherwise, email us, tweet us, call us – all our details can be found here.

Campaigning to be a Student Officer teaches you so many things and it’s the most amazing opportunity!

Think one of your mates would make a great Student Officer? Send us an email titled 'I recommend' and tell us why. We’ll get in touch with them to encourage them and tell them about the process. 

See you all when you get back, it’s a little too quiet without you here.

Ceri Jones

VP Democracy and Campaigns

Volunteering - Benefits All Round!

Recently I attended a seminar by the Clore Social Leadership Programme. 2011 Chlore Social Fellow Laura Hyde, has worked in the student movement for a number of years and reported on the “Strengths of the Student Movement and its Relationship with the Voluntary Sector”. 

Preparations for the tea party


It quickly became apparent to me that what I have known to be true since starting my job as RUSU President, is now being expressed quite eloquently in her report.

She writes: “Students’ Unions are amazing organisations doing some excellent work, having a significant impact on individuals and wider society – they just need to tell more people!”

A truer statement has never been uttered. RUSU (and by ‘RUSU’ I don’t just mean the five Student Officers and RUSU staff. I mean the thousands of students who are engaged in a huge number of ways) is an amazing organisation.
 

I could use this blog to describe in vast amounts of detail, exactly what is great about everything we do, such as our advice service, our commercial services, our brand new lettings agency and, of course, our representative function. However, I am going to talk about volunteering as this is very fitting to the findings of Laura’s report.

RUSU runs a wide variety of volunteering opportunities for students. These provide you with the opportunity to get to know the area you live in, acquire key transferable skills and fundamentally enhance your university experience, whilst supporting and benefiting the local community. It is always a great pleasure for the Student Officers to talk about students’ involvement in volunteering when we meet with members of the local community.

Here is an outline of just a few of the great volunteering activities that RUSU has been involved with recently:

• 708 students have signed up to receive a weekly volunteering newsletter updating them of new opportunities to build links with the community and develop personally. This is a 250% increase on the number of students signed up last year.
• An amazing £4,342.09 was raised by RAG (Raising and Giving) in the first 9 weeks of this term.
• 50 local elderly residents will be attending a Christmas tea party catered for by our Baking Society with decorations made by the Domestic Do It Yourself Society (RUDDIYS). Entertainment will also be provided by our very own Dance, Breakdance, Tap and Modern, Gospel, Music and Swing Dance Societies. This event is a great collaboration between volunteering and societies.
• An on campus a 'Uni Bike,' bike hire scheme has launched with five bikes already having been hired out and new ones being donated from the local community.
• The Baking Society have been cooking with the residents at the local 'Lakeside Care Home' every Wednesday afternoon during term.
• The Community Choir has succesfully performed three concerts since September and will be celebrating its first anniversary in February 2013.
• A Homework Club has been started at a local Primary school with an average of 10 children attending each week.

As you can see, RUSU is hugely benefitting the voluntary sector within Reading and the wider community and we encourage as many students as possible to take part in these and other exciting volunteering opportunities.

If you are looking to personally develop as well as make good friends and meet new people, please consider volunteering. We as a Students' Union will provide you with lots of support and you never know, you could even get to see yourself in the local press as has previously happened!

If you wish to find out more about the opportunities available, pop into the Student Activities Centre in the RUSU building.

James Fletcher
RUSU President

Sexual Health Awareness Week Review

Last week we held RUSU’s first ever ‘Let’s Talk Sex,’ Sexual Health Awareness Week.

Generally speaking, students have a lot of sex – but not always safely – and for that reason it is incredibly important to keep an active check on sexual health. Unfortunately going to a sexual health clinic remains a taboo and this is one of the main things RUSU is attempting to change!

In an effort to tackle this stigma, RUSU attempted to break the world record for the most sexual health screenings carried out in 24 hours - the aim being to encourage people to come en masse, hopefully highlighting how simple getting tested really is!  In addition to asking individuals to get involved, we also encouraged competition between committees of JCRs, sports teams and societies by offering free Summer Ball tickets to the committee who got the most people to come and get tested. The competition got pretty fierce but in the end it was cheerleading who won and got an amazing 39 people tested!

After 24 hours the grand total tested was 528 people, smashing Surrey Union's record of 460.

We were over the moon with this result! The nurses at the clinic were also incredibly impressed and very surprised! (They thought we'd only get 50!) I hope this campaign has demonstrated how simple testing really is and emphasised the importance of having regular check-ups – it is recommended to do so every 6 months. Tests can be picked up from the clinic or university medical practice at any time.

Other events in the week included a sex ed. class run by ‘Sexpression UK’, a screening of ‘Philadelphia’ hosted by LGBT who also spent the week raising money for National Aids Trust (NAT), along with the RAG and RUBaking societies selling world aids day ribbons and cakes! Collectively they raised around £250!

Finally, the campaign culminated in the ‘Safe Sex Ball’ held on World Aids Day. We had some excellent Moulin Rouge décor (including a giant windmill!) and some class performances from the likes of UniTrash and Fleur. We had a great time on the night and a near sell out during Week 8 suggests we didn’t do too badly.

Thanks to everyone who was involved in the success of this week, particularly the Student Officers and Ben (our LGBT Part-time Officer) who really deserves a huge portion of the credit for any successes. Lastly, thanks to every person who came to an event, who got tested and who packed out 3sixty for the Safe Sex Ball. I’m really proud of what we achieved in this campaign; hopefully it will help trigger a change in attitudes towards sexual health at our university!

Happy Week 9, work hard and play safe!

Sophie Davies

VP Welfare and Representation

RUSU and the NUS

This Wednesday we will see the National Union of Students (NUS) Demonstration in London. This demonstration was voted on at the NUS Annual Conference in April 2012 and comes with the slogan of ‘Educate, Employ, Empower’

Reading students were asked if they would like to commit RUSU time and resources in attending this Demo. The result was a ‘no’ and RUSU listened. RUSU will therefore not be attending the Demo, although that is not to say, that Reading students cannot go themselves. We will provide you with all the information that you need on this.

Aside from our attendance at the Demo, I thought that it was fitting that I use my blog to affirm how NUS and RUSU have an excellent working partnership.

Firstly, let’s begin with the Demo. Student Officers asked students how they felt about attendance for a variety of reasons, including resource allocation and to gauge whether students at Reading want their Student Officers to engage in activity more locally. The NUS, by its name and nature, is national. However, it supports Students’ Unions around the UK to engage with their universities and local authorities to better the lives of students locally. It is invaluable for this and the resources and one-to-one assistance that it provides is second to none. Student Officers at Reading believe that students need to be empowered when it comes to their education and employment. They will continue, as they would have before the Demo, to campaign on these three ideals. The fact that we will not physically attend the Demo, does not mean that its message is not relevant to Reading students. Of course it is and RUSU will fight on your behalf tirelessly.

We are also in the midst of NUS Delegate Elections. The NUS delegates are representatives of Reading students at the NUS Annual Conference. These individuals will be able to vote on national policy and elect the national officers who will lead the NUS for the coming year. I encourage every Reading student to vote in these elections. It is imperative that our delegates know what you want from your student movement so let them know by voting for them! X Factor fans will know how important it is to vote for something that you believe in, after this weekend’s shocker!

You can vote here (you will need to log in first). We have four delegates at Reading (this is calculated by the NUS based on our student numbers). One is reserved for the RUSU President (me!) ex officio and three are up for grabs by every other RUSU member (student and Student Officer alike).

You may wonder how RUSU gets all of its stock for Mojo's Bar, Café Mondial, 3sixty and Campus Central. Well, surprise surprise, it’s by way of the NUS! Well, NUS Services Ltd (NUSSL) to be precise. Individually, students’ unions do not have the purchasing power to negotiate good deals for students. NUSSL is a group of 300 students’ unions (so about 3.5 million members, give or take) so together it creates a company with huge purchasing power. NUSSL then negotiates on behalf of those millions of students to get us all a good deal. It doesn’t end at the edge of campus though as NUSSL is responsible for the NUS Extra Card. For as little as £12, you can save £523 on average in many high street retailers! Bargain! Last year, RUSU was the second biggest seller of NUS Extra Cards, so collectively Reading students saved approximately £3.8million! If you want a slice of that, you can get your card from the RUSU Reception while you wait.

As you can see, RUSU’s relationship with the NUS is one of true partnership. I believe RUSU is better for its affiliation to the NUS and even though RUSU won’t be there on Wednesday, as a student body we are totally committed to making sure that our futures are secure. We remind universities, local authorities and national governments across the country that, as integral parts of society, we need to be invested in; not only financially but as a part of society that will secure the future for the UK. As part of the NUS we can achieve this much better than we would be able to achieve alone. Celebrate our relationship with the NUS, I know I do!

James Fletcher
RUSU President

What's the R.U.S.H?

Reading University Student Housing

To some of you it may seem completely insane to even consider where you will be living or who you will be living with next year, but to others it may be something that is already on your mind.

To those of you moving into rented accommodation for the first time, the most important thing to remember is DON’T RUSH!

It’s essential that you give yourself time to find the right housemates and the right house and if you have concerns or questions about housing, they should be raised now rather than later.

RUSU has a team of Student Advisors who can help and give advice on any housing issues. Finding the right place to live is important and can seriously impact on your university experience.

Even at this early stage, discussions may have started amongst your friends and in your flats about who is going to live with whom. Please remember though that living with someone in halls can be very different to sharing a house. Currently you may not have to share communal spaces, you may have en-suites in halls and especially if you are catered, you may not have to deal with the whole piles of washing up /cleaning rota thing. You don’t have bills to consider or estate agents to deal with either. It really is worth considering who it is you are choosing to take up these new challenges with because once you sign that contract – that really is it.

Who?

This is not supposed to scare you at all but it is supposed to make you think.

Everyone is different and sometimes you can be the best of friends with someone but actually aren’t that compatible as housemates. Behind closed doors your best friend can be a lot messier than you realised, and despite best intentions, will always have a huge pile of washing up to do and be hoarding at least 4 of your mugs in their room. These things might seem irrelevant now, but can really begin to grate in such a confined environment.

Where?

It’s not just about who you live with, it’s where you live. Can you honestly say that having been here for a month, you know exactly where the best student area is? I can guarantee there is a huge split of opinion about which one is and the best thing to do, is take some time to go and find out for yourself! Use next term to look around as many houses as you can to get a feel for the options you have and for the areas you can choose from.

I know you may be thinking… but if I wait, won’t all the houses have gone?

No. Reading has more houses than students! Speaking from personal experience I have always waited until the Spring term to sign a contract. In my first year I signed in April, in second year it was February and in third year I signed a contract for my current house 2 days before moving into it in July! (I don’t recommend that last one –but you get the point!) I live and have always lived in a great student area and paid between £300 and £335 a month in rent. It takes me 7 minutes to get to campus.

In Week 7, RUSU is holding a series of Housing Talks. They will give you a ridiculous amount of useful information including all the things to be aware of when viewing a house (I always check the shower!), contracts, mould, bills, housemates, landlords, estate agents, inventories, etc., etc. We will also be running ‘Find a Housemate’ sessions beginning in Week 8.

 All we ask is that you attend these sessions and that you chill!

Times and dates of talks will be advertised on posters around the Students’ Union, on our website and via Facebook and Twitter closer to the time.

DON’T RUSH - WAIT UNTIL YOU KNOW ALL THE FACTS!

Sophie Davies
VP Welfare and Representation