AMSU Conference 2009

Firstly, another thank you to the Conference Planning Committee and the Union of Brunel Students for hosting a great conference.

Secondly I would love it if we could make the benefits of conference last a little longer by developing discussions that were had in the sessions. Or even just keep in touch with people you met in those sessions. You can view those sessions and post comments about them by following the link: http://www.amsu.net/events/conference09/

I overheard someone who went to conference saying "I had 4 lightbulb moments"

If everyone had 4 and then followed up and implemented change as a basis of that then that is nearly 500 improvements being introduced to SUs as a result of conference. Surely that would make a big difference to our students...

These are meeting notes and not minutes

Open and welcome
The Chair thanked everyone for attending

Approval of the Minutes
Last years minutes were approved subject to the addition of one or two unions who were missed off the list of those attending.

Matters arising
Advice Pro - it was noted that this project has faced challenges but it is hoped that working with Advice Pro this can be rolled out across the movement by the end of the year

Charity Status for AMSU - It was noted that the board had received a report showing that there was no advantage at this time for AMSU to register and so the matter was dropped

Mission Groups - There have been ongoing work and sessions about this through the movement and work continues

AMSU Annual Report and Finances
Conference agreed to take both as a package as the finances formed part of the Accounts. The Treasurer presented the accounts and reported that despite having a large amount of money that was paid to the pension scheme (SUSS) this year we would still post a small surplus.
Conference agreed the budgets for 09-10 and it was noted that affiliation fees would not have to go up on the current operational model.

Tenon were appointed auditors for the next 3 years

The annual report was presented to conference and despite a difficult year for SUs and AMSU there was a lot of good work being done by the volunteers and this is a positive sign. The volunteers were thanked. The report was approved

Debate on motion from Trustees
The session from yesterday at which this motion was discussed was referenced. Conference noted the views of the members and this paper was noted as part of the ongoing work on the future of AMSU. This being the case conference agreed that the Trustees should continue their work and that elections for an additional 2 trustees would be happening in July as part of that work.

Debate on members Motions
Trustees at conference - Conference noted the importance of engaging with Trustees but felt this paper was a little too prescriptive. The motion was referred to the Trustees to review and work on.

Alumni - Conference noted the importance of retaining the talent and knowledge of previous managers but felt this paper again was a little too prescriptive. The motion was referred to the Trustees to review and work on. There was some reference to looking into a system of Honorary Life Members which are nominated.

Returning Officer
Scott Farmer (NUS) was appointed as Returning officer

AOB
Sarah Jane Smith announced that because she had to concentrate on UWE SU she was giving notice to resign as Chair of AMSU. AGM thanked Sarah for the work she had done for AMSU over many years.

The Trustees thanked Brunel University for being wonderful hosts and providing an excellent conference

This was an interesting discussion of the papers being presented to AGM about the future of AMSU. There was a very healthy attendance which was pleasing to see. Anyhow meeting notes are available - CLICK HERE

At this session, which attracted a large number of conference delgates, Jon Berg described a number of intersting implications of the AMSU / NUS survey. Jon explained that trends are measured over a five year period to allow for an accurate depiction of how things are changing over time. You can find the data from the survey in the relevant section of the Resource Library.

The session began highlighting that while there is over £100 million in block grants for unions across the country, 1 in 5 unions now see a percentage of their grant taken away in the form of rent or other expenses. This is up from only 1 in 10 approximately 5 years ago. However, it was noted that 50% of unions have sourced additional 'earmarked' funding for specific projects. To find out more, you can see who received this funding in the survey and contact them to find out more about their bids!

It is interesting to note that Sabbatical paychecks vary wildly in size, from £9.3K to £29.7K and 1 in 3 unions grant other benefits to their officers such as pre-paid mobile phones, accomodation or food credits. Surprisingly, approximately 8% of Sabbatical Officers left before the end of their term of office.

Other interesting stats include;

- Across 75 Unions, there were approximately 250,000 visits to Union welfare services in in 2008.

- Each union that operates a job shop placed approximately 2,500 jobs to students.

- Staff development budgets range from £400 to £80,000.

- While many unions have seen a decrease in bar sales, staffing costs are on the rise, but bar sales still generate a large percentage of income for unions.

- Most unions offer space on their websites for candidate promotion in elections and 74% have regulations for facebook, but the number of unions using online voting actually went down in 2008 to 52%.

- Many entertainment departments are now losing money.

For more information about the survey and to read all of the notes made by Jon Berg at the session, check out the relevant section of the Resource Library. Jon will be uploading his presentation shortly.

Following on from the previous Blog post about the use of Open Space Technology, it is interesting to see what the group discussed and what came out from the session. At the end of the session, each attendee was asked to reflect on what they will take away from the session and back to their Unions. These points reflect opinions of members at the end of the session;

- As long as web-content monitored to be 'safe', staff should let go of too much control.

- Can staff members describe their online identity and separate personal vs. professional posts?

- Are 'hard to reach' groups really hard to reach, or not interested?

- Regardless of the technology used, it needs to be simple to be accessible.

- It's ok for student made Facebook groups to be more popular than staff made groups - embrace them.

- Sometimes we might have all the right technology / tools, but we're just saying the wrong things.

- Twitter Monitors can be used to engage with students that don't come to the Sabbs.

- Is the future of the web to enable Active Citizenship through computers?

- Online groups and communities can lead to physical engagement.

- Open Space Technology could be useful in Sabbatical Training and in shaping democracy.

I hope that something above peaks your interest or sparks some internal debate. We're hoping to get an online Open Spaces Technology session running to allow for further discussion of this sort online.

As both a member of Union Staff whose role encompasses training elected representatives and a firm believer that the web has a lot more to offer in engaging members, I was eager to attend this session. This session differed from the norm in that it began with an open agenda where the attendees got to determine the topics that will become the focus of the discussion. Being the first Open Space Technology (OST) session that I had attended, I was intrigued to see how this would progress.

Once the topics had been chosen, members of the session broke off into self-organised groups to discuss that topic and attempt to answer the question that they had chosen. The main principals of OST sessions is that people flit between groups when they are bored / would rather talk about something else. This made for a very fluid and interesting interactive session that was enjoyable to be a part of. Imporantly, it was also a valuable use of time, as you were not requierd to remain part of a session that didn't interest you.

Everyone took away something unique from this session and many of the thoughts and points that were raised can be seen in the montage that can be seen in the photo gallery. More details about the points that came out of the session will be posted at a later date.

In conclusion, Open Space Technology is a tool that should considered when 'brain storming' type sessions are required or when you'd like to run a training session involving a wide or complex topic that is hard to define in a single presentation or where your attendees skill level will vary massively.

Because of changes to the conference planning agenda AMSU have got the opportunity to facilitate a debate on the future of AMSU. The exciting bit of this is we hopefully will be able to extend the debate to people outside the room. People who are not at conference can tweet or add a comment to the debate news item and this will feed live into the conversations happening in the room.

Hopefully this is a brilliant way of opening the debate and a model for future working. It is a shame that we didn't have too much time to publicise it but we have to start somewhere.

To comment on the future of AMSU click on the following link: http://www.amsu.net/news/article/6004/149/

Thanks to John Wordsworth from the web team we now have a mobile version of the site which makes viewing us in the sessions much easier (although shouldn't you be listening to the speaker!). Anyhow the website is simply www.amsu.net/mobile.

The AMSU website is being built and added to by the minute during AMSU conference and these 3 people have to sit in a bar all day sober to do it!

Big thanks to MSL (John Abell) for their support and John Wordsworth + Dan Connelly from the web development team for making it happen. 

Royal Holloway are looking to build on the success of Brunel 09 by getting your feedback now, If you visit the info desk in the atrium there are some ideas and feedback cards plus a little tear of reminder of the date to put in your wallet/purse so you can book it in now! Cards are also abvailable at the AMSU info desk in Locos

AGM papers, last years AGM minutes and agenda for the meeting have been printed off and are available from the AMSU info stand in Loco's or the conference info desk in the atrium. Please take a set, but in the interest of the environment can you make sure you bring them with you to the meeting and try and share within your union

If you want to:

• comment on any sessions,
• download more information from the session
• continue a really interesting discussion from a session

A lot of the sessions are already on there ready for you to comment. As we get speaker notes we will attach them to the sessions but if you want to post a comment about the session or ask a question then: CLICK HERE

Thank you to all those who turned up. Hope you got a good overview of AMSU. If you missed the session then the presentation is available to download by clicking here.

Hopefully all presentations will be stored in our resources library. If you are a speaker could you pop into Locos so we can upload after your sessions.

First morning has gone really well with some of the sessions bursting at the seams! It was good to see so many people at 9.30am on a conference morning for the initial sessions - especially the session on knowing your members.

The keynote welcome and introduction was well received with Professor Chris Jenks giving an enjoyable and informative speech.

If anyone has got any photographs of sessions, last night's fun or anything relating to the conference then pop and see us in Loco's where we can upload. We are now starting to collect and create a gallery.

Also feel free to drop in an blog, chat or just introduce yourself.

Andy 

Welcome to the AMSU Conference Blog 2009. This blog will keep you up to date with feedback from events taking place throughout the conference.

The Website Development Team will be darting around the conference, taking photos, blogging and twittering about the experience so that you can get the most out of the conference. Check back here to see which repeat sessions you should prioritise to make the most of your time and enjoy the photos and information that flows through!