I walked into campus, meeting another student along the way. We chatted about the elections, the union etc on the walk in. I then joined a friend for a walk into Galgate for lunch. A student stoped by my table to wish me luck with the campaign. DEspite a general fear of appathy, it's great when you take a break from the campaign, and someone makes the effort to come up and speak to you about it.

I spent the greater part of the day (after lunch) writing lines. Or at least that's how it felt. Most of my posters are hand made... they take forcer to make! I put up a big banner in the underpass and covered it with tape to stop it being ripped off / splashed by a bus etc. When I was done someone in the underpass pointed out that the glare means the text was now invisible. I'm hoping it's better in day light.

In the evening I had my radio debate. I answered the questions, but kept forgetting to plug myself. I prefer doing the job right and providing information than this competition of "vote for me! vote for me!" that it can so easily decend into.

After the radio show I went around a few of the bars and joined teams competing in Rags bar quiz. I also spoke to the rag organisers for a bit.

Late in the evening I had run out of things to do, so I started heading in the vague direction of Bowland for the last few minutes before closing time. On the way I bumped into two girls carrying a bunch of stuff after a big band performance. I offered to help carry the stuff and found myself heading to South West campus. Ah well, I'll pop into Bowland tomorrow! While I only got to talk to two people for the rest of the night, I had a great time and we discussed all sorts of things. I ended up giving one of the girls a pickyback from the perimeter road down to grad... her shoes were pointy and hurting, and the ground was still covered in ice and mud. I ended up joining the girls in their kitchen for coffee, and then showing them this campaign site and the rest of my construction pictures from when the new blocks were built. It was about as fun as watching a tap drip! (And that is not a put down, I had a great night! The tap the night before was just fun too... in strange way that only makes sense in a postgrad kitchen containing a PhD student in physics and another in mathematics).

Finally, I updated this site a bit. Still missing some pictures... I have a wonderful pic of me at age 7 take the cub promise for the first time. Given discussion on Scam and people's interest in my past involvement with Scouts I'll try scan it in for you guys.

Came onto campus in the morning for a religious service. The service included a blessing for a new baby born in the Lancaster Jewish community. The community is quite new, so this is the first "new new" member of it. :)

The afternoon was spent discussing course work for computing second and third years. I hadn;t managed to have this meeting during the week due to the campaign. For those doing computing... it's going to be a tough course, better to start early on it I think.

In the evening I attended a house party in grad. They had a dripping tap... it go so annoying we eventually calculated how much water was being wasted... in pints! So far they'd lost roughly 12,000 pints. Imagine if that was Ale...

Spoke in a few more lectures. Took time out of the campaign to play in the snow... my hat became the favourite target of a number of people (which was fine until the snow started dripping down my back!)

To be honest I don't really remember much of Friday. It started with a SUEC (Societies Union Executive Committee) meeting where last Tuesdays Societies Council was discussed, disected and SUEC worked out how to move forwards. It was a rather intense meeting and took a while to recover from.

I spent the day putting up new posters and walking around the square talking to people. It was amazing the number of students who spoke to me about a wide variety issues related to societies and campus life. I was able to answers a lot of questions that were nothing to do with the campaign (but info students needed) and in a few cases to get things fixed on the spot for students or point them in the right direction. On the one hand this was great, on the other it's a pitty things aren't always like this at Lancaster. It shouldn't take an election to get communication between students and those who represent them.

I also spoke in a number of lectures and to students in various places around campus. In the evening I attended union council. I found it quite fun. I suggested an ammendment that Mike (AU Pres) formally proposed for me that helped Cartmel College get 600 pounds for one world week. They'd originally asked for 500, but said it wasn't really enough. The theme for One World Week is "Mind the Gap"... I suggested a major event on South West campus might help close what is possibly the largest "gap" on campus.

Took a day out of campaigning in order to represent students. The rest of this entry may put you to sleep... sorry! Feel free to skip it, but I feel it's important people know where I spent my time and why. Something I'd hope to continue doing if elected Gen Sec. The Gen Secs time belong to the students.

From 2 till 5 I was in a Quality Assurance Agency Board of Directors meeting (representing our 2.2 million university students), from 5 till six we had a discussion with Dame Alexandra Burslem, Chair of the Quality Assurance Framework Review Group. She spoke about the different types of information collected in order to help students choose a university. The National Student Survey (NSS) was discussed as well as Teaching Quality Information (TQI). I raised the issue of the student experience other than academic, e.g. clubs, societies, cost of living, etc. This started a very good discussion that will probably now continue in other groups and meetings and hopefully eventually have an impact on universities. The result (eventually!) will I hope be more money for student activities. I also raised the lack of service for postgrads and international students, both of whcih are paying higher fees and getting less for it.

Afterwards there was the QAA Annual reception, and the launch of the 5 year strategic plan and the 2004-2005 annual report. The 5 year plan is very pro-student (I did redraft bits of it to ensure this!) and the presentation is very clear and focussed. It gives targets and says how they will be measured. We need something similar for LUSU. The Guest of honour, Bill Rammell MP (Minister of State for Lifelong learning, Further education and Higher education) then spoke. He could only stay for half an hour... but I took a picture of him with the chief exec and chairman of QAA after, and then got one with myself for this website. (Why not? It could do with more pictures) :) I also met Julian (VP Education for NUS) and Simon (Gen Sec, National Postgraduate Committee) and we discussed a few issues affecting students.

At about 1am, back in Lancaster an in my officer, I send Jude the picture he needed for Scan (I arranged this with him at 1am the previous day). Jude responded immediatly, which means he's in his office working way too hard and way too late. Thanks Jude! :)

I left campus at 5am on Tueday morning after postering and then getting this website up. At 9am I was back on campus to speak at my first lecture. The lecturer was far more enthusiastic about the elections than the students... I can only put it down a difference in coffee intake. We should get rid of 9am lectures, or else provide free coffee! (This is not a campaign promise!)

I had to take time out during the afternoon to help try get something together for One World Week. After which I had to vanish to sort out the presentation for Societies Council.

Societies Council was not well organised. SUEC are currently discussing this. Speaking just for myself, despite the obvious problems I was impressed with the response from Socities Council. About 20 different people spoke by my estimation. That's up from about 3 last time. People expressed a variety of views and a desire to get more involved. SUEC was told what societies want from it including

• Greater clarity and less jargon
• A training manual with example paper work (I've offered to coordinate / do this)
• more discussion on the motions and less time pressure (can definitly do for next time)
• More discussion on the bye law governing societies (great! have a look at it (pg 236-238) and let us know what you think and what you think needs changing)

At the end of the day though, the meeting left a lto of room for improvement. Appologies have been issued and people (including the chair) are wanting to appologise further. I hope people accept these appologies and note the huge effort that has been put in. Perhaps for next time SUEC can do a presentation on positives and work done? There is a lot of positive stuff going on, some of which was mentioned in the meeting and soem of which wasn't. Quick run down of positives:

• Lot of new societies, each of which was interviewed and offered advice and assistance in starting up.
• Assistance given to societies in immediate financial need, e.g. Cheerleaders and Debating
• Support given to societies who needed it (e.g. Poker who needed to make minor changes to keep people off their (and SUECs) back. They also got other general recomendations for improvement
• Society independence was reaffirmed, (there is a specific case, but that doesn't need to be public!)
• Steering group meetings happened for the first time in a year
• SUEC spent many hours discussion finance and the idea of partial fundign core actvities, and then consulted with societies on this. This is how things should be done! A bit more time and we can report back.

   

Hustings or "question time" was brilliant, and a lot of fun. I got a pile of questions and people seemed quite happy with the answers.

Most amusing question has to be "You've got a lot of experience with all these companies and things, would you wear that hat if you were going for a serious job interview?" The answer of course was that I did wear my hat while being interviewed for my post with the QAA, and as an Australia I feel it does help people appreciate who I am and where I've come from. I then showed them my Koala... with his hat with corks on and explained I wasn't willing to make a mockery of the event by sticking corks on my hat, but there's no reason my bear can't. Ofcourse this then required an explanation of how Koala's aren't actually bears... by which point I think we'd got rather off topic!

Later that night one of the girls on campus (who'd had a bit to drink offered me a fiver for my hat. No deal I'm afraid!