South Australian report to National Exec

Vastly shortened version of my report to the National Union of Students (NUS) Nat Exec at the last meeting (13/01/07) Just the 'plans for the Year' section rather than the nitty gritty.

Orientation
Orientation will be make or break for State Branch. It is the only foreseeable way in which we can get anyone involved in the campaign for next year. Currently my plans for Adelaide and most likely Flinders (Uni SA as noted above is still touch and go) involves stalls next to the AEC and sign up sheets for the new E-List as well as lecture bashing, postering and general promotion. This will be the launch of the ‘Voice for the Future’ Campaign so it is obviously important. I am hoping with negotiation with Flinders to incorporate the stall into their FCCS stall. Obviously concrete, specific planning is a little difficult from the perspective of only one activist so with a little luck after the State Conference we will have more direction for Orientation.

Recruitment
As stated in the previous section Orientation is of paramount importance to the Branch. Having spoken to the National Education Officer last week on the issue of NDAs this becomes even more apparent. Let me tell you if we were to hold an NDA in the second/third week of first term on the current number of activists we have now we would have 20 people yelling on the steps of Parliament House. In case you haven’t picked up the doom and gloom overtones of this report our activist network is crying out for members. It is my hope that the many lead up events to whatever we decide to run on the NDA will encourage more people to be actively involved.

Website
A rather exciting thing happened last week where I discovered that there is an (albeit empty) website devoted to South Australia on the unistudent.com! Well I was excited. Now that I am aware of its existence I would like to keep this up to date not only as a reference point for South Australian activists but also as a method of accountability within NUS.

Recommendation 3- That the National Office Bearers assist in the creation of promotional material for South Australian O’Weeks and make a commitment to having at least one OB in the state for the duration of the Orientation period.

Recommendation 4- That the National General Secretary assist the South Australian State Branch President in keeping the SA section of the NUS website up to date and relevant.

Voice for the Future

This will be the focus for the year of State Branch (and on a personal note the Adelaide Uni Students’ Association/SRC.) We all know the specifics of the campaign as adopted by the 2006 conference so I will just speak briefly on the events I intend to run as part of the campaign this year (in addition to Orientation as previously discussed.)

Enrol to Vote- I intend to have regular ‘Enrol to Vote’ days this year. Beginning with Flinders (if it goes ahead) and Adelaide O’Camps, obviously as discussed in Orientation, and near the end of first term a BBQ/Band day at each of the Universities. This is designed not only to keep up momentum for the campaign but also to gauge interest and further recruit more people to the movement.

Fundraising Day- An event I currently have planned within the Adelaide SRC but I am hoping can also be applied to the other campuses. Basically it involves running as low cost an event as possible that is designed to raise money for future campaigns. My personal favourite is the Lost Property Stall. This is an old event that the SAUA has always run whereby Security gives us all their lost property and then we sell it (its quite amazing that people will pay for quite a lot of junk.) Ideas such as bake sales, ‘Busk for your HECS,’ and obviously the standard BBQ have been floated. This has yet to take concrete shape.

NDA- This is the section of my report that I believe will cause the most controversy. At this point in the year I can see no way in which South Australia could have an effective protest. Please take my earlier comment about the 20 people on the steps of Parliament house VERY seriously. This is not an exaggeration. I am fully committed to getting involved in the campaign as a CONCEPT, and will of course have something on the day. However, NDA’s are currently not a viable option in South Australia and I fundamentally believe that it will not be an effective or productive use of my time to spend the entirety of the first half of the year organising one.

Other Stuff- Lecture Bashing, Postering, Forums (hopefully the seat of Adelaide’s candidate debate as in 2004,) leafleting, etc. As much activity as can be arranged on as small a budget as possible. Ideas always welcome. I am also very keen to make some generic banners with slogans such as ‘Vote for the future’ or ‘This Federal Election, will you be voting for Higher Education?’ These will be able to be used throughout the entirety of the year and I hope will be a starting point for getting people interested.

Yours in Union and Solidarity,

Rhiannon Newman
President South Australian State Branch of NUS
President Students’ Association of the University of Adelaide
Mob- 0400273335
Office- 8303 3899
Email- rhiannon.newman@adelaide.edu.au
Mailing Address- Attn: President
Students Association
Lady Symon Building
University of Adelaide
South Australia 5005


Just a little bit of it (coz it went for 11 pages and noone needs to read that) to keep you up to date with whats happening.

In Solidarity,

Rhi