The Conservatives love FocSoc!

By chance I just found a blog by Deirdre Alden, Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman for the Birmingham Edgbaston constituency, talking about Guild Awards and raving about FocSoc:

"It was also good to see FOCSOC (Freshers off Campus Society) win the "outstanding residents' association" award. More and more students are living off campus, and I believe an organisation like FOCSOC is vital to help make such students feel fully part of university life, even though they don't live on campus".

Love it!

Welcome Week '09

A few weeks ago myself, Michaela (FocSoc President) and the Guild's Marketing and Communications Manager had a meeting with two members of Student Life's Projects Divsion regarding their plans for their Staying Local event for this year's Welcome Week. The event is going to be pretty similar to the one that was staged during Welcome Week '08 although there are a few changes planned thanks to the feedback that Student Life have received both from students and ourselves. The University are working to a tighter deadline than the Guild and so wanted some answers from FocSoc and the Guild regarding our plans for the Week. However, FocSoc are still in the planning stages for Welcome Week and so we couldn't give the Uni any definite details.

No doubt we'll have another meeting once exams are over, so if anyone has any suggestions for improving the Staying Local event then let me know and I'll blog any updates too!

FocSoc win the Holy Grail!

This is a completely overdue post but I just want to say congratulations to FocSoc for winning the Martin Strawson Memorial Award - The Award for Most Oustanding Residents Association at the Guild Awards last month. It's testiment to all the hard work that has gone into FocSoc to take it from strength to strength, not just over the past year but from the previous committees too. Special mention has to go to my two predecessors as well - Libby Hooper and Laura Sadler - for all the hard work and commitment that they've put in too.

Congratulations guys you deserve it, and to all the other halls: unlucky! =)

FocSoc up for FOUR Guild Awards!

It's the Guild Awards on Tuesday and FocSoc have been nominated for three group awards and one individual award. They're up for:
- The Award for Most Improved Student Group;
- The Martin Strawson Memorial Award - The Award for Most Oustanding Residents Association;
- The Award for Best Event for the summer BBQ; and
- Charlotte Ward (VP Enertainment) has been nominated for The Ross Barlow Memorial Award - The Award for Most Oustanding Individual Student.

Fingers crossed!

Lifting the Cap

Many of you will have seen the news today about the BBC's anonymous survey of vice-chancellors from across the country showing the VCs being in favour of lifting the cap on tuition fees. The thing that struck me as interesting from the BBC's article on it was this:

"More students than ever are living at home while at university - with surveys suggesting that perhaps a fifth of students continue to live with their parents.

This in turn means that more students, particularly from less well-off families, are choosing from universities close to where they live"

As our uni currently has a home student population of around 30%, the increase in tuition fees could result in more students staying in the Midlands and coming to Birmingham. As the BBC point out, those from poorer backgrounds will be forced to choose from the universities closest to them, which is why home students in the West Midlands are lucky that we have such good universities on our doorstep to choose from in Birmingham and Warwick.

Guild Officer Elections

From a home students' perspective the e-voting system that's being used for the elections is absolutely fantastic as it means that unlike two years ago we don't have to be on campus to vote. The ease of voting this year in comparison to last year will also hopefully mean that turnout is pretty high; so if you haven't voted already, log in to your my.bham portal and VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!!!

Home Students' Association Consultation

Now that my dissertation's in out the way I've had a chance to look over the replies that I had from the Home Students' Association consulation. Over Christmas I sent out a few questions to the email contacts that I had for home students. One of the major problems that the HSA has is communicating with its members because we don't receive any contact details for home students from the University. Despite sending it out to 100+ people I only got five responses, which was disappointing to say the least but I think that in all honesty it speaks volumes. The idea of the consulation was to gage students' views on the HSA and find out what it is that students want from it. Of the five replies that I got only one of these people had been involved in the HSA. The main reasons that people weren't interesting in being involved with the association were academic demands, travel restrictions and a lack of publicity of and information about the association.

FocSoc was also included in the consulation to see if students had been involved with them in their first year, which all of the respondents were. Therefore, it seems that there needs to be more information about the HSA channelled through FocSoc at the end of students' first years.

Activities that are inclusive also appeared to be an issue, with the need for more non-alcohol related events, especially from FocSoc. This is important as not everyone enjoys or is comfortable with events in which alochol is present. Over the past year though, this is something that FocSoc have addressed with a greater number of events which don't involve alcohol, such as the summer BBQ, safari park trip, cinema trips and laser quest.

A greater level of representation of home students is needed from the HSA but the only way that this can happen is for the association to communicate with its members so that they can tell the committee what they want from them. A greater presence within the Guild through publicity would help in acheiving this, as home students can only tell the HSA what they want if they know that they are there to represent their needs and interests.