NUS NATIONAL CONFERENCE DELEGATE CANDIDATES PACK 2016/2017
INTRODUCTION If you re reading this pack, you ve made the amazing decision to nominate yourself as an NUS National Conference Delegate 2016/17. Firstly, congratulations! You ve put yourself forward to represent the voice of University of Reading Students at the biggest and most exciting student conference in the UK. This pack will guide you through the elections process; give you some useful information about NUS and how it works, as well as some little tips and tricks to make your elections campaign that little bit easier. RUSU will support and encourage you throughout your elections experience, so there s also a list of useful contacts in the back of the booklet in case you get stuck or need some advice. Running in an election is a great way to gain new skills, stand out from the crowd, meet lots of people from different courses and years and enhance your university experience. Enjoy the elections and most importantly; good luck! 1
CONTENTS 1.0 About the NUS National Conference 2017. 3 1.1 Conference Rule Change.3 1.2 Submitting Motions to Conference..3 2.0 NUS Delegate: The Role. 4 3.0 Starting to plan your Campaign.....5 3.1 Election Top Tips...5 3.2 Election Jargon Buster...5/6 4.0 Election Timeline...7 5.0 Things you need to know....8 6.0 How to Vote..9 7.0 Useful contacts 9 2
1.0 ABOUT THE NUS CONFERENCE 2017 The NUS is the national body that represents students in the UK; speaking up for more than 95% of all higher education (university) and further education (college) unions. The mission of the NUS is to promote, defend, and extend rights of students and to develop and champion strong students unions. The NUS is a powerful campaigning organisation; promoting the views of students on a national level, to government and other organisations. The NUS Annual Conference is an event where ordinary students from all over the country can vote to decide on the direction and priorities of the NUS and its Officers for the coming year. This conference is where the big issues are debated and where candidates for the National Executive Committee are elected. As a member of RUSU s delegation, you also have the opportunity to submit motions and ensure that the views, needs and opinions of Reading students are heard on a national platform. 1.1 CONFERENCE RULES RUSU is able to take a delegation of four students to the NUS Annual Conference in 2017. The first of these places is automatically filled by a RUSU Full-Time Officer. The role of NUS National Conference Delegate is voluntary, but you will receive training as well as expenses and conference costs covered by RUSU. According to NUS policy, all delegations at the 2016/17 Annual Conference have to be made up of at least 50% self-defining women, which will help to ensure equal gender representation at conference. Each and every student studying at Reading is still eligible to nominate themselves and vote. NUS also have a Code of Conduct that all delegates must adhere to. The Code of Conduct guides the behaviour expected at Conference. 1.2 SUBMITTING MOTIONS One of the most exciting parts of being an NUS Delegate is that you have the ability to submit motions for change to be debated at conference. These motions can be related to housing, tuition fees, welfare or representation to name just a few areas. Motions submitted to conference must come from Unions as opposed to individual students, so your motion must be send to NUS via the lead Delegate. See the NUS Guide to Submitting Motions to National Conference for more information. 3
2.0 NUS NATIONAL DELEGATE THE ROLE Responsibilities: Your main responsibility as an NUS Delegate is to attend the NUS Annual Conference in April 2017 in Brighton. As a delegate, you are responsible for representing the students of the University of Reading as well as RUSU as a whole. You will also have the opportunity to vote on motions and hold the NUS leadership team accountable for their work over the last year. NUS have put together some great information about being a delegate at National Conference. Benefits and Recognition: Training goes towards your RED Award Get to meet students from all over the UK Expenses and conference costs covered by RUSU Free trip to Brighton! Helps you to stand out to graduate employers Add to your CV Develops negotiation, team work and public speaking skills Open up opportunities to become more involved with student politics, RUSU and the NUS Vote on and debate issues that are important to you Represent RUSU and Reading students Improve your employability Gain experience of large scale conferences and democratic events 4
3.0 PLANNING YOUR CAMPAIGN You might want to think about these questions in order to plan a successful campaign: 1. Why are you standing in the NUS Delegate Elections? 2. Who are you representing? 3. Why are you the best candidate to represent the views of University of Reading students? 4. Will you submit any motions for change or policy? 5. What do you hope to gain from the conference experience? You should aim to answer these questions in both your manifesto and your campaign students are more likely to vote for you if you can effectively convey why it is that you want to represent them. 3.1 ELECTION TOP TIPS Do Go out and talk to students Enjoy your experience as much as possible Think of different and exciting ways to campaign students get bored easily! Be able to sum up why someone should vote for you in 30 seconds Use social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Vine Plan early Have clear aims and an idea of why you want to go to conference Take lots of photos! Don t Decide not to run or withdraw because you think you won t get elected Spend your entire budget on sweets! Don t overwork yourself or your campaign team Negatively campaign or take other candidates posters down Don t litter campus or Reading! 3.2 ELECTION JARGON BUSTER Elections processes often seem much more intense and scary than they actually are because of all the vocabulary used. Have a look at the list below and get up to scratch with elections lingo! Self-define Self-definition is most easily explained as the outward expression of your personal identity how you personally see yourself. Motion This is a formal proposal for new or updated policy which is put forward to a committee. As an NUS Delegate, you can submit your own motion for change these do have to be agreed by the RUSU Management Committee before being put forward to the NUS. 5
Quorum Quorum is the minimum number of votes that an election needs to obtain before the vote is valid and classed as representative. NUS Zones Each one of the NUS Zones is responsible for policy in five areas. These five areas are Welfare, Further Education, Higher Education, Union Development and Society and Citizenship. Each Zone is led by a Vice President elected at the NUS National Conference (you will get to vote on these decisions!) and each undertakes work, research and campaigns in these areas. RUSU Elections Committee The RUSU Elections Committee exists to ensure that elections are run in a democratic and representative manner. The committee has the final decision regarding any issues and the chair of the committee deals with any complaints regarding the elections process. NUS Jargon Buster NUS have also put together a handy guide on Conference Terminology. Have a look so you can start to get to grips with the terms used at National Conference. 6
4.0 ELECTIONS TIMELINE Event Location Date and Time Nominations Open Nominations Close & Manifesto Deadline Candidates Meeting Campaign Training (Optional) Voting Opens Voting Closes Campaign Expenses Deadline Results Announced NUS Delegate Conference Training 1 With NUS Contact/RUSU Officer www. www. Thet Win Aung Boardroom, RUSU Thet Win Aung Boardroom, RUSU www. www. RUSU Reception www. Thet Win Aung Boardroom Monday, 31/10/16, 10am Week 6 Monday, 14/11/16, 3pm Week 8 Tuesday, 15/11/16, 12.30pm Week 8 Thursday, 17/11/16, 1pm Week 8 Monday, 21/11/16, 10am Week 9 Friday, 25/11/16, 3pm Week 9 Friday, 25/11/16, 3pm Week 9 Monday, 28/11/16, 12pm Week 10 TBC NUS Annual Conference 2017 Brighton 25 th -27 th April 2017 NUS Delegate Conference Expenses Deadline RUSU Reception TBC 7
5.0 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW In the interest of encouraging students to run in the election, it s really important that you don t publicly announce your intention to run in the election via social media until after the Candidates Meeting which is due to be held on Tuesday, 15 th November 2015 at 12.30pm. As an NUS National Conference Delegate, you are entitled to a budget of 10 and a printing allowance of 10 x A4 sheets. This is there to help you create a campaign, so make sure you use it if you need to. If you are unsure of the rules of the election, please make sure that you read the RUSU Election Rules. RUSU have put together some Candidates Resources. Have a look at these before you put forward your nomination and prepare your campaign. 6.0 HOW TO VOTE Voting will open on Monday, 21 st November 2016 at 10am and close on Friday, 25 th November 2016 at 3pm. Results will be announced online at www.rusu.co.uk on Monday 28 th November 2016 All voting takes place online at www.. Firstly, you need to log in to www.rusu.co.uk. You will use your University Username and Password. Click on the Vote button You will then be shown the list of candidates standing in the election To find out more about each candidate and their reasons for running in the Election, click on Manifesto To vote, number the candidates in order of preference (1 being your first preference, 2 being your second preference and so on) If you feel that none of or the remaining candidates are not suitable for the position, you should select re-open nominations (RON) Click Submit to confirm your choices What is RON? RON stands for re-open nominations. When voting, RON will also appear as a candidate. You can choose RON as a preference if you feel that none of or the remaining candidates are not suitable for the position. A first preference vote for RON is a request to restart the election process for this election, rather than electing someone in this election. 8
7.0 USEFUL CONTACTS For advice and support during the NUS Delegate Election: Ben Cooper, RUSU President president@rusu.co.uk To make a complaint, or for queries about elections budgets and rules: RUSU Elections Committee elections@rusu.co.uk For queries about training sessions, campaigning during the election or voting in the election: Josh Lang, Campaigns & Democracy Coordinator j.lang@reading.ac.uk 9