20th August - Medway
- 16th March - Diary from Jan and Feb
- 19th Oct - what Sam did in September
- 20th July - You are probably a feminist
- 20th August - Medway
- 22nd June - Before I start
- 27th July - Planning...
- 29th Sept - Union Council Time
- 2nd August - What Sam did in July
- 31st Oct
- 8th July
- 10th July - Is anybody out there?
- Sam does August
Date: August 20, 2009
I have volunteered this year to take over from Cai Robbins (last year’s Vice-President (Sport) as the Medway Sabbatical for Kent. For those of you who aren't aware, Kent has several other sites, one of the largest is at the Universities at Medway.
The role entails me being part of the exec team of UMSA (Universities at Medway Students’ Association) which is made up of one sabbatical from each University at Medway (Greenwich, Christ Church and us) along with four part-time exec officers. As some of you may know, this hasn’t exactly worked in the past. But this year myself and the other sabbaticals are determined to make a go of things and get the exec meeting regularly to ensure that UMSA is truly student let and an example of best-practice in working on multi-university sites.
My main goal this year (in Medway) is: to abolish my own role. That probably sounds a little odd! But basically I want to work with the other officers and staff at Medway to properly engage with Medway students to a level where they can lead the Association. I haven’t studied at Medway and I’ve only been there a couple of times so why should I be making decisions there?
I have spent my time so far with my nose in student satisfaction survey and ‘have your say day’ results to try to discover what it is that students want UMSA to do and now I need to sit down with the Medway exec team to plan our year in office.
In the past the Medway sabbatical has spent one day a week in the office at Medway. This may be something I choose to do this year, although looking at my diary of meetings that is not going to be easy! I am also keen for it not to be a token visit where I just find myself getting on with the same Canterbury based work but in a different office. I am going to wait until I have met with the exec so we can plan together how best to work.
One thing that has never really happened at Medway is any student led campaigning. With the renewed enthusiasm for campaigning in the sabbatical team in Canterbury now is the ideal time for us to work on this at Medway. Parking is a big issue for students at Medway so that may be a campaign which we go forward with… keep your eyes peeled for progress!
How is this role going to impact on my work in Canterbury? Hopefully it will be beneficial, it will give me a different perspective, give me more experience in areas outside of my remit, get me working more with non-traditional students (probably the majority at Medway from my understanding so far) and at the end of the day I have been elected to represent all Kent students anyway – not just those who are lucky enough to be based on the Canterbury campus. I also have the support of my team who will each be visiting Medway once a month (they have signed a contract!) and who will hopefully be supporting me when I am out of my comfort zone with an issue!
