Passports, Hair and Faceplanting

So it's been an amazing week in the UK and not forgetting our stop off in Dublin also.

There was so much to learn, so much to see and so much to do. Students' Unions 2011 was a fantastic opportunity for us to develop some thoughts around what we can do in UL to improve your experience of your Students' Union. With our limited staff base we're not going to become Leeds University Union overnight, but with some sustained progress we can aim to get some of the way and there are definitely some identifiable goals we can achieve.

If you want to know what the title is about come and ask one of us, but suffice to say there were some dodgy moments.

I have to again thank our travel buddies DCUSU, the conference hosts Leeds University Union (certified in the UK's top 2), as well as Sheffield Students' Union (certified the other 1 of the top 2), Hallam Students' Union and Huddersfield Students' Union. We were the 3rd SU to visit Sheffield THIS WEEK!

Before we left I already had intended on suggesting the Students' Union Evaluation Initiative to the rest of the team, it was something Ruán had discussed with us previously, but as they met officers from over 300 other SUs over the course of the week, they brought themselves around to the idea. This is a process that I will explain in greater detail in a specific SEUI blog.

There are so many things that UK unions do that put us to shame, but to be able to do the same would require a complete rethink of our expenditure structure. One thing we will definitely be hoping to do is employ more student staff to help us achieve our goals.

At Huddersfield we learned that the Pro Vice Chancellor (Vice President) for Teaching and Learning has committed to match scholarship fundraising £1 for £1 from his own salary. I thought this was an extremely interesting idea! ;)

Leeds you would just need to go visit for yourselves. The Union is the size of a decent sized hospital with as many staff! It's colourful, bright and welcoming and I've already started work on getting that for you (minus the size and staff)

Lots of fun was had, lots of invites extended and lots of connections made.

Onwards and upwards!