I can feel it calling in the air tonight...

You know what folks, I'm very worried. In fact, I'm going to be blunt, I'm petrified.

If you remember, my last blog entry had me discussing the future. The bottom line is, I leave in just over 3 month and my replacement will take over in November. Now I'm uncomfortable that there's a gap, it's common knowledge. Unfortunately, By-Laws are By-Laws and so it's a bad hand this year for a great deck in the future.

What scares me now is the fact that I personally both as a student and an officer, don't like who's watching my PGs in the gap. I've already said in writing why I don't like some of the Full Time officer team (note the SOME) from a student angle but since then, a video has been released.

I have been nice enough to post said video on my blog but should it not run for whatever reason, you can access it here.  

The section in question, I want to draw attention to is between 17 and 34 minutes where Gavin from the #NotMyDSU movement 'debates' (and I use that term loosely) the president elect. Now this could have been the President elect's chance to redeem himself, get the students onside and assure us that he is going to take the DSU to new heights. In some ways, I wanted him to do this, if only to give me a little bit of reassurance that the PGs will be ok until November. 

Unfortunately, this wasn't the case. I still do not know his plans for the SU despite the presenter clearly asking him at 27 minutes and 38 seconds (yes I did comb over it that badly. I made a drinking game, don't judge me). Now a lot of people would now go, 'but Kelly surely haven't no plan is better than having a shit plan?' No, that's not the case at all.

You see if an officer has a shit plan (and trust me some of them have during my 4 years of Uni), you at least have something to assess them on. You can advise somebody on what to improve, we do this in the office all the time. We've all had these bonkers ideas with 0 idea on the practicalities and then you have somebody else wind you back, and you tweak it. Not having a plan in a full time officer role (and even part-time) is bad because:

1. It shows that the person has little to no knowledge of the SU. Even the most inactive person in the SU knows what they like or what's stopping them. So by having no plan, it shows that you really don't know what you're letting yourself in for.
2. It really does not assure the students that you're the best person for the job. With everything going on at the moment, student faith is the new exec is scarce to say the least. So by not having that plan and talking about it when given the prime opportunity, you are furthering the red flags.
3. HE is currently going through the shitter. With the big HE review that May is currently doing with the Office of Students, the PRES, PTES, TEF (both university and a proposed subject level), REF (yes there's now going to be a REF) and Brexit all in the pipline during the next officer team's term, it's incredibly important that not only does the new Officer have a hint of knowledge of these terms put also a plan of action. 

Not only did this lovely individual not have a plan but he also decided that the best way to get student groups to respect him was... You guessed it, slating every single one of them and saying that they were all manipulated by the candidates despite the fact that only me and Sophie were from any sports clubs when it came to FTO roles and both of those clubs are from the non-BUCS group. He was just as able to speak to sports clubs and societies as the rest of us were. 

I will allow you to make your own judgements about the rest of the video because I'm aware that a difference of an opinion does not make any of you readers ableist assholes and I've yet to have to power to feel ableism. I can sometimes feel excluded or in a hostile environment because of my disability, but that's not the same as feeling ableism. 

I'll most likely be quiet next week unless my partner in crime gets back to me because of Master's work and birthdays.

Until my next entry folks,

Toodle pips.