Tuesday 13 January 2009

Roles within the Branch

Current Roles
Richard Miles: Branch Secretary
Christian Lloyd: Branch Chair
Cari Morton: Representative for Vernon St & Rossington St
Garry Barker: Health & Safety Officer

Following the Branch AGM the following posts were discussed:


Equality Officer
Supporting and addressing issues ethnicity, disability, gender & sexuality within the work place.
This role could be filled by more than one person. Training is available for this role.

Staff Consultative Committee Representative
UCU has a representative on this committee that aims 'to improve communication between staff and management; to provide a forum for management or staff to raise topics on which they would like to initiate change and consider issues of mutual concern; to consider policies in draft format and advise on the same'. While management driven this is a useful opportunity to put members' issues onto the Agenda. Janine Sykes has expressed an interest but this role can be shared if anybody else wants to get involved?

Health & Safety Officer
Currently we have one health and safety office but the opportunity to have more to cover the diverse range of workshops we operate in. The role is to engage with the college's H+S committee, identify and raise H+S concerns and generally promote good working practice. Training is available for this role.

Treasurer
Currently this a small role and can be added to existing Branch Officers responsibilites.

Membership/recruitment Officer
Currently this is covered by existing branch officers but as the branch continues to grow could be seen as a separate role.

Please can you let me know if you're interested in any of these roles or want to discuss them further.

Thanks
Christian

Friday 9 January 2009

Stop The War Coalition

TUC Aid is launching an appeal for contributions to support emergency humanitarian relief of the people of Gaza following the offensive by the Israeli Army. The TUC has also called for an immediate ceasefire. For more information, please go here: http://www.tuc.org.uk/international/tuc-15812-f0.cfm

UCU is supporting this appeal. In addition, many members will be attending the demonstration this Saturday which is organised by Stop the War coalition to which UCU is affiliated. The national union banner will be at Speakers Corner from 12.30pm on the right-hand side as you enter the Park – please also bring your own branch and regional banners. For more information about the demonstration, please go here: http://www.stopwar.org.uk/

Thursday 8 January 2009

Welcome

Welcome to Leeds College of Art & Design (LCAD)'s University & College Union (UCU) branch blog. This site has been established to enable open discussions between an expanding membership and to bridge the gap between our various buildings. We hope that through our contributions we can establish our ongoing agenda and raise the profile of the Branch for the rest of the staff at the college.

For many members this may be their first experience of using a weblog or 'blogging' but don't panic, help is at hand both online and within the Branch (talk to Christian for one-to-one help). Over the next few weeks we will start to develop help pages to support everyone, but in the meantime, check the site regularly for new content, consider your own contributions and if you are feeling confident, log on and have a go at posting something yourselves.

Anonymity might be a concern for some members, consequently there is one global log on for all of us, the password has been circulated via email. If you are happy to put your name to any contributions then please do so.

Happy Blogging
Christian Lloyd
LCAD UCU Chair