It's been an incredibly humbling few days for me recently with not only the rememberance service in Guildhall but also an ex-graduates memorial service today at the Students' Union.

To stare into the eyes of a silent soldier in the pouring rain at the Guildhall in Portsmouth has got to have been one of the most sobering moments of recent times in my life. I'll freely admit i had very little respect of rememberance sunday other than doing the minutes silence, mainly i think due to my own personal ignorance but Sunday really highlighted to me the strength and passion of these soldiers who put their lives on the line for our country. 

I never actually spoke to any of the veterans but you could tell these hero's had seen and been involved with more than you could ever imagine. As the rain poured down on the many hundreds (if not thousands) of people stood in Guildhall in honour of both the fallen and survivors of our military services i couldn't help think to myself how cold it was but that there was no way i could complain about it knowing just what these people had been through to keep our country safe.

Sunday was a truely emotional day but really started me thinking about life, and then Heather Small's song "Proud" came into my head, what is it today that makes me feel proud? Is it the 80+ hours worked last week, the vast amounts of marketing material we have produced, the volunteers who support the union and the services we offer or the way we as a Union work as a team to provide the best we can possibly do.

Well, it's all of it, and none of it Don't get me wrong i'm PROUD of how fantastic we are as a Union and those who are actively involved, but on a personal level i start to challenge myself what exactly I have done to make ME PROUD? Well for that i'm not truely sure. I'll get back to you on that, I took the job to make a difference - i'm just not sure what that difference is yet!!!

Oh my lord. Can I just say...

 IT'S NOT A GUARDIAN RIP OFF

 Since when has www.upsu.net/news looked like the Guardian Website - maybe the publication but not the website, so before you make accusations get your facts right - i stole ideas from Guardian, Times, Independent and Journal websites...!!!!

Well hello all, i've been told off inspired by Mr Fred Bradley's blog to actually keep you guys up to date with what is happening in the world of UPSU Media and I'm sorry but this is gonna be a big blog now as it has been so long since I last posted something...

Training

Well, obviously all of us Sabbs have been off doing various NUS training courses over the Summer. I'll be honest NUS offer very little media training that is of any use to myself - in previous months I would have slagged off NUS and what they do (this is not to say I entirely support the vast amounts we pay) but people such as Steve Topazio in his role of Education and Representation Officer gets alot more out of it.

On the 1st September I took Jacob Leverett (Pugwash News Editor) and Caroline Arthur (Pure FM Station Manager) up to London with me to a media reception held at Amnesty International in the hope that we could network and learn a lot from other student unions - whilst the content of the seminar for me wasn't that interesting the contacts I gained were invaluable and I hope Jacob and Caroline got the same out of it.

Last month we put our senior staff, sabbatical officers, and senior volunteers through a Media Law training workshop with Bernie Saunders from the Journalism school - after previous legal issues with our publications this is an absolute essential and there will be 3 further workshops for all of our media volunteers coming up in November starting on the 12th. Over the next few months we hope to have a whole host of training going on for all our volunteers in the media from Press Release writing through to design and photography.

Media Elections

We had over 360 people sign up to UPSU media at Freshers Fayre, which I believe is one of the best ever successes, however due to some mix ups with the new room booking system we had to split into various rooms for our elections, which whilst hot and sweaty in one of the rooms proved successful for the elections and i have to now say congratulations to the following print media electees:

Design Team:

Sophie Colverson (Magazine Design Editor)
Sarah Matthews (Magazine Design Sub-Editor)
Christina Eland (Magazine Design Sub-Editor)
Sophie Abbott (Newspaper Design Sub-Editor)
Oaha Berdah (Newspaper Design Sub-Editor)

Life & Style Team:

Elke Morice-Atkinson (Editor)
Nina Tennant (Sub-Editor)
Sarah Beer (Sub-Editor)

News Team:

Will Hobson (News Editor)
Am...

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