Reignition

Hi everyone,

I've just been looking back at my last post which seems like such a long time ago! boy there has been loads going on!

The one thing that has been striking me however is that at the core of what we're doing as a students union is community. Take my week for example. Last tuesday I spent two hours talking to local residents groups about issues which they face and how we as a students union can work with them to address them.

Last night I sat in on an Activites and Events Committee meeting in Opal 2. These committees have the sole responsibility to promoting community in the Residences (by the way you can still get involved go to www.sheffieldunion.com/residences or head along to the relevant meeting this week)

From that I went to meet residents of the Nook and Harcourt Road in Interval to chat about the success of the Love Where You Live event which took place on the 27th October. This event brought non-students and student residents to paint bins, pot plants, tidy streets and make the place feel loved. The biggest thing I can notice is the hedge oppostie the Hadfield on Barber Road has been chopped down- finally we can walk on the pavement!

But then I regularly look at our activites and societies which all help promote community. Be it Debating society going to interval on a Monday evening or any of the activites on the Give It a Go programme. But it also shocked me how community isn't a 'new' thing.

I mean we as a team have got for this year a community team objective and yet community is one of the oldest concepts around. Community was around in Aristotle's day and it will be around long after you and I are gone. But it's core to us as a Students Union. That word 'Union' rings with it a community of students, bound together by common values and goals (we're all here to get the best degree!)

But community cannot be discovered, nor can it be invented. Infact community can be reignited. From the Love Where You Live events, AEC's, or societies community cannot be discovered because it already exists. Instead we have to help reignite the pilot flame of community and fan it throughout Sheffield.

So it doesn't matter what I do (well it does but for this it doesn't), because community cannot be dictated, degreed or decided on in committee but it has to be acted and active from the bottom-up in society. From me saying hello to my next door neighbours Sue and Ian whilst they light fireworks in their back garden to please their son Jamie who just lost his pet Rabbit (true story as I was walking home) to you saying hello to people on the street we need to reignite community.

Next week I'm going to launch the Smart Move Housing campaign with the strapline that to find the right house can make the right home. Most of us are here for three years (or more!) so I ask you to regnite the community around you, knock on the door of your neighbour,get involved in events around campus and be part of a community, a union, your Students Union.