The internet is a crucial place for any movements organising, mobilisation and coordination. I suppose it make some form of sense that guilds online power channels give arbitrary and uncountable power to the executive. I’m going to be working to change this if you want input just say.
The guilds Facebook group page, this group should be a centre of the student movements online organising….. It’s not.
Being able to send out a message at the drop of a hat to 3000+ of Birmingham Guilds most active students is a powerful tool, a powerful tool that is given arbitrarily to only a select group of students (not even all officers receive it, who gets admin status is decided by the previous year’s Admins ).
The same goes for the guilds website news feed, twitter feed and facebook page again editorial control of the content of these feeds lies solely with the executive.
The officers are not just arbitrarily given the power to mobilise, but the power to decide who gets to say what, to decide what information or events that the student body can see. If an officer disapproves of a group and that group requests publication it’s within their mandate to turn them down out of hand (if you’re wondering yes this power is used actively). This resource should be used fairly between all students of all opinions (not just executive approved ones).
The Facebook groups wall, a place to promote your views and society? as admins officers have the power to block students they disapprove of (I should I know I’m still blocked and I’m an officer!). Its good we have moderators for the wall to stop it being used and abused, I don’t think moderators of political opinion are necessary.
This amounts to a guild that actively blocks a significant portion of its activists in their activities; at the last West Midlands Area NUS meeting in a group session I contradicted an officer from Birmingham guild of students who said that Birmingham guild of students doesn’t really have a large activist base. I said that it does have a very large base, it’s just that the guild “actively disengages from them” (pisses them off).
That’s all for now in part two of this post I will be writing about guild officer blogs. That doesn’t sound very interesting to me either. However if you have anything to say or like the idea of trying to take power away from an organisation whose instincts is to hold unto it like rigor mortis has set in then please contact me however you wish.
Leaving Counter-Strike behind
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Last year I wrote a post about how I needed to take some time out, due to
me developing physical anxiety symptoms. It’s fair to say that many things
got on...
3 months ago
Posts
The officers are ELECTED Ed!!!! Surely that gives them the legitimacy to control the Facebook group!!! Come on!
ReplyDeleteIf you're blocked then i'll unblock you i didn't know. But don't give us hassle for absolutely nothing this group is designed right now to reassure and inform freshers coming to Birmingham. Once they are here you can do whatever you want to them through all the means you've got at your disposal.
x
P.S. Hope you enjoyed your shower. Great to have you round!
i think his favourite bit was when you answered the door in your towel... ;)
ReplyDeleteand yeh edd personal vendetta much? just askly to be unblocked, dont need a 500 word rant
And i am STILL not linked to your blog. hehe. You're not gonna link me are you? Bad times.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous (Helen) I told you that story in confidence, bigtime breach of trust. xxx
ReplyDeleteWell no I don't think the officer teams election give them legitimacy.... (do you really think that?). In your election students voted on three issues Hall fees, taxis and the new housing centre. Considering that was and will be your only democratic engagemeant with the student body. I don't think you do have the legitmacy to do things like monitor and control the flow infomation, censor redbrick etc you never asked any students for their views on those issues.
Don't take these posts personally, they are not aimed to hassle you. I promised in my election to get students heard, I'm going to present the issues that I will raise in these posts at the first guild concil. I'm not trying to hassle you I'm just trying to get students views.
Your linked now, I must not have saved it last time I added you. I will get all the officers linked when they start bloging.
the only thing thats worth blocking is pointless spam and actual abuse surely, anything else is fair game...guild needs to learn to accept criticism better, rather than always leaping to the defensive
ReplyDeleteCheers for the reply Ed, and Helen you're right about going on the defensive. I'll try to watch that.
ReplyDeleteI fervently hope my democratic engagement with students goes WAY beyond 3 manifesto issues (and in fact Ed when you get in the office we have a lot of E & E issues we need to work together on).
Speaking to the students is vital, but i hope people remember too that one of the best ways to effect change is to aproach those who can make it possible, rather than just blogging about how bad everything is.