Right, it’s been a damn long time since I wrote something of real substance on this - I’ve been putting off a real update on this for a couple of weeks but I guess the time has presented itself and there’s just a bit to catch up on.
It’s been a pretty good couple of weeks.
Where to start? Let’s start four weeks ago with USI National Congress in Bettystown (the first national conference of any body that I can remember happening in Meath for quite a while). It was a busy week - much busier than the last two Congresses, although this time is probably because I was shouldering most of UCD’s organisational burden doing it, but all in all I really enjoyed it; UCDSU had a successful week, all of our motions (the ones that ended up being discussed anyway; some were deferred to a National Council) were passed and nothing that we had a mandate to vote on went against us - although we came close where our mandate to block-vote against over-the-counter availability of the Morning After Pill ended up leading the floor to a tie at 71-71, meaning the motion fell. Great social scene, a few memorable moments, and I also got the chance to address Congress for ten or fifteen minutes presenting the new website I’m building for USI (for free) at which nobody was able to offer any constructive criticism, so happy days in that regard!
We also elected some of next year’s Officer Board - Shane Kelly (Waterford IT) as President, the amazingly fantastic Bartley Rock (Trinity) as Education Officer, and Anthony Muldoon (IADT, Dun Laoghaire) as Welfare Officer. For the first time in three years too, the Deputy Presidency won’t be vacant - Dave Curran, twice Deputy in UCD (Ciara’s direct successor, actually) got in with a steady mandate. Most said there was only one person who could run for the job - I reckon there’s two, but anyway… - and not be RONned based on other colleges opposition to the position still being there, and Dave duly stepped up with a healthy victory. The other part-time jobs are slowly being filled for next year too and UCD are doing their bit in trying to ensure a strong future for USI after the crap it’s had going for it in the last couple of years.
I also had a couple of internship interviews with Company X (who I’ll reveal in time but I’d rather keep it quiet for the moment) which have gone very well, and here’s hoping that it all comes together, because the company in question are excellent employers whose employees have pretty great lifestyles, and I’ve already started envisaging my summer working around it - it seems great.
I’m actually really looking forward to this Summer - call me juvenile but I can’t wait for the Olympics (whatever about all the rest… anyone who hasn’t seen the Curry Chips animated gif of Gormley should really have a look), whether that’s because I’m a child who still believes in the magic of the 100m or the concept of even-handed international competition, and also to Euro 2008. I remember a time when I used to think that having finished a Commerce & German degree in May 2008, I’d be treating myself by going to see Ireland in the European Championships in Austria and Switzerland, using my German degree along the way. I think I’ll equally split the blame with Steve Staunton on that one.
Summers though - long evenings, long sweaty nights out, drinking outdoors, and hopefully having a good job to fund a nice lifestyle the way through. Here’s hoping.
Another thing that was a pretty great thing to hear had to do with our Aisling Scheme, part of the Union’s Access Week. Basically the scheme involves Union officers and volunteers giving tours of the 
University to primary and secondary pupils from disadvantaged areas, doing different excusions and giving them different tasks to complete - all in all, a nice day out to try and inspire them to consider breaking with whatever traditions they’re bound by and aspire to third level education.
On a whim myself and Ronan, the Union’s Education Officer, decided to throw in a nomination for the AIB Better Ireland awards. Lo and behold, we got a phone call from someone at the UCD branch of AIB letting us know, before anything went public, that we were going to be nationally shortlisted for an award, and a €10,000 prize to be put towards the development of the Aisling Scheme. I’ll be back at you trying to nag you all into voting for us later on but for now we’ll just bask in the minor glory of getting some national respect for jobs we hope are well done.
Oh, and we also won something this week! I can’t recall how extensively (if at all) I blogged about it while we were putting it together, but myself and Brennan spent most of July and August putting together the Student Survival Guide (’Freshers Guide’ to most of you) - many long nights and sleepless weekends of blood, sweat and toil putting together a guide of 26,000 words and 264 full-colour pages, with an endless ream of contributors and blurbs from each of UCD’s dozens of clubs or societies.
Once it was done - and we managed to divorce ourselves from it long enough to truly appreciate how well the whole thing was put together - we realised that we’d done ourselves very proud in its quality and design. On the back of that, when nominations for the National Student Media Awards (or ‘Smedias’) were opened in early March we decided we’d fling in the Guide and see how well it would be appraised. We ended up being shortlisted in three categories - Society Publication of the Year, Magazine of the Year, and for the public vote People’s Choice award.
We did some minor publicising of the People’s Choice award, but enough to realistically be in with a shout. Nor did we realistically expect to be awarded Magazine of the Year when our publication, though strong, was only a once-off and didn’t earn the reputation of being consistent throughout the year like so many other college magazines are (a problem that also limited our success with the public vote, as we had no solid reader base). We were hopeful, though, of getting an award in the Society Publication category - and would have been more than thrilled with getting any recognition at all for it.
Well, as luck had it, Society Publication of the Year was the first award at the 3 Smedias Presentation on Tuesday night in Tripod on Harcourt St, and happily we walked away with the award for Society Publication of the Year! Huzzah! Our mates at the University Observer also won two awards, as did the College Tribune, leaving UCD with the most prizes for print publications - despite having no journalism or media courses to speak of.
So all in all, a nice stretch for awards and recognition, and here’s hoping it continues.
It would be amiss of me not to mention GAA Congress last weekend in Sligo too - the usual great craic, and thanks to the miscellaneous Brennans (and Duffys!) for making it the weekend it was. I have to say it was a tad emotional being with the family when seeing Nickey’s successor being elected; it was a window into their lives three years ago when they went to Croke Park with their hopes down and expecting the pain of public rejection, only to be thrown joyfully in the spotlight when he grabbed victory. I’m only glad I could be there for the later bit of it - it could well have been him only acceeding to the top seat on the day.
A reminder, as if I needed it, to enjoy the crazy hubbub and surreal scenarios that ife throws at you, because you’ll undoubtedly miss them all the more afterwards.
So that’s my last month or so in a nutshell; I can’t promise many more updates this week, as we’ve got USI Eastern Area Conference on Wednesday evening - the last night of “the dream Lynam/Reilly ticket” as the current EA Officer describes our chair/secretary partnership, the UCD Sports Awards on Thursday night, the UCD Ball (featuring East 17, the girls from B*Witched, Bodyrox, The Blizzards, The Wolfe Tones, and Christ knows who else!…) on Friday, and two birthday parties on Saturday.
And that’s after I fly to Ljubljana tomorrow as part of a group of six USI reps at a two-day European Students’ Union conference on standardising academic accreditation across Europe, having only been recruited for it last Monday…
Some life, eh? Well, like I said, enjoy the hubbub…
