NEU Inaugural Meeting - Report

We had a really positive start to the new union on Friday night, and we would like to thank everyone who attended.

We began with a general meeting. Although this was not the AGM, we needed to adopt a quorum and rules for the District. The quorum is 15, and the rules are the model rules issued by the national union: you can find a copy by clicking here. We adopted these as a first measure and if members would like to propose amendments to them they can be discussed and voted on at the AGM in May.

Main outcomes of the meeting were:

• On the indicative ballot, we believed Derby has done very well as a District and compares well against other areas nationally. Whatever the outcome of the indicative ballot, it has been a positive experience getting into schools and holding meetings, we have recruited new reps in several schools and it has helped us to make contacts in schools where members were not well organised. This is something to build on as we go forward in the new union, where the key to members having a positive impact in their schools will be feeling and acting as part of their union.
• We agreed that with SEND funding a critical issue at the moment it would be a good time to organise a day conference on SEND and SEND funding on Saturday 23rd March. More details to follow.
• We voted to continue leasing the office that the NUT Section has been using. This has been a huge asset in both organising and casework in the city and will be a great help going forward in the new union.
• We voted that the membership secretary can have a mobile phone so that she can more effectively communicate with members and help build the union in the city further.
• We voted to affiliate to Derby Stand Up To Racism, the local branch of the national Stand Up To Racism campaign, which the national NEU also supports. We also agreed to send members who wished to attend as delegates to the Stand Up To Racism Trades Union Conference on Saturday 23rd February in London. For details click here - to be a delegate please email kieran.picken@neu.org.uk 
• We voted to ratify the interim committee's decision to affiliate to Derby Area Trades Union Council - the coordinating body for trades unions in the city. We had a volunteer to be a further delegate to the Council, bringing total delegates to 3 from the NEU. We are entitled to send more delegates so if you are interested in wider trades union work, please contact kieran.picken@neu.org.uk

Many members made a point of saying to us how much they enjoyed themselves, and the debate on the kind of education we need, led by Professor Diane Reay, was really positive and engaging, with many fantastic contributions from the floor. Some of the issues raised in discussion included the way that the testing and data regime narrows the curriculum and alienates many students; one of Diane's themes was the ways in which working class students are marginalised by an education system that only values middle class careers and ways of knowing, and that aspiration only goes one way (middle-class parents don't aspire for their children to become workers). We also discussed how the privatisation of the education system through academisation and free schools is exacerbating these problems and making the system ever more alienating for the majority of children. It was fantastic to have a space to discuss these problems and hopefully it is a beginning for finding ways to address these problems within schools.

Everyone had a great time and a good meal afterwards, and all in all we felt that this was a really positive start to our new union in the city!