Today is the day a lot of our sports teams get out and compete across campus, today is also a big day for campagining!This morning was incredibly busy lots of students, lots of campaigners, lots of hangovers!

I was going to write some more but I’ve been told the box is closed, so it’s time to bundle off home and get a bit of sleep and a cup of tea before hitting the Union big time a bit later!

Big thanks to all those that came along and helped out and those that voted.

Special thanks to Aaron, who I forgot to make tea for, JP for bringing Tea, The Crackers4Comms promo girls that tshirts seem to get smaller on daily basis.

One lecture had no idea, the knew all about our media, I wonder why our message and successes is so different and how we can communicate with the others, on that thought,

Good night, and remember to vote!

Jacob ‘crackers’ Leverett

We have been getting some banners up here and there and hopefully you should see some of this around the place, (they are the bright orange ones in case you hadn’t guessed)

Tonight marks the start of the evening campaigning too with a trip to Liquid in campaign colours.

Hope to see you there!

Jacob ‘Crackers’ Leverett

Jacob

I am constantly impressed by the wide variety of activities the Union are involved in and was rummaging through my hard drive and looking at footage I’ve filmed or been sent this year so decided to condense it all down into 1 minute 40 seconds, I know this only shows a wee bit of what the Union does but I hope it brings back some fond memories.

J

I’ve been moving some things around and because of this, some of your comments won’t show up anymore because the posts they were attached to have been recreated.

To make sure no-one feels left out, I have copied your comments below, exactly as they appeared on the blog.

Lauren, 02/03/2009: Impressive stuff Jacob. You’ve got my vote

Dad, 03/03/2009: I know I can’t vote, but I would if I could. Well written. Good luck

Tallie, 03/03/2009: Nicely written Jacob my dear, expect me to be ranting and raving about you come voting week!

Elke, 03/03/2009: My vote is your vote

Spackers, 11/03/2009: GO JACOB!!! WOOT ! WOOT ! Spackers xxxx

Anon, 11/03/2009: Well if nothing else you can write better than some of the other Comms candidates! And those firm buttocks to boot … gets my vote.

Andy, 13/02/2009: Why are you still listed as an editor for pugwash news. Surely you resigned your post to campaign.

Me in reply to Andy, 13/03/2009: Andy, I’m still listed as the Editor, as this is still a role that I take very seriously.

Just under a year ago I was elected by my peers to be the editor of Pugwash News. When I was elected I made a promise to the student body to edit the newspaper to the best of my ability, I believe that they don’t expect me to jump ship when a better offer comes along.

So in agreement with the Editor-in-Chief, the Returning Officer, The President and the editorial team of Pugwash News I have continued to act as the Editor.

We did this on an understanding of transparency, to ensure the utmost transparency and fairness, the following steps have been taken.

• I would not be involved in any way with Elections coverage.
• Journalists covering the elections would report directly to the MAPO
• The login details and access to the editorial email addresses have been made available to the Copy Editor and the MAPO.
• Regular reviews of this agreement are being made.
• All content is subject to approval by the MAPO, Communications Manager and Returning Officer before publication.

As editor I have continued to act with what is a part of my social and volunteering life, in the same way that a captain of sports team continues to compete side by side with his team even whilst campaigning for a position.

Abdul Q, 14/03/2009: You have so much experience in the written media, but a lot of people feel that with modern multimedia, the radio and TV stations need to have more weight put behind them. How would you propose todo this?

Me in reply to Abdul Q, 14/03/2009: Abdul,

Thank you for your comment, I agree that I have a great deal of experience in written media, I also agree that multimedia content is incredibly important to communicating with students. It is for this reason that last year that me and Tom Worman created upsu.tv as an outlet for video content.

Looking forwards and how to develop our interactive and multi-media content we need together to ensure that the radio and tv is listened to more, the answer to this is not to broadcast differently, it is to push the quality of the content forward.

PureFM has moved leaps forward in recent years to being more than a radio broadcaster and being a multimedia outlet and this needs to continue. For PureFM to continue growing the answer lies in continuing to develop its own brand of radio, more live events, more local acts, more student news and views.
With UPSU.TV live broadcasting events is possible and should be available, not constant broadcasting but important events such as the Election Q&A sessions, sports matches and societies events but also the democratic side of the Union, why can’t student council be available to watch online? Distance students and those that can’t make the events will still be able to hold their democratically elected officials to account all through our multimedia content.

upsu.tv is currently not even a member of the National Association of Student Televison, a subscription that costs only about £60 and would offer the team so much more support, recognition and respect.

The simple answer on how to push PureFM and upsu.tv forward is more students, more promotion, more cross platform cooperation and more resources.

The Union has two broadcasters, based out of two completely separate parts of the Union. We need to pull all our Union’s media together to ensure that together we are all working together to grow and prosper.

Please keep sending in your comments, questions, etc – it’s nice to talk to you all!

My campaign team turned up on mass and their presence was incredible, a huge amount of the audience were there in the Orange of Crackers. In fact there was more orange in that lecture theatre than any other colour. It was beautiful sight to see.

The debate stepped up a gear from the previous ones and there were some moments where I really had to stop and think about the questions being asked. There were some really interesting questions which proved the knowledge and experience the candidates had, and it proves to me that the time I put into doing research was well worth it. It was obvious from the answers given by the other candidates that the depth of knowledge and facts to support their manifesto promises is fundamentally flawed. Looking at the comments on other candidates websites and blogs it is obvious that I am not the only person concerned with the single media platform approach and the complete lack of financial understanding offered by the other candidates.

It is worrying to think that either these candidates are that naive they feel they are able to keep to their promises or are they simply losing their head under the pressure of close scrutiny.

The hours following the hustings I was really impressed with the number of people that congratulated me on my performance and the number of people that I have never spoken to who were interested in what I had had to say and wanted to hear more. I was really glad that people were actively trying to find out how as their VP Comms I was going to help them.

For those that want to ask me more questions I will be at the Hustings for President as well as VP for Welfare and Volunteering from 6-8 and will be around afterwards if you have any questions you would like to ask.

If you can’t make that, add your comments using the comments form below, or email me at jacob@crackers4comms.com and I will answer any of your questions that you have for me.

Lets start non-elections related. Pugwash News Issue 26 went to print this morning, at the printers for 9am went 20 pages one of our bigger issues.

In this issue there is an incredible amount of sports content. Working with the AU on the Varisty special (put together in one day) a lot of sports that don’t usually get a lot of coverage have come forwards. This is great news for the AU and the Union as whole.When this issue comes back form the printers tomorrow hopefully the hard work of a small army of volunteers will be evident.

Back to elections: tonight I went to the Q&A session held at Park Building for VP Ed and Rep as well as the VP Sports. This was a nerve wrecking experience, watching some of the other candidates squirm under the pressure of answering you the students questions. During this session I changed, I started to relish the idea. The VP Comms Q&A is tomorrow and this Q&A will be an opportunity for me to tell people exactly what it is that I want to achieve as your VP Comms.

Right now as I’m writing this the Crackers4Comms campaign team are hard at work making allsorts of goodies to get tomorrow night into the election frenzy. The dedication of this team is incredible to watch, people that I know enthused by what they see as the way forward volunteering their time to cut, stick and spray.Particular credit goes to ‘JP’ who has managed to not only memorise every meeting I’m due to attend but is also as you can see a dab hand with a stanley knife and some material.

I’m Jacob “Crackers” Leverett and now that nominations have closed I have the opportunity to explain exactly what I want to do in regards to UPSU media and why I am the right choice for UPSU’s VP Communications.

Please read my manifesto and let me know your thoughts. “There is no such thing as a monopoly on good ideas” and I would very much like to hear yours.

If you want to get involved with crackers4comms, drop me an e-mail or leave your details in the comments box, below )