£1,550 to help members fallen on hard times

Many thanks to everyone who helped raise so much for the union charity, NUJ Extra, in recent months.

• £50 from the NUJ-organised pub quiz (Thursday past)
• £1,500 from the Grampian Media Ball (19th September, 2008).

The £1,500 was presented by Kathryn McGee from The Big Partnership, Aberdeen, which organised the Media Ball. This photograph shows Ted Kidd, NUJ Grampian Branch welfare officer, with Kathryn (right) and Jenny Watson of the Reading Bus, also Aberdeen, which received a cheque for £1,500 from the same event.

Money raised for NUJ Extra goes into a national fund, which is used to “help NUJ members who have fallen on hard times by giving them one-off grants to help pay for urgent utility bills or to make adjustments to their home because of a sudden disability.” See the NUJ Extra website for more info.

A gallery of stars

This is what happens if you spend more than 40 years in journalism.

Pics from Ted Kidd and Frank Urquhart’s “Forty years with the NUJ” party.

Photos courtesy of Kate Sutherland.

NUJ Lifers

Two local journalists became NUJ life members recently – marking 40 years continuous membership of the union. The NUJ Aberdeen Branch held a party (on 31st October, 2008) to congratulate Ted Kidd and Frank Urquhart.

It was a very good do: beer, food, funny speeches (yes, funny) etc. See, a following post for more pictures.
Sam
Secretary

Photos courtesy of Kate Sutherland.

Has anyone got an urgent motion?

If you do, then you’ve got until Friday 26th August to submit it for the Annual STUC Women’s Conference.

If there’s something you want considered at the conference then email it to me, your Branch secretary at: sam.thom83@yahoo.co.uk. But do it quick because these have to be received in the post by Friday.

If you want to attend the conference, you might be in luck because the NUJ has been requested to send up to five delegates. Closing date for nominations is Friday 26th September, 2008.

Think about it, then get in contact with me by email – sam.thom83@yahoo.co.uk, or call on 07742 927 326.

Oh yeah, the 81st annual Women STUC Conference is being held in Perth on 27th/28th November, 2008.

Sam

NUJ runs courses (none in North East, though)

There are places left on the following NUJ training courses. Note, they’re all in Glasgow or thereabouts. If there’s enough demand for courses in our area, then there maybe a chance to bring tutors up from the central belt. Classes have to be of about 12 people or more, though. Bear it in mind and drop me a line if this is something you’d be interested in. We can gauge support for the idea.

Sam Thom
Union branch secretary – 07742 927 326

Newspaper Text Handling course in Glasgow Metropolitan College commencing Tuesday 16th September 2008 from 6-9 pm, for 10 consecutive Tuesdays. Cost £l00

Quarkxpress course in Glasgow Metropolitan College commencing Wednesday 17th September 2008 from 6-9 pm, for 10 consecutive Wednesdays. Cost £l00

INDESIGN course in Glasgow Metropolitan College commencing Thursday 18th September 2008 from 6.30 – 9 pm for 10 consecutive Thursdays Cost £l00

One day courses
Law for Journalists in Scotland (one day course), in NUJ offices Glasgow – Friday 5th September 2008 Cost £80

Feature Writing course (one day course) in NUJ office, Glasgow – Thursday 11th September 2008. Cost £80

Freelance course (one day course), in NUJ office, Glasgow – Friday 12th September 2008 cost £80

Scriptwriting (one day course) in NUJ offices, Glasgow – Saturday 13th September 2008 Cost £80

PR COURSE (one day) in NUJ offices, Glasgow – Monday 15th September 2008 Cost £80

Advanced Internet Research One day courses – University of Strathclyde – Wednesday 17th September 2008. £100 for members, £200 for non members

Travel Writing (one day course) in NUJ offices, Glasgow – Friday 19th September 2008 Cost £80

For more details: Contact Alice McCarney on alicem@nuj.org.uk or Telephone 0141 248 7748
Or… check out the union website: www.nujscotland.com and click on class courses.

Cage-Fighting and Mud-Wrestling are NOT good ideas

As much as we need to help the Union’s charity arm (NUJ Extra) raise money to replace its dwindling funds – mud wrestling, bare knuckle cage fighting and speed eating are not the best ways to help.

Good ways include:

• Pub quiz night
• Horse racing night
• Er… beetle drive (?)

These methods are altogether much tamer, but at the same time more inclusive. (Translate that into cash – more people attending means more money raised.)

But we need ideas for novel events that the branch committee (or yourselves) could arrange. Or how about doing an event yourself and pledging the proceeds to NUJ Extra? That way you could mud-wrestle yourself, cage fight on your own, or heaven knows what else.

The money which NUJ Extra dispenses is for cases of hardship, when members have fallen on hard times. We may all need to call on it for help at some point in our lives, so take a moment to think how you could help.

If you want more information about NUJ Extra visit the website at www.nujextra.org.uk/ and read on.

Aye

Sam (Branch Secretary)

07742 927 326

Flogging Media Ball tickets

The Media Ball 2008 logo

Tickets for the event will become rarer as it draws nearer.

The NUJ Grampian Branch has tickets if you’re interested.

Contact me, branch secretary (Sam Thom) on 07742 927 326.

GRAMPIAN MEDIA BALL

Any Cinderellas and Prince Charmings out there WITHOUT tickets to the social event of the year? (That’s not the New Deer WRI Annual Bake Off, but the Grampian Media Ball 2008.) Don’t worry, your caring NUJ branch has reserved two tables (ten people per table) for members. But they’re being snapped up, so get your order in.

I think there’s about 15 left.

I sent round an email 10 days ago, but here are the details again

Cost:               £45.00 per person (this still has to be confirmed, but it’s round about that figure)
Date:               Friday, 19th September
Time:              7.00 for 7.30pm
Venue:            Marcliffe Hotel
Dress code:    Black tie

If your interested, call me, Sam on 07742 927 326.

Tigmoo – what the hell is that?

Tigmoo is a website which collects together loads of blogs from the union movement around the UK. (In tech-speak: it’s an aggregator for blogs and feeds about the union movement.) It’s like a one-stop shop of grassroots news blogs to keep the interested person informed of what’s going on.

And my point is?? A guy called John made a comment on this site to ask permission to list the NUJ Grampian Blog on Tigmoo. I said Yes. Go online to Tigmoo and have a look at the range of sites there:

• NUJ Scottish Diary
• TGWU Blood Service Branch
• Angie’s Unison Views

It’s pretty heavyweight. Not sure how an NUJ Grampian Blog headline like “Drinks Evening this Thursday”, fits in alongside typical Tigmoo headlines like “South Africa: Workers Down Tools at 2010 Stadium in Limpopo” or “TUC Vulnerable Workers Project Shares Findings with Unions”.

As for the name Tigmoo, the site explains it sort of stands for ‘This Great Movement of Ours’…”a common cliche from many of the great union orators of yore.” That’s that cleared up, then.

Strippers might draw the crowds

Do you remember last Thursday’s branch social night? For those of you who have yet to come along to one of the branch’s monthly social evenings, let me just describe it: 7 or 8 people – not more than 12 – gather in a separate room at the Sportsman’s Club, chuck a fiver in the kitty and get a round in. I like it because it’s purely social. People chat about stuff they’ve done over the past weeks, big stories in the news, personal stuff and “Should I have a ‘top’ on my pint?”

Now, that description’s supposed to entice members who have not yet made it to one of these monthly events (the last Thursday of every month). If I said there were strippers , male or female, we might probably get the same number, but just different individuals (maybe not, right enough). The social evening aims at the lowest common denominator, which is this: a chance to chat socially.

So, give it a shot. It’s not intimidating, it’s easygoing, you don’t have to drink alcohol (maybe you’re driving), and you can make friends. Hope to see you at the next social evening on Thursday 31st July, same time, same place.