Chair – Lawrence Bolton

lawrence.bolton@nasta.tv

Development – Dom Kullander

dom.kullander@nasta.tv

Technical – Calum Brookes

calum.brookes@nasta.tv

Marketing – Jamie Chadd

jamie.chadd@nasta.tv

Also XTV were elected to host NaSTA 2013, they will be electing a conference Coordinator who we will announce soon.

As I’m writing this, you’re all winding your way, in your own inimitable fashion to Nottingham for the beginning of the 2012 National Student Television Association Conference. As I’m looking outside the weather is dreary, there is a hint of drizzle in the air and everything looks decidedly grey. This won’t matter to anyone who’ll be at #NaSTA2012 though, for one simple fact. They’ll be at #NaSTA2012. I’m looking forward to meeting some old faces and catching up on how this year has panned out for you all, as well as meeting some new faces who’ll be taking up the student tv mantle into 2013 and the 40th anniversary year of the awards.

Looking at the clutch of prospective candidates for the 2012/2013 NaSTA Exec, the future looks brighter than it has been for some time. I have to applaude Dom, Steven, Dan, Lawrence and Jamie for putting their heart and soul into their campaigns, just as I have to applaude them for the versatile way they have contended with the questions I’ve put to them, prior to voting opening.

But to each of them I offer one piece of advice.

Listen, and never assume you know the answer to a question before it’s even asked.

The one thing I’ve learnt is that being a part of the National Executive Committee affords you very little authority. You can only ever really hope that your ideas that you put forward and you champion are taken up by stations and embraced as convention in the future. I’ve seen buzz words floated about like ‘cohesion’ and ‘consistency,’ both of which are pitfalls NaSTA has fallen foul to in the past. The catch 22 here, which we’ve learnt to our cost this year, is that if you strive for ‘cohesion’ and ‘consistency’ without being mindful of the past, you end up making the same mistakes. Sometimes on a much bigger scale & to the complete detriment of your time in office.

But then its not all doom and gloom I assure you!

With the right drive, foresight and motivation the time you spend on the NaSTA Exec will be some of the most personally fulfilling moments of your life, where you get to forge relationships that you know stations will be able to benefit from.

Google/YouTube this is year is a prime example of what can be achieved.

My main focus this year has been to get YouTube to NaSTA, to introduce them to stations and allow them savour the atmosphere of a NaSTA conference, and this year they will be doing exactly that. They’ll even by hosting their own workshop on day 2 of this years conference. I hope that my successor takes this relationship forward in a positive direction. The support for this relationship from certain quarters of this years Exec team has perhaps not been what it should have been to begin with, but I do hope that the incoming team will succeed in this regard where we, as a team, have in all honesty failed.

Stuart Wood, you my friend are a legend amongst Tech Monkeys.

Seeing Stuart Wood as Technical Officer work with such tireless dedication all year in providing his successor with a firm footing has been a joy to watch, and shows him as being the consumate Executive Officer this year, bar none. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of this years Technical Officer, NaSTA has forged the beginnings of a relationship with JA:NET that I honestly believe could lead to much bigger and better things for the growth of student television in the United Kingdom in the not too distant future.

I also have to take a moment to say that Chris Leyland, as this years coordinator (a thankless job until conference, as anyone who has done it will testify to) has taken the challenge set out before him to fill Studio 7 with a thronging mass of expectant student tv stations, and he has succeeded. Being the coordinator is a tough job, sometimes it can be very lonely when things don’t go your way or planning goes awry. Chris, however, has done the job that was asked of him 12 months ago and more besides. He’s been a credit to NUTS and a credit to NaSTA with the job he’s done and I for one would like to thank him for this.

But there is one other group I need to thank, and I’d like to explain the reasons why.

This year has, if I’m being honest, not really lived up to its potential. There have been moments where I’ve questioned what precisely we’ve actually achieved, to even wondering why I should still be doing this after all this time. There has been a layer of reticence from elsewhere I’ve found hard to stomach. Enlightened self interest has proven to be insufficient in peoples understanding of what has been going on around them. Inconvenient truths have been drowned out by self aggrandising nonsense, and the simplistic nature of communicating with ones peers has seemingly become a lost art form.

Other than perhaps on Skype.

But NaSTA, to each and every station, I want to say thank you. Having spent the last 12 months watching what you’re doing, seeing the amazing content you’re putting out there, the risks you’re taking and the challenges you’re overcoming, you’ve all made it worthwhile. I spend the best part of an hour of my day, each day, looking at what stations are doing, in some cases talking to you to see how it’s going and how you all are. It wasn’t so long ago when NaSTA was no more than a handful of stations, a mere shadow of what it once was in the days of U-Matic tapes and RF network cables.

My time on the Exec isn’t quite over yet, as much as I think some people would wish it could be.

But in saying that, my time at the bar at this years conference hasn’t even begun.

See you all soon

Capone x

NaSTA AGM 2012 Agenda

Also please see the following attatchments:

Awards Rules

Elections Rules

The responsibilites of the Technical Officer have been outlined at the bottom of this post.

We have opted for this course of action as it is felt best we get any potential candidates in the main stream campaigning as quickly as possible.

For those stations not in attendance to the Conference in Nottingham this weekend who still wish to vote, you may email your proxy station to james.goldburn@nasta.tv who will vote on your behalf. Any questions please don’t hesitate to contact.

See you at the awards!

The individual responsibilities of the Technical Officer are:
(i)To maintain the website and facilitate the Host Station with the means and training to update the website with conference news.
(ii)To assist the Development Officer in offering training to stations in all aspects of broadcasting and production where requested.
(iii)To implement solutions for national collaborative projects.
(iv)To facilitate and manage the provision of hosting services for the websites and such online resources as NaSTA undertakes to develop.
(v)To manage the upkeep of any Internet domain names, websites and associated online resources that NaSTA owns and manage and upkeep email aliases for NaSTA.
(vi)To maintain, update and develop the NaSTA website and associated online resources under guidance from the Development Officer.
(vii)To develop and manage a web based membership database which incorporates a public interactive directory of student television stations in the UK, such reporting facilities as are required to manage membership, and the facility to mass email stations or groups of stations easily.

The responsibilities of every Executive Officer are:

(i)To attend General and Executive Meetings.
(ii)To present a report of achievement at every General Meeting.
(iii)To communicate their activities to the membership.
(iv)To prepare a report of any external meeting attended within two weeks of attendance.
(v)To prepare, and publish to the members, the minutes of any Executive Committee meeting within two weeks of attendance.
(vi)To declare any Interest or Conflict of Interest to the membership.
(vii)To represent NaSTA in a professional manner.
(viii)To uphold the aims of NaSTA as set out in this constitution, and adhere to any policy documents.

Its one week until the NaSTA Conference and a week until the Elections hustings where you will be able to question the candidates on their policies.

We also have a couple of video manifestos to upload from some of the candidates. See below! Don’t forget voting is on Saturday 21st April!

Lawrence Bolton – Video Manifesto for NaSTA Chair

Dom Kullander – Video Manifesto for Development Officer

Steven Perring – Video Manifesto for Development Officer

Here are your candidates and  with manifestos:

Chair

Dan Hamilton – No manifesto submitted

Dax Wood – Manifesto

Lawrence Bolton – Manifesto

Development Officer

Dom Kullander – Manifesto

Steven Perring – Manifesto

Marketing

Jamie Chadd – Manifesto

Technical 

No candidates – will be reopened for casual vacancy

NaSTA Host 2013

XTV Manifesto

YSTV Manifesto 

Let the campaigning begin!

It’s getting closer to April, the sun is starting to shine, and soon it will be time for NaSTA to go NUTS!

Today, we are pleased to launch our official Conference & Awards website where you can view all of this year’s entries, check out the workshops we’ve got lined up and download your NaSTA Goes NUTS Guide to the Weekend. We’ve made the website as interactive as possible so feel free to Tweet about it, comment and share with your friends. #NaSTA2012

Just click http://nasta.nutsonline.org/ to open up a whole new world of procrastination.

Make sure you read the info carefully so you’ll know when to arrive and what to expect; send us the information we need in the Checklist at the end.

Finally, when you’ve read about the workshops take the questionnaire to help us timetable and plan the Conference sessions:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFBMaFRBWFRQc1pFRlUzYTdHSDBTcWc6MQ

Don’t forget to get your station to vote in the People’s Choice Awards by 6th April, the top 5 will go through to the text vote opening on that day as well.

And if that is not enough also on 6th April we will announce the judges so look out for that!
As always any issues contact host@nasta.tv

Have an amazing few weeks until we see you,

NUTS love

NaSTA & NUTS
xxx

The AGM will be held at The University of Nottingham on Sunday 22nd April at 10am.

AGENDA

1. Apologies
2. Acceptance of the Returning Officers Report
3. Announcement of the New Executive Committee (assuming there are no issues with the election)
4. Annual Accounts
5. Minutes of all Executive Committee meetings
6. Motions
7. Addition and removal of award categories
8. Determination of the new Host station for the next year
9. Election of a New Returning officer
10. AOB

You bought your tickets in force allowing us to reach the big 400 guests at this year’s National Student Television Awards Ceremony. Tickets have now sold out for the event. If you have bought a ticket but still need accommodation we can arrange this for you,

We are operating a reserve list incase we gain any extra capacity in the room or we hear that someone wants to sell on their ticket. Please email host@nasta.tv to be put on this list. Please note that this does not guarantee you will get a ticket to the event.

See you all in April!
NUTS

The official rules, regulations and submission requirements can be found in the following document. Please read it very carefully to ensure you meet all the requirements.

NaSTA Submission Document

 Dates & Deadlines