1. NUS Services Company Plan 2012 Presented by Ed Marsh
Company Chair, NUS Services
Many thanks for giving us the opportunity to close this year’s AMSU Conference. Congratulations to Loughborough and the CoCo
As Gemma has said we have been going through difficult times at NUS over the past two months as we’ve undertaken a re-structure which results in a net loss of 20 staff, and it’s been nice for the past few days to have been amongst friends and colleagues. I do believe we are through the worst but I’d like to say thank you to all of you who have sent supportive comments to us. You should know that every difficult decision we have made has been taken in order to significantly raise our game so we are adding real value to our members - students’ unions - and so we are all ultimately delivering for students.
I will explain more about the re-structure shortly but for those of you who didn’t attend any of NUS’ strategic conversation events earlier in the year this presentation title may seem a little odd – so I’ll try and give you some context. For those of you who were at the strategic conversation events I promise not to go on about elephants any more after today.
But first here is a picture of me wrestling an elephant.

2. Governance
Under the current model NUS is 25% shareholder, with the remaining 75% owned by 250 students’ unions.
The problems with this model of ownership include
The shared ownership model does not correlate in any way with the current levels of participation in purchasing and commercial activities
There is no effective way of equally redistributing any surpluses the company makes
The separate governance structures of NUS & NUS Services means that much of our work is replicated and can be more efficiently scrutinised under a more coherent and transparent model

3. We wish to move to a model that
Streamlines the way we move resources across the NUS Group, including making donations to the NUS charity that builds capacity in students’ unions
Clarity in decision making to accelerate priorities such as reducing affiliation fees and maximising tax efficiencies
Rewards participation in income generation in fairer and more equitable manner based on co-operative principles
Deepens membership ownership in decision making so that members can shape our direction more than they do now

4. New Governance Model

5. Commercial Intelligence
If we are going to be successful as students’ unions and as a national union, we need to know our membership better. We are intent on providing high-quality, focused and accessible research that can be acted upon
Our research is now recognised as a market leader and as a result, demand from third parties wanting to commission research is now outstripping the capacity of our in-house team

6. In the coming year we will
Expand the depth and reach of the annual NUS membership survey
Create a digital dashboard that allows members to benchmark their performance against other unions of their choice
Road-test all existing information to ensure that is as accessible and user friendly as possible

7. We will also
Build a central research hub on NUS connect that supports students’ unions who want to carry out their own research alongside NUS Services’ research agency
Hold a national masterclass event for commercial strategy development
Invest in our in-house research and data management team to build capacity

8. The Purchasing Consortium

9. Paid £823k to unions through our purchasing programmes
As the national trading company, in the last year we have
Paid £823k to unions through our purchasing programmes
Processed 167,911 invoices amounting to £86 million through central billing
And we have seen an increase in the value of goods purchased through nussl, this year it has risen to £65.5m
This year we are on course to pay over £1 million back to students’ unions through retrospective payments for the first time

10. In the coming year we propose that the board will
Amend the existing by-laws to allow external partners to use centrally negotiated deals
Establish a matrix of guidelines that must be met before these partnership deals can proceed

11. NUS extra

12. This year
Card sales to date (as in 30th March 2012) – 454,183.
Commission paid to unions already this year is £1.4 million (so this figure will continue to rise)
We have provided additional support to unions in the way of marketing kits, promotional materials and staff resources. The total value of this support is £225,000 so far.

13. Looking Forward
This year we will launch the variable validity card which will mean that whenever a card is purchases it will last for 12 months.
We will launch a new smart phone app to provide increased functionality and value to card holders so they can access discounts whilst on the move

14. NUS Digital

15. NUS Services Moving Forward
Ed Marsh Company Chair
NUS Services
NUS Services Moving Forward

16. Questions?