Adapting the local contacts concept to fit your branch

We discussed the local contacts idea at LeSoCo (formally Lewisham and Southwark colleges) and at the Southwark Waterloo site they have decided to make it a network of 'Room Reps'.

This came out of the workplace organisation not really fitting the departmental model. Also, all of their staff are in shared offices, with about 15 of them across the site.

We sat down and mapped where each of these offices where. We then went through them one by one and the branch thought of someone they could approach to be the 'Room Rep', whether it be the person who always turns up to meetings, or someone they'd done casework for that may want to give back to the union. The only rule was that it couldn't be someone who was on committee or an existing rep.

We also said allocated who was going to make the approach to these people and then armed them with a copy of the UCU role description for local contacts. We also noted offices where we didn't have any members and a committee member has 'adopted' them for the moment until we can recruit some members and then hopefully a local contact.

We might change the title to 'Room Contacts' if we find the term rep is discouraging, but the branch likes the alliteration for the moment!

Laura Flynn
UCU London region