Your Youth Parliament Members

Member of Youth Parliament - Alex Ruskin

Hey guy's! An update for you all. On Monday 19th April, Alex and I went to our first BCYC (Berkshire County Youth Council) meeting, here all the Berkshire D/MYP's come together and work as a group to take UKYP campaigns and our chosen Youth Council campaigns to the whole of Berkshire and work toward Berkshire completed campaigns! As it was the first one back it took a while to build up momentum and we had to get to know any new members. We went through what we hope to achieve by certain times and the end of our terms. The main campaign we're focusing on is Transport where we hope to gain a concessions card for all young people in Berkshire and for the card to allow you to travel all around Berkshire. Our next meeting is tbc.

On Saturday 24th April we all had our first UKYP South East regional meeting in Maidstone, Kent. At this meeting we split into our campaign groups. Alex and I went to the 'Get On Board' transport campaign group to compile what information each local area has gained about the local transport and what they have started to do regarding our local transport prices, quality, timings etc. We also listened to the Milton Keynes members- who have almoat completed their local area transport campaign- to find out how they achieved it, how they went about doing it, any support given, who to contact and any problems they came across which slowed their progress/process down. Our next regional is June 26th in Oxford. Our next Youth Council meeting is on Monday 26th April where we are meeting the mayor and having our meeting in the Council Chambers. Keep looking out for my next update!! Alex x

Hello everyone! As you know I was one of your Deputy Member's of Youth Parliament last year. Unfortunately my term came to an end on Saturday 13th March when the Youth Council were on their residential at the Ashford Kingswood centre in Kent. On this weekend we had our elections for the new member of YP, which Josie (my co-deputy member) and myself went for. The Youth Council as a whole voted 1-10 on two activity's that Josie and I had to do, one was a 2 minute speech on why, what and how we wanted to progress from deputy to member. We then had a question time style event where the Youth Council members had a chance to ask us questions as to why we want to be member and what we would like to achieve. Saturday night we found out the result of the election....the vote was extremely close and by 1 point I was voted as your new MYP. We then had the election for the deputy member, this gave Josie a chance to be re-elected as deputy. 7 Youth Council members including Josie went forward for the two deputy positions, to do this they also made 2 minute speeches about why they would like to be deputy and what they would like to do in the position. We then held a speed dating type event where each deputy electee' were asked questions by the other members of the Youth Council, the members then voted 1-10 on the electee. At the end of the long process of voting we found out after Sunday that Alex Austin and Josie Dyster are the new Bracknell Forest Deputies. The following weekend Alex, Josie and myself went to the Isle of Wight for the South East UKYP residential where we met all the MYP's and DMYP's for the South East. At this weekend we found out all this years campaigns; 'Free for all uni fees' this is a continued campaign from last year where we will try and abolish all uni fees, 'Get on board' this is also a continued campaign from last year which was called 'fares fair' where we will try and get cheaper fees for young people on the buses that are no more than half the adult price, 'Political education' which is not a continued campaign from last year but does follow on from the campaign 'votes at 16' which the South East UKYP group felt could happen until young people get the needed political education. The weekend was great and we learnt valuable skills which we will use within our role for example; public speaking, chairing skills, media skills, campaigning skills and equality/diversity training. We also got involved in some of the Kingswood activities like; night-line, jacobs ladder and later quest. The first South East regional meeting is on the 24th April. I shall keep you up dated as to what the Youth Council and UKYP is up to. =D

Deputy Member of Youth Parliament - Josie Dyster

Hi All! We just had our Youth Forum meeting back after the summer. We ran an Xpresionz Lounge and promotion both of which went very well. This summer, I went to Scotland with my family, where it rained every day. I also went to WINGs, a Guide and Scout camp and had a great time. Other than that (and of course the Annual Sitting) I spent a fairly uneventful summer listening to music, watching TV, seeing my friends and generally having a good time. This month I have a UKYP meeting on the 20^th, which I hope to update you guys on ASAP.

Deputy Member of Youth Parliament - Alex Austin (Picture up shortly)

Latest Blog - "So Went to Oxford on Saturday 26th June 2010 and has a really good time. We were put in our campaign groups, (ours is Transport) and Alex Ruskin and I brought up the fact that the transport has changed recently in Bracknell Forest by Thames Travel. We are working on this in the Youth Council sub group but we have now also got the support from other constituencies. Please feel free to E-mail us your experiences on Thames Travel and help us make the public transport around Bracknell Forest Better for Young People."

Hi guys, well I’m Alex Austin, I’m 15, live in Warfield and attend Garth Hill College, I’ve been on the Youth Council for over 1 year now and have enjoyed it so much and it just keeps getting better. On the 12^th March the Youth Council set of to Ashford in Kent. We stayed in one of the Kingswood centres and had a really fun time. Here I was elected to be the Deputy Member of Youth Parliament as well as Josie Dyster and know were going to have a really fun and productive year supporting our Member of Youth Parliament Alex Ruskin. Alex, Josie and I then went to the Isle of Wight on the 19^th March, stayed in another Kingswood centre were I met so many new faces that are on the UK Youth Parliament South East. This has been a great experience and its only the beginning. On Monday 26^th April the Youth Council had tea With the Mayor (Cllr Bob Wade) and the Mayoress (Maggie Wade) we asked them loads of questions about his time as Mayor everyone enjoyed themselves and had a really good evening. - Alex Austin