Meeting:2018/11/01/EGM

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Meeting (to be) held from 18:00-20:00 on 2018/11/01 in Zepler CLS Lecture Room

 

This EGM was called by the Webmaster(Cori Haws), in the absence of President or Secretary. At least 24 hours notification was given by email to the society mailing lists.

Purpose of EGM

Copied verbatim from the official notification :

There are three issues that will be discussed and voted upon:
   Item 1) Election of President
   Item 2) Election of Secretary
   Item 3) Potential Re-election of positions currently held by staff members pending a response from the union.
   Item 4) Election of Equipment and Facilities Secretary
   Item 5) Amendment to the constitution regarding committee positions (Pending response from Union)

Conduct of the EGM

Unless otherwise specified, these guidelines are the opinion of the Secretary, rather than rules laid out in the constitution, and can be overruled by the Chair.

Copied verbatim from the SUWS Constitution:

Voting: 
   Every full member of the Society present at a general meeting shall be entitled 
   to one vote upon every voting matter. Only full members are entitled to vote and 
   no proxy votes shall be accepted for any purpose.

Quorum: 
   The quorum at all meetings shall be 10% of the full members.
   
Minutes: 
   The Secretary of the Society shall keep minutes of all general meetings, which 
   shall be made available to the Societies Officer and the Societies Department Committee.

and:

At the EGM, no business other than that specified in the written statement shall be discussed.

Chairperson

The Secretary shall serve as Chairperson, unless a full member present feels that a conflict of interest is apparent.

(See Point of order 1).

If this occurs, then replacement candidates shall be nominated by the full members present, and then from the nominees, one shall be elected. Any full member shall be eligible for nomination, including the Secretary.

Quorum

• According to the official list on the SUSU admin site there are 34 members of SUWS, including both full and associate members. Consequently if there are more than 3.4 full members present at the meeting, we would be quorate (the actual number required is smaller, as it should not include the 10% of associate members).
  • Full membership is defined in the constitution as:

Full membership is open to any registered student.

Amendments

Copied verbatim from the SUWS Constitution:

a. The Society committee at a General Meeting shall first approve amendments
to the constitution.

b. The committee shall hold a vote to pass any constitutional changes. This 
shall be done by ballot or a show of hands, at the discretion of the Chairperson.
Should there be a tie, the Chairperson may vote.

Accordingly, the following procedure will be followed for each amendment under consideration:

1. The committee present at the meeting will vote as to whether to approve putting the amendment to a vote.

   If the committee present approves:

2. The proposer (in all of these cases, the Secretary) will describe why he feels the amendment should be passed.
3. An opportunity will be given for a member to present an opposing viewpoint.
4. A vote will be held amongst all the full members present at the meeting.
5. The committee will vote to ratify the vote of the members. (See Point of order 3).

Minutes

This page on the wiki shall be considered the minutes of the meeting after it has been concluded. Consequently, it should not be modified after this time, and page protection shall be applied.

Proceedings of the EGM

Attendance

List of committee members present:

Number of the following (including members of the committee):

• Full members present:
• Associate members present:
• Others present:
• Total present:

Point of order 1

Selection of a Chairperson

Point of order 2

Quorum

• How many members are present?
• Is this greater than, or equal to, 3.4?

Point of order

"Election of President"

Point of order

"Election of Secretary"

Point of order

"Discus Staff on Committee"

Union Enquiry

Questions Asked

• Whether or not Staff may be on the committee
• Whether this is a recent change
• Whether positions may be appointed
• Whether committee positions may restricted to certain members

Response

Copied verbatim:

 It has always been the case that members of the public or of University/Union Staff cannot hold positions on society committees. This is laid out in Rule 1, which I have attached to my email as a PDF. More details can be found under section 1 that explains the different membership types to the Union. Only full members, who are currently enrolled students, can hold a position on a society committee. This is because we are a student-led organisation and so it is important that those leadership positions within our affiliated societies are held by students.
Until recently the Groups Hub system has not been able to distinguish between students and staff. This has made it very difficult for us to enforce the rule around society committees. With a recent improvement to the system, we are now able to look into this properly and address the issue.
We understand that it can be useful to have University Staff members, or members of external organisations within the society but they must only act in an advisory capacity and must not hold positions of leadership within the society. However, it is important to also note that University staff members do not have an automatic membership to SUSU but instead need to apply for temporary membership on a rolling yearly cycle in order to join our clubs and societies. Again, this has always been the case but without the technological support it has been difficult to enforce.
I have also attached a copy of our Membership Form to my email. University staff interested in clubs and societies can apply for membership by filling in this form and dropping it at our reception in Building 42.
With regards to one of the roles only being available to students with a Radio License, this should be fine. However, I would suggest that it is advertised to members with clearly define eligibility criteria and put out for nomination and election still rather than being appointed.

Summary

• Only full members, who are currently enrolled students, can hold a position on a society committee.
  • Staff members may not hold committee positions
• Committee positions may have well-defined eligibility criteria.
• Appointments should be avoided