Council 3 - 24th November 2015- Brampton 4 (6.30pm-8.30pm)
AGM
- Ratification of minutes of previous AGM
Passed
- Trustees report on Union activity since previous AGM
Passed
- Accounts of Union (for previous financial year)
Passed
- Affiliations of the Union
Passed
- Questions to Trustees by members
None
Motions:
- Bye law 1: Victor presents Officer role bye-law amendment. Explains that students do not currently understand the roles and the workload is imbalanced.
Q. What do the current Sabbs think of the changes? Do you think it’s fair?
TS: It’s good, it splits it out and balances the meetings. It makes the workload split out and better representation and better change.
Chair asks for any further questions.
Victor summarises what was discussed. As Tom said, the President goes to many more meetings than the other Sabbs.
22 votes for, 0 against, 0 abstain. Bye-law amendment is accepted.
Xinlei Zhang (International Officer) leaves Council.
- Bye law 2: JemmaVobe, Societies Officer, presents motion for a warning issued for non-attendance at Society committee meeting (bye-law amendment).
Jemma explains that currently if a committee member does not turn up they just get a warning. The bye-law amendment says if they miss two meetings, they have to meet with SU member of staff or VP Student Experience. This is a way to make societies more active and representing their group.
Q. Are these only in the cases of non-apologies?
JV: Yes
Chair asks for any further questions.
No questions asked.
Opened up to discussion.
Q. would we able to move to online voting, in addition to this, for society meetings?
JV: Yes we can see to move it.
Vote for amendment to be accepted: majority vote to accept. Bye-law amendment is accepted.
- Bye law 3:JemmaVobe, Societies Officer, presents motion for how Society committee members should send apologies for non-attendance to a meeting (bye-law amendment).
Looking at the fact, if do send apologies, if there is a reason which is not good enough it will be taken to development meeting, if not seen as acceptable it will be taken as non-attendance.
Q. Is there a limit on amount of time people can send apologies?
JV: No, not at the moment. If committee members send apologies constantly we need to look at this.
Q. Go back to what is viewed as unreasonable? Goes to another committee and they decide if not reasonable, then it is decided as non-attendance. They will be told at society committee meeting. This would be mean they are up for deratifaction?
Q. Do these people get chance to argue against?
Yes
Q. Would it not be more fair to open to rest of society?
JV: If all 3 not turning up to a meeting then this is not good. They could open it up but members don’t know that committee members aren’t turning up.
Q. If we vote this through it seems like there might be lot more effort to deratify
Q. Main problem is not finding committee members. It’s responsibility of that society. If deratify their funds are dormant for 6 months so they can still use.
20 vote for, 1 abstain. Bye-law amendment is accepted.
- Bye law 4: JemmaVobe, Societies Officer, presents motion on ratification of Societies (bye-law amendment):
JV explains that a lot of are people unhappy; it takes a lot of time and doesn’t give much power. Also if we don’t have quorum it leaves them waiting to be ratified. This bye-law goes through same process but means it is quicker and doesn’t waste time. If any problems people can raise at the meeting.
Q. where does that leave our society? In terms of not being ratified? Does it have to go to board of trustees?
JV: This wouldn’t go through till end of March. This will mean it won’t happen till April for those currently not ratified.
Any discussion points? Move to vote.
20 vote for, 1 abstain. Bye-law amendment is accepted.
Bye law 5 JemmaVobe, Societies Officer, presents motion on measuring event activities for Societies (bye-law amendment):
JV explains there is currently no way of measuring how active societies are. If societies are not putting on events they are not doing anything for members. There should be 1 event per term. If not done that for whole term then it will go for a vote for deratification.
Q. What was the list again that Societies must meet when arranging events?
Jemma repeats a verbal list.
Q. For our Society, we don’t always do big events but we do advertise.
Jemma says that’s ok so meets requirement.
Q. what if they meet around someone’s house? Would that count?
Jemma – it only needs to be one event that is advertised, or with room booking, etc.
Q. The whole idea means it’s available to the wider body?
Jemma – yes
Q. we don’t always book a room or do anything formal, we justmeet up and it is informal.
Jemma – but at the same time, they are still advertising.
Q. don’t you think this is putting a lot of pressure on the marketing team?
Jemma – they already do it.
Q. would there be a way to make it easier on marketing team? E.g. do own advertising and SU team can just share it.
Jemma – they can do that, it’s just one event a year
Q. If it’s not on the SU website, it doesn’t exist to me because that’s the main point of reference for me.
Q. Does advertising mean like a page or a banner or?
JV: Yeah, it’s not hard.
Jemma sum up – if they aren’t following the criteria, they are put forward for deratification. Jemma also states that advertising needs to be clearer, it could happen at any location.
Vote for: 15
Against: 1
Abstain: 5
Bye-law amendment accepted.
- Policy proposal for food bank
*Until clarification is sought on if a non-Councillor can present and pass a motion at Council, Stephanie goes to present pending the validity of a cast vote*
Stephanie presents and explains it is a very simply proposal; any unsold food goes to a food bank. At the moment it will go through chaplaincy and go through their food bank.
Q. What if it’s out of date?
SN: It will be imperishable food. E.g. tinned food by the year 3000.
Q. what currently happens to the food?
SN: It goes back to where it came from. I.e. purchaser.
Q. What is the financial implication? It’s getting returned, do we get the money back?
SN: Will Greasley said it was fine. We have enough profit. I wasn’t given any more financial details. It’s not a huge amount.
Q. If it goes through will it definitely happen?
Chair explains it will goes to Trustees for a final decision.
Q. If go through can SU pull out if decide to do so? This bit of paper shouldn’t be the be all end all. If SU feel in financial interest to retract the decision they should do.
SN: yes, it is a stepping stone to get more community involved.
Q.Is there any way we could see financial report as a way of seeing what might be lost?
SN: Yes – we get financial report so probably fine.
Q. It’s just to clarify if money is aptly being donated. Need to know how much is being lost.
Q. Can we get it in black and white from Will?
SN: Yes. I have spoken to a lot of people.
Q. I would assume the Exec committee would have the knowledge of how much would financially suffer.
Q. Do you as Exec have this knowledge?
Victor – it goes to trustees. If trustees feel it is detrimental then it won’t go through.
Q. the food doesn’t get chucked out?
SN: No.
Q. Can we mandate someone to get the finances checked etc?
Chair: Yes. And it can be adjourned till we have this information.
Q. We keep talking about finances but isn’t it morally better than we donate the food? Are we worried about pockets or do we have morals?
Sports Councillor: Yes it is a good point but we already give a lot of money away to charity already. We don’t use all money we have, we give to charity already. Some of us are doing a lot for charity as it is.
Q. Can we push this back till we have a financial report?
Chair: You can abstain if not agree.
Q. This money is the SUs money. We have to see if it is going to impact on us. If we give away 25% of all cash (random value) and it impacts on societies, then youimpact on their impact on charities.
Q. If it became a problem that we are giving too much money could we cap it?
SN: Yes. It’s only food that’s not been sold.
Q. I can’t see it will cost a lot of money but if it became a big cost we could cap it?
SN: Yes we could cap it.
Q. Charity works on the basis of giving away what you can afford to give away.
Q. I’m not sure if this needs to be a policy proposal but it could be a volunteering project, it doesn’t need to be a policy proposal.
SN: I spoke to Kerri and Roger and they suggest it be a policy proposal. I was recommended this.
Q. Just to clarify the SU is a charity and cannot give money to other charities as it breaches charity law.
SN: Will said he was fine with it.
Chair summary: Steph’s idea is a policy to take food that would be thrown away by SU and all of that will go community and they will benefit from it.
Q. I would like to see more information.
Q. I have a suggestion that an Officer could be mandated to oversee the expenditure. If it is going out of control they can be accountable and they need to tell us.
If want more data and restructure of words, we can do that. Chair decides.
No vote taken.
Q: Any observing person of SU has speaking rights, but is policy proposal having more than that? Stephanie isn’t a Councillor. Now we know for next time.
Agreement is made that this clarification will be sought for next Council.
- Trustee report:
Victor presents.
Jane Bunce went to discuss Waterside. They were happy with that and asked for regular updates. They will also get staff magazine.
Opened up for discussion.
Q. Don’t seem to have much engagement with trustee reports. 99% sure I asked last time but will ask again that it needs to be relatable to each group – i.e. separate bit to mature students so they know what it means to mature students, same with societies. It’s the same with finance reports.
VA: Societies Officer can break it down.
JV: I can’t because I don’t understand it.
VA: It is taking me out of my primary responsibilities and spending more hours on societies which I’m not responsible for. It was an idea that a specific officer could look into this.
Q. Something to add that – Victor may not fully know what information to add in regards to sports and societies. Could be better to split between Officers who understand the areas more.
JV: It doesn’t have to be separate reports it just needs to mean more and then take to relevant committees if split up.
VA: Trustees only oversee and overall strategy, if we are making money and representing students. There is no way I am going to go and split it for sports and societies, all I can do is send to Officers and they can pick out what they want.
Exec Councillor: On the financial report, we did say we were going to change it and I sent an example of a colourfule.g to Sabbs and they didn’t reply.
VA: Yes. Artemis was only person who emailed and I sent this to CEO and Finance dept and I didn’t get chance to change it for this time.
Q. Can you break down RE Waterside?
VA: Jane B did an update
Q. Are there any big updates on this?
VA: No, just about Engine Shed
Q. there will be implications of changing Schools to Faculties – was there any discussion on this?
VA: This meeting happened before the decision was made.
Q. Will there be a topic on this for discussion next time?
VA: Yes
Accept: 20
Abstain: 1
Trustee report accepted.
- Finance report
Victor asks if anyone has read this? No response.
VA: Something I would like to highlight is the trading income ‘prior year ytd’ it is almost doubled of what we had last year which is really good. We are £32,000 ahead of budget.
Q. when is this report supposed to be sent to you?
VA: It should be a week before Council but I got this this morning as I didn’t receive from Finance Manager.
Q. how much have SU spent on printing for subject futures week?
VA: That will be the lecturers in charge of that.
Q. what happens if we don’t accept the finance report on the basis that it’s late? What are the repercussions
Councillor: You can tell off student and Officer.
Q: When did you email and ask for it?
VA: This morning because not been by desk because of other things happening on campus.
Q. so what happens? Seems like what’s the point of rejecting?
Councillor: We tell off Victor and possible censure him.
Q. What’s the problem if it’s late?
Q. I think the main thing was what’s the point of rejecting?
Councillor: Yeah I don’t see the point,we discuss the content rather than how it’s delivered.
Q. You say it came through today which means Councillors can’t digest and look at information thoroughly. We need the ability to have that time.
Victor –I had to remind the Finance manager to check if she had missed me out of forwarding this on to me. This is the only time this has been late. I have always submitted my reports a week before council.
Q. Explain the variance column.
Exec CouncillorLaura explains what a variance is
Accept: 19
Reject: 0
Abstain: 2
Finance report accepted.
- OFFICER REPORTS:
- Victor presents his Officer report update.
Questions?
Exec Councillor, Ross Lyons – are we going to bring Michael Ellis in to explainhimself?
Victor – some students put themselves forward to do this and do a panel debate but I have not heard from them to take this forward.
Q. A suggestion may be for next time is to email on masse to have a bigger impact. Perhaps the SU has a template and everyone can email it through. E.g. 2000 emails from one person.
VA: I send this to all Officers in the hope they would share it but I don’t think they did.
Q. If we had a letter then we can use Change.org and send it.
Q. yes or could just be the form of an email
Q. they then have to put in email address, change.org is quicker.
Accept or reject.
Accept: 21
Victor’s Officer report is accepted.
- Liren presents her Officer report update.
Q. you said bye-laws were brought forward but they were done by me (JemmaVobe)
We did this together and I was the second proposer.
Accept: 20
Reject: 1
Liren Zhang’s Officer update is accepted.
- Tom Say presents his Officer report update.
Q. Who developed the app and what platforms is it available for?
TS: It’s already developed in the east midlands area. We just needed the data.
Q. In regards to the halls forums, is there still an active way to get in contact regarding halls? We are thinking of doing surveys as a way to engage, could do loyalty points and vouchers. I have asked students how they would like to give feedback and some have suggested surveys, we need to try different means.
TS: Yes we can try that and use different ways to get feedback.
Q. Is there anything being done to assess the impact of changing grants into loans? If it’s big do we create a petition?
TS: That’s something we can look at, now the decision made we can look at the consequences. The next stepping stone could be the NHS bursaries.
Q. With the bursaries, is there something that could be done in regards to supporting these student nurses? E.g. those on strike.
TS: Yeah we could support.
Q. we could advertise it as an event?
TS: Yes can have this conversation at another time.
Accept: majority
Tom Say’s Officer report is accepted.
- Dave Lewis presents his Officer report update.
Questions
Q. are you looking into the incident with the stabbing?
DL: Out of my realm.
Q. but it happened on Insane Tuesday event
DL: Yes, it happened but it could have happened at any time.
Q. Have you contacted anyone to see what the Uni are doing?
DL: I think Victor is.
Q. mention you are looking into Sports socials, are you doing same for Societies?
DL: Sports are in all the time and have set times they are in SU.
Q. Is it worth you looking into societies? E.g. film society.
DL: I am more in charge of bar and entertainments, the room bookings and so on fall under other SU staff.
Vote: majority accept.
Dave Lewis’ Officer report update is accepted.
- Ross Lyons presents his Officer report update.
Q. Is there a big amount of students at moulton?
RL: there are about 533.
Q. can we work together on something (mature student officer)?
RL: Yes.
Majority accept.
Ross Lyons’ report is accepted.
Sports Councillor leaves Council to attend training.
- Nick Beattie presents his Officer report update.
Q. Is there a timeframe for team of the week?
NB: Yes I am trying to do that as soon as possible. I was going to today but Luke was out. I think it’s a good thing, want to know how much money we have.
Q. what is going on with rainbow laces?
NB: I have to apply for money from two budgets. I am waiting for this before we can purchase the laces.
Q. The front rugby pitch is in bad condition. Where can we train? Can we look at somewhere else to go?
NB: Yep sure.
Majority accept.
Nick Beattie’s Officer report update is accepted.
Nick Beattie (Chair) leaves Council to go to work. Andrew Tookey (co-chair) takes over Chairing duties.
- JemmaVobe presents her Officer report update.
Q. I think there needs to be more incentive to integrate between sports and societies.
JV: At the moment we have mentoring opportunities but nobody is coming forward.
Q. I think this could be pushed more because no one really knows about that.
Jemma – yep definitely.
Q. We’d be more than happy to bring this up in AU.
Meeting and update stopped and no vote taken as Council is now not quorum.
Chair asks if there is anything Councillors would like to discuss, which can’t be voted on?
Victor presents discussion point regarding no policy on weapons on campus. We can’t properly punish them without a policy.
Q. Your proposal for a zero policy which means they get kicked out?
VA: No – I suggest we have a formal approach of going to suspension then disciplinary board for a decision.
Q. I was going to suggest there is a support system for those kicked out.