24.04.2017

CR Exec Meeting 1 TT’17

Minutes

Present: Sophie Hall (President), Abdossalam Madkhali (Treasurer), Sapna Sinha (Social Secretary), Dan Wilson (Social Secretary), Derek Xu (Social Secretary), Frances Noland (Publicity Officer), Emma Ainsley (Charities Officer), Jae-Young Lee (Sports Officer), Nyree Manoukian (Linacre Lines Editor), Konstantin Sietzy (Secretary)

  1. CR elections and CR meeting (May 3rd)
  2. President: College admin (Senior Tutor and Welfare and Equalities Officer) seriously unhappy with having a former student serve in a CR exec position. Therefore, we would need to elect two new Welfare Officers in the ongoing election cycle rather than just one to fill the newly created second Welfare Officer role. SH had spoken with the current Welfare Officer who had expressed he was willing to step down, but SH expressed that the process had felt rushed. The exec agreed that whether or not a student served in a CR exec position was solely for the CR and not the college administration to determine. Multiple options were discussed, including the current Welfare Officer stepping down; the current Welfare Officer staying on; the current Welfare Officer staying on for only TT’17; and the current Welfare Officer running for re-election in the current election cycle. The exec was not clear whether the current Welfare Officer would in fact be available for his role from MT’17; agreed to clarify this. Consensus that the exec will speak to the current Welfare Officer again, determine whether he would prefer to continue in his role, and back him in his decision.
  3. On the non-executive position of the Women’s Officer, exec decided that the Publicity Officer as Returning Officer would ask for interested persons to apply by Sunday, April 30th. The Exec will discuss and select the most appropriate candidate by Wednesday, May 3rd, and announce her at that day’s CR meeting.
  4. The exec discussed names of qualified candidates they would encourage to run.
  5. Charities Levy
  6. The Charities Officer announced that after lengthy negotiations with college admin, the Bursar had now agreed that the opt-out charities levy as previously discussed would be in place from MT’17, to be charged to battels October-June inclusive.
  7. The Charities Officer announced there would be an outdoor open mic night on May 20th. The exec discussed names of potential performers they could encourage to run. Dan agreed to sing A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton.
  1. CR constitution / by-laws
  2. President: The Principal suggested to integrate the CR constitution and by-laws into the college’s regulatory and statutory framework. The Principal had made the case that this would streamline college statutes, but it was not clear what benefits would come of the change beyond that. It was pointed out that synergy or streamlining are not ends in and of themselves. The exec decided that the affirmative case why this would be beneficial was currently unclear, not only in terms of benefit for the CR itself, but also for the college at large. Conversely, members of the exec offered doubt about whether such a change might not harm the CR’s ability to function autonomously. Concerns raised included whether the CR would retain full powers to change its own constitution and how this would work in practice (the Principal’s suggestion that this was already questionable as the Governing Body must approve all changes to the CR constitution was dismissed due to the obvious difference between agenda-setting power and mere veto rights). Further, concerns were raised about it being unclear what function the CR constitution would fulfil and how it would be appropriately named. The exec discussed turning the initiative over to college admin, but the suggestion was dismissed in favour the consensus position of blocking the suggestion unless college admin could make a convincing case how this would be in the interest of both the college and the CR.
  3. President: a number of items in the by-laws appear out of date or duplicates – would any members of the exec agree to sit down, go through the full CR constitution, and see if it could be made leaner (with no changes to function)? It was agreed that any interested members contact the President, who would set up a meeting.
  4. Current elections update
  5. Publicity Officer/ Returning Officer: nominations are open and will close on Tuesday, May 2nd. Hustings will be held at the CR meeting on Wednesday, May 3rd. Elections will open on Sunday, May 7th, and close on Wednesday, May 10th. Results will be published to the CR on Thursday, May 11th.
  6. General account utilisation
  7. [See Appendix] The Treasurer led the exec through the current structure of the CR’s finances, and explained his pre-circulated proposal to move any surplus over £10,000 from both the social and sports general accounts to two separate endowment funds, that are not related to the existing CR endowment fund used currently for variety of non-budgetary purposes. Such a proposal would lead to the CR surplus accumulating interest (an average 4% as opposed to the current 0% and inflation-based depreciation in the general accounts) which could be fed back into the CR’s operating budget. There was no visible downside to the proposal. The exec unanimously agreed to proceed with this, and the Treasurer agreed he would implement the change together with the bursar.
  8. The exec further discussed what implications this change could have for the CR’s authority over spending its accumulated surplus. It was pointed out that feeding an average 4% returns of an accumulating surplus into current budgets still means that 96% of the value of the money is lost in the short term if it can de facto not be accessed or spent on larger CR purchases.
  1. Further officer updates
  2. Sports Officer: a range of new sports equipment will come to the gym in the future. She asked for further purchase suggestions from members of the exec and the CR at large.
  3. The Social Secretaries updated the exec on the events scheduled for TT. They pointed out that they would need exec helpers for their bop on May 13th.
  4. OUSU rep / Punt Admiral (in absentia): OUSU Council meeting on Thursday, April 27th, to discuss supporting the ‘Shut Down Yarl’s Wood’ campaign. Punts will be in the water soon, after which Marie at reception will begin printing punt cards. Linacre punts will be publicised through Facebook and posters.
  5. Green soc representative (in absentia): Green soc is trying to implement the carbon labelling system in the dining hall, and needs to reapply for fair trade status.

Appendix: General Account utilisation proposal