Council and AGM Agenda – Thursday 24th January 2017
AGM
START WITH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING TO RECAP ON FINANCIAL YEAR
- Ratification of minutes of previous AGM - Liam - 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
Q – Is anything going to be done about 6 non student trusteed and 5 student trustees?
LIAM – providing the 6th student trustee. May not be discovered for another year and wont hold an election, because of time.
23rd march – trustee election.
AOB – Stephanie said we will have the non student trustees in it and it is being arranged.
LIAM – meet and greet session of the trustees before the meeting.
MAIN COUNCIL BEGINS
- Declaration of conflict of interest - none
- Approval of the minutes from the last meeting - passed
- Matters arising from the minutes not elsewhere on the agenda- none
- Apologies received
- Danjie Zhong
5. Motions
A. Discussion Points
- The Teaching Excellence Framework
- Steph Nixon to present
Passed metrics around to look at.
All students have a right to know about our education in the future
EXECUTIVE: not sustainable enough as a union. Should be encouraging students to fill it in.
Q – NSS will make students pay more so surely it’s in a student’s best point to say things?
Liam – NSS isn’t the only framework. It’s more beneficial if students are honest about their opinions. Every university in the UK are in it but some have opted out.
The student’s union is a political entity. We have to look at the best interests of students. The issue is when you use things to charge more. Who is going to afford thee
Do we have to be in both the NSS and TEF at the same time?
DAVID – we either get on board and do the NSS and get the best possible things out of the university. Universities can charge whatever they want and it is a safe metric.
Rebecca – raising tuition fees – the issues seem more against.
Hannah – tuition fees. Money can value and it’s not in the best interest of students.
We’re speaking their language and agreeing with them. We have to represent the best interest of students and that is free education. We have to consider WHAT is in the best interests. Potentially asking students if they want to fill in the nss.
Q. will it affect student finance? Will the student have to worry about the extra £250? Some students may not be able to afford it.
LIAM – agrees with arte. Education is the dream
The way student loans are paid back is like tax. That money would be added on to what we have to pay back.
Education – must stop any increase in the future.
ARTE – the loan system, 50% won’t be paid back. Poor way to run economy. Where is the line with the university having no money? We are paying 9k a year and want to increase it. What point do the unions, do they say, enough is enough? We have to stand up and say its not right anymore. We have to stand up against the nss.
LIAM – a lot of unions depend on the nss for the 3rd year students. There needs to be a more unified message.
ARTE – we don’t know what the student body wants. We are a different body not and we should be standing against the governments.
Q. if the student body Is against the tef, is it acceptable?
LIAM – students, yes. However, cant make a prediction on what can happen.
NB. ANY OBSERVERS AT COUNCIL ARE NOT PERMITTED TO SPEAK UNLESS INVITED.
B. Policy Proposals
i. Ethical and environmental policy
a. Artemis to present. Liam is secondee.
Q. who would be in charge of enforcing them? Would there be a student rep in charge?
Arte – the elected.
Q. is it not every unions job because everybody is employed in the union, shouldn’t it be them and not just one person?
A – yes
Liam – is there anything in the policy that needs a report to be written up?
A – a collected effort. Events would need an environmental assessment to be completed.
Q. should we not be producing our own document as an SU? How do we know the university has been in and checked our stuff?
A. all the policies get reviewed. We are involved called something called green impact.
John – should be In this bye law before its passed.
Arti suggests to amend things.
Gemma – In point 9, ethical issues will be considered. There would be documentation of what we are doing ethicly.
Voted.
19 pass
4 abstain
- RAG Policy
- David Lewis to present. Steph Nixon secondee.
There is no way of accessing this. It can be used if a fundraising event doesn’t go that well.
Q. Is there any way that it is brought to student council instead rather than one individual?
David – if you don’t agree, you can go against it.
GEMMA – a lot of pressure for one person to make a decision.
Q – this university doesn’t do a rag week. Why don’t we do a specific period?
DAVID – 2013/14, went well.
Q. might be better to use for people to fall on.
GEMMA – it can be rejected by one person.
DAVID – there is an appeal section.
Q – we have to do this because we are charity. Do students have to get their own insurance?
DAVID. No, use ours.
DAVID – to be applicable for the funding, you have to prove you will use it.
GEMMA – suggests a group to make a decision. Don’t like the idea of it being rejected by one person.
Q. It says the societies need to raise money for charities, would that mean if they didn’t do it in a year, would there be an issue if they didn’t? would they get in trouble? Do the societies choose the charity?
DAVID – they can choose who they like.
Votes – 5 abstain
Exec council vote? – 21 for yes, 2 for no, and 2 for abstain.
help students push the boundaries on student groups.
Votes – 23 yes, 2 abstain, 0 for no.
C. Bye-Law Amendments
i. Green Impact Bye- Law Amendment
a. Artemis to present. David Lewis secondee.
The students union staff, fill out the green impact workbook. A staff member add up the hours, it counts to one staff member doing a months work on this. In October, we here the plan of what can happen in year, dec see how we are and feb do the final report.
Q. what happens to the data at the minute.
ARTE – it is collected.
Q. why before rather than after?
ARTE – don’t expect to do it for ages.
Votes – 23 yes, 0 for no, 2 abstain.
- Observers Bye-Law Amendment
- Artemis to present. Danjie secondee.
End of last council, david brought up a question from a live stream. People can ask 3 questons and debate.
q. if everyone here had a question, youre saying only 3 questions can be asked out of a lot of people?
Arti – bring it as a discussion point next time.
q. how would we decide the questions? the chair.
Votes – 24 yes, 0 no, 1, abstain.
- Officer Roles Bye-law Amendment
- Artemis to present. Tyler secondee.
It says that there are appendices which have job descriptions which aren’t actually in the bye law so that’s why they are in the appendices.
David – presidents job role for development. More focused on welfare than development? Looks like things have been put in the wrong place.
Arti – not edited. Just taken them. We will have to edit them.
Arti – if there was an issue, bring amendments for the job roles to be changed. Will withdraw and bring it next time.
John (procedural motion refer to exec) – exec can vote for us rather than the whole council.
Votes – 20 yes, 2 no, 3 abstain.
Defer the policy.
- Officer Reports Procedural Motion Bye Law
- Artemis to present. Jemmasecondee.
The big board doesn’t say we can mandate officers and It should be brought forward.
L. its what we have at the moment anyway.
g. can we edit it to an officer which is present. How would they report on next council if they don’t know about it?
d. can still mandate someone if they’re not here.
l. if they aren’t here they can’t argue against the mandate because there is no time. they need a chance.
J. the only way you can mandate is here.
G. if you mandate someone in the previous way, it has to be within 7 days in advance. It’s unfair if we mandate him and doesn’t have anyone to speak on his behalf.
Votes – 20 yes, 3 abstain.
- Officer Mandate’s procedural motion bye-law amendment
- Artemis to present. Dean Davies secondee.
Can mandate an officer to do what council would like them to do.
Votes – 19 yes, 0 no, 3 abstain
Adjourned all the reports until todays council so people cannot do that now.
Votes – 22 yes, 1 no, 1 abstain.
- Elections Bye-law amendment
- David Lewis to present. Danjie secondee.
20 yes, 2 no, 2 abstain.
L. More flexibility. Add something for areas of interest which gives an idea of the officers intention would be.
Q. what if I want to do 1000 copies, what would stop me?
itcant be done and its not relevant. People wouldn’t do that.
JOHN. did a lot of printing and we were given a printer, however this amendment would change everything because you would have to tell them how much you want.
have to add on the areas of interests (3).
Votes –16 yes, 2 no, 6 abstain.
Have 3-5 points put in.
Votes – 15 yes, 3 no, 5 abstain.
- Education Committee Bye-law amendment
- Joe Atkins to present. David secondee.
- 21 yes, 3 abstain.
Faculty forums.
JOHN. should it be before the academic year?
JEMMA.we only have one meeting before the academic year. Only 6 meetings of power, is there any point in making that change just for one meeting when most courses have finished?
Joe – the amendment gives students more accountability.
Votes –21 yes, 0 no, 3 abstain.
- MSA Bye-law amendment
- JemmaVobe to present. Stephsecondee.
Changes made – 5 committee members, someone in charge of collabs, make sure the officer does not have a role in the msa, separate person looking at events but not collab events. Mature students want an MSA therefore it is appropriate.
Q. if we open doors to associations, it could divide student voice. Would much prefer committee to associations.
JOHN. used to be against the MSA, but there are people more willing to be involved than the SU. There are lot of lecturers who find it hard to come to the SU so it would be good to have the msa. We can hold elections for positions which are already available.
Q. why are we opposing something which students really want when we are supposing to represent the student body?
JOHN. We didn’t have the evidence, but we do now.
ARTE.a united student voice is what makes a union.
Q. how many mature students came forward for the msa? 60%.
We offer barely anything for mature students which isn’t fair.
Mature students are desperate for social events.
If we get the msa, at least we can give mature students a chance to go to something other than the SU.
Q. how can we not access the pot? Because the msa doesn’t exist.
Q. regarding 50 people wanting the msa, it would be difficult to send a survey to every single student. Mature students do more than just study.
Q. if it passed, how would you find the people? The same as societies
Q. what would happen if the places weren’t filled? There are 2 members of the exec team who would be supporting it.
MSA doesn’t exist and mature students would like it to exist.
Votes – 18 yes, 4 no, 2 abstain. MSA is put through.
D. Officer Mandates
I. Officer mandate officer Blogs
A. Artemis to present. John Lewthwaitesecondee.
Asking sabs to write 100 word blogs after every meeting that they represent students on because students don’t know what the sabs do and people can look back over it.
23 yes, 0 no, 1 abstain.
Sensitive and confidential information will not be including in the blog.
Q. Sometimes there may be meeting after meeting, would it be better to have a daily reflection rather than having loads of blogs which are unlikely to be read for every single meeting?
Q. Would it not be better to have a weekly blog?
Q. Do the 3 of them actually have the time to do this? We don’t know their schedules. Have you worked with them to see the if it works?
100 words is not a lot and we have already been doing it therefore we know it already works.
Q. would it be better to publish once a week rather than 2 days?
Do it at the end of the working week instead of 2 days. (amendment)
25 yes, 0 no, 0 abstain.
- Trustee report
24 yes, 1 no, 0 abstain
- Finance report
19 yes, 2 no, 3 abstain
- Officer reports
- President
Last report – 23 yes, 1 no, 0 abstain.
- Vice President, Union Development
Student safety, q&a’s, training in Nottingham.
Q. hosting q&a..does it belong there? How will that take diversification in events? Do we need the q&a?
Q. 4 more validations for courses. We are moving to waterside and the only response is ‘the university will sort it’ which isn’t good. Not getting a great responds.
Q. do we not need to force the university to tell students what they are getting after they have signed the contracts?
LIAM. We can try.
Q. what can you give us to tell the students about waterside? If you cant, who would you suggest we speak to?
LIAM – bringing university management to council would be the best thing.
Q. how do we go about getting unanswered questions?
21 yes, 2 no, 1 abstain
previous report –22 yes, 0 no, 1 abstain
current report – 19 yes, 3 no, 2 abstain
Would be nice to see what you have done rather than just saying it. This is something to put forward to the future reports.
JOHN - Show more about the societies.
- Vice President, Education (absent, invite other Sabbatical Officer to present on behalf)
Prevous
11 yes, 9 no, 4 abstain.
Current
Q. 372 course reps, but only between 100-200 are trained. How is that a success?
JEMMA – not a lot has been changed, but it looks like it’s been copied and pasted from last time. Only little things have been improved.
9 yes, 6 no, 8 abstain.
- Sports Officer (no report submitted)
E. Women’s Officer
Previous report –17 yes, 1 no, 6 abstain
Current report –
Two conferences – mature students conference and women’s conference.
Get the msa working first because mature students do not want to mix with young students.
Q. have you tried to get any academics involved? It’s a good way. They would get their students involved. Going around places and asking students what they would want to see at a conference.
Conferences have not been working so they are making an event to bring people together. It is not a conference, its an event.
15 yes, 2 no, 10 abstain.
- International Students’ Officer
9 yes, 8, no, 7 abstain
- Mature Students Officer
Previous report
19 yes, 2 no, 3 abstain
Current report
JOHN: Go through the Facebook page because majority of the students on the page are no longer students and this is causing to lose votes.
Q. what societies would they get involved with?
JEMMA – sent out a survey.
18 yes, 2 no, 4 abstain.
- BME Officer (no report submitted)
- Entertainments Officer
Previous report- 21 yes
Current report
want to see progress in part A because it has been the same for the past 3 reports.
Q. someone had to go to hospital because of dappy night at the SU, will there be any health and safety issues regarding this?
20 yes, 2 no, 2 abstain
- LGBT Officer
Prev report – 16 yes, 2 no, 4 abstain
Current report
Want to talk to council about changing toilets because of disabled toilets and transgenders.
ARTE: Waterside are actually offering a gender neutral toilet.
JOHN: if a disabled person can’t get into a disabled toilet because of queues then something is wrong.
19 yes, 2 no, 2 abstain.
- Moulton College Officer
Previous report – 22 yes, 0 no, 1 abstain
Current report –21 yes, 2 abstain, 0 no
9. Committee meetings (ratify minutes)
a. Education Committee
Q. students want more contact time. Is danjay pushing for it?
JEMMA.Hiring bame expert.
18 yes, 4 no, 0 abstain
- AU Committee
16 yes, 4 no, 3 abstain
- Societies Committee
20 yes, 1 no, 1 abstain
- Volunteer and Social Enterprise Committee
10. Any other Business
- Upcoming Council dates
Proposed are:
- 23rd February 2017, Avenue SU 6pm
approved
- 23rd March 2017, Park SU 6pm
approved
- 27 April 2017, Park SU 6pm
approved
- Vote of no confidence in BME Officer (Liam to present)
No contact and no report.
23 yes, 1 abstain
- SPORTS OFFICER – Hannah not shown up to anything and all the reports have been the same and she hasn’t been doing her job at all.
Q. has someone checked she is ok and has no personal issues?
Q. can we talk to Hannah about it?
Vota (idea)
- VOTING
JEMMA – no point in doing a vote if people don’t vote for anything.
We should be able to see who is voting to abstain just because some people vote just to be here and press the button and nothing else.
- John Leaving roles
JOHN. Not happy about his personal problems being discussed.
1 Yes, 14 no, 8 abstain
COUNCIL COMPLETE. PLEASE HELP PACK AWAY CHAIRS AND TABLES.