What is this Working Party Doing?

Last year the Executive Committee took on the major task of re-writing the constitution to make it shorter and easier to read. A lot of detail was taken out so that the Union was able to respond to the needs and desires of students without the students having to learn a lot of procedural details in order to be heard.

That constitution was agreed by the last Annual General Meeting.

A lot of the things which were taken out of the Constitution are still important, just not neccessarily as part of that document, which is the governing document of the Union. The Union is now going through a process of reviewing all of those elements which were not included in the revised constitution.

In order to do this the Union has set up a working party consisting of sabbatical officers and some staff. The group will come up with a range of operational recommendations and operational policies, which will go to the Executive Committee for their consideration.

Friday 13 June 2008

Committees

The following was agreed:

That the standing committees, which would meet as frequently as neccessary, should be:

Executive Committee
Trustee Board
Strategy Committee - consisting of sabbatical officers and senior managers
Finance Committee
Societies Exec
Halls Exec
Reps Council

In addition to these committees there will be a number of students forums which should convene no less than once each semester.

Reps forums in each school
LGBT forums
Post graduate students' foums
International Students' forums
Disabled students' forums
Ethnic Minority students' forums

Monday 19 May 2008

Trustees

The following was agreed:

Allumni should not be excluded from recruitment as trustees, but we should not make specific efforts to recruit allumni. We should not recruit individuals who have been a student at Brookes within the last 5 years.

Staff of the University should not be recruited.

We should not recruit a Governor.

Staff of other Universities should not be recruited.

Trustees should be recruited by a mixture of personal contact and open recruitment.

We should look to recruit governors with specific expertise in the areas of Representation, Business Management, Finance and Marketing, though these should not be the determining factors as to whether an individual is recruited.

Thursday 15 May 2008

Policies

Background:

In the previous constitution there were detailed policies on Equal Opportunies and on Openness and Confidentiality and Social Club rules. In the review of the Constitution it was decided that it was more appropriate that these should be independant policies, rather than integrated within the Constitution.

Agreed:

It was agreed that these policies would be submitted to either the first members meeting of the year or the first Union Council of the year.

Officer Roles

It was agreed to recommend the following:

That the role of Vice President: Commercial Development and Communications should re-focus on communications with the student body.

That the aspects of the role which are to do with dealing with external media should be realocated to the President's role, reflecting current practice.

That the post should be re-titled Vice President: Communications and Development.

That the role should still include the political lead on issues relating to commercial activities.

Wednesday 7 May 2008

Representation

The following was agreed

That Union representatives on committees should be elected at the first meeting of the Union Council.

That candidates should be allowed to nominate themselves.

Their nominations should be sent to the Union administration by the deadline set for the receipt of motions.

They must each submit a paragraph of no more than 150 words supporting their nomination, which will be circulated with the papers for the meeting.

That each member of Union Council will have one vote for each vacancy. (i.e. if there are six places then each member may vote six times).

That decision will be made by simple majority on the first past the post principle.

Subsequent vacancies should be filled by the same method.

All representatives on committees should attend a briefing in advance of the meeting.

Officer Job Roles

It was originally agreed that the roles should substantially remain as they are, with some changes to the detail of the wording, and presentation of the job descptions.

It was subsequently agreed to re-visit this decision.

The options under consideration are:

  • To retain the roles of President, VP Welfare and VP Academic and have 2 VP's without portfolio.
  • To introduce a VP with a Union Development role.
  • To retain the roles of President, VP Welfare and VP Academic and have a VP with responsibility for Wheatley campus and a VP with responsibility for Harcourt campus.

Wednesday 30 April 2008

Election Regulations

VOTING SYSTEM

The group could not agree on a voting system, with some of the group favouring Single Transferable Vote and some prefering the First Past the Post system.

The following was agreed:

The timetable for elections for Executive Committee, Union Council and Halls committees would be determined by the Executive Committee before the end of June each year.

For elections to the Executive Committee:

The elections will be held in Semester 2

Each year a Candidates Handbook will be produced, in advance of the start of the nomination process.

Each candidate will be required to submit a manifesto of no more than 300 words.

Each candidate will be given the opportunity of filming a video manifesto, which will be a single take with no editing, effects or additional comentary.

Any complaint by or about a candidate must be resolved by the Election Supervisor before counting votes begins.

Votes will normally be counted the day after polling closes.

Each candidate will have the right to nominate one observer to the count.

Following the count, any complaints about the count must be submitted within 5 days of the count.