This blog will guide you through the new proposal for the Guild’s democratic decision making process and should be read in conjunction with the graphical representation of the model.  I’d appreciate any comments on the model, I will shortly post a blog with details of consultation meeting times over the next 3 weeks.  If you’d prefer not to comment on the blog then feel free to drop me an email at vpdr@guild.bham.ac.uk.  Remember that this is just a proposal – the consultation we’re conducting has already greatly effected the eventual model that will hopefully be presented to the entire student body at a cross-campus referendum.

The Guild is currently reviewing its decision making structures for the first time in nearly 90 years.  The review is being supported by the Guild’s ongoing market research process and student consultation in early 2010.

Issues with the Current System (From Market Research and informal consultation with students)

• It is difficult for a student to affect real change on their campus.
• Currently, all issues needing to be resolved have to be aired the same way – through a motion to Guild Council, a process students report is inaccessible to the majority of students.
• Guild Council meetings are long and full of procedure which is un-engaging to students.
• Market research tells us that the majority of students want referendums to be a regular part of decision making at the Guild.
• At present, there is no opportunity for students to have an open discussion about issues affecting them in their student life.

The Proposed New Model

Open Forums

It is proposed there will be Open Forums in the new model which any student will be able to attend and raise issues as well as question officers.

• Open Forums will be chaired by the relevant Guild Officer.
• Students can raise problems and suggestions in an informal manner at the most appropriate forum without doing anything before the meeting.
• Any issue raised will be actioned by the relevant officer where possible or referred onto Guild Council if it is too big an issue to be decided on at the forum.
• Any contentious issues can be voted upon in the forum to determine a steer for future action.
• These forums can also be used for two-way communication, getting feedback on activities/officers, making announcements and giving updates.
• The forums can also be used to question Officers about what they are doing/ will be doing.

Some of the proposed issues to be covered under the new open forums include;

Guild Events / entertainments Facilities Governance and democracy Environmental/ ethical issues	Welfare Student loan issues/ funding Housing Community Health Healthy living
Education Post-graduate issues Teaching issues IT issues Course closures Library provision	Sports Forum* Sports ball Intra- league issues Unified ‘sports approach’ Communication
University Facilities Food provision Campus issues Environmental/Ethical Issues	Student Group Mega Forum* Room bookings Society fairs Training and Resources Communication

* These forums exist currently.  They will be made open for all interested students but will also require Sports Team reps and Student Group reps to attend the appropriate meeting.

Steering Group

A student will be able, at any time, to email the new Steering Group (working title).  The Steering Group will determine whether an issue can be dealt with simply by an officer on the student’s behalf or if it needs to go to an Open Forum for discussion along with other relevant issues.  If neither of those solutions is appropriate it may be presented at the Guild Council meeting.  Throughout the process the student will be kept informed of the progress of their issue, either by an officer or the Steering Group.

The proposed membership of the Steering Group is:

• 2 Student Trustees
• The Chair of Guild Council
• Vice President (Democracy and Resources)

Guild Council

Policy can reach Guild Council for decision via two methods;

1)      An issue  raised in an open meeting that affects the student body as a whole, or is a decision of a political nature  would be given a recommendation by the meeting and passed up to Guild Council via the Steering Group.

2)      A student or Officer contacts the Steering Group with an issue to determine the best decision making body for that issue, and may submit it to Guild Council.

• The meeting will be chaired by an independent chair and vice chair both elected via cross campus ballot (at the same time as Officer elections).
• There will be approximately 50 Guild Councillors elected from broad constituencies.
• Guild Council will be an open meeting where any Guild member may attend and speak.
• Guild Council can hold officers to account and make decisions on Guild Policy via voting on motions that are submitted.
• Some decisions may be deemed too big to be voted on at Guild Council and instead be sent to Referendum.

Current Sub-Committees of Guild Council

Some of the current sub-committees of Guild Council will still exist.  These are:

• Res Exec
• Equality and Diversity Committee
• Elections Committee
• Student Group Committee

• These committees will become sub-committees of the Sabbatical Officer Group and can implement non-political issues or send political issues on to the Guild Council.
• As is currently done, the student places on these committees will be elected at Guild Council.  Members will not be required to be a Guild Councillor.
• All other committees will be disbanded and issues in these areas dealt with in open meetings.

Referendum

• There will be no more than two referenda held each academic year.
• Through our research and consultation students have repeatedly said that they would prefer to have a chance to vote on large-scale policy decisions via a cross-campus referendum.
• Guild Council will have the ultimate decision in which policies get voted on at referendum.  Ideally there would be no more than 5 issues put before the student body.

The Guild’s annual survey launched last Friday!  It takes 5 minutes to fill in, take part and have your view on the Guild heard and you could be in with a chance to win £500 or a runner-up prize of £100!!

At the last Guild Council the officer team were questioned on the lack of Christmas decorations around the building. I can however, officially report that this executive has delivered 75% more snow than any previous executive – making us the most festive executive team the Guild has ever seen.

2010 Officer Elections take place in March (15^th – 19^th) with nominations open between 3rd February and 22^nd February.  Standing for an Officer position can be a massive decision and I want to make it as easy as possible.  If you’re interested in running for Vice-President Democracy and Resources drop me an email and we can arrange to have a chat, either about the campaign or the job as a whole.

I certainly stuggled over the decision to run but I haven’t looked back since, the campaign was amazing and the job has been an absolute joy and privilege.  GO FOR IT!!

The RA election results will be announced tomorrow evening but I wanted to let people know about the turnout that we’ve had.  This year 2218 ballots were cast in elections for Resident’s Associations, meaning that approximately 48% of all students eligible to vote in RA elections did so.  This is a tremendous result and all those involved should be incredibly proud of their achievement which translates into around 500 extra votes cast this year over last.

In particular I want to congratulate all the candidates and their campaign teams, the current RAs at being such good election sports and the Vice-President Housing and Community at being generally brilliant.

I especially want to thank all those who voted, inparticular the individuals who waited in the rain at Mason Hall to cast their votes!

So I messed up on this question and gave the most unclear “answer” anyone could ever give.

 

Basically, the competition which was run last year to name the new bar culminated in a short-listing process that chose 6 possible bar names.  The name was due to be voted on online but that hasn’t happened yet because there have been more pressing concerns about the building redevelopment but now that’s all on track again the bar name will be chosen in the same way it was supposed to have been done originally.

 

Sorry if this has upset anyone…I dropped the ball, but I will pick it up again and run forward with it!

My communication on DSR to 29th October Guild Council.

Some of you will remember that my predecessor, Hannah, tasked me with completing the Guild Council review she was working on last year.  Having spoken with her over the summer and with colleagues as well as many of you it’s become clear that we need a review that looks much deeper at our democratic structures.  So the DSR is looking at liberation associations, the officer group, guild council and the ways in which any committees of council feed into our decision making bodies.  What we need out of all of this are democratic structures that allow students to get involved easily, participate, put forward ideas and see tangible results from their suggestions.

I hope you will agree that we are in desperate need of structures that are flexible, allowing students to float in and out of activity, enabling them to get involved as and when it pleases them.  Some of you will find this meeting hard to follow, as I do quite often.  It’s not our fault though; we are working within a turgid and archaic structure – completely ineffective at dealing with the relevant student needs.  It is time for a change Guild Council.

Since we will be changing the officer group we’re looking to complete this process by January, giving us time to advertise the positions to people who may be interested in running for a position.  That means that the consultation process will kick off within the next two weeks, emails and messages will be going out for you to participate in various focus groups and discussions.  The Officer Team would like the proposals to go to a referendum so that we can have real student consultation.  As the review is looking at so much more than Guild Council I think the most appropriate way to make a decision is a cross-campus referendum.

Other than that I can’t really show you or discuss any specifics of the models at the moment because I don’t want to pre-empt in anyway the consultation process.

I stood up last night to give a communication on the Democratic Structures Review.  I was taken aback when I saw people sitting on the steps of the aisles because there weren’t enough seats for everyone who had arrived.  I’ve never seen that before.  We had nearly 200 people in that room; all engaged in the highest democratic structure of our organisation.  Unfortunately we couldn’t offer our usual hi-tech electronic voting because we had run out of voting pads.  So we had to revert to the old fashioned voting cards.  Yes, only 63 academic Guild Councillors were elected out of a possible 160 (last year there were 70) but I don’t think that detracts from the extraordinary turnout which we received.  In some sense we were a victim of our own success.  We have done well at publicising the meeting, creating a simpler agenda and running a useful induction event into Guild Council.  Turnout is not everything of course, and it was disappointing to see many people leave during the progress of the meeting.  That does prove to me that Guild Council and our democratic structures are in urgent need of reform.  I am determined, more than ever, to deliver a structure which is responsive, flexible and considerate of real student needs and wants.  We have to move away from the turgid procedural motions and the pointless cross-referencing of procedure.  Rules and procedures may be important but it has become really silly.  I’ve not met anyone (please prove me wrong) who is defending the current procedures as they stand and who doesn’t see them as a massive barrier to involvement and accessibility that we genuinely must break down.

I’d love to hear peoples comments on last night’s meeting and on the Democratic Structures Review.  Please email me at vpdr@guild.bham.ac.uk or leave a comment (anonymous if you wish) on this blog!

Hi all,

A few weeks ago I told you that the University Challenge audition would be taking place on the 4th November.  This is NOT correct!  I was wrong, I apologise!

It will now be on the 11th November from 5.45pm – 7pm in the Guild Council Chambers.

I’ve set up a facebook event for it here!

university challenge poster2009

At no point was the sabbatical officer team consulted on whether or not a motion was deemed to be an emergency.  For information an emergency motion is;

“No motion is an emergency motion if the present work of the Guild would not be severely impaired by the failure of the forthcoming Meeting of Guild Council to discuss the issue.”

It is not the job of sabbatical officers to deem motions as an emergency.  We do not see motions until the meeting of the entire Guild Officer Group.  Motions are solely dealt with by Independent Chairs.  At no point did those chairs come to the group for a decision – because they know it is not the groups decision to make.  There may have been broad informal discussions with members of the team but no formal decision was made because it is not one of our powers.

I have no opinion on this motion, because I’ve never seen it.  Yet I am a proud trade union (Unite) member and have been since I was 16.  I come from a long line of trade unionists within my family, and I take any accusation that I have acted against a trade union as a personal attack.  I would never be able to impede the work of my fellow unionists, but if the independent chairs have decided that a motion debating a particular strike action is an emergency or not then that’s not my problem.  The ‘blame’ does not lie within the sabbatical officer team.