General Meeting

What?

A General Meeting has been called to implement proposed changes to the governing structure of your Students' Union. These changes are designed to improve how the Students' Union functions, and take the form of a Special Resolution.

The proposed changes include:

1. Trustees become Company Law Members
   

   This means that the Trustees are able to take certain decisions more easily. It also means that students no longer would have to pay £1 if the Union was declared bankrupt.

   This change also includes a requirement for the Trustees to hold an Annual Student Meeting each academic year to inform students of the work they have done as well as to approve accounts and other items, detailed in the Articles.

2. Referendums will need 5% of students to vote to pass them, but referendum decisions cannot be overturned by other meetings
   

   Referendum decisions become the highest level of policy forum. Currently only 2% of students have to vote to pass referendum motions but decisions taken in a referendum can be overturned by other meetings. If students want to call a referendum, they still only have to get 2% of students to approve such a request.

   For the 2018/19 academic year, 2% of all students is 338 and 5% is 845.

3. The exact make-up of the Board and the committees of the Board have been moved to Bye-Laws
   

   This means that Student Council and the Trustees can make changes to these numbers and committees if they are required, rather than having them fixed in the Articles.

4. Clarification over the way that Trustees, including Sabbatical Officers can be removed from office
   

   This now means that Sabbatical Officers can only be removed by a referendum of students as it is the students that elect them. Other Trustees can now be removed directly by Student Council.

5. Creation of a ‘Convenor’ to Chair meetings of the Board and support the Union Affairs Officer in providing support and management to the Chief Executive
   

   This means that the Union Affairs Officer will be the Chair of the Company but a Lay Trustee (non-student trustee) will be appointed to Chair the Board meetings and work with the Union Affairs Officer to ensure that the Chief Executive is supported and effectively managed.

   Note the change from the current ‘External Trustee’ to ‘Lay Trustee’ which is just a name change.

6. Other small changes to correct inconsistencies and errors
   

   Overall the Articles are now a shorter, clearer document and enable Bye-Laws to be used to provide much clearer descriptions of the day-to-day governance of the Union in areas such as Committees, Elections, Student Council, and such forth.

You must be a member of the Students' Union to vote at the meeting.

When and where?

• When: Friday, 17 May 2019, noon
• Where: MC001, City Campus

Agenda

For this General Meeting there is only one agenda item:

• Special Resolution
  To adopt the Articles of Association which were circulated with the Notice of General Meeting.

Documents

Proposed Memorandum and Articles of Association, 1 May 2019

Current Memorandum and Articles of Association, 7 June 2010

Summary of Proposed Changes

This page, and email communication sent to all members on 2 May 2019, constitute the Notice of General Meeting.

Proxy voting

If you aren’t able to attend the General Meeting and cast your vote in person, you can have someone you trust cast your vote for you. This is a proxy vote.

You can use this form to apply to vote by proxy for this General Meeting.

You and your proxy must be members of the Students' Union on the date of the meeting to be eligible to vote.

Proxy forms must be submitted at least 48 hours prior to the meeting. The deadline to submit proxy forms is 15 May 2019 at noon.