Posted on Mon 18 Jun 2012 at 13:28 by
Christopher Luck
You might have seen some fuss over the last few days about a General Meeting that’s been called for the last day of term. This is regarding the proposed changes to the Union’s Articles of Association in light of this year's Democracy Review – if you’d like to find out more about what’s being proposed, check out my last blog post here.
With the need to get all the legal stuff up in time, there might be some confusion about a few things - hopefully these Q&As will help!
Why a General Meeting?
General Meetings are our highest decision-making body. If we want to change the most important things (like our Memorandum & Articles of Association), they have to go to a General Meeting, and they have to be passed by 75% of those in attendance. In short, this is the only way of making this sort of change happen.
Why now?
Well, the last day of term isn’t ideal but, as I say here, (blog last week) we think this is the right thing to do – both in response to your feedback and to help create a better democratic system before the introduction of £9k fees next year.
What’s a proxy vote?
We legally have to offer proxy votes at General Meetings. Essentially, a proxy vote is your way of registering a vote if you can’t (or don’t want to) attend a meeting. This time, we’re offering proxy vote registration online. All you have to do to have your say is:
- declare who you are giving your vote to (this can simply be the Chair of the meeting) or a friend who is attending;
- declare how you want them to vote;
- submit your vote.
Why is it important?
We require a minimum of 1% of our membership to vote in order for the meeting to be declared quorate. Essentially, if you’ve expressed views on the Union’s democratic processes this year, this is your chance to directly influence where we go in the future!
For more information on the proposed changes, see here.
To register for a proxy vote, go here.
It’s your Union – whether you’re for or against the proposals, make sure you cast your vote and have your say on the future of Union democracy!