Welcome to Union Council The Democracy Team

Democracy: the theory The Union is run by the members for the members

Theory into Practice We have a structure to make democracy work and for our members to be decision makers

We have A Radical New Structure Last year Council approved a big overhaul of how students get to run the Union Goal was to make it as easy as possible for members to get involved in running their Union So we have created representation in as many places as we can where students are already taking part in Union activities

The New Structure

We have Direct Democracy: Referendums

We have Referendums aren’t often called Been some time since we had one at UEA: cumbersome and difficult to get people engaged Usually only work if something very radical is proposed: say the University wanted to reduce library opening hours to 9 to 5 or the Union wanted to ban alcohol at LCR nights

We have Representative Democracy This is the model the Union operates by: We have Union Council which has representatives from all parts of the Union and sets the Union’s policies We have annual general elections when the Union’s members directly elect Student Officers whose job is then to implement policy and to represent the members to the University and to the local community. This year, the Officers will be helped by elected reps on new sub-committees that deal with key aspects of student life

We have The Student Officers They meet as the Student Officer Committee and here they are:

We have Representative Democracy Democracy by its nature has to be: FREE and FAIR

We have Representative Democracy To make sure what we do is always free, fair and inclusive we have:

The Union’s Rule Book Is in two parts We have a core constitution that sets out our aims and objectives and basic rules; this is called the Articles of Association We have a set of detailed rules for all Union activities; they are called the Bye-Laws and they include rules for how Council meetings are run

Walking a tightrope We’re a charity and a business and we have to follow charity and business law We are a democracy which has to be as open and easily accessible as possible We have to balance these two demands If we overbalance one way we become too bureaucratic and rule driven; overbalance the other way and decisions don’t get recorded and we can’t demonstrate they have been made free and fairly We all work together to strike the balance

Change the rules The rules are not set in stone, if you think they don’t work, you and your fellow Councillors can change them!!!

How Council Meetings work The design is laid out in Bye-Law 2. It’s just under five pages long and takes about an hour to familiarise. Keep it as your guide book – it will help you to be an effective Councillor

The Agenda Each meeting has an agenda with an order of business You get this by email the Friday before each meeting

The Chair Like a Speaker in the House of Commons The Chair runs the meeting. Chair and Deputy elected by Council at the start of the year Chair decides how the meeting is run All questions and speeches are addressed through the Chair This ensures that everyone does not speak at once or those with the loudest voices do not dominate the debate

Agenda item 1: Scrutiny A part of Council’s job is to scrutinise the way the Union operates – so it: Receives reports from SOC Receives reports from the Trustee Board which is the Union’s overall governing body composed of Officers, ordinary students and outside experts

Agenda item 2: Reporting Council has reps on University and Union Committees, reps are elected at the first meeting of the year Reps can make reports to Council about what’s been happening on their committees Any Councillor can make a report on a matter that they are concerned about: just put up your hand when the Chair asks for any reports

Agenda item 3: Open Discussion Council breaks out into informal discussion groups Councillors get the chance to explore issues and ideas that might feed into future policy Councillors look at how bits of the Union like: the Shop, the gigs and the bars are run

Agenda item 4: the Break Council has a break for about 15 minutes We’re going to break in the training now See you in five minutes

Agenda order 5 MAKING UNION POLICY The last part of the agenda If you’re the one creating the resolution, you are the proposer, you have to get another councillor to second the resolution I would say something about how speaking up in front of such a large group can be daunting, but everyone has been in that situation and no question is stupid

Writing a policy proposal: we call this a ‘resolution’ Only restrictions: You cannot contradict a referendum Do anything illegal Go against constitution unless you are tabling a constitutional amendment

EXAMPLES OF TYPES OF RESOLUTION YOU WANT TO GET SOMETHING CHANGED IN THE UNION YOU WANT TO GET SOMETHING CHANGED IN THE UNIVERSITY YOU WANT TO GET SOMETHING CHANGED IN THE WIDER SOCIETY

HOW THE RESOLUTION IS STRUCTURED Break it into three parts: UNION NOTES state your facts UNION BELIEVES state your opinions UNION RESOLVES state what you want done Examples of policy, explain how a good policy shows how the resolves follow on from the believes

A Resolution is an argument that is debated for and against

The Debate For Against Summing up by the Proposer Resolved by a vote: for, against or abstain

Debate Toolkit We have a series of tools that Councillors can shape the way that the debate flows. These are all in the Rule Book in Bye-Law 2. These are used mainly by the more experienced Councillors but they are pretty straightforward. The Chair will explain them, if they come up in a debate.

The Toolkit There are three types: Points of Order Procedural Motions Amendments

Points of Order Easy to action, all you do is put your hand and up call out “point of order” The Chair stops the meeting to hear and rule on the Point of Order

Points of Order: the main one you will hear Point of Clarification: this is a debating phrase that means you want to ask a question. If you have a query about something in a speech or report it has to go to the Chair. This is important as it keeps the structure of the debate and makes sure everyone is not talking at once

Points of Order: others you may hear Quorum Challenge to the Chair Matter under debate breaks Union rules

Special Points of Order: Procedural Motions These are mini-debates on how Council might deal with a resolution The procedures can stop the debate, move an item up the agenda, send it to another committee or to a referendum or defer it to the next meeting amongst other options

Amendments Councillors have the power to make amendments to change a resolution. Ordinarily, these have to be submitted before the meeting. When an amendment is submitted it leads to a debate within the debate; this has in the past confused Councillors and amendments tend not to be used But you have the power to use this tool if you think it is needed

Questions We should have done a bit to answer some of these in this session but you will have loads more. Please do drop in to see us in Union House or contact us. I will be pleased to help as will the lead officer for democracy and governance who next year is: JACK ROBINSON

When polled huge majority of Councillors thought they had made decisions that improved the lives of UEA students…..lets build on that!

Thank you! The Democracy Team