THE UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING STUDENTS UNION
GENERAL MEETING
AGENDA 3
These are the minutes of a meeting of the Students’ Union General Meeting on Tuesday the 5th of March
2013 from 6:30pm in Lecture Theatre W1 Cottrell.
1
IN ATTENDANCE
1.1
Members Present
Sam Gibbs
Johannes Butscher
Conn O’Neil
Aidan Miller
Kirsty McCall
Evelina Koazon
Richard Raymond
Alexei Dalton
Michelle Nyberg
Jamie Moore
Jade Love
Becky Benson
Lauren McKay
Danny Robertson
1.2
Union President
Sustainability Officer
Charities Officer
International & Exchange Students Officer
Vice President Activities & Development
LGBT Officer
Air3 Station Manager
AirTV Station Manager
In Attendance
Eilidh Sinclair
Robbin Parker
Environmental Project Coordinator
NUS Scotland President
1.3
Observers
1.4
Apologies
1.5
Absent without Apologies
2
MINUTES AND MATTERS ARISING
Minutes of the meeting of the GM on 13th November Passed with the following comment:
Conn O’Neil: Too many grammatical mistakes in minutes – not very descriptive, need to be clearer and
easier to understand
4:
Can you not record them?
Conn O’Neil: Can we use recording as reference? So look through written minutes and then compare
to recording?
3.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
8.2 Clubs and Socs Charter
4
CHALLENGES TO ORDER PAPER
5
DATES TO NOTE
25/6th March Elections
25th Mar Independence Debate
19th April Sports Ball
6
ELECTIONS & RESIGNATIONS
Sam Gibbs: Student Position on CED available
Jamie Moore: Description of CED
Sam Gibbs: Offer of position, no one to fill position
Sam Gibbs: Student position on FRC available, no one to fill position
7
REPORTS
7.1
Presidents Report
Sam Gibbs: Fundraising event for Anton – live music event raised £250, thanks to Jamie and Izzy(?),
stone memorial to be put in wildlife garden as well as tree planted by SUNS
Missing student update – police doing all they can to find him, thankful to Stirling Uni community, thoughts
go out to friends and family, what else can be done to prevent from happening again – taxi scheme
student would be able to get free taxi in return for their student card then invoice after once home safely
Refreshers – event was a success due to everyone involved, talk through of events which happened, big
thanks to everyone
Chinese New Year – held in Underground, free Chinese food and coffees
Final year students – complete NUS survey get a free coffee
International students welcome – was successful
Union (VP education) – focus groups – releasing a report once consolidated
Johannes – water campaign 240 signatures in 4 hours, John Gardener keen to follow up
GIAG week – over 50 events held, 80 new recruits
Ask John Campaign – most q’s around proposed changes to teaching dates etc, John pleased with
outcome
Jamie working on enterprise project, space in the Union underutilised, asked for £15k to develop current
and future use and for heating, lighting – working to make attractive space, learning space or extension of
Underground in future
Commercial – Union developing consistently, new menu in Studio, sales figures back this up 6k ahead of
budget, coffee shop still main draw in, opened earlier than usual in Jan
Looking forward:
 Independence debate 25th March 6.30pm – staff and students, asking clubs to spread word
 Sports ball sold out
 Sports Union Final Fling
 Cubs & Socs ball 24th April tickets next Monday
 Elections 25/6th March, great to see active engagement with students
Anyone got any questions?
Unknown: Could you tell us about Grad Ball?
Jamie Moore: Poll closed now, 2/3rd one night majority over 1/3rd two night, lots of comments saying
that over 2 nights would lose out, students glad to be asked though, no confirmed ticket price
Unknown: suggestions from students would rather not have 3 course meal
Jamie Moore:buffet would cost just as much
Sam Gibbs: likely to be 28th June, not confirmed though
Jamie Moore: some departments don’t get on board, put pressure on people and talk about it as much
as possible
Kirsty McCall: Charity Week 15-19th April, more concrete next time
Jade Love: LGBT 18-22nd March Healthy Living Week – find email on notice board
8
DISCUSSION AND DECISION TOPICS
8.1
Q&A session with Robin Parker, NUS Scotland President
Robin Parker: Overview of NUS – what does NUS stand for - confederation of SU’s, represents half a
million people (FE and HE), 55 SU’s in Scotland and 700 across UK. Stirling part of NUS UK and NUS
Scotland – similarly split in the political sense e.g. Westminster and Holyrood. Discuss important role of
SU’s to anyone who will listen! Championing students’ rights – force of SU’s together. Personal role as
president, lobbying, campaigning, visiting SU’s, meet up regularly with ministers. Important
issues/campaigns:
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championed the increase in funding to students,
tuition fees campaigning,
widening access,
college funding,
supporting work of those involved in education side,
increased employability
Conn O’Neil: Tackled tuition fees on Scottish level, government don’t want to charge for fees, only
cooperating not working with NUS, a lot of people paying tuition fees basically just avoiding the subject
Sam Gibbs: the role NUS play in this – reclaim your voice asked politicians to pledge, got 78 politicians
to support this commitment. Can’t tell them what to do but can influence them. All students have
different situations, more barriers less likely to stay in education; working with PGs. NUS didn’t win in
England, got to keep at the politicians. International students – fees can go up while studying for them,
NUS asking Unis and government to be transparent.
Conn O’Neil: Pledge is not a concrete issue, when you say you influenced them…
Johannes Butscher: I think you make them unelectable like in Stirling, hopefully electorate will punish
them. Moving away, where does the money we pay go in NUS?
Robin Parker: Pays wages in NUS, expenses, staff are the fundamentally the principle support who can
come up with research, toolkits and support the campaigns.
Michelle Nyberg: Asking 3 what is the alternative
Conn O’Neil: people are better off by themselves, shouldn’t rely on super bodies, smaller Unions should
be working with other Unions
Jamie Moore: Not the case – we represented ourselves nationally by a Sab officer presenting a paper at
national NUS conference. I’m not biggest fan of NUS but they are helping us out and not here to listen to
Che Guavara style arguments.
Aidan Miller: I like the idea of NUS but as an individual how do I get heard, I don’t vote for you so how
can that get changed?
Robin Parker: NUS has to respect the autonomy of individual Unions, I can’t tell the Union what to do,
principle debate about do we want to change that? Some Sus could become disenfranchised if so. NUS
have democratic inputs throughout the year, how do our Union democratic structures affect the overall
NUS democratic structure? Individuals can have a say by looing in to
Jade Love: How do you engage with other liberation NUS groups e.g. Scotland/LGBT?
Robin Parker: NUS structures and autonomy are really important and self-defining. The way the two
come together – each liberation officer e.g. LGBT office sits on Scotland committee, basically about
support and realising the group’s goals. Scottish LGBT officer shared a lot of experience in the equal
marriage campaign
Jade Love: how are the NUS defined politically?
Robin Parker: NUS are definitely political due to all the issues we work on.
Jade Love: In terms of political spectrum where does it sit?
Conn O’Neil: Just left
Robin Parker: Politically diverse and varied in the student body, slightly left of the political
Jade Love: Does that not alienate some right students? E.g. poster in a campaign about ‘burning the
Tories’
Robin Parker: Officer from which it (former LGBT) was made to apologise and yes it probably did
alienate people.
Sam Gibbs: What is NUS’s position on independence?
Robin Parker: Working on all sides of the debate and working towards getting 16 year olds to vote.
Sam Gibbs: How would it affect NUS if it did become independent?
Robin Parker: All UK wide organisations will have to look in to this. NUS part of European NUS.
Unsure as to what would happen, big problem. Scottish Parliament has so many issues which affect
students that something has to be done
Johannes Butscher: How do we engage students more?
Robin Parker: Map the different ways students are involved in the Union, if you haven’t already e.g.
really good clubs and socs involvement. How can other people feed in to the resources? Most powerful
thing is not democratic stuff but the things people do e.g. events, activities, and campaigns. Stirling doesn’t
get as much as it should and should get a much bigger block grant than it does – this is what the Union
does to make students’ lives better.
8.2
Clubs and Socs Charter
Jamie Moore: Rules and regulates clubs and socs – making changes to it. Adding in ‘Stirling Students’,
club must have 10 members, membership fees must be set at start of year, funds can’t be spent on booze,
contract approval from Sab, branding policy on website, posts cannot be appointed, room bookings
online.
Conn O’Neil: Don’t think we should be allowing them to be called Stirling Students’.
Jamie Moore: Any other questions?
9
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
09/04/13