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Constitution of the UCLU Women’s Network
Section 1- General
1. This constitution applies to the activities of the autonomous Women’s Section at
UCLU known as the Women’s Network.
2. The Women’s Network is an autonomous body but is bound by the UCLU
Memorandum and Articles of Association and its Bye-laws.
3. The Women’s Network is open to all who self-define as women, including (if they
wish) those with complex gender identities which include ‘woman’, and those who
experience oppression as women.
4. The Women’s Network is a space for women members of UCLU to:
a. Direct the Union’s policies and campaigning activities.
b. Promote the views of the students they represent.
c. Involve students in driving change.
d. Fight discrimination, oppression and inequality.
e. Defend and extend the rights of women.
5. The Women’s Network shall be convened by the full-time Women’s Officer who is
elected annually according to the UCLU Elections Guidance Document.
6. This constitution will be brought to a forum meeting of the Women’s Network once
a year to be reviewed.
Section 2 - Aims
1. To actively engage UCLU members with relevant groups and organisations both
external to and within UCL and UCLU.
2. To propose policy to Union Council.
3. To provide representation and support for women students within UCL and UCLU.
4. To run workshops, campaigns and events which are relevant to women students at
UCL.
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Section 3 – Organisation
1. The Women’s Network shall act in accordance with the Byelaws governing
organisation of Autonomous Sections.
2. The Women’s Forum shall be the steering body of the Women’s Network and will
meet at least twice a term.
3. The purpose of the Women’s Forums is to:
a. Facilitate discussions in areas relevant to the Women’s Network within UCLU, UCL
and the wider community.
b. Develop policy which can be passed by the forum and/or forwarded on to council.
c. Give students an opportunity to raise issues they feel are important and require
action from UCLU, UCL or any other body.
d. Direct events and campaigns.
4. The Women’s Network can create policy at the Forum and, where it is impossible to
reach a consensus, decisions will be made by means of a majority vote.
5. The Women’s Network will host a number of elected committee positions to
facilitate its on-going activity as detailed in Section 4.
6. The quorum for the Women’s Forums which make policy and changes to the
constitution shall be 20 members.
7. There will be no quorum for electing committee members.
8. Provisions may be used to host elections and voting online. When voting online the
quorum will still be 20 members.
Section 4 – Committee
1. The Women’s Network shall convene a governing committee made up of elected
representatives to execute activity between forum meetings. The committee will
meet as and when required and will be chaired by the Women’s Officer. Decisions
made by the committee may be referred to back to forums and committee members
will be held accountable for their decisions by the members of the Women’s
Network who they represent.
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2. The Women’s Network Committee, excluding the First Year Representative, will be
elected in the third term of the academic year. If these positions are unfilled a byeelection will be held in the first term of the next academic year.
3. Positions on the Women’s Network Committee may be shared between two people
who have agreed to job share prior to running for election.
4. The forum will elect committee members to facilitate its on-going activity, to
include:
Disabled Students’ Representative
First Year Representative
LGBT+ Women’s Representative
Open Portfolio
Postgraduate Students’ Representative
Publicity Officer
Secretary
Social Secretary
Trans Representative
Women with Caring Responsibilities Representative
Women of Colour Representative
5. Any member of the section may propose a recall of a committee member by
submitting a motion to a quorate meeting. A motion of recall requires a two thirds
majority to pass. If the motion is passed the committee member shall be deemed to
have been dismissed with immediate effect. The Disabled Students’ Representative,
LGBT+ Women’s Representative, Postgraduate Students’ Representative,
Trans* Representative, Women with Caring Responsibilities Representative and
Women of Colour Representative may only be recalled by the students they
represent.
Section 5 – Committee Positions
The Women’s Officer shall:
a) Self-define as a woman, in accordance with Section 1.3 of the Women’s Network
Constitution.
b) Represent the interests of women members of UCLU within the Union, UCL and
beyond.
c) Co-ordinate campaigns related to issues relevant to women members.
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d) Liaise with external organisations such as NUS on matters relevant to women
members.
e) Be the convenor of the Women’s Network.
f) Sit on Union Executive Committee.
g) Produce an agenda for the forums and be responsible for distributing the agenda at
the forum and beforehand, both online and printed copies.
h) Participate in an accountability session at the beginning of each forum meeting. This
session will be chaired by a member of the Women’s Network committee.
The Disabled Students’ Representative shall:
a) Self-define as disabled.
b) Co-ordinate campaigns, events and policy related to issues relevant to disabled
members of the Women’s Network.
c) Be elected by those who self-define as disabled.
The First Year Representative shall:
a) Be in their first year of study at UCL.
b) Be elected at the beginning of the academic year, by all members.
The LGBT+ Women’s Representative shall:
a) Self-define as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex, asexual or any other
identity that falls under the LGBT+ umbrella.
b) Co-ordinate campaigns, events and policy related to issues relevant to LGBT+
members of the Women’s Network.
c) Be elected by those who self-define as LGBT+ Women.
The Open Portfolio shall:
a) Support the other elected officers in their specified roles.
b) Be elected by all members.
The Postgraduate Students’ Representative shall:
a) Be a postgraduate student.
b) Co-ordinate campaigns, events and policy related to issues relevant to postgraduate
members of the Women’s Network.
c) Sit on the committee of the UCLU Postgraduate Association (PGA) and liaise between
the Women’s Network and the PGA where appropriate.
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The Publicity Officer shall:
a) Be responsible for producing and organising the distribution of posters, leaflets and
flyers for the Women’s Network.
b) Liaise with the Secretary and Women’s Officer in order to publicise forums via a
variety of media.
c) Be lead committee member in the running of the Women’s Network twitter account.
d) Be elected by all members
The Secretary shall:
a) Take accurate notes of forum proceedings and circulate those notes no later than a
week after the forum.
b) Support the Women’s Officer in the production and circulation of agendas.
c) Support the Women’s Officer in production of the Women’s Network emails.
d) Be elected by all members.
The Social Secretary shall:
a) Be responsible for co-ordinating social events.
a) Liaise with UCLU staff and officers in the running of events.
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c) Be elected by all members.
The Trans Representative shall:
a) Self-define as a trans woman.
b) Co-ordinate campaigns, events and policy related to issues relevant to trans
members of the Women’s Network.
c) Be elected by those who self-define as trans.
The Women of Colour Representative shall:
a) Self-define as a Woman of Colour.
b) Co-ordinate campaigns, events and policy related to issues relevant to women of
colourWomen of colour.
c) Be elected by those who self-define aswomen of colourWoC.
The Women with Caring Responsibilities Representative shall:
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a) Be a woman with caring responsibilities.
b) Co-ordinate campaigns, events and policy related to issues relevant to members of
the Network who have caring responsibilities.
c) Be electedby all members by all members.
Section 6 – NUS Conferences
1. The Women’s Network will send delegates to the NUS Women’s Campaign
Conference.
2. The delegates will be decided via an election this election must take place before
the conference registration deadline.
3. The Women’s Network has the option to submit motions to NUS Women’s
Campaign Conference. These motions will be passed in the same way as any
other policy.
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