Democratic Model Proposal
Executive summary
In 2013-14, a large piece of work was undertaken by the Guild to look at reforming the democratic
structures of the Guild and the make-up of the Officer Team. An external consultant surveyed
around 4000 students, and conducted focus groups with a number of special interest groups. The
outcome was a proposed new model for the Guild’s democratic structures and Officer Team. This
model was then scrutinised and amended at Guild Council and the Trustee Board. The models
went to referendum, with the “No” vote winning out over “Yes” for both questions, although the
referenda failed to gain enough votes to hit quoracy.
Whist the referenda did not pass, there was clearly still an appetite for change in the Guild. Both
the President and Vice President of Democracy, Resources and Sustainability were elected on
manifesto points around reforming Guild democracy.
In light of this, the Officer team for 2014-15 have spent a great deal of time over summer and term 1
revisiting the research conducted last year, as well as taking into account feedback from Guild
Council, to look at producing a proposed model. The model is outlined below.
Because this is a potentially huge change for the Guild that needs to be done properly, and
because we pride ourselves on being a democratic and transparent institution, we want students
to be able to scrutinise and amend the proposed model before putting it out to referendum.
Students will now have the opportunity to propose amendments to the model, which will then be
discussed and voted upon at Guild Council. Any student can submit amendments or attend Guild
Council to speak on them. Only councillors can vote.
Amendments can be submitted to council@guild.bham.ac.uk. The deadline for amendments is
12pm on Thursday 22nd January.
Proposed Model
1. Idea submission

Ideas can be submitted at any point throughout the year and will be received through a
simple online form via the Guild website. The same form will also be used to submit
‘Questions to Officers’ and ‘Officer Censures and Reprimands’. Ideas, 'Questions to
Officers' and 'Officer Censures and Reprimands' will not only be able to be submitted by
any individual student, but also by any Liberation Association, Residents' Association,
Representation Association or other Student Group following a democratic procedure for
submission. An ‘Assessment Group’ will then consider the submissions before publication.

While those submitting ideas will not be required to specify what ‘strand’ (see below) it falls
into, the form will allow them to do so if they wish, with explanative text for each option.
Please note, strands are:
 Ideas for change
 Explicit bye-law/policy document changes
 Questions
 Officer accountability (censures and reprimands)
2. Assessment Group

The ‘Assessment Group’ is made up of:
o
VPDRS (Chair)
o
The Chair of the General Assembly
o
A part-time officer elected through GOG
o
Three full members elected in a cross campus ballot
o
CEO or nominee (advisory capacity)
o
Student Voice staff member (administration)

The group will meet every two weeks in term time.

The purpose of the group is to:
- Check that ideas are not illegal, libellous or defamatory.
- Sort ideas, questions and censures into relevant strands (sending questions and censures
to Officers so that they can prepare a response.) Questions should receive a response from
the relevant Officer within one week. The response need not be conclusive within that
time, but can be a progress report. When a question is resolved by the Officer, the
questioner should receive a conclusive response.’

Ideas will be accepted or rejected based on only the above criteria.

If an idea is rejected, the idea proposer will receive feedback so that they can amend the
idea to make it compliant for resubmission.
3. Liberation Deliberation
Democratic Model Proposal
 If the Assessment Group is satisfied that the idea is not illegal, libellous or defamatory it will
be posted on the Guild website.
 The website will allow Guild Members to comment and discuss each idea posted, requiring
them to log in with their account to enable comments to be moderated consistent with the
Zero Tolerance/membership conduct policies. Despite this, members will be free to use their
real names or a pseudonym to comment publicly
 Liberation and representation associations will be able to take part in discussions with their
comments highlighted as such, in addition to the potential to submit a statement listed
below.
 Liberation Associations will then have a seven day period for ‘Liberation Deliberation’ and
can submit amendments for consideration by the idea proposer. If the amendments are not
accepted a statement outlining the concerns with the idea raised by the Liberation
Association will be included alongside the idea on the Guild website.
4. Online Voting

Voting on ideas will open following the ‘Liberation Deliberation’ period and be open for two
weeks. Ideas will be uploaded in batches weekly, to make countdowns easier, and to
keep the process from becoming needlessly fragmented.

Quoracy for online votes will be 1% of the student population (approx. 300 people), ideas
that do not reach quoracy at the online stage, will be rejected.

Ideas that reach quoracy and secure a 66% vote in favour will automatically become Guild
policy.

Ideas that reach quoracy but do not secure above a 33% vote in favour will automatically
be rejected.

Ideas that reach quoracy and secure between a 34% and 65% vote in favour will be
deferred to the General Assembly.

All voting records will be recorded following the online stage and stored for future
consideration.
5. General Assembly

A General Assembly will take place once a term, except for term three where it will take
place once. All students are eligible to attend and speak and the meeting will be livestreamed.

An Extraordinary General Assembly shall be called with the receipt by the President of a
petition of 200 students.

Only the ideas that have failed to secure the outright 66% in favour vote but also avoided
the outright no vote (as specified above) shall be included.

All ideas that are deferred to General Meeting regarding issues of liberation and/or
representation (as deemed by the Assessment Group and/or relevant associations) will
automatically be prioritised on the agenda for discussion.

For all speeches for and against an idea, speakers will be strictly limited to a maximum of 5
minutes for the first round of speeches. If it is decided that further rounds of speeches are
needed, these will be strictly limited to 3 minutes per speech, unless the chair deems
otherwise. These time restrictions will be the same for all speakers, regardless of position or
status within the Guild.

For the ideas that are deferred to General Assembly to pass they need to secure the same
66% vote in favour that ideas passed online have already secured. Existing votes already
cast at the initial online stage would be included and new votes at the General Assembly
stage would need to be secured in addition to reach the 66% in favour. In effect this is a
layered voting system and would mean that an idea would still always have to secure 66%
to be approved before it became Guild policy.

Voting in the meeting will be done online via the Guild website with students using smart
phones, tablets and laptops to vote. (The Guild will provide a limited number of tablets). No
student physically present in the meeting shall be disenfranchised due to resource issues. If
necessary, voting in the meeting will go on until every student has had a chance to vote.

Officer accountability will also happen during the General Assembly. There will be a
quoracy of 25 students for officer reprimands, a quoracy of 50 students for officer censures.
Votes of No Confidence will be put to a cross campus ballot. While censures need to be
submitted online with a least 3 days notice before the Assembly, reprimands and questions
to Officers may be spontaneously asked in the meeting as currently.
 Scrutiny Committee
1. Purpose
1.1. In accordance with Article 20.2, a Trustee (except the University Trustee)
may be removed from office by a motion of no confidence passed by a
two thirds majority vote of Guild Assembly provided that the motion is
triggered by a petition of no confidence signed by a minimum two thirds
majority of the quorate Scrutiny Committee.
1.2. The Scrutiny Committee is therefore responsible for deciding whether or not
it is appropriate for a motion of no confidence in a Trustee to be put to a
vote of Guild Assembly.
1.3. In this Bye-Law, the Trustee who is the subject of the proposed motion of no
confidence shall be referred to as the “Relevant Individual”.
2. Membership/Composition
2.1. Subject to paragraph 2.2 below, the Scrutiny Committee shall consist of:
(a) a Lay Trustee appointed by the Board of Trustees;
(b) a Student Trustee, appointed by the Board of Trustees; and
(c) a University nominee, appointed by the University (who is not a
University Trustee)
2.2. The Trustee who is the subject of the proposed motion of no confidence
shall not take part in the appointment of the Trustees.
Democratic Model Proposal
3. Process
3.1. 200 Full Members of the Guild may submit a request to the Chair of Guild
Assembly that a motion of no confidence in the Relevant Individual be put
to a vote of Guild Assembly (the “Request”).
3.2. The Request should contain a statement of the grounds upon which the
Request is brought and of the facts and matters relied upon.
3.3. Upon receipt of the Request, the Chair of Guild Assembly shall arrange for
the members of the Scrutiny Committee to be appointed. The Chair of
Guild Assembly shall also notify the Relevant Individual that the Request has
been submitted.
3.4. The Scrutiny Committee shall meet within 21 days of the submission of the
Request to the Chair of Guild Assembly.
3.5. The members of the Scrutiny Committee shall elect one of their number to
preside as chair of the Scrutiny Committee (the “Chair”).
4. Notification of Meeting
4.1. The Relevant Individual shall be given at least 10 clear days written notice
of the date, time and place of the meeting of the Scrutiny Committee and
shall be provided with a summary of the matters contained in the Request.
4.2. The Relevant Individual has the right to submit written evidence to the
Scrutiny Committee. Such evidence must be submitted to the Scrutiny
Committee at least 2 days prior to the date of the meeting.
5. Procedure before the Scrutiny Committee
5.1. The function of the Scrutiny Committee is to review the appropriateness of
the Request.
5.2. The Scrutiny Committee will consider the documents, statements and other
evidence contained in the Request.
5.3. The Scrutiny Committee will also consider any evidence submitted by the
Relevant Individual in response to the Request.
5.4. Where the Chair considers it appropriate or necessary, the Scrutiny
Committee may hear submissions from and cross examine the Relevant
Individual and the members of the Guild who submitted the Request. The
Scrutiny Committee may interview or cross examine any witnesses.
6. Courses of action which the Scrutiny Committee may take
6.1. The courses of action which the Scrutiny Committee may take are:
(a) to grant the Request, provided a minimum two thirds majority of the
members of the quorate Scrutiny Committee agree; or
(b) to reject the Request.
6.
Within seven days of the Scrutiny Committee deciding on the
appropriate course of action, the Chair of Guild Assembly will notify in
writing the decision of the Scrutiny Committee to the Relevant Individual
and to the members of the Guild who submitted the Request.

The General Assembly shall receive, for information only, reports on at least a quarterly basis
accurately stating the minutes of the Trustee Board's meetings and any draft budget
proposals the Board has received
7. A Chair and Deputy Chair of the General Assembly will be elected by cross-campus ballot
during the Officer Election, to take up the position the following year. The only exception
shall be for the first year of the new system, when the Chair shall be elected at the
beginning of the academic year.
6. Retained Committees:

Student Groups Executive (SGX)

Residents Executive (ResExec)

Nominations Committee

Guild Officer Group (GOG)

Student Equality and Diversity Committee
8. The Retained Committees shall submit to the General Assembly a report after every
meeting outlining a true and accurate description of the work carried out by the Committee
since the date of the previous report. The General Assembly can then debate, amend and
vote on the reports as currently.
9. It shall also have the power to create any sub-committee which it can delegate any of its
competences to at its discretion. Any such delegation must be reversible should the Assembly
vote to do that.
SGX, ResExec and Student Equality and Diversity Committee :
1. Officer led committees (VPAD, VPHC & VPW respectively).
2. Are given semi-autonomy but still report to the Trustee Board who has power to overturn
decision on legal, financial or reputational grounds.
3. Decisions can be appealed through normal appeals process to the President as per
Student Groups Discipline and Appeal Process.
4. Members of SGX are elected from Student Groups Megaforum (3).
Democratic Model Proposal
5. Student Equality and Diversity Committee shall have the same composition as now, except
the two members elected by Guild Council shall now be elected from the General
Assembly
Nominations committee:
1. Autonomous
2. Elections online (4 full members)
3. Nominations approved by General Assembly and in online vote
Full-time Officer Group & GOG:
1. Accountability to the General Assembly through officer accountability
2. On the same level
A diagram of the proposed new model can be found below
General Meeting Under Company Law
Trustee Board
Referendum
General Assembly
Appointments
Panel
H&S
Committee
Sabbatical Officer Group
Guild Officer Group
Nominations Committee
Student Groups
Committee
Residents’ Executive
Student E & D Committee
HR
Committee
Online
Voting
Assessment
Group/Liberation
Deliberation
Student Ideas
Audit
and Risk
E&D
Committee
Finance
Committee
E&E
Committee