Calling notice for General Meeting, Tuesday 8th October at 1pm
This is a formal calling notice for a General Meeting of UCL UCU taking place online via zoom on Tuesday 8th October at 1pm.
Members are invited to submit motions for debate on any topic by 1pm on Tuesday 1st October. Any member considering submitting a motion is welcome to contact Branch Officers for advice on drafting. Please submit motions by email to ucu@ucl.ac.uk. All motions received will be circulated on Wednesday 2nd October and amendments invited.
In accordance with Branch Rule 23, we are circulating two rule-change motions 10 days before the General Meeting. Please see Appendix 1 below. These are unfinished business from an earlier review of our Branch Rules by the Executive Committee.
All members are encouraged to attend the General Meeting. Please register using the link sent via email.
UCL UCU Executive Committee
https://ucl-ucu.org.uk
Appendix 1:
Motion 1: Timely circulation of motions for General Meetings
Proposed: Ilektra Christidi
After current 13.2, Other general meetings, insert
13.3 Motions for a General Meeting are to be accepted until the day that is [5 days] before the day on which the meeting is to be held, and the secretary will take all reasonable steps to circulate the motions to members by the next day. Amendments to the motions for the GM are to be accepted until the day that is [3 days] before the day on which the meeting is to be held. The secretary will take all reasonable steps to circulate the final notice for the GM to members by the next day, and no later than 24 hours before the GM. This notice will include the GM agenda, proposed motions, and amendments.
13.3.1 Any motions not ordered onto the agenda of a particular meeting due to time constraints or the theme of an Extraordinary GM or Emergency GM, will be included in a future branch meeting.
13.4 The formal business of a Branch Meeting will end at its advertised time. However, it may be extended for a specific amount of time beyond its end time, if voted so before the end of the meeting by a majority of attendees while still quorate.
At end of 14, Extraordinary General Meetings, insert
Timings for motions and amendments for EGMs are as follows: motions will be accepted until [3] days before the meeting and circulated to members within the next day. Amendments will be accepted until [2] days before the meeting, and final notice circulated to members no later than 24 hours before the meeting.
Rationale: To increase participation of the membership in the decision-making and democratic control of the branch, by ensuring that motions and amendments are circulated in time for all categories of General Meetings. This rule change aims to empower the membership to make well-informed policy decisions in the meetings, having had time to read the motions and propose amendments, instead of being rushed into a vote.
To make sure meetings don’t run over time unless decided in advance by the meeting. This way members have the opportunity to vote on the motions discussed in the meeting, and decisions are not made by a small subset of those attending.
Motion 2 – Who can submit motions
Proposed: Ilektra Christidi
At end of 18, Motions, add paragraph:
Any branch member can submit motions to Branch Meetings, covering local policy or to be submitted to national or regional bodies of the Union (Congress, HESC, etc). Those motions will be circulated to members in advance according to the timings defined in 13.2, 14, and 15. The name of the proposer will be included in this circular.
Rationale: To make explicit the fact that all members can submit motions to all meetings and for all purposes.
