AGM Time
Greatings Members! 'Tis I, your Returning Officer for this year's AGM. I have here some really important information about the society! As one of our members, we need you to help keep our society existing for another year. To do this, we need to reach quorum in our upcoming AGM and exec elections, which is where you come in. We know this year has been quite a roller-coaster, but hopefully next year will see a return to more normal operation.
The AGM is being held on Wednesday 3rd March, 7-9pm, online over Teams (click this link to join the Team)
Here's all the important info, compressed into a pocket size list.
- The full details for this event are in this forum post on our website - please go give that a read!
- We have a Facebook event you should RSVP to.
- You should join the Team in which we'll be holding the AGM online (as, unfortunately, we cannot run the AGM in person this year).
- You should become a member of the society if you aren't already - you can only vote or run for an exec position if you're a Standard Member no later than 2 weeks before the AGM is held.
- We will be hosting our own online voting system - more details on this will come when it's finalised, but for now you need to make an account on our website if you haven't already, then link your membership to that account (See below)
Verifying your membership
(stolen from Ares' newsletter...) In order to vote, you need to go to your website profile, hit the edit button, and then the shiny new "verify membership" button. You input your University ID number, then bam, you get an email (via your Uni account). Confirm that, and you're all set!
If you have any issues, please do get in touch and I'll sort it for you.
Standing in an election
All Standard Members are welcome to stand in as many elections as they like. To stand, please post your manifesto into this forum thread and clearly indicate which roles you are standing in. Additionally, so we can work out the best order to run the elections, please direct message me with your preferences if you're standing for more than one post. This will then be used to create the election ordering. In the event that you win an election, you will automatically be withdrawn from all subsequent elections, unless you have explicitly stated you wish to be able to hold more than one role (where permissible). While we cannot guarantee that an ordering exists that ensures everyone gets their first preference, we will try our best to find it. Unfortunately, we will need to announce the ordering in the AGM, so we will be unable to account for your preferences if they are not sent before 2nd March. You can nominate yourself at any point until voting starts, but for the sake of our nerves please do consider announcing your intentions before the election so that we can avoid panicking about vacancies.
Proposing constitution changes
All Standard Members can also propose changes to our society constitution. Due to SU regulations, we need to know about these changes 7 days before the AGM. The format for motions is specified in the same forum post as above. We also welcome non-constitutional motions, which can be submitted up until the start of the AGM. This is your chance to affect how this society is run, so please do have a think about any changes you feel is needed to our structure in the coming year.
Voting
As mentioned before, voting is open to all Standard Members that have had membership for 14 days (as of the start of the election). Voting this year will take place on a new custom built system. So new, in fact, that it's still being built! Nevertheless, when it is time to vote, a large (probably purple) button will appear on the website which will take you to the voting portal. This will list all active votes and allow verified users to cast their votes. Please ensure that all votes are cast before the deadline. Voting will open at the end on the AGM, and will run for exactly 7 days. Votes will be counted using STV, as per the constitution (for the STV nerds, we will use an exact value meek count with random tie-breaks) and results communicated in the next newsletter. As per SU regulations, these results will be considered provisional for a further 7 days, and you are able to challenge them if you believe the result to be unfairly obtained by contacting the SU democracy office. If you have any issues at any point, please do contact me as soon as possible so I can ensure that the election runs as smoothly as possible.
Whew, I think that's everything I'm required to cover. Sorry it's very information dense, but I'm required to tell you 90% of that stuff, and the other 10% was the meme.
Thanks for sticking with me
Thomas Bruce
(they/them)
Web Admin and Returning Officer