*reminder* AGM agenda, motions and draft minutes - Wed 22 July, 1-2pm

Please RSVP and we will send you the meeting ‘join link’ on the day.

Our AGM will elect UCL UCU Branch Officers and Executive Committee members for the year ahead. 

Committee members are involved in a variety of activities to varying degrees: negotiating and bargaining with UCL senior management, campaigning, supporting members collectively during organisational change and through participation in formal College governance processes and individually with casework assistance.

Motions for debate and draft minutes of the 2019 AGM follow.

UCL UCU Executive Committee

2020 Annual General Meeting Agenda

1. Chair's Business.
2. Minutes of previous Annual General Meeting on 5 June 2019 - see Appendix 2.
3. Matters arising.
4. To receive the President's Annual Report.
5. Accounts for year ending 31 August 2019.
6. Subscriptions for 2020-2021.
7. Elections - to note any nominations received before the meeting.
8. Motions for debate - see Appendix 1

Appendix 1 - motions for debate

Motion 1 - Security, democracy and dignity for all at UCL

UCL UCU notes that:

1. UCL is currently facing two twin crises: Covid-19 and the demands for justice that have emerged from the Black Lives Matter movement.
2. These are both affecting staff and students right across the UCL community.
3. But so far, there has been little coordinated action from students, workers and the many trade unions represented on our campus.
4. This has left us all vulnerable to management as we are fighting separate, defensive battles on many different, isolated fronts.

UCL UCU resolves to:

1. Support the unified demands from students and workers set out in the petition calling for "Security, democracy and dignity for all at UCL" 
2. To encourage UCL UCU members to sign the petition (by circulating via email in the next week).
3. To encourage the other campus trade unions (Unison and Unite) to support the petition (by speaking to the executive committee members from each union) with a view to presenting a unified set of demands backed by all campus trade unions to the Provost within the next month.

Motion 2 - Solidarity with the Greek workers and trade unions

The trade unions who sign this statement express our solidarity to the working class of Greece and its trade unions in their struggle against the abolition of basic trade union rights and freedoms. Especially against the bill of the Greek Government which bans the right to protest and the right of the people to organize demonstrations.

The criminalization of trade union action, the criminalization of protests is a great threat to all political and individual freedoms and must be stopped.

The real goal of this development is to block the action and the struggle of the militant unions and the people who suffer from the anti-workers’ policies, especially from the crisis that follows the pandemic. The goal to block the action of the militant unions, to stop the struggles and the demands of the people is common of the employers, the Governments and their organizations in all countries.

• We express our solidarity to the Greek Working Class
• The right to Protest is non-negotiable
• Hands off trade union rights and freedoms

We demand the Greek government to withdraw this reactionary bill

Appendix 2 - draft minutes of UCL UCU AGM (5 June 2019)

1) Chair's Business: none.

2) Minutes of previous Annual General Meeting (7 June 2018).

3) Matters arising.

4) President's Annual Report:

The president read from a prepared written report which addressed:

• the transformative nature of the industrial action we took in defence of USS and the prospects for further action in the coming year;
• the election of a new General Secretary;
• the merger of UCL UCU with IoE UCU branch (making UCL the largest branch in the country);
• anti-union laws and the need for meticulous Get The Vote Out organising around industrial action ballots;
• The behaviour of UCL SMT in pressing ahead with new policies and procedures that attacked the terms and conditions of staff (Redeployment, Grievance);
• The underlying cause for UCL’s increasingly corporate behaviour - the UCL East expansion project being the most visible example - driven by cut-throat market competition for undergraduates and other students;
• Academics’ responsibility to defend the integrity of academic life and academic accountability: ‘we are the university, and we have to defend it.’
• The importance of volunteering to become a rep and being more involved in the local union branch.

The chair invited questions and discussion.

5) Accounts for year ending 31 August 2018

Ruth Dar (Treasurer) presented the accounts and the Chair welcomed questions from the floor. The accounts were proposed for formal adoption and the meeting agreed unanimously, nem con.

6) Subscriptions for 2019-20

Ruth Dar proposed that local subscriptions will remain the same as there is a healthy bank balance - the meeting agreed unanimously, nem con.

7) Elections:

Prior to the meeting members were invited to put forward nominations for all Branch Officer positions especially President, Vice President, Secretary, Equality Officer and Treasurer.

Branch Officer elections were taken individually.

Sean Wallis chaired the meeting for the election of these officers.

i) Branch Officers standing for re-election:

• Secretary: Tony Brown (ISD)
• Treasurer: Ruth Dar (ex-Library)

Elected unopposed, nem con.

Saladin Meckled-Garcia chaired the meeting for election of President.

ii) Branch Officers standing for election:

• President: Sean Wallis (English)
• Equalities Officer: Nalini Vittal (Centre for Languages & Intl Education)
• Health and Safety Officer: Alun Coker (Division of Medicine)
• Communication Officer: Saladin Meckled-Garcia (Political Science)
• Anti-Casualisation Officer: Bella Vivat (Division of Psychiatry)
• Co Vice-president: Saladin Meckled-Garcia (Political Science)
• Co Vice-president: Holly Smith (IoE)

Elected unopposed, nem con.

The meeting then considered the composition of the Executive Committee (EC). The following members had pre-notified that they wished to stand for re-election (noting that Branch Officers are EC members):

iii) Current Executive Committee (EC) members standing for re-election:

• Sonja Curtis (Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis)
• Helen Donoghue (Infection)
• Martin Fry (Engineering)
• Josh Hollands (Institute of the Americas)
• Majella Lane (School of Pharmacy)
• Eve McLoughlin (Faculty of Life Sciences)
• Richard Pettinger (Management Studies Centre)
• Nalini Vittal (Centre for Languages & Intl Education)

These were voted on in a block vote: re-election of existing EC. Elected unopposed, nem con.

iv) New members proposed for the EC:

• Theo Bryer
• Mark Newman
• Laila Kadiwal

These were voted on in a block vote. Elected unopposed, nem con.

v) The meeting noted ex-Officio members of the EC due to UCU National Executive Committee membership:

• Holly Smith (IOE)
• Victoria Showunmi (IOE)

8) Motions for debate

Motion 1 - Adoption of Model Local Rules and supplementary Standing Orders

UCL UCU resolves to:

1. Adopt the Model Local Rules as amended by UCL UCU Executive Committee; see on-line version: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ucu/about-us/draft-ucl-ucu-branch-rules
2. Adopt local Standing Orders to supplement the Model Local Rules; see on-line version. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ucu/about-us/draft-ucl-ucu-standing-orders

Motion 1 was passed, nem con.

Motion 2 - Emergency Action on Climate Change

UCL UCU notes:

1. The IPCC report of 2018 which identified the urgent need to limit global warming below 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels and the urgency of taking accelerated action within the next 12 years.
2. The IPCC have identified that currently global emissions put us on track for potentially catastrophic increases of up to 4-5 degrees warming by the end of the century.
3. The global escalation of school students strikes demanding urgent action over climate change under the #Fridaysforfuture slogan including major walkouts by school students in the UK on 15 February and 15 March.
4. The arrest of around 1000 protesters during actions organised by Extinction Rebellion between 15 and 22 April.
5. The declaration of a climate emergency by Parliament

UCL UCU believes that young people in schools and colleges will be in their old age by the end of this century so have a huge stake in what happens to our climate and the actions or otherwise that are taken to urgently reduce emissions to limit warming to 1.5 degrees.

UCL UCU resolves:

1. To call on UCL to declare a climate emergency
2. To approach other unions and UCLU to coordinate a campaign by students and staff to demand UCL takes immediate action to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate climate change
3. To work with other UCU branches to develop shared resources and materials to strengthen networks of educators and students working around climate change alongside colleagues from other education unions.
4. To encourage UCL UCU members to show their solidarity with future climate strikes by school and university students by organising joint protests and inviting school student strikers to speak at UCL
5. To call for government to make changes to the school curriculum to ensure that climate change is taught to ensure a deeper understanding of the problem and the solutions to it

Proposed James Price

Seconded Matthew Pope

Motion 2 was passed, nem con.

Chair thanked members for attending and closed the meeting.

*ENDS*