Tuesday 16th April, 1pm: General Meeting to amend Branch Rules and Standing Orders

Under Rule 16 (Quorum), change “the Branch quorum will be one twentieth of the membership or 25 members, whichever is least.” To “the Branch quorum shall be one twentieth of the membership or 50 members, whichever is least.”

Rationale: The quorum of 25 is low for a branch the size of UCL UCU.

No meetings of UCL UCU branch in the last 10 years have had an attendance of 100 or more, except those held during industrial action. Whilst attendance has improved with the use of Zoom meetings and greater member activity from 10 years ago when we often struggled to get 25 members, most meetings have varied from 35-90, except during industrial action or right at the beginning of the pandemic and lock down where colleagues were suddenly isolated at home. This is regardless of topic.

Note that the UCL Academic Board, with a membership of circa 2000, has a quorum of 40.

That, given above figures, setting the quorum too high will have the effect of:

Disabling the ability of the branch to carry out its normal activities, including the passing of financial motions or policy motions on local issues needed to defend our members, legally required decisions (e.g., agreeing the treasurer’s reports or audits at AGMs), or being able to assist members locally with a mandate for negotiations;
“Locking in” all existing branch policy, making changing this policy excessively difficult, and locking in any quorum decisions in a “one-way-ticket” vote;
Give excessive weight to national policies, as these will be the de facto default for policy where local policies cannot be made/changed;
Creating a tyranny of the Executive Committee where all decisions have to be made by EC actions, interpreting the existing local and national policies, or by Chair’s action (President) between EC meetings, interpreting local and national policies;

Increasing the quorum to a mostly unreachable number is a bureaucratic solution to a problem in participation which will, judging by the previous 10-year period, have the effect of reducing participation when members see that attending meetings rarely changes anything. It will also incentivise vetoing decisions by non-attendance instead of having the arguments out.

Amendment 2 to Motion 2

Proposed: Bella Vivat

DELETE "50" from the last phrase of the proposed changed text: “the Branch quorum shall be one twentieth of the membership or 50 members, whichever is least.” & REPLACE WITH: "a whole number greater than 25"

Motion 3 - Quorum Change

Proposed: Holly Smith

In 16, Quorum, change quorum number stated from 25 to either (i) 100 or (ii) 175

Rationale: As the size of the branch has grown to approximately 3300 members, so 1/20 is 175 members. Therefore it is logical to increase the equivalent number of members to 175. If this motion i) passes, then ii) falls, but if i) falls, the alternative proposal of increasing the quorum to 100 can be put to the meeting.

Amendment 3 to Motion 3

Proposed: Bella Vivat

AMEND the final phrase: “to either (i) 100 or (ii) 175” to: “to either (i) 50, or (ii) 100, or (iii) 175. To be chosen by vote if motion 2 passes.”

II - Submission of Motions

Motion 4 - 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 5 - 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.

III - Elections & Roles

Motion 6 - Role of Returning Officer

Proposed: Saladin Meckled-Garcia

To the para at 9.1 on returning officer, add new para:

The returning officer shall, in consultation with the Executive Committee, arrange for the submission of candidacies, accept the submission of candidate statements, with a clear timetable set for distributing those candidate statements to all Branch Members in advance of the opening of the ballot. The Returning Officer shall address any disputes over the conduct of the ballot, and may consult UCU Democratic Services to do so.

Motion 7 - Nominations

Proposed: Saladin Meckled-Garcia

To the paragraph at 9.2 (nominations)

Add “These shall confirm membership by supplying their membership numbers, before the date the ballot is announced.”

Motivation: As ambiguities have given rise to disputes over previous election procedures, it is important to clear up some matters of detail and put in a clearer process for running branch elections.

Motion 8 - Ordinary EC Member Job Description

Proposed: Saladin Meckled-Garcia

After rule 8.7.4 (Pensions Officer) add new

8.7.5 Ordinary Committee Members

Members of the Committee without portfolio shall be expected to a) attend EC meetings, b) have an EC officer as a mentor, to learn the processes, c) shadow a caseworker to see how cases are supported by the branch.

Motivation: All officers have clear job descriptions in our rules, except for ‘Ordinary Committee Members’. This will clarify responsibilities for those considering the role.

Amendment 4 to Motion 8

Proposed: Bella Vivat

Proposed amendment to motion 8, re proposed new rule 8.7.5:

8.7.5 Ordinary Committee Members

INSERT the following after "EC meetings,":

"and, where new to the Committee, to"

Motion 9 - Removal from Office

Proposed: Holly Smith

In Rule 12, Removal from office, add:

Any branch officer or executive committee member who fails to attend 4 consecutive EC meetings without having offered apologies for their absence from each meeting to the Secretary will be deemed to have resigned from the EC, creating a casual vacancy which can be filled by co-option by the EC.

Rationale: Where circumstances prevent a member of the EC carrying out their duties it is important that the branch is not left with a vacant role or an excessive burden on remaining EC members.

Motions set re. Standing Orders of the Branch

Note: these are not to the Standing Orders for meetings of Branch, but to the general Standing Orders (see link above)

IV - Electing local reps, delegates, & delegate behaviour

Motion 10 - Electing local (Departmental) reps

Proposed: Saladin Meckled-Garcia

In the section on Local Representatives add the following:

The meeting for local representative elections must be chaired by an Executive Committee member. Where a local representative position is contested an election ballot shall take place unless there is an agreement to job-share.

Where a request is received by 5 local members in a department or unit with an elected representative, for a recall election, the Committee shall arrange a recall election meeting.

Rationale: This is existing practice. It is important that the branch (through its Executive) support local Rep elections. It is also important that members have a way of changing local reps where necessary.

Motion 11 - Delegate Democracy

Proposed: Saladin Meckled-Garcia

In section 2, Delegate democracy, delete a paragraph as follows:

Where a question arises that touches on, but does not explicitly contradict, branch policy, delegates should abide by a broad interpretation of that policy unless and until the issue is further clarified by a branch motion.

Rationale: the paragraph allows potential arbitrary or contentious restrictions on how delegates should vote where there is no explicit branch policy. It is anti-democratic and open to abuse, and so should be excised from the Standing Orders.

Motion 12 - Delegate Behaviour

Proposed: Saladin Meckled-Garcia

Add to section of the Standing Orders of the Branch, 2. Delegate Democracy, the following paras.

Delegates to national meetings (e.g., Congress and Conference) shall form a “delegation group” and discuss motions in advance to ascertain whether branch policy does or does not mandate a vote on these. A head of delegation shall be chosen by the delegates to write a report on behalf of this group. The group shall not form a separate democratic decision-making body, but shall work to help inform delegates and the branch. Where there is a dispute, this shall be reported in the delegate report.

Where any delegate fails to vote as clearly mandated by branch policy at a national meeting, this can be reported by another delegate to the EC and highlighted in the report which shall be presented to a branch meeting subsequent to the national meeting.

Rationale: Branch delegates to national meetings are mandated to vote in line with branch policy. They are also in receipt of resources (expenses payments to cover travel, meals, accommodation, etc) and have been elected to do this job. So it is important to have a mechanism to a) clarify what the branch mandate is as far as possible, b) follow up whether delegates have followed that mandate. There have been instances where a delegate has chosen not to act according to this mandate.