Welcome back to the Glass coverage of the Guild Student Representative Council (SRC) Meetings of 2024. This is our coverage of the Annual General Meeting held on Wednesday 27th November 2024 at S305, Gardens Point campus.
We brought students coverage of these meetings throughout the year, so you have insight into all the goings-on in your Student Representative Council (SRC). These meetings include the motions that Guild Executives and other students put forward for the SRC to vote on, and which will directly impact your university experience. This is our last council meeting for 2024.
All current students can attend SRC meetings. If you want to see change on campus, we encourage you to put forward a motion to the SRC.
COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
You can find the minutes of the meeting here once published.
You can also access the meeting agenda and documents associated with motions raised at the meeting in this folder.
AND WE’RE OFF!
The meeting was opened at 6:12pm by Student Guild Board Member Olivia Brumm, acting as Chair, and began with an Acknowledgement of Country.
In attendance: James Reid (President), Sebastian Page (Secretary), Isabella Foley (Education Officer), Paulina Luisce (Welfare Officer), Jake Olver (Clubs and Societies Officer), Milani Rawlinson (Environment Officer), Maria Fernandez (Women’s Officer), Lauren Cuthbert (Queer Officer), Mal Fituch (Postgraduate Students Officer), Ethan Johnstone (Disability Officer), Georgie Dobbs (Engineering Councillor), Daniel Soltermann (Science Councillor), Elowyn Gampe (CIESJ Councillor), Erin Milne (CIESJ Councillor).
No apologies were noted.
Outgoing Treasurer Calissa Layden has taken a leave of absence.
In total, there were 24 students in attendance, which means quorum was reached. Any member of the Guild, which means currently enrolled QUT students, can vote at Annual General Meetings, as opposed to regular council meetings, in which only members of the SRC can vote.
STRAIGHT INTO THE HARD STUFF – CONSIDERATION OF ANNUAL REPORT OF THE GUILD, AUDITED BALANCE SHEET & ANNUAL BUDGET FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR
President James Reid briefly spoke to the Annual Report of the Guild, outlining some of the sections within the document like events on campus, overview of student media, welfare and wellbeing, and community and culture. This is a lengthy and detailed document but for those students who are keen beans, you can read the full report here.
Secretary Sebastian Page spoke to the Audited Balance Sheet and the Annual Budget for the Financial Year. The Guild received $2.6 million in SSAF funding, which is around 25% of SSAF paid to the University by students. This money is used to fund clubs, academic advocacy, student media, the Foodbank, student representatives, campus events, and student Collectives.
“2024 saw an increase in initiatives, services and offerings made available to our student body with the Foodbank being the major recipient of additional funding,” Page said.
With the recent passing of the Universities Accord reforms, institutions will be required to allocate at least 40% of SSAF received to student-led organisations, which means the Guild could receive an increase of 60% in funding in 2025.
Page acknowledged this and said, “Overall, the Guild is in a strong position to continue to meet the student expectations and hopefully improve our stand in 2025.”
You can access all the financial documents here.
Deputy Chair and Disability Collective Convenor Michael Pendergast asked for clarification on how the additional $10,000 Collective funding would be redistributed.
Page responded that he was unsure of how those funds would be reallocated and there are hopes that the defunct Environment Collective would restart in the new year, but he would find out from the Finance team.
ONTO THE SLIGHTLY MORE INTERESTING STUFF – REPORTS OF ELECTED OFFICERS & COMMITTEES
All executives are invited to present; however, it is not mandatory to speak on your report. This is the final opportunity for outgoing executives to speak directly to students and the other members of the SRC, to share what they spent their year working on, and the achievements they are really proud of.
All executive reports can be found here.
Glass Magazine Report
Outgoing Editor-in-Chief Celeste Muller presented the Glass Magazine report.
Muller and outgoing editor Ben Steele are officially the longest serving editors in the magazine’s six-year history; both having served 779 days over three terms. The team experienced just one casual vacancy throughout the year, with new editor Preet Bulchandani carrying on with a new (talented and amazing) team in 2025.
From an increase of 56% in articles published online to a 26% increase in website page views, across the board Glass experienced a significant increase in statistics. We launched our podcast, Just to be Clear, brought back book reviews, and attended the much anticipated Student Media Australian Conference.
The year culminated with six print magazines created and 170 contributors published. This was an absolute banger year for the Glass team!
Presidents Report
Outgoing President James Reid presented his report.
He acknowledged the difficult year the Guild has had with a “huge turnover of officers which has impacted the cohesiveness and effectiveness of the SRC cohort”, but believes the collective efforts of everyone in the Guild has resulted in increased engagement.
“Not only is that culture being grown and fostered, but also likely [to] roll over to next year with some of the cultural elements that have been reinvigorated internally and then also with quite a number of officers rejoining next week.”
Reid touched on the Guild’s efforts to address the University’s relationship with weapons research and stated in his written report, “the University understands that the Guild will continue to apply pressure to disclose research projects identified with ‘moderate’ to ‘significant’ weaponry applicability.”
In addition, he spoke about improving accountability within the Guild to ensure elected students are being held accountable to their work hours, improving the union’s cyber security and IT systems, and working with the University on tackling AI.
Disability Officer Report
The last executive to present their report was Disability Officer Ethan Johnstone.
Johnstone spoke about the Disability Collective’s five-year fight for a dedicated space on campus, which will finally become a reality in 2025. “I am incredibly proud to announce that as a result of this [collective] effort, the Guild was able to secure funding to renovate a space into a Disability Collective Room at Kelvin Grove,” he said.
He spoke about the various initiatives he was able to implement this year, which includes free stim toys for the sensory rooms in the library and the disability aid item drive, an initiative he will be continuing in the new term.
The biggest program he has worked on throughout the year is an accessible bathroom audit, where Johnstone has physically visited 140 bathrooms across both campuses to develop a report on how accessible (or inaccessible) they are and what features they have.
“I received feedback from some students that many of the accessible bathrooms had issues or lacked features which made them inaccessible to use. Students also told me that they struggled identifying the location and type of accessible bathrooms available to them, and that this posed an issue in terms of access,” he said.
The report will be released in 2025 and a guide for students will be made available.
Disability Collective Report
Disability Collective Convenor Michael Pendergast presented his report. The Collective had their best year yet, ending 2024 with 137 members; a 29% increase compared to 2023.
The Collective had some issues accessing their funding, with the funds not being delivered until the end of the Semester. However, they have still been able to host four successful events; two games nights, a movie night, and trivia.
One of the significant projects the Collective has worked on throughout the year is the Disability Room Campaign, announcing that construction on a Disability Room on the Kelvin Grove campus is due to begin over the summer break.
The Collective has also made some changes to their Terms of Reference, allowing for more than one person to hold certain positions. Pendergast said, “a provision was made to allow two people to occupy the positions of Events Officer, Engagement Officer, and Room Maintenance Officer to reduce individual workload and make being a Disability Collective executive more accessible.”
MOTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
The QUT Guild restates its commitment to NUS
The only motion of the night was moved by outgoing Education Officer and 2025 NUS Delegate Isabella Foley and seconded by outgoing CIESJ Councillor and 2025 Education Officer Erin Milne. The motion called for the Guild to commit to remaining affiliated with the National Union of Students, pay its outstanding fees, and pay for the newly elected NUS Delegates to attend the upcoming National Conference.
For context, a decision was recently made by the SSAF Sub-Committee, which is made up of several members of the outgoing SRC and Guild Professional Staff, to not approve funding to cover delegate costs to attend the conference and to not renew the union’s subscription fees. This meant that any elected delegates would have to personally pay to attend the conference, which is being held in Ballarat this year, and that they would not be able to vote, therefore they would only be able to observe the proceedings.
Earlier this week, outgoing President James Reid told the SRC of this decision via email and stated that the reason for this decision was based on budgetary constraints and the lack of benefit to students the committee felt the NUS provides. This was based on poor communication, feedback from other unions, and reports from other university publications.
“This body [the NUS] can centralise and coordinate student campaigns to fight for education rights, social justice issues, and stand up to improve the quality of students’ education while they’re at university,” Foley said.
“So, it’s really important that [the Guild] remain affiliated with the National Union of Students this year, exactly because actually there are education cuts pending. Not just on our campus, but on campuses around the country.”
She also brought up the fact that students have just been elected into these positions, and not being able to attend or vote at the conference would essentially make these positions redundant.
In a surprise move to everyone in the room, Reid spoke to the motion and said he seconded the sentiment for the importance of the NUS, and it was a “misguided decision” to pull back support of the organisation.
“It’s certainly within everyone’s interests here to reaffiliate and to remain a member of the peak advocating body in Australia,” Reid said.
“By grouping with all the national students across Australia and taking [what we can] from that agenda, we can be better instilled with the support across the nation at QUT, to make a difference that we all sorely need to see.”
He ended his speech, “by rallying together, we can see a united goal in order to really stick it to the university next year.”
The Chair moved the motion to a vote, and it passed unanimously. This means the Guild will pay its outstanding fees and pay for NUS Delegates to attend the conference.
(Glass will also be attending the conference, so keep your eyes peeling for our reporting in the coming weeks).
A QUICK QUESTION TIME
Queer Officer Lauren Cuthbert asked Brumm about accessing the most recent Guild Board minutes, as the most recent files on SharePoint are from June. Brumm explained that due to recent Guild staff turnover, she has been responsible for producing the minutes and that “it has been quite a lot”. She said she would endeavour to get the minutes up to date as soon as possible.
While not really the correct use of question time, outgoing Glass Editor-in-Chief Celeste Muller took the opportunity to thank Brumm for her service to the union. Brumm was first elected to the Guild in 2019 and served six years in various positions as Secretary, President and member of the Board.
Brumm said, “it’s been a great experience and I’m really excited to see the Guild and you flourish.”
Cuthbert also took the time to thank the Glass editors (stop it!☺️); she said she would miss us, and it has been a wonderful experience to work with us throughout the year.
(We will miss you too, Ren!)
The Chair closed the meeting at 7:05pm.
And that’s a wrap on the Student Representative Council meetings for 2024! Good luck to the incoming team and have fun!
