End of Year Report, Campus Culture VP Election & Ratification of Collectives Governance Framework

Welcome to another Glass coverage of the QUT Guild Council Meeting!

This meeting began at 6:13 pm on Tuesday the 1st of September and was held partially in person and on Zoom. The official minutes written by QUT Guild Secretary, Cameron Mackie, can be found here.

The meeting was opened by QUT Guild Council Chairperson Camille Etchegaray with the following people present: Cameron Mackie, Liam Blair, Sarah Balmer, Ramisa Raya, Megha Prasad, Amy Sargeant, Genevieve Hitzke, Dieu Linh Hoang, Nikka Turangan, Jennifer Barnaby, Hannah Smith, Seren Wyatt, Emily Readman, Anahita Ebrahimi, Ashleigh North, Jasmin Graves, Saskia Mathers, Eleanor Rogers, Katherine Nguyen.

Zoe Vaill, Jordan Dyce, Allen George John, Charlene Andika, Mahad Ali and Samuel O’Brien (Non-Voting)

Absent members: Olivia Brumm, Harrison Pie, Johnathan Easton, Hamish Killen, Jeffrey Wang, Rusha Joshi, Suraj Nijar, Nelson Reed-Banyard, Tully Grimley, Samuel White and Dominique Lew.

The minutes of the previous meeting of QUT Guild Council were confirmed unanimously.
The second order of business was the resignation of officers. The Chairperson confirmed the resignation of Zachary Noble from his position of QUT Guild Vice-President of Campus Culture. Glass would like to acknowledge the work Zachary has done for the Guild and wish him best in his future endeavors.
The position for Campus Culture received eight applications. Each application was offered the option of delivering a speech to Guild Council. The Vice-Chairperson, Cameron Mackie delivered the speeches of those who were unable to be present at the meeting.
Saskia Mathers, Science and Engineering Faculty Councillor, called for a point of information on whether the entire Campus Culture portfolio would need to be re-elected if one half of the portfolio was a casual vacancy. Cameron Mackie tabled this question and informed the council that a clarification would be sought the next day.
The speeches of the following applicants were heard: Allen George John, Arya Dommeti, Brinda Kashyap, Claire Su, Charlene Andika, Katherine Nguyen, Samuel O’Brien and Jordan Dyce. We at Glass would like to congratulate all of the candidates for their speeches and enthusiasm about the role, and we encourage you to continue your involvement in the advocacy space.
Jordan Dyce was elected by secret ballot for the position of QUT Guild Vice-President of Campus Culture.
Saskia Mathers called for another point of information on whether the casual vacancy for the position of Creative Industries (CI) Faculty Councillor would be announced. This position has been vacant since the last council meeting on August the 4th when the previous CI Faculty Councillor, Genevieve Hitzke, was elected to the role of Vice-President of Gender and Sexuality (Women’s Officer). Cameron Mackie explained that this was a mistake. The role of Creative Industries Faculty Councillor will be advertised during Week 9 of Semester 2 via the QUT Guild Noticeboard on Facebook and will be voted on during the next council meeting.

 

End of Year Report for the QUT Guild

The motion to establish an end of year report for the QUT Guild was introduced by Sarah Balmer and Emily Readman. The end of year report intends to correct an oversight in the current governance documents regarding a lack of transparency at the end of each yearly term. A large number of other student unions require an End of Year Report. The motion introduced by Sarah Balmer and Emily Readman intends to hold the QUT Guild to the same standard. Their motion asked that the End of Year Report contains the following:
1. President’s Report
2. General Manager’s Report
3. Executive’s Report (one per portfolio)
4. Commercial Services Report
5. Advocacy Report
6. Cashflow Report
7. Announcement of Executives for the Following Year
8. Governance Structure

Vice-Chairperson and Guild Secretary, Cameron Mackie, brought an amendment for this motion on the grounds that the Annual Report should be released after the Guild Audit is complete. This would be instead of the declaration of poll to ensure that all final reports are accurate. The declaration of poll would occur at the end of Semester 2 and the Guild financial reports are not finalized until mid-January.

Mackie’s motion to amend the action to read “that the QUT Guild commits to producing an Annual Report every year upon the completion of the Guild Audit”. This motion was seconded by Liam Blair and passed unanimously.

A second amendment was brought by Mackie. The amendment regarded the inclusion of the commercial services report in the Annual Report. Mackie explained how it would be inappropriate to include a detailed review of these services because it may negatively impact the Guild’s prospects when engaging in tendering processes to renew commercial leasing agreements. The motion to remove ‘commercial services report’ from inclusion in the Annual Report was seconded by Liam Blair and passed unanimously.

A third amendment was brought by Mackie. The amendment called for the removal of the cashflow review from the Annual Report. Mackie stated that an inclusion of the Guild’s cashflow in this document would, again, influence the Guild’s commercial activities and would be inappropriate to include without significant contextualization.

Mather’s called for a point of information on this amendment. Mathers questioned if the removal of the cashflow review from the annual budget would not exclude the publication of the General Audit. It was clarified that this would not affect the publication of the Guild Audit and this would continue to be published as it is currently.

The motion to remove ‘cashflow review’ from inclusion in the Annual Report was seconded by Liam Blair and passed with all Ayes bar a singular abstention.
A third amendment was brought by Mathers. The amendment called for the inclusion of the QUT Guild Faculty Councillors to be required to submit one Report per faculty. These reports will be included in the Executive reports.
This motion was seconded by Cameron Mackie and passed unanimously.

A fourth amendment was brought by Balmer. The amendment would require the Executives and Councillors to finalise their Annual Report before the end of their term. This would be November 30. Balmer’s reasoning for this amendment was to ensure that Executives and Councillors are not required to complete work after their term has ended.
This motion was seconded by Megha Prasad and passed unanimously.

A fifth amendment was brought by Vaill. This amendment would mandate that each QUT Guild Collective must also submit an End of Year Report by the end of their term. The collectives are; Abilities, Women’s, Queer and Postgraduate.
This motion was seconded by Cameron Mackie and passed unanimously.

No other amendments or questions were brought. The Motion to establish and End of Year Report for the QUT Guild was moved by Sarah Balmer and Seconded by Emily Readman. This motion passed unanimously with all previously passed amendments.

Ratification of the QUT Guild Collectives Governance Framework

Amy Sargeant, Vice-President of Gender and Sexuality, explained that this motion was not passed as the previous council meeting due to inconsistencies with the documents. The two major concerns of the previous meeting have been fixed since. These concerns were; the grievance resolution process and stacking of votes.
Sargeant clarified that the section regarding grievance resolutions has been re-written to ensure this process only involved the corresponding QUT Guild Executive and not a grievance committee or QUT Guild Executive meetings. Sargaent and Hitzke stated that they were aware that stacking is an inherent risk in any club or society structure however, they are not willing to regulate the length of time someone must be a member before receiving voting rights.
Mackie asked whether section 4(e) of the Collectives Governance Framework was an expectation or an enforceable rule. This section states “the Convenor shall attend meeting of Guild Council”. Sargeant stated that this was an expectation.
An amendment was brought by Mackie in regard to section 12.1(i) of the Collectives Terms of Reference in appendix one (1) of the Collectives Governance Framework. This section states that the Convenor of the Collective must “attend QUT Guild Council meetings as an Officer (non-voting) member.” Since the policy document does not have the power to create an official member of QUT Guild Council, Mackie suggested that it is amended to mirror section 4(e) and make it an expectation rather than an enforceable rule that the Convenor of the Collective must attend the meetings.
This motion was seconded by Liam Blair and passed unanimously.
The QUT Guild Collectives Governance Framework was moved by Amy Sargeant and seconded by Genevieve Hitzke and passed unanimously with the amendmends.

Campaign to Expand Public Transport Concession Fare Eligibility

Liam Blair, QUT Guild Treasurer, brought a motion to council for a campaign to expand public transport concession fare eligibility. Blair explained that this motion was catalyzed by a discussion he had with Mark Bailey, informing him that the Labor Government would not be widening the eligibility for student concession fares. Blair asked the council if members would prefer a campaign that focused on all students or only full-time students.

Sarah Balmer expressed her opinion that the campaign should not be extended to all students and that the it should focus on the smaller, more achievable, goal. Balmer made the point that the campaign should be focused directly on students’ needs rather than criticizing Labour.
Vaill asked Balmer whether she believed the campaign was intended as criticism of the Labor Party or an action advocating the best interests of students. Balmer explained that she thought Blair’s motion to be anti-Labour as a response to Mark Bailey’s statement.
Blair responded that his intention was for the campaign to be a joint effort between JCUSA, Griffith, USC, UQ Labor and USQ and should not be seen as a political attack.

Mathers said that the campaign should come from a place of supporting the students rather than politicizing the issue. Blair agreed with this statement. Mackie seconded Blair’s motion and it passed unanimously bar two abstentions.

To Ratify the QUT Guild Postgraduate Collective Terms of Reference

Nikka Turangan, QUT Guild Postgraduate Officer, brought a motion to ratify the QUT Guild Postgraduate Collective’s Terms of Reference. The Collective aims to represent approximately 11,000 QUT students who are currently without a student-specific support network.
Balmer brought an amendment to section seven due to her concerns that members of the Collective are able to be removed for not upholding the aims and objectives in the document. Balmer expressed her concern that this allows for indeterminate removal of members and is potentially unnecessary.
The motion to remove section 7.1(a) from the Postgraduate Collective Terms of Reference was seconded by Mackie and passed unanimously.
Mackie brought a second amendment to the motion. This amendment is similar to the amendment made earlier in the Collectives Governance Framework. Mackie called to amend section 12.1(i) to read “The Convenor shall attend meetings of Guild Council to present a report on the activities of the Collective”. Blair seconded this amendment and it passed unanimously.
Turangan’s motion to ratify the QUT Guild Postgraduate Collective Terms of Reference was passed unanimously.

The Council meeting closed at 7:45pm.

Jasmin
Jasmin

Jasmin is a second-year Law and Business student at QUT.

Articles: 12

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