Fourth time’s a charm? That’s probably what’s on the lips of QUT Student Guild Executives this afternoon as they reconvene their AGM.
The QUT Student Guild AGM must be held in November of each calendar year under its Constitution, but last year was postponed twice before eventually being held on 28 November 2022.
The Guild’s AGM isn’t a particularly eventful meeting compared to AGMs of other organisations, but Guild Executives’ seeming inability to successfully convene a relatively simple meeting the first time around has been causing alarm among students.
Glass broke the story of the AGM needing to be postponed in the third instance, and it was only further investigation by Glass Editors earlier this month that prompted the Board to review whether the 28 November 2022 AGM was held validly.
The Board confirmed their decision that the AGM should be reconvened yesterday, and the President passed on this information to Glass this afternoon after Glass Editors followed up and posted on social media about how the team was still waiting on a response to the query.
Today the Guild President issued the following statement to Glass:
“After deliberation with the Board of Directors, the ‘members’ terminology causes concern with different interpretations, that the 2022 AGM may not have reached quorum. To absolutely ensure we definitely have met quorum, the Board has been resolved to reconvene the 28/1/22 AGM – let’s make sure we get this right!
“Whilst we continue to battle rising engagement issues seen QUT-wide, your 2023 SRC is ready to bring students a reconvened AGM on 08/03/2023 at Gardens Point P419!
“How are we going to fix this engagement issue? Simple, democracy sausages! We’re hosting our 2022 AGM whilst QUT Cheer & Dance Club are serving up some sausages simultaneously – keeping everyone fed and educated on their student union.“
The Guild also commented on a Glass Instagram post about the situation today:
Glass Editors argue that the idea of ‘never having met a fourth AGM I didn’t like’ is inherently offensive to the many students whose time and money have been wasted by the rescheduling and reconvening of the meeting four times.
QUT Student Guild President, Zoe Davidson, offered no apology to students in her comment to Glass today, and did not explicitly acknowledge that quorum was not reached at the 28 November 2022 AGM. Glass have followed up on the latter with Davidson, but at the time of publication no reply has been received.
With that being said, it’s positive to see the Guild using the reconvened AGM as an opportunity to engage students. The Glass Editors look forward to seeing as many students as possible at the reconvened AGM, and sharing an incompetency sausage afterwards, in support of the QUT Cheer & Dance Club.
Reconvened AGM details:
Wednesday 8 March 2022, 4-5pm
P419, Gardens Point
More information should be shared on the QUT Student Guild Noticeboard and directly to student inboxes in due course.
