Welcome back to the Glass coverage of the Guild Student Representative Council (SRC) Meetings of 2023. This is our coverage of what would have been the September Council meeting held on Tuesday 5th October 2023 at E259, Kelvin Grove Campus.
The QUT Guild Student Representative Council cancelled the September council meeting after not reaching quorum for two consecutive meetings.
The meeting was originally scheduled for September 25th but was postponed after quorum was not reached by the half hour after the start time, as per Regulation 16.6 of the QUT Guild Regulations.
In total, there were only seven members of the SRC present for the rescheduled meeting; three people in person and four people online via Zoom. There are 23 voting members of the SRC, which means only 30% of your current student representatives turned up to the meeting.
In addition, other than the Glass editors, the only members of the SRC who submitted a report to Council were the Queer Officer and the Treasurer. A motion was passed at the August council meeting to implement a new accountability measure requiring each member of the SRC to submit a monthly report outlining what they had worked on that month.
When the meeting was rescheduled, the Socialist Alternative faction immediately informed the Secretary that none of their members would be able to attend due to inflexible, re-occurring obligations on Tuesday nights. They stated that the Secretary was already aware of this commitment, as they had informed them months prior.
The Secretary replied that in accordance with the Regulations, “the SRC members present must decide on the next council meeting date” and that “inputs were taken from the present members”.
Glass has not found any mention of this rule in the Regulations and have reached out to the Secretary to clarify where they found this information.
The Regulations state that the Secretary must provide at least seven days’ notice for meetings of the SRC. The rescheduled meeting time was provided to members of the SRC with seven days’ notice but was only published on the Guild Noticeboard the following day, providing students with only six days’ notice.
There have been seven council meetings held this year so far, including the rescheduled AGM.
Rules in the governing documents regarding the minimum number of council meetings the SRC must hold is confusing and contradictory.
As per Regulation 16.3, the Guild is required to hold a minimum of eight council meetings per year. However, Constitution 15.5 states that the SRC must meet at least once per month during the teaching period of the University.
When there is a discrepancy between the two governing documents, the Constitution should be abided by.
At least 11 current members of the SRC are running for re-election, with at least four in positions which have not been contested. Only three of those students attended the rescheduled meeting.
In addition, the only member of the current governance team who was present at the meeting was the Secretary. Neither the President Aamna Asif (who is campaign managing the Reform ticket) nor Treasurer Usama Shafiq (who has been provisionally elected unopposed as Treasurer for the new term) were in attendance.
There are just eight weeks remaining of the current term, with a new term starting on 1 December 2023. It’s disappointing to see so few student representatives actively engaging in student council as they reach the end of their current term and their time with the Student Guild.
The next council meeting will take place at E558 on Kelvin Grove campus on Monday 30 October at 5:30pm. Any QUT student is welcome to attend.
