Democracy Zone (27th November 2014)

Megan welcomed everyone to the meeting. Apologies were received from Ben Morton. Emily Shepherd was absent without apologies.

The following Union members were also in attendance:

Jade Head and Shruti Verma. 

The committee reviewed the minutes from the last meeting held on 14th November.

Jade asked for clarification on Item 5: Sabbatical Term Limits and what, specifically, would Union Council be approving. Megan replied that Council will be approving the membership of the Sabbatical Term Limits Working group.

The Committee voted to approve the minutes; 5 voted for.

Chris explained to the committee that the Student Groups Committee had met earlier today to discuss a funding policy for student groups. Katie Lightowler added that improving the funding process for student groups depends heavily on the successful implementation of the SUSU Bank. Megan suggested meeting with John Mills to confirm some dates that can be worked towards. 

Megan presented this paper to the group. Jade and Shruti both thanked Megan for taking on board the comments that were made at the previous meeting about this paper, and bringing an in-depth and informative paper to this meeting.

After a group discussion regarding the timetable of events outlined in the paper, the following changes were suggested by the group:

• Clarify that lecture shout outs are part of Physical Campaigning, and explain what this entails.
• Add Door-knocking as an activity that be done during Spoken Word Campaigning.
• Remove two of the debate sessions and replace with Q & A with candidates, to happen earlier on in the election period (around the 25th and 26th February).
• Have two debate sessions to happen the week commencing 2nd March, specifically during Spoken Word Campaigning.

Jade asked when SUSU would be publishing these dates and suggested getting them out soon after this meeting as students interested in the elections will want to know these dates. Megan agreed and suggested a creating a document with these dates included as well as explanations why the times were chosen and how it differes from previous years. There is a live website dedicated to the Spring Elections 2015 (www.susu.org/stand) where this information can be displayed. 

Jade suggested that Megan to get in touch with the Debating Society, as she thought they would be happy to assist in preparations for the debates.  

The Committee voted to approve this paper: 3 voted for, 1 abstained.

Megan presented this paper to the group. Guy pointed out a few errors that have been brought up since its release:

• Proposal 13 will be amended to show the correct number of Union Councillors.
• The organisational charts for the proposed make up of the Student Leader Team need to be amended to show the four Media Heads and Union Films Manager as Student Leaders under Creative Industries. 
• Proposal 10 needs correcting; the Student Groups Officer sits on Union Council because they represent all of the student groups.

Megan called for a vote on whether or not to approve this report and the proposals within it; she explained that, due to the tight deadline between now and the submission of Union Council papers, the Committee was also being asked to approve (in principle) the Rule amendments that will be required as a result of this paper. The amended Rule will be circulated to the Committee before being taken to Union Council.

The Committee voted to approve this paper; 4 voted for.

There was no other business and so the meeting closed at 3.50pm. The date of the next Democracy Zone Committee is TBC.