Democracy Zone (29th October 2013)

1.1 Apologies and attendance was noted as above.

1.2 Jamie Barker, Union Councillor, was absent without apology.

2.1 The minutes from the meeting held on Tuesday 8th October were approved.

Spring Elections

After discussion, it was decided that the notice period for the spring elections would coincide with the release of publicity for the elections, this will happen on Tuesday 10th December. This was approved by the committee.

The dates for the Spring Elections were set. Nominations will open on Friday 7th February, 12pm and close on Monday 17th February, 12pm. The candidates briefing will be on Tuesday 18th February, 12pm alongside the start of campaigning. Voting will open on Monday 24th February, 12pm and close on the following Friday (28th) at 4pm. These dates were approved by the committee.

Union Council

After discussion and feedback from the UC meeting held on 21st October, David Martin reported that the majority of students were happier with a later starting time of 6pm and that alternating the days on which UC is held would be beneficial for some students. With this in mind, the dates for the first two UC meetings of 2014 were decided and approved. These dates are Tuesday 4th February and Thursday 20th March. Relevant staff will meet to discuss any staffing issues that arise from the later start. Due to the shortness of the summer term, the committee were unable to formally set the dates for the final two meetings and Katy O'Brien suggested asking all members of the UC for their opinion on this matter through a social media site. The committee agreed that this would be the best course of action. As there is a possibility that UC may be held after summer exams and therefore be inquorate, Jamie Hemingway suggested voting by proxy, this will be looked into as a possible solution. 

There was general agreement that there was unnecessary over-representation  of the Creative Industries Zone, however as the next Student Groups Committee were meeting within the next few days, and required a voting membership, this by-law was approved. It was agreed that the by-law should be returned to a future Democracy Zone Committee (DZC) meeting and discussed further.

As the Spring Elections dates have now been formally set, David Gilani proposed creating the working group that would oversee the elections. Guy Drury advised that this could be done during the next DZC, held two weeks from now. David Gilani felt strongly that it would be best to create the group now so that planning of the elections could start straight away. As a compromise, David Martin put forward the idea of organising an open student meeting, held before the next DZC, about the issue where ideas could be discussed. The committee agreed on this course of action. 

There was no other business and the meeting was declared closed at 11.45am, the date of the next meeting will be Friday 15th November, 2pm.