SUSU Annual General Meeting: The Results

Tuesday 17th May saw SUSU’s Annual General Meeting take place in the Union Cinema. Despite huge efforts from the Sabb team and a dedicated team of SUSU volunteers, we didn’t reach the 250 people required in attendence at the AGM to make the votes stand. This means, that the decisions made at the AGM will be brought to the next Union Council (Monday 13th June, 5pm, Union Cinema).

Anyone can attend this Union Council, but unlike the AGM, only elected Union Councillors can vote. If you want to stand to be a Union Councillor, come along to the next meeting and find out how. We won’t be discussing the decisions made at AGM again, but we will be discussing whether or not councillors think the meeting had enough people at it, was well organised enough to make the decisions stand.

The first part of the AGM saw myself and the other Sabbs deliver a presentation on the Union’s successes, achievements and setbacks over the year. You can view the slideshow of the presentation here: http://www.susu.org/general-meeting/. Items discussed were the new SUSU brand, SUSU’s battle against the rise in tuition fees, the Sabbatical and Executive officer review and many other achievements.

The following motions were presented to and voted on at the AGM:

Motion 1: Nestle Boycott – AMENDED MOTION PASSED

Motion 2: Democratic participation and student political engagement – PASSED

Motion 3: Valuing Diversity Policy – AMENDED MOTION PASSED

Motion 4: Tuition Fees – PASSED

To see the motions in full, follow this link: http://www.susu.org/general-meeting/motions

The Nestle motion, although it failed, was actually passed in part. There was a suggestion from the floor that we use a procedural motion on the question, which meant that we took the motion in two parts. The first part being asking SUSU to educate students on the ethical issues relating to Nestle, and the second part being that we boycott their products in all outlets. The first part, mandating SUSU to educate students was passed, but the second part, to boycott products, was not. This helped to set a useful precedent at SUSU; students have called out to be educated on the issues regarding ethical trading, so next year’s sabbs now have a strong mandate to do that, and to look into the ethical merits of all of our suppliers.

There was also an election for next year’s Union Council Chair. Running in the election were James Miles, David Cooke and Meera Burgess. The winner was James Miles, who has also held the role of Union Council Chair this year.

If you missed the AGM, you can watch the whole thing online here:

http://www.susu.org/general-meeting/