2015 General Meeting

Date: Sunday 1st week, Michaelmas 2015 (2015-10-11)

Agenda

a) Matters Arising

There are no Matters Arising from the previous GM.

b) Passage of Motions without discussion

The list of motions will be read out. Those motions that do not concern amendments to the Constitution or the passing of money may be passed without discussion, if there are no objections and no requests to hear more about the motion.

c) Amendments to the Constitution

1. Online voting [Molly Rogers]

This JCR Notes:

1. The current system of voting is old fashioned and time consuming.

2. The current system of voting requires that anyone who wants to vote in the election must be able to access the JCR

3. Many, if not the majority of other colleges already use online voting.

4. OUSU have a subscription to Mi-Voice online voting software which we can use for free.

This JCR Believes

1. Every member of the JCR deserves to be able to vote in JCR elections.

2. While physical access to the JCR is passable, there may still be students who cannot access the JCR due to psychological reasons such as anxiety or social phobia.

3. Online voting software will increase the ease with which the votes are counted, reducing workload for members of the committee and producing faster results.

This JCR Resolves

1. To take advantage of the new online voting software offered by OUSU and put it into place before the end of Michaelmas term 2015, and to amend the Constitution accordingly.

d) Amendments to Standing Orders

There are no amendments to Standing Orders.

e) Amendments to Standing Policy

There are no amendments to Standing Policy.

f) Main Agenda

2. Vaughan Memorial Travelling Scholarship Condemnation

This JCR notes:

1. That the Vaughan Memorial Travelling Scholarship is an annual scholarship with one recipient, and that preference is given to Balliol students.

2. The scholarship is for study at a foreign university.

3. That the scholarship is advertised by Balliol College to the student body by email in document featuring many other scholarships, prizes and grants.

4. That the scholarship is worth £4000.

5. That winners of the scholarship must be current students “of limited means”.

6. That the grant is exclusively for students who attended Eton College.

7. That to join Eton College one must be a man.

8. That the scholarship is to aid the study of “the social conditions of the common people”.

9. That “any unused income from this fund will be transferred to general funds”.

This JCR believes:

1. That a pot of money which is effectively only available for men, when no other affiliated pots exist for non-men, is unjust and unacceptable.

2. That a grant only available for Old Etonians is unfair and unacceptable; Old Etonians should not have special treatment over people who went to other schools.

3. That a scholarship for the study of “the social conditions of the common people”, by an ex-student of the most privileged school in the country, is repugnant.

4. We are not in Victorian times.

5. That the turn of phrase “of limited means” is so vague that it could be made to include wealthy people, or perhaps even anyone who isn’t of unlimited means.

This JCR resolves:

1. To condemn the Vaughan Memorial Travelling Scholarship.

2. To mandate the JCR President to communicate to the college that the JCR condemns the Vaughan Memorial Travelling Scholarship.

3. To mandate the JCR President to also communicate to the college that the JCR deems it unacceptable for the scholarship to be publicised in the college and prioritised to Balliol students in future years.

4. To mandate the JCR President to enquire about the stipulation in the fund that ‘any unused income from the fund will be transferred to general funds’, and further enquire about the possibility of the money in the fund being used for a better cause than handing out unjust yearly scholarships.

 

3. JCR Poetry Anthology [Ellen Ellis]

This JCR notes:

1. The JCR does not have a Poetry Anthology of everyone’s favorite poems.

2. A recent list of the JCR’s favorite poems collected on National Poetry Day demonstrates a wide variety of themes and styles, and includes poems that are rarely found in anthologies.

This JCR believes:

1. Reading poetry is fun and interesting.

2. Friendly recommendations are a great way of experiencing a wide range of poetry, especially outside your normal experience.

3. Reading another person’s favorite poem is a fantastic way of getting to know them.

4. A poetry anthology would unite the JCR as a community.

This JCR resolves:

1. To publish a collection of poems chosen by members of the JCR, using the Scrawl budget.

2. To print a whole load of them that JCR members can be battelled for.

Amendment I [Ellen Ellis]

Add Resolves 2: ‘To print a whole load of them that JCR members can be battelled for.’

Minutes

Duncan Shepherd welcomed the freshers to their first GM. He outlined what the JCR does, and how this all happens through GMs.

 

1. Duncan explained that we currently vote on paper for JCR elections.

Molly described the voting process that we currently have in place. Molly said her main problem with this was accessibility, in both a physical and social sense. She thought it was important that everyone can vote, regardless of their health. She also pointed out that we can use free software from OUSU if we move the voting online.

Conor Jordan asked if any other colleges use this software. Molly answered that most other colleges do.

James Letten asked if the software can be installed in time for the upcoming elections. Duncan has tested the software, and explained that we are waiting on a list of all college students, which is proving difficult because of changes in the university wide and Balliol IT systems.

Charles Bertlin wondered if other colleges experienced a change in the outcomes of elections after switching to online voting. Duncan said this sounded like debate.

Emily Webb asked if we would we transfer all of our voting to this online system. She particularly had the charities voting in mind. Duncan said that we could leave the charities stuff on the JCR website, because there wasn’t as much of a security risk when it came to voting on charities.

Annie said that OUSU had some issues with this system a few years ago. Duncan said he thought it would be difficult to abuse this system.

Richard asked if the computers in the JCR would still be available. Molly answered that yes they would, but the computer area would need tidying because the computers are currently very hard to access because of all of the stuff being stored in front of them.

Charles asked if this motion would mean constitutional changes. Daisy C replied that yes it would. Charles said would it be possible to do some research in the time between readings into the ways this change could alter the election results. Molly said that research into other JCRs has been done, and she thought that she should be able to find this and bring it with her to the next reading of this motion.

We moved to a vote. The motion passed.

 

2. Xavier Cohen explained that he thinks the scholarship being discussed was left by a benefactor in the early twentieth century. The scholarship of £4000 is for a previous student of Eton College to study at a foreign university, to study the ‘social conditions of the common people’. Any unused income from this fund can be transferred to the General Fund.

Molly Rogers asked how old this scholarship is. Xav said that it was created in the 1930s. John Clark Maxwell offered the point of information that it was in the 1950s. Matthew Lynch asked where the money will go if it is no longer used, and Xav answered that the money would go into the General Fund.

Xav says that a previous recipient of this fund is rumoured to have been a member of the Bullingdon club.

Richard Ware asked if this scholarship is still available to students. Xav said yes - it’s advertised in the 2015 email to students about funding.

Alice Farrell said that according to Bruce, college doesn’t think the scholarship is a good thing either. They transfer it to General Funds automatically anyway.

Conor Jordan asked if the JCR have approached college before on this issue. Xav said no, that’s what his motion is for.

Duncan asked for any more short factual questions, and since there were none we moved to debate.

Ellen Ellis pointed out college has no control over the wording of gifts. She knows this from telethon. Ellen suggested that college could stop advertising the fund.

Hugo Monnery asked if we can check what the college’s current stance is before we condemn the fund. Xav argued that college have warranted condemnation.

Duncan offered the point of information that the word ‘condemnation’ has no official meaning or definition.

Aisha Simon suggested that we may want to reconsider the wording of the motion to make it less aggressive. Xav replied that he disagreed and thought that the more strongly worded the motion, the better.

Xav pointed out that the motion does not condemn the college, only the fund.

Richard Ware said it is not necessarily a bad thing to go in strong with the wording of the motion. College may already be on top of this issue. Richard thought the stronger the motion the better.

Alice thought it was a really good idea for the JCR to condemn the idea of the fund, especially since this is in the press. It would reflect well on the JCR as a body.

John asked if this scholarship is open and publicised to the whole of Oxford. Xav replied that he is unsure if it is open to the entire university.

Daisy Pearson asked where Xav was getting his information from. Xav replied that the only information he had was from the email advertising the fund.

Xavier Greenwood read this email out.

We moved to a vote and the motion passed.

 

Duncan explained that minutes are taken at General Meetings, and that people can offer points of information. Anna Lake Hill added that amendments to motions can be made.

 

3. Ellen explained that she had asked the JCR for their favourite poems. She collected around 40 poems. She then proposed two options to the JCR. The first option was to print a small number of copies of the anthology and to make them available in common JCR spaces such as the JCR and the Buttery. The second option was to print a much larger quantity of copies, and then to sell copies to JCR members that people would be battled for. Ellen brought an amendment to suggest the latter option – printing on a larger scale.

Frances Davis asked if the JCR would still have a copy. Ellen answered yes.

Anna asked if more poems would be collected to add to the 40 Ellen already has. Ellen answered yes.

Xav asked what Oxprint was. Ellen answered that it’s a shop which the JCR has used for printing in the past, and which we could potentially use to print the anthology.

Molly asked if there were a minimum number of copies that would need to be sold in order for the plan to go ahead. Ellen answered yes.

Gaetano Iannetta asked if collecting more poems would make the book too large. Ellen said that the Scrawl budget is large and that she thought that the anthology would still be able to be made even if it was quite long.

Daisy Cutts asked if the JCR is allowed legally to reprint other people’s poems. Ellen explained that she didn’t think there would be a legal problem.

Meg Peyton Jones asked if we could look at printing with Greenprint. Daisy Pearson said that they do offer large scale printing services. Ellen said she was happy to look into using the company Greenprint.

We moved to a vote on the amendment, which passed. We then moved to a vote on the motion as a whole. The motion passed.

 

The meeting ended.