2017 General Meeting

Date: Sunday 5th week, Michaelmas 2017 (2017-11-05)

Agenda

Michaelmas Term 5th Week GM Agenda 2017

 

1. Matters arising

President's report

 

1. Amendments to the Governing Documents

i) Welfare Subcommittee (Juliet and Amrita)

ii) Executive Subcommittee (Zach)

 

1. Motions relating to financial matters

 

i) Nightline (Rivka Shaw)

ii) CPR Manikin (Jonny Martin)
 

1. Any other motions

 

1. Appendices

 

 

 

1. Matters arising

 

President’s report

 

b) Amendments to the Governing Documents

 

i) Welfare Subcommittee (Juliet and Amrita)

This JCR notes:

1. That there is currently a lack of clarity over the role of Drs WHO and Welfare Subcommittee and that their standing orders in their current form are vague

This JCR believes:

1. That we want to ensure that both the people in welfare roles and the members of the JCR know what the role entails so that everyone can properly benefit from the role and for the officers to be effective

2. That the role of ‘being a representative’ currently in the standing orders of all welfare subcommittee roles leaves room for ambiguity

This JCR resolves

1. To change the standing orders of the Drs WHO according to Appendix 1 PASSES

2. To update the standing orders of the Student Disabilities Officers according to Appendix 2 PASSES

3. To update the standing orders of the Ethnic Minorities Officers according to Appendix 3 PASSES

4. To update the standing orders of the International Students Officers according to Appendix 4 PASSES

5. To update the standing orders of the LGBTQ+ Officers according to Appendix 5 PASSES

6. To update the standing orders of the Women’s Officers according to Appendix 6 PASSES

7. To update the standing orders of the Class Affiliations and First Generation Officers according to Appendix 7

 

Amendment (friendly)

Strike resolves g

 

ii) Executive Subcommittee (Zach) rescinded

This JCR notes:

1. That there are currently three major committee structures; committee (roughly 35 members), finance subcommittee (9 members) and welfare subcommittee (roughly 15 members).

2. That most colleges have an executive committee, which comprises the president, the vice president, the treasurer, the welfare officers and the secretary (6 members).

3. That committee often has to make decisions that are of a nature that an executive committee of the type described in 2) usually makes in other colleges.

4. That these decisions are best made by smaller committees which maximally represent the different aspects of committee and the JCR

5. That currently, financial subcommittee is the committee that most often gets used to make decisions of this nature, despite them being strictly speaking beyond their remit, and despite key members of committee not being present.

6. That committee lunches are impotent in this regard because of their size, and because of the confidential nature of much of the information that is discussed surrounding decisions of this nature.

7. That welfare reps are a very significant part of core committee and are elected to perform an executive role to a far greater extent than foodies and the Lindsay, who are elected to be concerned with their own institutions respectively

8. That despite f), welfare reps sit only on the welfare subcommittee, which is attended by no other member of financial subcommittee, and committee lunch, which by e) is impotent.

This JCR believes:

1. That an effective decision making executive committee is crucial to crisis response and positive negotiation with college on sensitive matters

2. That an executive committee should include, at minimum, the president, the vice president, the welfare reps, the treasurer and the secretary

3. That the financial subcommittee should be used to discuss financial matters only.

This JCR resolves:

1. To amend Part IV of the standing orders to include Appendix 8 as its first entry

 

c) Motions relating to financial matters

 

i) Nightline (Rivka Shaw) (moved)

The JCR notes:

1. Life at university, though usually a positive experience, can be difficult for some people, and students commonly face difficulties including moving away from home, family and friends, the stress of their chosen course, financial problems, mental or physical illness, assault or bereavement

2. Oxford Nightline is a confidential listening service run by students for students – the service provides trained anonymous student listeners available to talk and give information from 8pm-8am every night during term

3. Nightline has been supporting students for the last 45 years and this has only been possible thanks to the continued generosity of colleges, JCRs and MCRs in their donations which allows Nightline to meet costs including keeping the phones running, training new volunteers and publicising our service

4. Since launching a new online instant messaging service in 2016, the number of calls and visits received by Oxford Nightline per term has more than doubled and the organisation is looking to expand its rigorous training programme to meet this surge in demand

The JCR believes:

1. The service provided by Oxford Nightline is a valuable component of the university welfare system in addition to college welfare, by providing support for people who feel uncomfortable/hesitant going to college welfare officers late at night or would prefer to speak to someone anonymously outside of their college/department

2. A donation to Oxford Nightline would greatly benefit members of this JCR by enabling this valuable service to continue supporting students

The JCR resolves:

1. To donate £100 to Nightline.

2. To create a Nightline optional levy of 50p.

 

ii) CPR Manikin (Jonny Martin) passes

This JCR notes:

1. Every 1 minute delay in administration of CPR after the heart stops decreases survival chance by 10%.

2. After 4 minutes without oxygen there is likely to be permanent brain damage .

3. 70-80% of cardiac arrests occur at home or in public. A bystander who is competent in basic first aid will radically increase the chance of survival.

4. Members of the JCR who know basic first aid are willing to teach others.

5. When learning CPR it is important to gain practical experience with a CPR manikin.

6. www.equip-me.co.uk will rent out manikins at a price of £50 each for a week plus postage (around £35 each way for 10 manikins).

7. The price for rental of a dummy AED is £96 for a week from the same company.

8. There has been significant interest in basic first aid in the JCR (53 people liked the  post on the freshers page).

This JCR believes:

1. Encouraging everyone to gain practical experience of basic first aid, particularly CPR, is important and could save lives.

2. Not enough people know basic first aid (as few as 15% of the population are competent in CPR).

This JCR resolves:

1. To pass £676 for rental of 10 manikins for a week and encourage participation within and outside the JCR.

i) (£50*10 + £96 for rental, £70 for postage, £10 for assorted other items - e.g. disinfectant wipes to clean manikins between uses).

 

d) Any other motions

 

e) Appendices

 

Appendix 1:

 

Dr WHO; Wellbeing and health

In addition to other duties imposed by the Constitution and Standing Orders and by the resolutions of the Committee or of General Meetings, the Dr. WHO shall:

1. Chair the meetings of the Welfare Subcommittee; which are open to all members of JCR and will be minuted. In situations where necessary there be reserved meetings, which will always be followed by open meetings building on what was discussed

2. co-ordinate the activities of the welfare-related Committee Offices;

3. manage the general logistics and distribution of welfare provisions,assisted by other welfare-related Committee Offices as necessary.

4. Provide JCR members with information and signposts to resources within academic, administrative and health related capacities

5. Represent the JCR to the college on issues of welfare and anti-discrimination.

6. Run events within the JCR to help foster a JCR community and feeling of approachability

7. In the case of welfare concerns which affect the interests of more than one group in different ways where a decision can not be made within the subcommittee meeting, present the discussion to committee at the open Committee Lunch for further input, following which the Drs WHO and President and Vice-President will decide if wider JCR input is needed in the form of a GM’

 

Amendment 1 (friendly)

Strike from g) “Drs Who and President and Vice President” to “committee”

 

Amendment 2 (friendly)

Change point g: After first comma add: or where welfare subcommittee’s decision requires exercising powers or taking on responsibilities (that at least one member of subcommittee feels are) not clearly supported by the precedent or constitutional authority

 

Amendment 3 (withdrawn)

Change point a: In situations where necessary there be reserved meetings exclusively for welfare sub, there be minutes

 

Amendment 4 (friendly)

Leave 1.a unchanged : Strike after “chair… subcommittee”

Appendix 2

Add to (b) “to College and in Committee and Welfare Subcommittee meetings”

 

Appendix 3

Add to (a) “to College and in Committee and Welfare Subcommittee meetings”

 

Appendix 4

Add to (b) “to College and in Committee and Welfare Subcommittee meetings”

 

Appendix 5

Add a clause (e) “represent the interests of Balliol JCR’s LGBTQ+ students to College and in Committee and Welfare Subcommittee meetings”

 

Appendix 6

Add to (a) “to College and in Committee and Welfare Subcommittee meetings”

 

Appendix 7

Remove the clause “Providing peer support for students who encounter any negative issues as a result of their socioeconomic class. Including but not limited to the issues addressed in i.7 above”

 

Appendix 8

1. Executive Subcommittee

1.1. Executive Subcommittee is an advisory body, which exists to:

a) discuss any JCR matter which is inappropriate for committee lunch, finance subcommittee or welfare subcommittee,

b) discuss issues related to finance subcommittee or welfare subcommittee which are relevant to or require action from members of executive subcommittee who were not present in the first instance,

c) co-ordinate the provision of JCR services and

d) co-ordinate negotiations and communications with college.

 

1.2. The powers of Executive Subcommittee are limited; specifically it shall have no power to:

a) authorise expenditure of the JCR’s money;

b) overrule the Committee on any matter whether financial or otherwise, though it may offer advice and recommendations; and

c) interfere with the day-to-day expenditure of the JCR, which shall remain at the discretion of the Treasurer,

d) make any decisions which would ordinarily require a GM

 

1.3. Executive Subcommittee comprises five Committee Offices, consisting of:

a) the President;

b) the Vice-President;

c) the Treasurer;

d) the Drs WHO

e) the Secretary

 

1.4. Executive Subcommittee shall meet at least eight times each term at times to be determined by the Vice-President.

 

1.5. Executive Subcommittee shall be chaired by the Vice-President, or in their absence the President. The Chair shall have the responsibility to:

a) give notice to members when and where the next meeting shall be held;

b) circulate an agenda, specifying particulars of the business to be transacted at that meeting of the Executive Subcommittee and the order in which that business is to be transacted.

 

1.6. Quorum shall consist of a representative from at least four offices outlined in 1.3.

 

1.7. The subcommittee shall then discuss any other relevant matters, and make recommendations to Committee Officers.

 

1.8. The minutes Executive Subcommittee meetings shall be taken by the Secretary, who shall publicise them to the members of the JCR.

1.9???

1.10. Ordinary Members may attend meetings of Executive Subcommittee subject to the discretion of the Chair.

 

1.11. Subject to majority approval, the Executive Subcommittee may decide to go in camera to discuss an agenda item.

a) Should the Executive Subcommittee decide to go in camera, any Ordinary Members present shall leave unless requested to stay by a majority of the Executive Subcommittee.

b) No minutes may be taken relating to discussions held in camera.

Minutes



Hubert’s Presidential report 

Firstly, the question of the Dean being on the JCR Facebook page was taken to an Exec meeting where everyone agreed with the JCR’s reasons. It probably won’t be brought up again. 

There is a new Domestic Bursurer coming in on the 4th of December to run all administrative things, with college hoping to shift the role towards someone ‘with more HR experience.’ We will also be having an interim master after Drummond leaves in early January. 

Balliol has applicants for the refugee scholarship this year and Hubert said he will talk about it with Calum and Izzy who have been working hard on the programme. 

Hubert also had a discussion with college on Wednesday about rent rebates and how that is going. We now have a streamline system in place with a form to fill in to see if you qualify for a rebate. 

Hubert also said that Hall have now started £1.70 for salad over a certain amount and this has been brought to the attention of the Domestic Bursurer who will deal with it. 

 

There is a procedural motion brought by Jonny to bring his motion first. Motion passes. 

 

Manikins (Jonny) 

Jonny said he would like to put on some basic first aid classes early next term and would like to rent some manikins to be able to teach CPR. The total cost of this would be about £676. 

Hannah asked if there was sufficient interest in the classes to justify the costs and Jonny replied that he recently posted on the Facebook page and got 53 likes to show people interested in taking such classes. 

Zach asked how many people are happy to run the classes and Jonny said that at least six or seven people have replied and are willing to help. 

Calum asked if 10 manikins is a bit excessive and Zach asked if it would make more sense to rent fewer and have double the number of classes, since there are people who would help to run the classes. Jonny said he wants to do the classes with 20 people in them, which is 2 for each manikin, and he had also thought about opening it up to MCR members as well as JCR. 

Stephen added that it seems like a good, important thing to do and to ask people who are willing to run it to give up more of their time and run more classes might make it less effective and make them less happy to do so. 

Ellen suggested getting different types of manikin, like that of children and babies, and Nermeen replied that baby CPR would require a different course entirely. 

Juliet asked if this would give students a qualification, but Jonny said that it wouldn’t, as otherwise he would have to be a qualified instructor.

Ali said that this would also be a lot cheaper than getting a professional instructor in to teach it, as classes can cost up to £500. 

 

Motion passes. 

 

Welfare Sub-Committee (Juliet and Amrita)

Juliet said that together they have sent out a few google forms and done a few working group meetings to get input from the JCR about what they would like to discuss and change about the welfare officers’ standing orders. On the back of this, the main things that were taken away was a desire to get a much clearer description about the roles and organisation of welfare sub members and signposting to other professionals. Juliet explained that through this motion, they would like to clarify what is meant by ‘be a representative’ in the standing orders and are incredibly open to any part of the motion being discussed and changed. 

 

It is agreed to discuss each resolves in order. 

Resolves 1 concerns the role of the Drs Who. 

 

Juliet explained that through the motion, they have introduced a mimim requirement of the role for all officers to meet. Individuals are welcome to go above and beyond this basic step but they want to make it clear to the JCR what is going on with every step with welfare sub-committee. Juliet said she wants to make a more formal procedure so that there is no onus on a single individual. 

Nick asked what the ‘meeting to build on what is discussed’ means. Juliet said that using the JdeB situation as an example, the initial meeting is for welfare sub to get all the information and regroup in a sensitive setting to discuss what has happened. It is only after this that they can come to an open meeting environment to discuss things with the rest of Committee or the JCR.  

Nicky asked what sort of situation it is envisaged that these meetings would require. Amrita replied that hopefully there wouldn’t be any but an example would be the JdeB situation, i.e something that has caused harm and upset to the JCR and needs discussing in a wider capacity. 

Nicky asked what the rationale is behind non-minuted meetings. Amrita said that there may be difficult welfare concerns and so officers will have opinions or information that they don’t want to be published. 

Ste asked if the part that allows a committee majority decision to bring an issue to GM changes the approach that a single member of welfare sub can, with any concerns, veto a decision. Amrita said that individuals can still raise concerns but this limits individual accountability. 

Nicky proposes an amendment to the wording of part G of the appendix, which is taken as friendly. 

Will said that recently the role of welfare and the subcommittee has changed quite a lot. There has been greater participation from welfare sub, e.g with Balliol compliments and the charity musical. Although there has been no formal relationship between the writers of the musical and welfare sub, welfare sub still read and edited the script. There is now a sense that welfare sub has become much more involved with things going on in the JCR and he wonders if it is a good thing for welfare to have such a big role. Juliet said that any committee and role has to adapt to a changing context around you and this has happened over the last twelve months. Not having a procedure in place doesn’t solve the fact that decisions need to be made. This motion doesn’t really concern scrawl or the charity musical, but describe the procedure to be undertaken if there is an incident in the JCR. 

Will said he thinks that the motion is slightly too vague as it doesn't make it clear what the remit of welfare is. Juliet said that the motion doesn’t try to clarify the remit, but the procedure. Therefore, as they can’t predict exactly what any dispute might be, they haven't been specific. 

Zach said, in response to Will, that he thinks welfare’s role has always been as a executive to respond to issues within the JCR. The fact that welfare officers were primarily organisational before this year was because the year was uneventful and didn’t need such intervention. This doesn’t mean that they didn’t have the power.

Nicky proposes another amendment to part G of the Appendix, which is taken as friendly. 

Zach asked why the standing orders have been changed from ‘assistance and information’ to ‘information and signposting.’ He argued that providing assistance with welfare is what permits people to make decisions. Amrita said that with this, they really wanted to distinguish between welfare sub members and peer supporters. There may be some officers who want to go above and beyond the requirements, but this is not to be required any more.  

Zach replied that we now would have a subcommittee led by welfare officers who are coordinating people who represent people without representing people on their own. Through this change, it doesn’t look like they can assist. Juliet replied that they are trying to move away from any welfare sub person being assimilated with peer supporters or trained professionals. They want people within the JCR to be able to come to them and they can point them to the resources they need. 

Luke adds that in the working group, one thing that was mentioned was a need to move away from personal individual assistance to helping groups and professional help. 

Someone (I didn’t catch who) asked why there was a separate role (AcAf) that also signposts resources within their academic capacity and Juliet replied that there is no harm in having extra help and provision of resources available. This is supported by Zach. 

Nicky proposes an amendment regarding the minuted and non-minuted meetings and when confidentiality can be used to go in camera. 

There is some discussion on what confidentiality means and when it should be applied. Isis said that some people might not be comfortable saying things they want to knowing that it could be misinterpreted. Nicky countered that speaking in a representative role is an important part of the job and the JCR deserve to know what individuals have said on their behalf. 

Upon further discussion about the constitution’s content on confidentiality, Nicky withdraws the amendment. 

There is then some discussion both removing the second sentence of resolves a). Ste said that it is too limiting in that if a majority decides not to take to a GM it seems to undermine the point of a GM. Juliet replied that this doesn’t prevent the individual from taking it to a GM, just the committee as a whole. 

No opposition to part a). 

Part a) passes. 

 

Resolves b,c,d,f

Zach says this is sensible and let’s do it.

All pass. 

 

Resolves e also passes.

 

Resolves g)

Juliet said that she is willing to strike this as it is the same as the standing orders (the standing orders have stopped working on the website!). 

Will asked if ‘support’ is too vague. Juliet replied that this was discussed at that GM. 

 

Motion as a whole passes. 

 

 

Further motions to be discussed at the 7th week GM. Not at quorum to continue.