2015 General Meeting

By admin, 30 March, 2022
Date of Meeting

    2015 General Meeting

    Date: Sunday 1st week, Trinity 2015 (2015-04-26)

    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. Second Hearing - Manifesto Length [Richard May & John Clark-Maxwell]

    This JCR notes:

    1. The current rules for election manifestos, which state that manifestos may be no more than 500 words in length for a Presidential candidate and 100 words for all other candidates.

    This JCR believes:

    1. That 100 words may be insufficient to adequately explain your ideas, and that a fixed word limit creates pressure to use it all.

    2. That restricting candidates to one side of A4 would solve both of the above issues.

    3. That candidates will not take advantage of the proposed rule to write an essay instead of a manifesto, because nobody will read it.

    This JCR resolves:

    1. To amend Part VIII clause 3.2 of the Constitution, striking and replacing it with “3.2. All candidates are entitled to produce a manifesto, limited to one side of A4 paper in length.”

    2. Second Hearing – Emergency General Meetings [Richard May]

    This JCR notes:

    1. The recent situation, in which we had to call two Emergency General Meetings immediately following one another.

    2. That this is due to Part VII, clause 4.2 of the Constitution, which states that “Emergency General Meetings may only discuss a single motion”.

    3. That this restriction is intended to prevent an EGM from turning into a normal GM rather than being used for time-sensitive issues.

    This JCR believes:                                      

    1. That this restriction is overly broad, in that it prevents multiple time-sensitive motions being discussed at the same EGM.

    This JCR resolves:

    1. To amend Part VII clause 4.2 of the Constitution, striking and replacing it with “4.2 Emergency General Meetings may only discuss urgent time-sensitive motions.”

    3. First Hearing – More Constitutional Errata [Richard May]

    This JCR notes:

    1. That “General Meeting motion” is defined at the start of the Constitution.

    2. That this term appears nowhere else in the Constitution.

    3. That “Committee Officer” is defined at the start of the Constitution.

    4. That the definition of Committee Officer is circular and unhelpful.

    This JCR believes:

    1. That unnecessary and circular definitions are unnecessary and circular.

    This JCR resolves:

    1. To strike the definition of “General Meeting motion’ from the Constitution.

    2. To strike and replace the definition of “Committee Officer’ in the Constitution with “Committee Officer means a Member holding a Committee Office”.

    4. First Hearing – Binding General Meeting Motions [Richard May]

    This JCR notes:

    1. That once we are a legally registered charity, we cannot mandate our members to do things that contradict our charitable status.

    2. That we often bring fun GM motions.

    3. That the category of ‘fun GM motions’ contains joke motions, not just amendments to governing documents.

    4. That we currently prohibit the bringing of motions that are defamatory or vexatious.

    This JCR believes:

    1. That joke motions are entertaining and important.

    2. That the fun of joke motions is spoilt by replacing all the resolves with ‘do nothing’ in order to make it Constitutional.

    3. That it would be good if we could pass joke motions in a way that was non-binding.

    4. That it should be clear whether a motion is non-binding when people are discussing and voting on it.

    This JCR resolves:

    1. To amend Part IV clause 1.5 of the Constitution, changing “Any resolution of a General Meeting […] is binding […] provided the resolution is consistent with the law, this Constitution and Standing Orders” to “Any resolution of a General Meeting […] is binding […] provided the resolution is consistent with the law, this Constitution and Standing Orders, and is not frivolous, vexatious or defamatory”.

    2. To request that, both when a motion is proposed and when voting begins, the Chair of the General Meeting makes clear whether a motion would fall under this clause and be non-binding.

    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

    5. Dignity Drive [Kat Pritchard & Charlotte Suttle]

    This JCR notes:

    1. That many homeless and vulnerably housed people in Oxfordshire have difficulty with regular access to sanitary products while menstruating.

    2. That Oxford Dignity Drive will take place throughout second week

    3. That this will be a one-off drive to collect physical donations of sanitary products to be donated to a number of shelters in Oxford and Oxfordshire.

    4. That there will also be a drive to raise funds to purchase sanitary products for additional donations.

    5. That over the course of the second week drive there will also be a programme of events to raise awareness about this issue and other related topics including homelessness and stigma around menstruation.

    6. That there are a number of administrative costs such as speaker travel expenses and purchases of boxes for storage of products.

    This JCR believes:

    1. That sanitary products are an essential item for people who menstruate, and that homeless people should not be forced to use unsafe or unhygienic alternatives.

    2. That by donating products and by raising awareness, Oxford Dignity Drive will be campaigning against this injustice against homeless and vulnerably housed people in Oxford.

    This JCR resolves:

    1. To donate £100 from the Tampon Fund towards Oxford Dignity Drive.

    6. Free Zumba [Jacob Rabinowitz & Benedict Simon]

    This JCR notes:

    1. That the Welfare zumba event last term was a great success.
    2. That other colleges including Wadham host regular zumba classes that are free for college members.
    3. That zumba classes run by the Wadham instructor, Rhiannon, cost £40 for an hour. 4 sessions would therefore cost £160, 6 sessions would cost £240.
    4. That if the JCR would rather yoga than zumba, we can look into a yoga instructor, but it’s unlikely to be much more expensive.
    5. That the MCR have agreed to fund half the cost of the classes, leaving the cost to the JCR at around £125.
    6. That there is a high probability of reimbursement of at least some of the cost from the Sports Committee when it meets this autumn, especially if the scheme proves popular.

    This JCR believes:

    1. That zumba is fun, and a great workout.
    2. That yoga is good for you.

    This JCR resolves:

    1. To choose between yoga and zumba.
    2. To pass £125 for free yoga / zumba classes for Balliol members.

    Amendment I [Anna Hufton]: Passed

    Amend Resolves to remove mention of yoga.

    Minutes


    1. Second Hearing - Manifesto Length

    The motion was passed without discussion.

    2. Second Hearing - Emergency General Meetings

    The motion was passed without discussion.

    3. First Hearing – More Constitutional Errata.

    Richard May summarised the motion. John called for a move to a vote. 

    The motion passed.

    4. First Hearing – Binding General Meeting Motions

    Richard May summarised the motion. Richard Ware asked who would decide whether a meeting was frivolous – Duncan said that he would clarify at the start of meetings but ultimately the decision would lie with the Board of Trustees.

    Matt Lynch asked what specifically would prohibit this sort of motion; Duncan clarified that we would be expected to act only in the interests of the charity.

    John asked what would happen if we didn’t pass this. Duncan said that the Board of Trustees would have to meet to decide whether the motion was in the best interests of the charity, and would then overrule the GM. He explained that the purpose of the motion was to make clear what the process would be.

    The motion passed.

    5. Dignity Drive

    Kat summarised the motion. Richard Ware asked if we could donate more than £100; Kat said she could ask the charity and bring another motion if that was what people want.

    Richard May asked how much was in the fund at the moment; John replied that it was £6320.87.

    Rose asked how many tampons could be bought using the money in the fund; after some calculations, John replied that we could buy 42,238 tampons.

    Anna asked how much Kat envisioned spending from the fund this term; Kat said that her goal was to find a sustainable way to run the fund down over a long period of time.

    Tom asked how quickly the fund was currently being run down; Kat said that they were expecting costs of about £800 a term using the new order form system they had brought in.

    We moved to a vote. The motion passed.

    6. Free Zumba

    Ben and Jacob summarised the motion.

    Rose asked whether Sports Committee would backdate the funds; Jacob responded that they would.

    Richard Ware asked where the money would come from; Jacob said it would come from JCR funds initially and Sports Committee funds after September.

    It was remarked that an MCR member was willing to run yoga sessions for free, and that thus we could deal with yoga separately. Anna Hufton brought an amendment to make the motion only about zumba, and it was taken as friendly.

    Richard May asked how many zumba sessions a week would take place. Jacob said they’d budgeted for six; Richard asked with some excitement whether that was per week, but was disappointed to learn this was per term.

    We moved to a vote. The motion passed.

    The meeting ended.