2015 General Meeting

Date: Sunday 5th week, Michaelmas 2015 (2015-11-08)

Agenda

Reports from Officers

Update on Ball Committee activity [Abi Williams]

Abi, accompanied by the other members of the Ball Subcommittee, will be giving a verbal report on the activities of the Ball Subcommittee over the past few weeks and will also explain the plans for the Committee and the Ball in the future.

a) Matters Arising

 

1. Sports Rep. motion [Charlotte Suttle, Alice Farrell and Ben Simon] passed

 

This JCR notes:

1. The Sports Reps. are responsible for ensuring that students have access to good sporting facilities within College

2. This includes promoting sport within Balliol and representing the JCR to College in the acquisition of funds for sport

3. Sports in Balliol are played by people of all genders on both mixed and single gender teams

4. Although lack of institutional memory makes it difficult to provide exact details, there has not been a sports rep. who does not identify as male for at least the last four years

5. Sports Reps. are not currently members of the JCR Committee

 

This JCR believes:

1. Sport is a significant part of many JCR members’ experiences of their time at Balliol and should be treated as such

2. The Sports reps. play a crucial role in ensuring that sport remains a service provided for all members of the JCR

3. Sports Reps. would be better able to access JCR funds as well as represent the JCR to College if they were on JCR Committee

4. Due to the way in which sport in Balliol is currently organised, with mixed and single gender teams, Sports Reps. would best represent JCR sport if they were in a team who self-identify as different genders

 

This JCR resolves:

1. Make the Sports Reps. members of JCR Committee

2. Amend the constitution such that it states that this position must be held by a pair of individuals who self-identify as different genders

3. Mandate the Sports Reps. and treasurer to review the status of Sports Reps. not currently having a budget and how best JCR funds can be used towards provision of sport in future

4. To amend the JCR Constitution in accordance with the above

 

b) Passage of Motions without discussion

c) Amendments to the Constitution

2. Comrade Procedure [John Clark-Maxwell and Jack Wheatley] - passes

This JCR notes:

1. The JCR has a lot of procedure, some of which is complex and obscure
2. The JCR has a lot of institutional memory, but it is rarely read
3. Sometimes procedure is not followed correctly at GMs

This JCR believes:

1. Procedure is important, and allows the JCR to run smoothly and fairly
2. Institutional memory is important, and allows the JCR not to repeat the mistakes of the past
3. Procedure and Institutional Memory are underrepresented and underappreciated.
4. It is not reasonable to expect that the existing committee officers will adequately represent procedure and institutional memory, as they are burdened with mandates of their own.

This JCR resolves:

1. To Create a new Non-Committee office, named the Comrade Procedure
2. To mandate the Comrade Procedure to ensure that procedure is followed, and that institutional memory is brought the attention of the JCR as and when it is relevant
3. To mandate the Comrade Procedure to attend GMs and Committee lunch
4. To purchase a small bell for the person filling this position, which shall be rung when procedure is not being followed correctly, or when an incorrect claim about institutional memory is made
5. To pass a budget of £50 per term for the person holding this position, for the upkeep of all procedural affairs
6. To update the constitution and standing orders to reflect these changes.

d) Amendments to Standing Orders

e) Amendments to Standing Policy

f) Main Agenda

3. New projector [Alex McKenzie] - passes

This JCR notes:

1. The current projector is very old, and its bulbs have stopped being manufactured

2. When the current bulb dies, we will not be able to watch films or project agendas at GMs until we have replaced the projector

3. The current projector is interfaced via VGA, an old (analogue) technology that many modern laptops do not support

4. The JCR is not short of money

5. The Web&Comp officer has done preliminary research, and believes that £1500 would be sufficient to buy a good quality projector and all the associated equipment

    

   This JCR believes:

6. A good quality projector is a worthy investment

   This JCR resolves:

7. To mandate the Website and Computing Officer to spend up to £1500 on a projector and associated equipment (cables, AV receiver, screen, bracket, etc.)

   4. Funding for OAS speaker [Jennifer Ashby] - passes

   This JCR notes:

8. Oxford Against Slavery (OAS) is a student-run organization that aims to stimulate discussion around the issue of modern slavery, mostly in relation to human trafficking. The organization also holds fundraising events to support the work of larger anti-slavery organizations working in the field.

9. OAS are running an educational speaker event on November 12th. The speaker is coming from the Bristol non-profit Unseen which works on both raising awareness and educating the public on the issues surrounding modern slavery, as well as directly grappling with the consequences of slavery and human trafficking and trying to take preventative measures.(http://www.unseenuk.org/). As well as the speaker event, OAS will take the opportunity to introduce the speaker to our committee to improve communications between our groups and improve future actions through establishing a network.

10. OAS is a non-profit student volunteer-led organisation and needs £60 to purchase a day return ticket for the speaker to travel from Bristol to Oxford.

11. A member of the JCR, Jenni Ashby, is one of the events facilitators.

12. That without the money the event and group planning cannot go ahead.

 

This JCR believes:

1. That this event is a worthy cause to support.

 

This JCR resolves:

1. To give £60 to cover the costs of the speaker so the work can go ahead.

 

5. Vegetarian food in hall [Matt Smith] – not put

This JCR Notes:

1. That in hall the vegetarian option is the same price as the non-vegetarian option.

This JCR Believes:

1. That it costs significantly less to produce a vegetarian main course.

2. That given the environmental impact of producing meat is so great; people should be encouraged to supplement it with vegetarian meals.

3. That to encourage people to eat vegetarian meals a price difference should be instated.

This JCR Resolves:

1. To mandate the JCR President to communicate to college that the JCR would like to reduce the price of vegetarian food in hall.

    

   Amendment 1 (Kat)

   Change Resolves 1 to:

   1. To mandate someone to ask college what the price difference between meat and vegetarian meals for college

    

   Amendment 2 (Tom):

   Strikes believes 1

 

6. Paper for the printers [Matt Smith] - passed

This JCR Notes:

1. That the Balliol ICT Services department are not open during night hours.

2. That if the printer in the IT suite jams or runs out of paper during these hours, members of the college can find themselves unable to print.

3. That being unable to print can leave college members in a stickier situation than when sticky the stick insect got stuck on a sticky bun.

This JCR believes:

1. That the Porters are happy to stock a ream of paper to distribute in such an eventuality.

2. That the Porters or someone with similarly excellent availability could be trained in unblocking the printer.

This JCR Resolves:

1. That the Porters should be given a ream of paper for use in such cases as when the printer has run out of paper.

Amendment 1 (Alex): Friendly

Strike believes 2

Amendment 2 (Aisha): passed

Strike resolves 1

Add resolves 1:

1. Mandate the JCR Computer Officer to talk to college about finding a solution for these issues

7. Cuntry living [Indigo Wilde] - passed

This JCR Notes:

1. Cuntry Living (zine) needs urgent help with funding in order to continue with publication.

This JCR Believes:

1. Cuntry Living is a great source for both educating on and platforming radical artistic feminist discussion both Oxford-wide and globally.

2. Cuntry Living will be forced to cease publication if they run out of funding and lose out on JCR support.

3. All supporting colleges are allocated ~50 zines for the enjoyment of their associated JCRs.

4. This JCR has, on multiple occasions, successfully supported financing the publication and printing of Cuntry Living in the past.

5. Past funding has been in the region of £150.

This JCR Resolves:

1. That the JCR donate £150 to the publication of Cuntry Living MT15.

 

8. Rose Hill Fund Motion [Xavier Greenwood] – in parts, all parts pass

This JCR notes:

1. We have a fund to reimburse the travel costs of JCR members participating in the reading scheme at Rose Hill School;

2. The fund was started in HT12;

3. No current JCR members tutor at Rose Hill school;

4. The fund has never been used;

5. There is currently £872 in the fund (as of pre-MT optional levies);

6. The fund is funded by optional levy;

7. The current amount of the optional levy is £0.01;

8. Rose Hill Primary School is a severely under-resourced school located in Rose Hill, South Oxford among the 20% most deprived areas in England;

9. Between 2008 and 2010, Rose Hill Primary School was the most improved primary school in England;

10. In response to the question “where would you need the money to go”, the first response from the headmistress was “everywhere”.

This JCR believes:

1. That outreach is as integral an aspect of the JCR as access;

2. That, accordingly, we should support schools in our local community as much as possible;

3. That removing the optional levy with no replacement would for all intents and purposes cut the link with Rose Hill Primary School;

4. That maintaining the link allows for more active involvement in the school in the future;

5. That the library is the most appropriate section of the school to which the money within the current fund should be donated, due to both the wishes of the school and the spirit of the fund;

6. That the scheme should be reinstated at a future date, either formally or informally.

This JCR resolves:

1. To close the Rose Hill Transport Fund (following the completion of the MT optional levies) and donate the extant money to the library and reading scheme of Rose Hill Primary School; resolves 1 passes

2. To instate a new optional levy of £0.86 per JCR member, in line with current charity levies, named "Rose Hill Library and Reading Scheme" to be implemented from HT16. Resolves 2 passes

Minutes

Duncan Shepherd welcomed everyone to the GM.

John Clark Maxwell gave a report from officers. He told the JCR that this week is Arts Week. He outlined the schedule for the week, and encouraged the members of the JCR to attend the events.

Update on Ball Committee activity [Abi Williams]

Abigail Williams explained that unfortunately the JCR cannot hold a ball in 2016, but the Ball committee have negotiated with college the right to hold a ball every other year. Abi explained that this year the Ball committee will be organising a Garden Party.

Duncan gave the chair to Aisha Simon.

1. The motion passed.

2. John said that he and Jack Wheatley thought there should be a Comrade Procedure, to allow meetings to flow better. Often in the past few years individuals have taken it upon themselves to fulfil this role informally.

Cealach McKeating asked what the £50 budget might be spent on. Jack and John said they didn’t know.

Kathryn Pritchard asked if John and Jack thought that this position would change the atmosphere of GMs. John said no, he didn’t think it would.

Oliver Johnson Munday asked what kind of bell would be purchased. Jack answered that the bell would be fun, light and tinkly, as opposed to ‘Big-Ben like’.

Molly Rogers asked if other non-committee positions have budgets. Many points of information were offered in response, to inform Molly that other non-committee positions do indeed have budgets.

Charles Bertlin asked why this wasn’t a committee member position. Jack said that he didn’t think this position would need the right to vote in Committee Lunch, and that by making this a non-committee office committee officer could hold it concurrently with their committee role.

Charles proposed a straw poll. He wanted to know people’s thoughts on making this a committee position. The straw poll revealed that no JCR members thought that this position should be a Committee Office.

Alice Farrell said she thought that keeping on top of procedural matters was the job of whoever is chairing a meeting. She said we had already mandated the President to do this job. Richard Ware said that often the President is preoccupied with more important things than procedure.

Charlotte Suttle said that she thought that GMs already had an intimidating atmosphere, and she thought people would find it undermining to have a bell rung when they make procedural mistakes. She also thought that having a Comrade Procedure might slow a meeting down and make them more bureaucratic.

John said that he envisaged the Comrade Procedure would speed things up in meetings rather than slow them down. He also said that procedural points wold usually be raised against the chair. He also said that it would depend upon who was elected as the Comrade Procedure, and it would be down to the JCR to elect someone to this position who would use their powers in a friendly and helpful, rather than intimidating, manner. Jack said that votes of no confidence could be used against a Comrade Procedure who may be deemed by the JCR as ringing the bell too much.

Cealach suggested removing the bell if the bell was the part of this motion that people were concerned would be intimidating.

Tom Davidson said that the bell was a good idea because loud voices are often a force of intimidation in JCR meetings.

Annie Williamson said that this position would be advisory to the chair of meetings.

Colm proposed that the bell be replaced with a kazoo.

We moved to a vote and the motion passed.

3. Alex McKenzie said that he wanted to buy a new projector. The bulb in the current projector is no longer manufactured. He said that £1500 isn’t that much money because the JCR has a lot of money. The motion passed.

4. Jennifer Ashby explained her motion. Thomas Posa asked if the £60 would cover the entire costs of the trip. Jenni said yes. Matthew Lynch asked for the details of the talk – the time and venue. Jenni said she would advertise it on Facebook. Daisy Pearson asked where this talk will be held. Jenni said the talk will be held in Oxford city centre. Alex Potten asked if OAS could fund this themselves. Jenni said that they couldn’t since they hadn’t done any fundraising this term so far. The motion passed.

5. Matthew Smith explained that his motion.

Beattie Sturrock asked how this motion would work with a meal plan. Hugo Monnery asked if Matt had spoken to hall about this. Molly asked if meat meals would go up in price, or if vegetarian food would go down in price. Xav C offered the point of information that lunch and dinner vary in price. Anna Lake Hill said that other colleges and JCRs subsidise hall food.

We moved into debate. Oli said that he thought this motion needed more research. He suggested that Matt goes to speak to the hall and catering staff, before bringing this motion back to a later GM.

Alice said that other colleges do have a cheaper vegetarian option, and she thinks that this is a reasonable motion to bring, even though she thought that this needed further research. Tom P said that he thought raising the price of meat meals was making an ethical decision on the behalf of the JCR, and he doesn’t think that the JCR should make ethical decisions on behalf of everyone.

Charlotte said that this motion isn’t ethical – it is about price. If vegetarian meals are cheaper to make then they should be cheaper to buy, and people should be paying for what they are eating.

Ruby Breward agreed with Charlotte.

Colm said we needed to decide what we are debating. Are we discussing a lowering in the price of vegetarian meals, or a raise in the price of meat meals? He said that we already subsidise a lot of things that not everyone uses – for example we already subsidise the bar.

Xav C said that this raising the price of meat meals would not impose a financial burden on meat eaters – they could just eat vegetarian food.

Molly said that some people do not have a choice on eating meat because of health reasons.

Anna said that she thought that subsidising vegetarian food is an option, using JCR funds.

Oli said that we should debate this once we have established whether meat meals are more expensive than vegetarian ones.

John brought a procedural motion that this motion be not put. This would mean that discussion on this motion is abandoned for today, to be brought back at a later GM. He explained that he thought we needed key pieces of information before we engaged in discussion on this motion.

Tom D said that he didn’t think that we should pass this procedural motion because he was quite sure that the two meals cost the same.

John said that if there was a really pressing reason why we should talk about this today, he could understand wanting to talk about it. However this motion was not, in his opinion, something that needed discussing today.

Xavier Greenwood offered the point of information that hall prices have recently changed.

John’s procedural motion passed.

6. Matt S explained that he has had problems using the printer. He thought that his motion would solve these problems.

Oli asked if Matt had spoken to the porters. Matt said that yes he had, and that Alain was happy for the porters to be given some paper. Annie asked if the porters were also happy with being trained to fix the printers. Matt said that he wasn’t sure.

Alex offered the point of information that the JCR Computer officer is a separate role from the Website Officer. Alex said that he has had problems with supplying the paper to the printers. He said we should strike the Believes 2 (that porters should be trained in printer maintenance.) He brought an amendment to do this. Matt took this amendment as friendly.

Tom P asked why the porters need to have paper. Alex said that there was no harm in having a paper contingency with the porters.

Oli objected to taking the amendment as friendly.

Charles asked why this even needed to be a motion.

John took the chair from Aisha.

The amendment was taken as friendly.

Aisha brought the amendment to replace Resolves 1. She suggested we mandate Alex to sort the problems we have discussed.

Matt took the amendment as friendly. There was objection from Oli on whether to take the amendment as friendly.

Aisha gave a speech in favour of the amendment. She said that she thought we should approach college in the right way, without making assumptions about the role of the porters.

Xav gave a speech in opposition of the amendment.

The amendment passed.

The motion passed.

7. Iggy said that Cuntry Living needs funding. The motion passes.

8. Xav G explained what happened with this motion at the last GM. The school would love to have the money that is currently in the transport fund. The money would go towards either the library or the ICT room. His motion proposed abolishing the transport fund and donating the £800 or so currently in the fund to the library of the school. It also included creating a new optional levy of 86p to go towards the school’s reading scheme. The school is the most improved primary school in England between 2008 and 2010. He thought that this was a great way to reach out to the community and to keep Rose Hill School in the JCR’s institutional memory.

Joshua Warwick asked why 86p. Xav G said that this was the current level of other donatins to charities on the optional levies form.

Matt asked how many people voted in the charities online voting. John asked why this was relevant.

Cealach asked if the charities optional levies should change. John said that there should be three at any one time. They should be changed annually at the charities GM. John said he is confident that they will be changed at the next GM, but they were not changed at the charities GM last year.

Cealach said that maybe we could foster links with more than one school. Tom P said that passing this motion in no way prevents this from happening. He thought that for now, there were good reasons to support this school specifically.

Matt said that he thought it was a mistake to think that optional levies are completely optional.

Alex offered the point of information that 80 people voted in the charities vote last year.

Xav G said that we have a quorum for a reason. The JCR regularly has a few people passing a motion which affects the wider JCR community.

Alex asked to take this motion in parts.

We passed Resolves 1. We moved to debate on Resolves 2.

Tom P said that he doesn’t think that the optional levies are difficult to opt out of.

John said that this motion didn’t bring a completely new idea. It was just changing something that we already do.

Xav C said that this didn’t seem like the beginning of a slippery slope. He didn’t think this started a dangerous precedent.

The motion passed.