The first Union General Meeting (UGM) of Lent Term was characterised by a low turnout which concluded in another controversial call for quoracy that resulted in the meeting being disbanded.
The intention had been to elect a new UGM Chair and Vice Chair, approve a revised Media Group budget, and debate a motion regarding the renewal of policy mandating the presence of the Keeper at UGM.
The election of UGM Chair was fought out between three candidates: the previous Vice Chair, Jack Tindale; third year International History student Mark Twyford, and a further student named Katie. 3rd year International Relations and History undergraduate Pantellis Palividas posed a question regarding how they would run meetings well, to which Twyford responded that he would “sit in the chair and do the job”. Following a vote, Tindale was elected with a clear majority.
With LSESU General Secretary Aled Dilwyn Fisher temporarily remaining in the Chair, the election of Vice Chair then took place. Initially, there were no candidates for the posiiton; however, Fisher having elaborated that “unsuccessful candidates for Chair” could put themselves forward, Mark Twyford stood for election. A question was posed by 2nd year Law undergraduate Michael Lok as to whether Twyford possessed a laptop to aid with transcribing minutes, to which he answered: “That’s a good idea”. Once again, voting resulting in a clear majority, and Twyford and Tindale duly took their place on the stage of the Old Theatre.
After a minute’s silence had been held to honour the victims of the tragic earthquake in Haiti, there were reports from the SU Executive. The General Secretary drew attention to the fact that the following UGM would feature Wes Streeting, NUS President, as a guest speaker; Communications Officer Rob Low took a question regarding delays to the SU’s new website, responding that the project was started by a “previous Sabbatical Officer”, and that delays were due to “a lot of broken promises”.
Environment and Ethics Officer Hero Austin gave a brief outline of the events students should expect during Green Week, and the International Officer, Suraj Girijashankar, appealed for students to contribute to the Global Week task force.
The next section of UGM related to last term’s Media Group budget, which was previously voted down amid widespread concern over value-for-money and the specific division of funds between the Group’s constituent services. Following consultation at the end of Michaelmas Term with the heads of the Media Group and the F&S committee, LSESU Treasurer George Wetz was at this juncture able to present a revised budget which he described as “pleasing”, and this was subsequently approved by a substantial majority.
Before the UGM was able to discuss the first policy motion, a call for quoracy was invoked and, since the meeting was inquorate (in that there were fewer than 150 students present) the Chair called it to a close.
In order that the proceedings from last week’s UGM to stand, the minutes must be ratified at the next quorate meeting; the decision to renew the motion concerning the existence of a Keeper will also be debated at this meeting.
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[...] Overall though, I’m not too big of a fan of the Union. For one, I think it’s a little too militant in portraying things as an “us-against-them” struggle with the administration. In general, I think the people who run the political side of things are the self-important, egotistical, smooth talking type who will eventually become politicians. For example, Palestine is a big issue here (on both sides) and the SU regularly passes resolutions on Palestine. Come on people, what is this, model UN? (for PHS debaters, a bill demanding world peace suddenly seems plausible). I think their attitude turns the general student body off and it shows as attendance at the general meetings lately have reportedly been abysmal. [...]