The Governance Green Paper

If you have been following this blog, or even just the goings on in the Union, you will be aware that HUU embarked upon a constitutional review, that is, looking into rewriting the whole constitution and standing orders. To see the reasons why this has started, please read the post "A New Way Forward for HUU"

The initial consultation period has now ended, and at Council last night, a "green paper" was presented. 39 pages long, this document might seem daunting at first, but it describes the new powers of the various Union officers, the Trustees and Council, and introduces new structures to make the Union work better and be more accountable to students. This document is available from hullstudent.com, read more about it, and download it, here.

While this document tries to be as clear as possible, not everyone will understand what it actually means. So, I'm going to try and pull out the main changes, CSA style, and explain what it means for you in it's current form. Apologies for the length of it, but a big change means a big post!

The Constitution and the Four Objectives

As per the Charities Act of 2006, Hull University Union, a registered charity, must have clearly defined areas in which they must operate in. These four areas are Welfare, Education, Community and Sport. This review creates 4 "Zones" of Hull University Union, one for each objective, plus a "Governance Area/Zone", more on this later.

The Proposed Major Union Officers.

The review proposes the reduction of the number of Full Time Officers (more affectionately known as "Sabbaticals") from 7 to 5, and an increase the number of Part Time Officers to 5. These positions are all elected in week 5 of semester 2 each year.

Full Time Positions (all are members of the Union Executive Committee and Trustee Board)

• President
• Vice President Education
• Vice President Welfare
• Vice President Community
• Vice President Sport
  

Paid Part Time Positions

• Chair of Scarborough Executive Committee (member of UEC)
• Chair ISA
• Campaigns and Democracy Officer
• Media Officer
• Societies Officer
  

If you want to see the full breakdown on what each position does, please refer to the green paper, as it is clearly defined in there.

The Trustee Board

While Hull University Union has always had a trustee board (it has always been a charity and therefore required to have one), up until August 1st last year, the members of the UEC were the trustees. That changed, and now, only four of the UEC members are Trustees, and three "external" trustees were selected to make the new Trustee Board - of which the President chairs. The Trustees are responsible, in the eyes of the law, for the Union, and are liable should any financial or legal problems occur. Therefore, they "technically" have the power to veto any policies that are proposed, though they would have no reason to do so unless it was a legal or financial risk.

The review keeps this body in place, but increases the membership to 5 UEC members and 4 external trustees. It also states that the chair will be elected from the external trustees (of which elections take place annually) - and will therefore only has a casting vote (meaning this member will normally not have a vote in any issues unless there is a tie), and one external trustee will be an Honorary Treasurer - who will keep an eye on the Union Finances - which is currently done by the Union Secretary and Treasurer.

The Union Executive Committee

The UEC will remain the highest policy making body, with the Board of Trustees as the only body able to overrule it's decisions. As is the case now, the officers are only allowed to serve for a year. The UEC will meet every three weeks in term time.

As said above, UEC consists of the 5 full time sabbaticals and the Chair of Scarborough Executive Committee.

Union Council.

Union Council will remain the major scrutiny body of the Union and UEC, consisting of 48 councilors, rather than 32 - which is currently the case.

32 councilors will be elected with portfolio, 8 from each zone, where 24 are named volunteer officers of the Union. Each Councilor will also sit on their Zone's committee (see below).

The 6 Senate Reps. shall also be Councilors, along with the two runners up from the Senate elections from the two biggest faculties. Finally, 8 councilors shall be elected without portfolio in cross-campus elections. These councilors shall also be assigned to a random Zone, and sit on that Zone Committee.

Council will only meet twice per semester, as more focus will be shifted to the more specialized Zones and Zone Committees. However, Council has more overall power than the zone committees, and a much more formal environment than it has been, with stricter sanctions available should a Councilor step out of line.

Zones!

The Zonal system has been proposed to make the management of the different objectives easier, and to give each of the four objectives equal importance. Each of the four major Zones' committee will effectively be the same, and effectively have the same power as each other.

The Zone committees have the power to scrutinise the actions of the Vice President of the zone, and can move to caution this VP, or propose a caution in any other officer within the zone. They are effectively, less powerful, more focused, versions of Council, scrutinizing a subset of the Union's activities.

Zone committees also have to formulate policy to go to Open Policy Forum, in which they must submit one policy to be debated.

There is also a fifth Zone, the Governance Zone, which is a more minor zone, as it has less powers than the major Zones, but provides zonal scrutiny of the President, and contains members from all Zones, particually the Zone Chairs and Chair of Council, as well as the part time officers. The Governance Zone can only pass on recommendations, and while it can not pass a motion of Caution against the President, it can recommend it to Council. In the same way, policy can be recommended to UEC, but cannot be proposed by the zone itself to Open Policy Forums.

If you want to read more about the different zones and their functions, please refer to the green paper.

Open Policy Forums

This year, Open Policy Forums were introduced - and haven't been the biggest hit in the Union... It is all down to the shortcomings of the Constitution - it only had about three lines about OPF's - so really, the UEC have done a good job with it. But this review cements it into the constitution.

OPF's will, under the proposal, take place twice a semester at pre-allocated times. Each Zone must propose one, and only one, policy that they would like to implement, and the student body vote on whether they would like to see it implemented or not. If voted through, the policy will go to referendum, like it does now. Policies are voted on individually, and all four could go through.

If an important policy, not directly tied to any zone, for example, if it was on a govenance issue, then a fifth motion can be proposed at the discretion of the Chair and the majority of attendees of the OPF.

Any policy that goes to referenda requires 10% turnout in the referendum with a majority YES vote, which will be carried out in the same way as they are now, in order to become policy, barring a veto from the Board of Trustees - which can only be done on legal grounds. If the turnout is below 10% - then the vote is indicative - and will be followed unless UEC or the Board of Trustees veto it, much like it is now.

Conclusions

Even the above is a bit wordy, but hopefully will allow you to get the gist of the reform - and the CSA encourages you to read more about it in the Green Paper. Remember, you can have your say, and the CSA recommend that you do, on the reform from now until the 30th May, visit The Big Conversation on hullstudent.com and use the comments box to "Have Your Say".

Remember, like it or lump it, the time to make your views heard is now!

-CSA