Okay, it is officially way past my bedtime. The meeting is now moving on to elections, but for from now you will have to rely on the Orbital twitterings of Miss Beth Bridewell. Thankyou and goodnight.
People are voting. For what I don’t know, but votes are occurring currently.
The Chair has been given 4 procedural motions, one of which is to change slightly the wording of the motion, regarding the quoracy of General Meetings.
A small recess is happening whilst people discuss an amendment.
The argument seems to be about the amount of student participation, with Nick arguing that student participation is present when advertised, whilst others argue that the student body is indifferent. So it’s ignorance vs. indifference. Exciting stuff.
Dave Cobb has just has an official warning for his ‘sexy dancing’. Vibrating. ’Sexy dancing’. Dave?
Any food and drink donations are more than welcome. Bake ‘n’ Bite, SURHUL, Egham, Surrey. Thankyou.
Nick S telling us about how many people voted for him to be Editor of the Orbital. Well done him.
The debate seems to have moved to a blame game regarding the small percentage of people who partake in the voting system on campus.
My favourite, the man wearing the burger king crown, is back up questioning the quoracy that is constitutionally required for voting.
Apparently only 11% of the student body turned out to vote for the most recent significant election.
Nick S just made a speech of sorts and people clapped.
Keiran Mills is up proposing his motion for constitutional amendments, particularly regarding the proposal of motions in GMs and the percentage of votes needed to pass or not pass a motion.
According the to Chair there is no time limit, so the elections and the forgotten motion are still going to be discussed. Let’s just go all night shall we? Who needs sleep?
Apparently tonight was also meant to carry out some elections, but the Chair and the floor are discussing when and if the elections should be moved to a more appropriate time, such as before one’s bed time.
And the motion’s been passed.
This motion proposes that the current SABB team all get Honorary Lifetime Memberships. An amendment was both put forward and then withdrawn. Now Craig is up questioning whether this is just an automatic procedural action or something that will be of some value and voted in.
Now onto the motion to validate and reform Honorary Lifetime Memberships. The last motion of the night, thought you’d like to know.
No one has opposed the motion so it’s been passed. Lovely.
This is one Chair with attitude.
Dave’s last ever motion to SURHUL is regarding a change to the wording of the constitution, such as the requirement to stand when making a point, and changes to the procedure of General Meetings and attendance.
No one has opposed Dave’s second motion, so it’s been passed. This whole motions-being-passed-quickly-stuff is enjoyable.
(NB. by ‘president’ in my last post, I obviously meant ‘Principle’)
Apparently the President has agreed to an expansion of library space, but Dave is arguing that this is not enough and weak in comparison to other universities’ plans.
Master Cobb is now going into more detail about his motion explaining that our current library space is not enough with regards to the number of students.
Apparently Dave is vibrating… make of this what you will.
Next, he’s talking about creating a larger library (I think – he is talking very fast). Ben Parfitt is stating that we need to spend more time discussing the motion.
His first motion is about the Honorary Lifetime Membership; he wishes a change to the definition and details about said title in the constitutional. No one has objected and it’s been passed.
3 minutes. 3 motions. 1 man. Can he do it? …yes, probably.
After a recount the result is that the second part of the motion has not been passed. The meeting has now moved on to the proposed motions by Dave Cobb. It’s his time to shine.
There has been a draw on the votes. You can feel the tension in here, or that could just be the heat of many bodies in a room for hours…
Now to the vote for part 2. Put your paws up baby.
Nick S doesn’t think that affiliation with the campaign to defend the protest is right. He thinks that the campaign doesn’t have enough ‘traction’ to be of benefit to the SU. Craig Gent is up arguing that by affiliating to the campaign is mandating Roho to defend its students involved in protest action.
We are voting on whether part 2 should be discussed. Voting is a nice change for this evening.
Nick has proposed that rather than going straight to the vote, we should spend some time discussing the second part of this motion. Dave Cobb and his 3 motions are not happy about this.
Now more voting is happening. This is the vote for and against part one of the motion to defend the right to protest.
The vote to split the motion has passed. I wish I knew what this meant.
Now a vote is happening as to whether the motion should be split into parts, which is also a part of the original amendment proposed by Joe. Is anyone else getting increasingly confused?
This amendment has been passed so that the original proposed motion is condeming kettling as a whole, rather than ‘kettling when unnecessary’.
Okay, so now there is a proposal for the amendment of the original amendment suggested by Joe. A vote will now be carried out to see whether this amendment should be made. Paws up.
The man donning the burger king crown is back suggesting some form of compromise between both Joe and Keiran’s point, which do seem to overlap on many points.
Keiran is very passionately putting forward his opposition to kettling, stating that it is against human rights.
Ben Parfitt has requested Joe to outline when kettling of protesters is appropriate. Joe has brought up the Millbank incident as an example. Awkward.
Joe wishes for us to simply agree with the campaign rather than officially affiliate with it. Keiran is against this amendment to his motion, because he thinks that anything other than affiliation is weak. Lots of clapping.
Joe wishes to propose an amendment to Keiran’s motion, but initially there needs to be 10 members of the floor in favour of hearing the amendment. A vote had been taken, there is an adequate amount of those in favour of hearing the amendment so now Joe will explain his amendment, got it? Good.
Keiran is once again explaining his reasons for why the SU should support the campaign for the right to protest. The campaign argues that the police force towards protesters is too harsh and needs to be reduced.
So Keiran’s up discussing his motion on the defending the right to protest. It’s a bit of a controversial topic, and has even been debated in the most recent Orbital.
Keiran is opposing Dave’s proposal because his motion has been dragged on from the last GM and it has been agreed that Keiran can discuss it first. Good for him.
First up, Dave Cobb is up requesting to go through his 3 motions before any others, because he has to leave very soon for personal reasons.
Now back to the meeting after that ’2 minute’ recess. Discussion of the proposed motions is about to start.
Now he’s singing ‘I will always love you’ and Ke$ha. Anyone else worry about our SU sometimes?
Right whilst waiting for everyone to reconvene Nick S has started to tell ‘funny’ jokes. Please let everyone hurry up. OH, now there’s rhyming.
For all you cake fans, there is a choice of two and I opted for the basic chocolate sponge with accompanying chocolate icing with chocolate decoration. The other option for those impartial to chocolatey goodness was a basic plain sponge with cream icing and gummy decorations. This is the most detail you will get about anything tonight.
By the way – a live video stream is available courtesy of our friends at Insanity Radio! If you can’t see it, try refreshing the page.
Due to typing I have missed out on the arrival of cake.
The budget has been passed and now for a 2 minute recess.
The chair has said to put your hand high in the air and touch the sky. I like this man.
Discussion has ended finally, and now onto the vote, which is all about approval of the budget. Paws at the ready.
The microphone is being a bit dodgy, which is making communication all the clearer/ robot-y.
There seem to be a lot of questions and issues about the SU website, who knew?
Another person on the floor questioning the amount of income the website actually made this year, which Rachel tells us was £4000.
It’s been passed, the floor is going to open for another 5 minutes. Coincidently Keiran Mills has a question about the budget.
Keiran has requested for the floor to open for a further 5 minutes, and now a vote is being taken. This is going to be a late night. Plus, there is no evidence of cake yet.
Keiran Mills has proposed a motion to overall the chair’s decision, but which decision I’m not too sure about…
Apparently the Insanity website was created in 3 weeks by those on campus with computer skills and cost only £200. Check out their handy work, http://www.insanityradio.com/
One young man at the front questioning the £12,000 put into the website rather than using those on campus with appropriate computer skills and Rachel explaining that it is all a part of programme previously used.
Keiran Mills is up questioning the changes made to the cleaners for the SU.
The amendment has passed. And now we’re going back to main budget discussion. It looks like it’s going to be late night.
Right, we are finally going back to the vote. Get ready to re-put your paws up. Join in at home if you like; all you need is your NUS card and too much time on your hands.
An argument seems to be occurring between the floor and the chair…two objects that have always got on so well.
If you have any questions or points please tweet us at @theOrbitalRHUL. Any advice is also welcome.
Right, we’re back. The Chair has just said that we’re going to completely re-do the vote, because it was stopped part way through. Wait, Nick’s up with a constitutional point… now there is bickering; this is the best I can do in explaining the situation.
2 minute recess for everyone to cool off. Results of the vote to be continued. This is tense.
The Chair has finally managed to finished discussion on this proposed amendment. Now to the votes! Paws up everyone.
Feedback is always fun!
Dave Cobb just made a lovely comment on appreciating the Orbital more, because it is a way for the SU to communicate to the student body. Make love not war guys, come on.
Some on the floor questioning the value for money with regards to the Orbital. People definitely have opinions tonight.
Apparently the SABB team believe that the Orbital should be able to make up any money required on advertising, but some seem to maybe not agree with this so much…
Someone arguing that the Orbital should not be punished for being able to keep within their budget. The conversation has not moved on to the cuts to campus as a whole. There are a great load of paws up at the moment! I think Beth opened a can of worms here, figuratively speaking that is.
A young man on the floor in a burger king paper crown is saying that the Orbital has always used less than it was provided, so it does not matter that there has been an £1000 cut. But Beth has come back with the fact that the Orbital requires this money as security and for its plans during freshers’ week. It is hotting up in here!
Now they are taking to the floor. Ben Parfitt has questioned the availability of the reserves and Rachel is pointing out that the reserves are there only for particular times, such as when the SU does not produce a profit. I hope this is making sense, because I’m relatively confused.
Now our own editor Beth is up opposing the cuts that have affected the Orbital. She feels that it’s being penalised for the Orbital budget control last year and if these cuts are carried out then the Orbital will be significantly weakened. Beth is proposing an amendment to the reductions made to the Orbital.
Now Rachel is up and informing us about the budget for next year. It can now be confirmed that the amount for the reconfiguration is £1.2 million. Apparently there has been some reductions to the budget, but not a significant reduction.
Dave Cobb asking whether it is valid to ask people to stay til 1am at General Meetings, because apparently meeting have lasted for 5 hours prior to this. Rachel answering that this will never be the case, because we are not permitted to be in the building until such late hours.
Now onto ‘ask an officer anything’, all pretty self explanatory.
I’m not entirely sure what they all said, but it sounds like the SABBs have been very busy recently, including such things as the Laurels, RAG and generally getting ready for the end of term.
Now moving quickly on to 60 second SABB, which is always fun, despite the fact that it is near impossible to understand what the SABBs are saying.
Right that was thoroughly lovely, primarily due to the promise of cake; I’m predicting a classic victoria sponge.
We’re currently going through the ‘communications and statements’ section of the meeting, which seems to be people telling us all about lovely things that have/ will be happening. Apparently the SU is having a clothes swap shop!
Apparently during this GM there will be cake. I’m happy.
The Chair has just gone through some of the procedural stuff like absences and approval of the agenda.
And we’re off!
…any minute now…
Welcome to tonight’s Annual General Meeting. We’ve had a few issues with the SU hall being full of electrics and all that, but the meeting will soon be under way. Any minute guys, any minute!
Thanks for visiting! There have been a few delays, but the AGM should begin shortly.
