Night night xoxo

And that’s the end of the meeting! 2 1/2 hours! Pretty darn good!

Next week sees the SABBs getting involved in the RAG panto! Fantastic.

So, with only one election had, we’ve moved on to Any Other Business.  The lovely Sarah Honeycombe is up telling us about Sabbatical Question Time, which apparently we should all come along to.

And she was elected! Lovely.

You know what else is missing? Cap’n Abstention! Where is he?

With regards to the comment from the lovely Louie: 1) thanks for your input friend 2) you are wrong.

Once again these opinions are purely my own and not representative of…well anyone else.

No-one seems to want to run for anything. Oh hang on, someone’s up wishing to run for student rep for Media and Communications Sub-Committee.  She’s a media arts student, which is always a good trait for someone running for this I guess.

I am a fan of Dedar the Chair. He’s got attitude.

Well, that was lovely, wasn’t it? Moving on to a few cheeky possible elections.

So that’s it for the motions.  The lovely Doug is giving us all a run down of the recent trustee board meeting, (the one with the subsequent curry).

After all that the motion as a whole has passed without the need of a vote.  Craig either almost fell over or just did a little dance of joy.

The amendment has failed.

To amendment vote. Bet you wish you were here.  Oh, wow, people don’t seem to be fond of the proposed amendment. To be honest, I’ve already forgotten what it was.

President Dan is arguing that ‘support’ does not necessarily mean financial.

Just for all those LDVMan fans, he is now sporting a mighty impressive moustache.  He has proposed an amendment stating that finances for the said direct action does not come out from the finances for other SU things.

Joe the Chair is currently singing Stevie Wonder’s ‘Isn’t she lovely?’.  Plus he’s wearing a santa hat.  It’s little moments like this that make the whole GM worthwhile.

Right, whatever that amendment vote was about, it failed, so it doesn’t really matter.

To the vote, but this isn’t about the motion as a whole, it’s something about whether or not to include the Nation Campaign Against Fees and Cuts in the motion.  Are you following this?

Ed ‘swanky cheese’ Resek is opposing the motion requesting an amendment; something about it being unconstitutional with reference to a motion previously passed.

So going back to the actual GM, Craig is defending and discussing the details of the motion.

Really? Really? This many people agree with direct action? I say again, Where. Is. The. Love?

Why don’t we take the money that would be spent on this and put it towards buying…flowers? I like that idea. A bunch of flowers arranged into spelling out ‘RHUL’. Much nicer.  Good for the bees too. Anyone want to propose that for me please?

YES! Your favourite and mine, Lovely-Deep-Voiced-Man is up opposing the motion.  I knew something had been missing this evening.  He’s pointing out the costs of formally supporting direct protests and how he feels the money could be better spent on societies rather than manifested anger.

Urgh there are definitely mouthy-spitty noises coming through on the mic!

Should our SU support direct action? I don’t know, what do you think? Comment please! I’d like to know people are out there reading this…

The last proposed motion of the night is entitled ‘Right to Protest’ and our own Craig Gent is up explaining all about it.  It sounds angry. Cue Fergie – ‘where is the loove?’

So that motion has passed; whatever that means.

Apparently this motion has actually already been passed – when, I have no idea – but this is actually all about a change being made to a tiny bit of it regarding the SURHUL officials who sit on the College Council and voting…

I really dislike that song.

Next is a (pretty similar) motion regarding the Privatisation of higher education and the White Paper – obviously a hot topic here at the SU.  The motion basically proposes that our SU comes out as being publicly in disagreement and with the White Paper.  You see what I meant about the anger?

As the Black Eyed Peas said, ‘where is the love?’

Moving speedily onto the Motion of No Confidence in the Minister for Universities and Science. If you’re as clueless as I was, you might want to know that David Willetts is the Minister for Universities and Science and apparently he was key to the creation of the White Paper.  So basically this motion is for the SU to publicly come out as having no confidence in David.

And it has also been passed without the need of a vote.  It’s all going pretty smoothly so far.

And we’re back! The next motion is proposing that our SU supports STAR’s ‘Equal Access’ campaign.  The Student Action for Refugees is basically working towards changing the rules regarding asylum seekers’ access to higher education in England and this motion proposes that we support this campaign.  See, I know what’s going on!

OH, and it’s been passed without the need for a vote.  Lovely stuff.

Joe the Chair is in darkness. http://rhubarbtv.com/live

Just on a 5 min break. Everyone’s at the bar.

That sentence was lovingly provided by Ed Resek as I completely misundestood the motion!

A motion has just smoothly passed about providing a forum for NUS delegates to gauge student opinion before they vote at national conferences.

There seems to be a lot of people leaving…is there something really good on TV at 8?

The motion has failed. And after all that debate too! That’s sad.

Now to the vote! Put those dirty mits in the sky. Reach for the stars everyone!

We’re still on debate about the motion to allow job-sharing.  Who knew this motion would cause such opposing opinions from the floor? ..not me.

Apparently this job-sharing technique is used throughout businesses.

Oh, but Katie’s back up, (she really seems to disagree with this motion).  She’s pointing out that this is not a place of business but a Student’s Union. True, true.

Just want to point out that all and every presented opinion, however uneducated, is completely my own.  I’m saying this mainly because I feel it means I can write whatever the heck I like!

This is a very tidy debate.  Everyone seems a bit tired. Where is the passion and anger people?

Jasmine Wyeth is supporting the motion stating that it promotes wider diversity.

However Doug believes job-sharing would be unrealistic and has many feasibility issues.

So, the first motion proposal of the night has begun.  It’s all about job sharing and basically making it easier for some roles within the to be carried out by delegating certain responsibilities.  It sounds lovely to me; sharing is always nice.

Oh, hang on, Katie Blow is up opposing the motion.  She feels it will make people work on a ‘slate’.  Not sure exactly what means, something about it being undemocratic and running for a role with a buddy.

We’re currently on Ask an Officer Anything, which is where anyone on the floor can ask the officer any question…it’s pretty self-explanatory really.

Someone’s asking about the use of lighting in Jane Holloway Hall and how some societies are being told they must pay.  Really hard hitting stuff.

Wednesday 7th sees the election for the Sports and Society section editor for The Orbital in ABF001.  So if anyone’s interested in running, then go along.

Just thought you’d like to know.

Now for President Dan (sung to the tune of ‘Fireman Sam’) is up at the mic informing us about all the lovely things he’s been up to, such as the pledge presented to our Principal.  Basically he gets up to a lot; check out his blog http://www.su.rhul.ac.uk/blogs/blog/Daniel%20Lemberger%20Cooper/

Now out ComCam VP, Sarah Honeycombe, is up telling us about helping edit this edition of The Orbital, Mental Awareness Week and writing a ‘ridiculous amount of motions’. Brilliant.

Katie Blow, our Education and Welfare VP, is re-telling us about the curry – it must have been very good.

I want curry.

So moving on to Sabbatical Update (née 30 second Sabb).  Jake Wells is telling us all about our societies, including the first trustee meeting, which was followed by a ‘trustee curry’.

Oh now Joe the Chair has a Chair’s Aid tonight.  What a lucky individual that Aid is.

As compensation for being completely ignorant about the UCU discussion, here is some useful websites: http://www.ucu.org.uk/  and http://www.rhul.ac.uk/ucu/home.aspx

No one can say I don’t try.

Honestly, I’m not even going to try to liveblog about this, as basically, I have no idea what they’re talking about.  I know, I’m very informative.

OH, I’ve never seen this before.  We have some guest speakers.  Dr Graham Smith, the Acting Chair of Royal Holloway Branch of the Universities and Colleges Union, is up at the mic telling us all about the UCU strikes.  Oh this lecturer involvement is lovely.

Want to see the GM? Yes, we have the technology.  Check out the video livestream http://rhubarbtv.com/live

RAG representative Louie Woodall is telling us about the Candygrams, whereby one can send someone a candy cane with a message, which will be delivered by a Santa! …basically, it’s like Mean Girls.  I very much like this idea!  Find them outside the Windsor Building and around campus all of this week.

OH so Beth Bridewell is resigning as Editor of The Orbital!

Katie Blow has just informed us all about the SHAG stuff that’s on sale at the moment.  Now, Sarah Honeycombe is up talking about her favourite, Insanity Radio.

Right, we’re starting off with Communications and Statements.  This is basically where anybody and everybody comes up and tells us about stuff they think is tellable.

Good evening all! Welcome to the fun and games that is our SU’s General Meeting.  So as to not break with tradition the GM has not quite started yet.  It’s a pretty angry looking GM tonight, that’s a reference to the proposed motions…not the people here.  The people look lovely.