Ordinary General Meeting minutes Tuesday 4th September

Meeting opened 14:10.

Attendance:

Present:

  • [GOZ] Andrew Gozzard [President]
  • [JWB] William Chesnutt [Vice President]
  • [CFE] Zack Wong [Treasurer]
  • [FVP] Felix von Perger [Secretary]
  • [LCY] Chien Yi Lo [OCM]
  • [CHB] Alden Bong [OCM]
  • [EED] Alistair Mcleod
  • [NTU] Nick Bannon
  • [THA] Tom Almeida
  • [krish36] Tristan Hancock
  • [jimbo] James Arcus
  • [jsullivan] Jasmine Sullivan
  • [ASS] Chase Houghton
  • [DOC] Vincent Dalstra
  • [TAY] Taylor Home
  • [DAS] Donald Sutherland
  • [PJA] Peter Allnutt
  • [TBB] Alfred Burgress
  • [DBA] David Adams

Arrived late:

  • [GIR] Caira Bayman [Fresher Rep]
  • [beejay98] Braden Thorne
  • [guilren] Chris Scherini
  • [JDN] Jordan Meerwald

Committee reports

President's Report

  • Thankfully not much on the agenda today.
  • [JDN] arrives 14:11.
  • I'm not going to report anything so I don't waste anyone's time.
    • UCC is somewhat better. Go UCC!

Vice President's Report

  • I continue to be disappointed by the clubs that get affiliated.

Secretary's Report

  • Things are going in the right direction.

Treasurer's Report

  • Accounts:
    • Guild: $2970.26
    • Mastercard: $81.23
    • Cheque: $4266.58
  • [GIR] and [beejay98] arrive 14:13.
  • [TAY] Who is the biggest spender right now?
    • Question is not answered since details are not available.

Fresher Rep's Report

  • Nothing to report.

OCM Reports

  • [LCY] has nothing specifically to report.
  • [CHB] has nothing to report.

Machine Technical Reports

  • [GOZ] There are machines, we are a technical club, this is not usually on the agenda.

Election of Ordinary Committee Member

  • [GOZ] explains what happened; [KAT] retired, and a new OCM must be elected.
  • Appointment of returning officers.
    • [GOZ] nominate [NTU] as returning officer.
      • [TBB] seconds.
      • [NTU] accepts.
      • Motion passes.
    • [GOZ] nominates [DAS] as returning officer.
      • [PJA] seconds.
      • [DAS] accepts.
      • Motion passes.
    • [TAY] Procedural motion to no longer require seconds on motions in the meeting.
      • [GOZ] seconds.
      • Motion passes.
    • Chris arrives 14:24.
  • Standing nominations:
    • [TFD] has nominated for the position
    • [PJA] nominates [TBB], accepts.
    • [JWB] nominates [THA], accepts.
    • [TAY] nominates [DBA], accepts.
  • Candidates give their speeches
    • [TFD], speech delivered in absentia by [GOZ]
      • Tim is a recent graduate from the university
      • Has been around UCC for 6 years and will be around until at least halfway through next year.
      • Has a lot of time.
      • Has taken interest in rearranging the room and selling off some of our old sun machines.
    • [TBB] I've been around the club for a long time.
      • Has committee experience, including at UCC, and is on committees of other clubs.
    • [THA] I'm Tom, in 3rd year doing software engineering.
      • Been a part of the club since coming to UWA.
      • Currently on door and winadmin/sprocket, so apparently I'm considered reliable by most of committee, and went to the same school as rest of committee as well.
    • [DBA] David Adams
      • Conversation about TLAs ensues, [DBA] chooses the TLA [DBA].
      • Going to keep it short & sharp.
      • I'm a fresher, I think it is one of the best clubs at UWA and want to get involved in running things.
  • Questions
    • [LCY] Question for nominees: Do you have a car?
      • [TBB] I have a nice car.
      • [DBA] has a license but not a car.
      • [THA] has both a car and a license.
      • [TFD] has not yet got a learner's permit.
    • [jsullivan] Will you be planning to hold the position until the next AGM?
      • [TBB] Yes.
      • [DBA] Yes.
      • [THA] Yes.
      • [TFD] Yes.
    • [GOZ] What other committee positions do you currently hold?
      • [TBB] Tenancy and JapSoc, both OCM.
      • [DBA] Fresher rep for SPACE, OCM for Makers.
      • [THA] OCM for Programming Competition Society (PCS).
      • [TFD] is not on any other committees.
    • [GOZ] Do you plan to run for an executive position next year?
      • [TBB] No.
      • [DBA] No.
      • [THA] Maybe.
      • [TFD] No.
  • [NTU] and [DAS] explain the voting procedure.
  • Candidates leave the room.
    • Votes are called for the candidates.
    • Candidates are called back into the room.
    • [DAS] Please welcome your new OCM, [THA]!
    • Returning officers return proceedings to the chair ([GOZ]).

General Business

  • [TAY] First thing of many things I've written down: Decision earlier this year by committee to interpret "policy" in committee.
    • Right now, a "Policy" [constitutional] must be voted by a majority in a general meeting.
    • This means that standing policies could be in place and effective between committee years.
    • [GOZ] explains the constitutional context behind the discussion.
      • Constitution is ambiguous about whether or not committee is able to create policies which are binding for future committees.
      • Committee has sole power of interpretation over the constitution.
      • Committee thus interpreted the constitution such that the existing "standing policies" were able to continue to be valid.
    • [NTU] Constitutionally-defined "Policy" is not a recent modification to the constitution.
      • Some documents that had previously been called "guidelines" were updated, and ambiguously referred to as "policies".
    • [TAY] What is generally considered good practise is to let the existing standing policies expire at the AGM, and then re-approve them as necessary.
        • [NTU] Point of order: until recently, there were no well documented Constitutional Policies. Other things are "guidelines", "rules", "regulations", etc.
    • [TAY] Essentially this decision means that committee can create standing committee regulations for an indefinite amount of time and these are virtually the same as a Constitutional Policy.
      • [JWB] No, that is wrong, they have never been the same and have entirely different restrictions.
    • [TAY] We should make sure that these policies get properly re-approved at every AGM.
      • [GOZ] Last year's committee thought that policies needed to be reinstated and never actually got around to it themselves.
    • [TAY] Motion to require committee to do a re-vote of any current regulations / whatever is called a "policy" within a next 10 days.
      • [NTU] There is nothing that would force us to do this, but it is a good practise and it improves documentation.
      • Motion passes, 2 abstentions and 1 against.
  • [TAY] With the whole door regulations shenanigans, there have been new door regulations in the works. Any progress?
    • [JWB] At the last committee meeting, I said that it was in progress and I am fairly sure I shared it with committee.
      • [TAY] It's been a semester and I think that this is kind of important, something should be happening.
        • Door members as a group of people should be keeping the clubroom good and welcoming.
        • Review of door members is important to make sure that they are doing their job.
      • [JWB] Summary of changes to the standing regulation:
        • Want to make it easier for door members to keep control of the room
        • Short term doorings (without having to send an email) were unofficially a thing but now they are part of the "policy" [sic].
      • Only having to attend 2 or 3 cleanups.
    • [LDT] arrives 14:55.
    • [TAY] A lot of discussion in the past about how strict door regulations should be, what constitutes being on door and so on.
      • IMO, having been a president in the past, it's good to have a small set of regulations accompanied by some more detailed/helpful guidelines.
    • [NTU] Clearly names do make a difference especially when it comes to rules lawyering.
      • "Door group" is defined as a set of members that are formally trusted to make good judgement calls about the guidelines.
      • Pre-incorporation, these things were called "guidelines", now they are called something else.
      • If door members don't make good judgement calls, then committee can remove them from door.
      • [GOZ] I would prefer to see "spirit of the law" guidelines.
        • [TAY] explains how the Unigames "gatekeepers" use this kind of system.
    • [jsullivan] Do you have a "how to door" type document anywhere?
      • You can't expect people to know what is appropriate and what is not.
      • [GOZ] The "policy" [sic] document is the only documentation currently.
      • [JWB] There is a "Door Group Handbook" as appendix A to the Door "policy" [sic].
    • [TAY] LOLCATDOG is more geared around the technical requirements of being on door and not so much about the social requirements.
      • It is important to ensure that UCC maintains a welcoming atmosphere and follows university guidelines, ethical, social etc.
      • Being more open to freshers, women, people you don't know, and so on.
    • [GOZ] I am of the opinion that we should purge the door group every semester, and hold a "welcome to door" event so people know what to do.
    • [PJA] Door members should be required to to come to committee meetings after application so that committee can ask them questions.
    • [TAY] Cull of door members is one of the things that people don't like to do because they're lazy;
      • But this is an OGM so may as well do a motion of some sort...
      • [krish36] Once you get added to door, do you stay on forever?
        • [GOZ] You generally only get removed if you mess up (ie. missing cleanups) and get caught.
      • [NTU] We could postpone any purge of door until the next AGM or some time with sufficiently long notice.
      • [JWB] There are no practical reasons to need to purge and reappoint door, we do not function like Unigames or UniSFA.
      • [jsullivan] This process allows a distinction to be made in people's motivation for being on door;
        • Some people really want to be on door to help the club and there are also those who simply want to be on door for the sake of it and don't take their responsibility seriously.
      • [LDT] For the other clubs, being on "door" is an issue of whether or not the club continues to trust a person.
        • For UCC, however, the position of being on door is actually quite technical, and to be a good door member requires a reasonable amount of skill.
      • [jimbo] I wouldn't agree that asking someone to reapply once and maybe occasionally going forward can be considered "treating them like sh*t".
      • [TAY] I agree with [jimbo], when people sign up there is an understanding that there are certain requirements for the position.
        • I don't think anyone would argue that gatekeepers or CCC are treated badly when asked to reapply.
        • Maybe UCC needs to reevaluate whether or not a technical quiz should be the only way to apply - perhaps they should get socially competent people onto door and then teach them the technical side of things.
      • [PJA] Change the reapplication process so people only have a short interview rather than a full application.
      • [JWB] There are people on door that are important for the club who feel like they are being treated like sh*t.
      • [GOZ] rejects further input as meeting is going overtime, proceeding to motion.
      • [TAY] Motion to do a full wipe and reappointment of the door group within the next 20 days.
        • Committee can choose to reappoint door members who have recently sent in a reapplication.
        • Motion fails: 10 in favour, 8 against and 3 abstain.
  • [TAY] There really should be a regulation that says that Wheel exists and what their rights and responsibilities are.
    • [jimbo] and [krish36] leave at 15:22.
    • [NTU] The group guidelines for door, wheel, etc are on the website.
    • [THA] We should discuss this in the future, at the next AGM perhaps, since we are running out of time.
    • [FVP] As a new wheel member myself, I would agree that the documentation about wheel is hard to find and isn't in a format readily accessible for non-wheel or non-technical members.
    • [TAY] The general perception is that wheel is some kind of illuminati and its operations are quite opaque.
    • [GOZ] Meeting is running overtime, need to close the meeting now, unless we have a motion then meeting is closed.
      • No formal motion is presented;
  • Meeting closed at 15.25

Minutes uploaded by [FVP] at 22:14 on 2018-09-11