How to Run Your Society or Committee s AGM (Annual General Meeting)

Transcription

1 How to Run Your Society or Committee s AGM (Annual General Meeting)

2 How to Run Your Society or Committee s AGM (Annual General Meeting) Contents 1. What is an AGM or Annual General Meeting? 2. Why Run an AGM? 3. Committee Roles Review 4. The Elections Timetable 5. Nominations 6. Campaigning & Rules 7. Voting and the AGM 8. The Count of votes 9. Committee Handover 1. What is an AGM? A summary of your society s year An assessment of current committee roles Where committee elections are held, preferably before Easter each academic year to allow enough time for the hand-over process. A democratic process, mirroring the Students Union elections Jargon Buster! Annual general Meeting (AGM) an open meeting for all your society members, once a year, elections for new committee take place. Re Open Nominations (RON) A candidate in all representative elections that we hold. If a voter feels that they do not wish to vote for any of the available candidates they may choose RON. In the event that RON is the candidate with the most votes another election will be held. Returning Officer(s) The people in charge of the election. They decide the rules and how the election will be organised. If you re unsure about something in the elections you should contact a Returning Officer Students Union Officer A student elected in March to work full-time as a representative of students for one academic year. There are 6 Students Union Officers. 2. Why run an AGM or Society Committee Election? The Students Union is a democratic organisation and it relies on your society to be just as democratic, so that every student has a fair chance of being involved. This quick guide has been written to help you (a current committee member) to run your next Annual General Meeting (AGM) or election as easily, fairly and enjoyably as possible. If you need advice, don t hesitate to the

3 Activities Officer and remember you can also invite them to come to your election if you think it would help. Plus...having a meeting of all your members makes for a fantastic social. 3. Committee Roles Review Make sure you re-assess your committee positions listed on your society constitution and roles annually, to make sure your society set-up best reflects the activities and needs of your society. It is compulsory to have the following executive committee: President, Secretary and Treasurer. Optional roles might include: Social Sec, Publicity Officer, Sports Captain, Kit Officer, Events Team etc. Don t forget to write all these roles down on your new Contact Detail Sheet which you ll need to submit to the Activities Officer after your AGM. 4. Elections Timetable After reviewing the committee roles and deciding the positions on the committee for the next academic year, it is a good idea to be clear about the key dates for anyone standing to be on the next committee. For starters, we d recommend that you hold your AGM before the Easter vacation so that there is enough time to hand over to the new committee, fill out all new documents and they can hit the ground running at the start of the next academic year. You need to publicise your society meeting and the committee roles available to your society members 14 days in advance of the AGM date Be clear about key dates, when nominations open, the deadlines for nominations and the AGM itself. This is to give everyone a fair chance to stand for a position or to vote. 5. Nominations A few weeks before the nominations open (at least 14 days in advance), round all your members, including current committee, to make them aware of the nomination dates and the AGM itself. There should be a clear deadline by which time a potential candidate should nominate themselves but this could be on the evening of the AGM itself. You may want them to in advance by a certain time and date or you may simply want potential candidates to nominate themselves immediately before voting. Either way, it s best to be clear. If you want them to nominate themselves in advance by , it s best to ask them to also submit their name, address and the position they re running for to the society account. That way there s a clear record of who s standing and an independent measure of whether they nominated themselves in time. 6. Campaigning & Rules In the interests of keeping the election fair, the current committee shouldn t the society s members or send a Facebook message suggesting who they d prefer members to vote for. However, candidates may wish to campaign on Facebook independently.

4 7. Voting and the AGM Before the AGM, you may wish to make some ballot slips for each position available make sure you bring enough copies! Make sure each position has a RON option, so if society members are unhappy with the candidates, they can vote to re-open the nomination procedure for that position. An example ballot paper: Candidate Name Position Vote (X in the Box) James Clare Kirsty Smith RON (Re-open Nominations) Ginny Poznanski Andreas Richards RON (Re-open Nominations) Olaudah Taylor Finlay Michaels RON (Re-open Nominations) President President President Secretary Secretary Secretary Treasurer Treasurer Treasurer Only paid members of your society are eligible to vote and each member should only be able to vote once. Number of people to make the meeting quorate is 25% of membership or 10 members, whichever is most. If there is more than one place for a position available (i.e. you are looking for two Social Secretaries) you should say beforehand that members can vote for more than one candidate (up to the amount of positions available) and then count the all the votes for each candidate in turn. Before voting begins, society elections often have speeches by all the candidates to the voters, as to why the members should vote for them for that position. These should have a maximum time limit (1 minute for example). Questions could also be asked to the candidates, but pre-agree to have a maximum number of questions (probably no more than three). 8. The Count of Votes The votes should be counted by the Returning Officer.

5 You may decide not to disclose how many votes candidates got. Hold a big social after the AGM to congratulate those elected and thanks those who were not successful. AGMs are a great time for a massive social after getting everyone together. 9. Committee Handover Ensure that the newly elected committee complete their documents within a week of the AGM Produce a handover guide, including key dates, contacts and lessons learnt for the new committee. Arrange handover meetings, to train up the new committee roles one-to-one with their predecessors. For more information, please see the How to hand over to a New Committee Checklist Quick tick list to ensure you have covered everything to run a successful AGM Action Point Done Before: At AGM: Set Date of AGM Book room for AGM Organise a big social for the night of the AGM Look at current constitution and committee structure to make changes at AGM out members regarding date of AGM, details of how to nominate themselves and social information (at least 14 days in advance of AGM date) Print ballot slips (remember RON!) Appoint a neutral Returning Officer Check society members are paid society members, so they are eligible to vote Check the number of members present is quorate (25% of membership or 10 members, whichever is the most) Review your year for your members photos are always a bonus Review constitution and structure of committee, any changes put to a vote (2/3rd majority to pass amendments) Hold the candidate speeches and allow your members to vote

6 Retuning Officer to count the ballot slips and announce the results Make sure new committee fill in documents within a week of AGM and pass on society training dates. Social time to celebrate! If you have any questions contact the Activities Officer: activities.union@ncl.ac.uk