Societies Assembly Wednesday 13th May Please Sign in at the Desk to receive your voting card

1 Apologies for Absence 2 Accepting the Agenda 3 Notification of A.o.B 4 Approving Minutes of Previous Meeting 5 Updates By-Election Society Events 6 Society Policies External Speaker Society Training External Affiliation Health & Safety Equipment and Storage Finance Procedure & Funding Policy Society Code of Practice 7 Assembly Motion 8 Big ideas Discussion 9 VP Activity Report & Question

We have received apologies from the following societies: LEX Feminist Disney Criminology Drama Sikh Geography Airsoft Islamic

Accepting the Agenda

Notification of Any Other Business

Approving Minutes of Previous Meeting

Updates By-Election By-Elections are currently open so please ensure you publicise these, particularly if your next committee does not have a President, Treasurer and Secretary elected. Voting will open from next Monday to Friday. As always, only society members can vote and a 20% turnout is required. There will also be a by-election in October. This will be communicated to new societies during the training period.

Society Events Pub Sports – Varsity Darts Rock Soc – Tactical Assault 15/05/15 Venue: The Level Doors Open at 18:30 Exhibition with Daryl Fiitton: 7pm Game Starts at 8pm. Tickets are available through NTSU website (£7) Rock Soc – Tactical Assault 29/05/15 Doors Open at 20:00 This is an end of year party that will feature a variety of rock & metal bands.

Society Policies These polices need to be voted on by YOU. They form the rules and regulations around what societies can and can’t do. Many of these policies were in place this year and were mentioned in the old Code of Practice. Others are new policies which future committees will have to abide by. All policies need a 2/3’s majority to be voted in. The policies that we will be voting on are: Public Speaker Society Training External Affiliation Health & Safety Equipment and Storage Finance Procedure & Funding Policy

External Speakers Policy Guidelines in this document are outlined by both University (NTU Freedom of Speech Protocol) and NTSU (No Platform policy). External Speaker submissions will be reviewed by the Speaker Review Committee – We aim to provide a decision within 5 Working Days. The possible outcomes are:   Accept the application without conditions Accept the application with conditions Decline the application

Society Training Previous policy expired on 3/5/15. This policy removes the ‘12 hours’ requirement of the previous policy. It highlights the training sessions available to committee members and which ones must be attended. As with the previous policy, all trainers will have the ‘Train The Trainer’ Qualification.

External Affiliation Affiliations Any Affiliation is made in the name of the society and not Nottingham Trent Students’ Union.   Societies who wish to affiliate with an external organisation must seek the approval of the VP Activities. Requests must be submitted to VP activities through their development plan. Limitations All proposed affiliations must not encourage behaviour likely to be deemed as misconduct as defined in the NTSU Members’ Code of Conduct. The proposed affiliation must not contravene the Union’s Equal Opportunity policy. The proposed affiliation must not contravene the ‘No Platform Policy’ of the Students’ Union.

Health & Safety Processes are similar to what we already do at NTSU: Risk Assessments & Trip/Event Forms must be submitted via the NTSU website. The SU will provide training for this. Forms must be submitted 10 days before the event. Insurance will not be provided for any events that are not authorised by the trip/event form. For External Events, a trip/attendee list must be provided.

Equipment & Storage Similar rules and regulations as we currently have. A termly check of the societies inventory will be made by the societies co-ordinator and any missing equipment will be reported to the society for action. At the end of each academic year, any items in storage, which are not part of an inventory, may be disposed of by NTSU.   Societies will be responsible for informing NTSU if they no longer require equipment and NTSU will make a decision if the equipment is disposed of or repurposed for another Union service or function. It is the responsibility of the committee to arrange for PAT testing, through the societies coordinator, of all electrical equipment after expiration of warranty. Failure to do this will result in the equipment being withdrawn for use.

Equipment and Storage (Continued) Specialist equipment is subject to a further risk assessment before it will be released to societies.   Equipment that is no longer suitable or is unsafe may be written off, with the agreement of the VP Activities or Societies co-ordinator. Following investigation, if equipment is found to be faulty it will be repaired/replaced at the discretion of the VP Activities.

Finance Procedure and Funding Policy This new proposal is based on the feedback we received from societies this year about Society funding. We’ve researched what other institutions do to try and create a fairer and more modern funding policy. We are proposing that there should be 3 pots of society funding.

Match Funding The SU will match funds that a society receives through membership fees (up to £5 per membership). Minimum society membership fee will be raised to £1. Additional Bid Funding Societies will still be able to bid for funding by submitting a development plan and requesting money. Should the total amount asked for by societies exceed £15K, we will allocate everyone a percentage of what they asked for, as we currently do with grant funding. Events Funding We will also financially support societies that want to do events within the SU.

Benefits Of This System Over 50% of societies will end up with more funding than they currently do. No society will get less money than they did during the 2014/2015 year. Societies will not be able to abuse the current grant system, preventing smaller societies from receiving funds. Minimum membership of £1 enables students to see value in society membership, encoruaging participation. Membership numbers will also reflect number of active members more closely, allowing societies to hit the 20% election turnout easier. This funding model will also allow for an additional Societies Coordinator, so we’ll be able to support societies much better and more quickly than we currently do.

Code of Practice Updates Small updates need to be made to the Code of Practice. References to all policies need to be updated. For example, all references to the ’Funding Policy’ should say ‘Finance Procedure & Funding Policy’. Again, this needs a 2/3 majority voting in favour.

Motion All motions will have a Q&A session afterwards, allowing for debate between members of Assembly. For a motion to pass, a 2/3 majority is required, followed by ratification at the NTSU Board of Trustees.

Big Ideas Discussion

VP Activities Report & Questions

Date & Time of Next Meeting The date and time of the next meeting is t.b.c. We will let you know as soon as we have a date and venue sorted.