Transcript Delegate training presentation

Delegates Briefing 2013
Who this is for
• This presentation is for delegates elected to go to NUS National Conference
• It is designed so that a trainer can use it as the basis for a session – there
are a few activities and questions within it
•
Individuals can use this on their own but it will be enhanced by going through
in groups and in conjunction with the NUS National Conference Hub
www.nusconnect.org.uk/conference
Well done!
• Well done for being elected as a National Conference Delegate
• In HE you were elected by cross campus ballot – no mean feat
• In FE you may have been elected by cross campus ballot, student parliament
or from your executive
•
You are elected to represent the views of your student body and students’
union
Don’t take notes…
• This presentation can be emailed to you
• All the information is available on www.nusconnect.org.uk/conference
• This website also has additional guidance as handouts and videos
• If you’ve read the documents and still aren’t sure contact
[email protected]
What we’ll cover
This training approaches the conference thematically
•
Your role at conference
- Policy
- Elections
- Accountability
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What you should be doing in and with your union
Getting to National Conference and looking after yourself while there
Reporting back to your union
Your role at National Conference
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Set the Policy of NUS for the year ahead
Elect the political leaders of NUS for the year ahead
Elect the Trustee Board and Democratic Procedures Committee
Hold the political leadership accountable for the work done over the past year
Meals (nom nom)
Get into groups of about 4-5 people. The following bullets are actions
for you. We are going to eat some food.
Each person should tell your group about your favourite meal – one
you have had or one you want. Concentrate on describing the food.
You aren’t going to eat alone – you have to cook for the entire group.
Without voting, negotiate with each other about what meal your
group will have. Think about combining starters or mains, making
things vegetarian or spicier.
Meals (nom nom)
Now you have your meal. Unfortunately you need to persuade another
group to eat it too. Elect someone from your group to go to another
group and ‘sell’ your meal to them. They have a few minutes to do this.
Now your group (with the person selling the other group’s meal) can
make a number of alterations to your menu. You can change 3 things
to make the proposed meal more like your original one.
Meals (nom nom)
The chef has said that they can only do one meal for the entire room.
Two people must speak for their group’s amended meals for 1 minute.
Now we vote and whichever meal wins is what’s on the table
tonight…
Happy with the result?
Setting policy
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Policy sets out what the NUS as an organisation believes about an
issue and what it resolves to do about it
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The policy process is governed by a group of students, known as the
Democratic Procedures Committee or DPC, who are elected by
delegates at National Conference
•
If National Conference votes for a motion or amendment it will
become the policy of the NUS and the officers will have to obey it
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Each individual policy is made up of an ideological position (Believes)
and a plan on how to enact that position (Resolves)
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To help make sense of our policy it is split into ‘zones’ (there are 5 of
these)
Setting policy – Zones
• Further Education – which deals with things affecting academic provision in the FE
sector.
• Higher Education – which deals with things affecting academic provision in the HE
sector
• Society & Citizenship – which deals with the world in which students live
• Union Development – which deals with students’ unions
• Welfare – which deals with student safety and wellbeing
Although not a political zone – unions can also change the way NUS works by submitting
motions to the Annual General Meeting – more on which later
Setting policy – Zones
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Each zone has a vice-president and a committee elected by Zone
Conference.
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Back in October this Zone Committee researched what sort of issues
students and unions were facing at the Zone Conferences.
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From this research they wrote a set of recommendations, which was
published online in December
This is like the exercise you have already done. First you
talked about your own ideas for a meal, then you had a single
meal and elected someone to interpret and sell the idea to
others.
Setting policy – Zones
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Local unions have a chance to submit text that either added to or
changed the existing proposals (amendments) or discussed
something new (ordinary motions).
Deadline is 1st March 5pm
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The Democratic Procedures Committee (DPC) bring together these
different texts into the final motions document that you have.
In your earlier exercise you amended the other group’s meal
proposal. You can do the same thing for the proposals from
Zone Committees before 1st March
In your union before March 2nd
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Conference Document (CD) 5 has all the motion proposals from
the Zone Committees, as well as some from DPC
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Your union has 1,400 words with which to amend these proposals
or add new motions
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It is up to you to decide how your union will do this. You will need
to think about how your word count is used and who debates each
zone. Will you work with other unions to submit new motions?
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Come up with some bullet points on how your union will debate
policy. If you already have a process what can you do to improve
it?
Setting policy – priority
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In most cases DPC will bring text together where it is consensual
or even identical to allow the debate to flow.
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In some circumstances they will contact a union to come to
drafting commissions on the 25th March to resolve differences over
the text.
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The order in which policy is debated is decided by a priority ballot
of delegates to Conference. This will be released at the end of
March.
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You’ll be able to vote by email on which order the zones are
discussed and which order ordinary motions are discussed within
that zone.
Policy diagram
Students and Students’ Unions
July – September
Zone Committees
Students’ Unions start their year and work for their
students
October
Delegates from Unions attend Zone Conference,
Zone Conferences
discuss ideas and elect a Zone Committee
November
The Zone Committee meets and starts
writing a report and policy
recommendations based on Zone
Conference
December
The Zone Committee presents their policy
recommendations in the
January – February
report CD 5
Students’ unions read the policy recommendations
and think about what they agree with.
March
Students’ unions submit amendments to existing
text or create new motions.
The Democratic Procedures Committee combine
The Zone Committee updates their report
section
similar text to make a motions and amendments
document
April
Delegates from students’ unions vote on the Zone
National Conference
report and any amendments and
motions
The Zone Committee report on their work
and present their recommendations
Your 1st role at Conference - Policy
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The policy in each zone is split into motions, each dealing with a different
issue
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For each motion you’ll hear some speeches, some in favour and some
opposed
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After these speeches you’ll be asked to vote by raising your delegate card
at the appropriate time. You can vote
– FOR if you want the motion to become policy
– AGAINST if you don’t want the motion to become policy
– ABSTAIN if you don’t understand the issue or don’t believe NUS should have a
stance on it
Amendments
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Some motions will have amendments to them.
Conference will hear speeches and be asked to vote on amendments in the
same way as the motion.
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Amendments then become part of the main motion. If you vote for the
motion you’re also voting for the amendment.
Example
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At National Conference 2011 the first motion was called ‘Education
Funding’ which called for a specific type of funding system and resolves to
do specific things.
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It had a number of amendments.
Conference voted for amendment (a) then the motion became a mix of the
original AND the text of amendment (a).
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Conference voted for the motion as a whole and NUS’ policy became both
the main motion and the amendment
Amendments Diagram
Motion
Fibchester University submits a motion and
speaks on it at National Conference
Unreal college submits an amendment to the
motion and speaks for it
Fibchester speaks against it.
Amendment 1
Amendment 2
National Conference votes for the amendment so
it is added to the motion
University of Fakeshire submit a second
amendment and speak for it.
National Conference votes against the
amendment and it disappears
National Conference votes for the motion as amended
and it becomes NUS policy
In your union
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Some unions will mandate their delegation to vote in a certain way on
some or all policy debates
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If your union wishes to do this how will it set the mandate? How will they
ensure delegates vote that way?
Policy Lapse, Ratification & Adoption
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Policy lasts for 3 years at which point it lapses. Lapsed policy no
longer becomes something officers need to work on
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A policy lapse document is available on the conference Hub. If you
don’t want something to lapse then you need to see DPC before
the second day of Conference for it to be debated
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Policy that changes the constitution needs to be ratified and will
be discussed as the first item at conference
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Policy passed by other bodies will come to National Conference to
be adopted and become part of NUS’ policy
Elections
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The people you elect will be your political leaders for the next
year.
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The elections process is governed by the Chief Returning Officer
(CRO)
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You’ll hear speeches from candidates for each position before
having to make a decision.
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After all the speeches you’ll be able to vote in the ballot boxes as
you leave conference hall.
In your union
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Conference Document (CD) 11 has all the information you need to
stand for election including the deadline for nominations
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After the close of nominations for Full Time (25th Jan) and NEC
members (22nd Feb) NUS will put the candidate manifestos and
other information online: www.nusconnect.org.uk/conference
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There will be a podcast debate for each of the full time positions –
you should listen to these before conference
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Your union may mandate your delegates to vote for certain
candidates at conference
Your second role - Voting
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Voting Elections are decided using a system of transferable
vote.
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You choose candidates in order of preference by putting a ‘1’ by
your first choice, a ‘2’ by your second, and so on. This allows you
to say who should be elected if your first, second, or even third
and fourth choices do not attract a lot of support.
Your second role - Voting
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Delegates each have a unique book of
ballot papers.
007
VP Ballot example
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To vote, number your choices on the
ballot
COLE Cheryl
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Tear off at the top perforation. This is to
prevent fraud.
SHEARER Alan
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Place your ballot in the box. Your
number will be removed from your ballot
before counting.
STING Mr
007
Election Results
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Full Time Officer election results will be announced on Conference
Floor. Other positions will be counted within 1 week of Conference
and announced online.
Reports
NUS National Conference will receive a number of reports to be
accepted. These are
• On the work done by the Vice-presidents and Zone Committees
• On the work done on the Priority Campaign
• On the work done by the NEC, Trustee Board, Democratic
Procedures Committee, Nominations Committee & Chief Returning
Officer
• The Accounts for the past year and Estimates for the year ahead
Your 3rd role - Accountability
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You should read each report – they’ll be online for at least 2
weeks and copies are available for each delegate. Presentations
will be given at Conference
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You can ask questions about each report by submitting them to
DPC (or the CRO for DPC’s report)
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You can vote to accept the report or reject it
If you don’t like the work done you can try to refer it back.
If you don’t like the actions or behaviours of an individual you can
censure them
Your 3rd role - Accountability
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To censure someone, go and see DPC and explain the action you
want to undertake before the report section begins. There chair
will ask to see 100 delegates to hear the case for the censure or
reference back.
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If they see 100 delegates you’ll be asked to do a speech for the
action, and there will then be a speech in defence.
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After the speeches there will be a vote. If a majority wish to
censure or refer work back then this action will pass.
Accountability & the AGM
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The Trustee, DPC, NEC and CRO reports will all be discussed at
the Annual General Meeting (AGM)
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The amount NUS plans to spend in each area is outlined in the
Estimates and approved here
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The estimates will include a proposal about the affiliation fee
unions pay to NUS for membership
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Motions that change how NUS’ internal processes are
administered are voted for here too
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DPC will propose the formula to calculate how many delegates
are sent to National Conference
Conference Timetable
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The agenda (order paper) for conference will only be set a few days before
the event as it depends on the number of motions and candidates at the
event. This is a rough day by day guide based on our expectations
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Day One – Registration, opening speakers, approval of the order paper,
approval of minutes, ratifications. The first two of the five policy zone
debates, two fringe breaks and presidential hustings
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Day Two – The last three policy zone debates, the elections for President
and the vice presidents, the adoptions, two fringe breaks
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Day Three – The AGM, election of the national executive councillors and
democratic procedures committee, closing speeches
In your union
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The Estimates (CD6) will be released on 11th Feb and unions will
be able to challenge them via email by 1st March
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If your union believes NUS should spend more on one area and
less on another you can tell us and it will be voted on at
conference
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If your union believes NUS should alter its internal processes to
help it and students’ unions change the lives of students then you
can submit text by 1st March
That was… your role at National Conference
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Set the Policy of NUS for the year ahead
Elect the political leaders of NUS for the year ahead
Elect the Trustee Board and Democratic Procedures Committee
Hold the political leadership accountable for the work done over the
past year
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Not a role as such – but please see the Fringe events and meet lots
of new people
In your union – before Conference
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You should get to know your delegation – go for a meal or a coffee. You’ll
be spending 4 days together so its worth being friends
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Make sure your union has booked for subsidised accommodation and
access needs by 1st March
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Get details of your union-organised transport to Sheffield. Registration on
the day opens at 10am
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The Order Paper (Agenda) for Conference is finalised just days before the
event but will include plenty of time for breaks
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Does your union have an expenses policy?
Your delegation – at Conference
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To register you’ll need to print out your unique e-ticket sent to
you. Keep it safe!
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The Fringes often include food so use them over lunch
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There is time to work, socialise & rest – but do all in the right
amounts – not just the first two!
There are plenty of stalls to look around and people after your
vote – so enjoy the atmosphere and look around
In your union – after Conference
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How will your union report back on what they did at conference?
How they voted, what they spoke on and the ideas they want to
bring back
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Fill in the evaluation form that NUS send you. Feedback is the
breakfast of champions
Any questions?