Compulsory MCR General Meeting 31 October

Dear MCR,

For the last couple of years the MCR constitution has been hidden away as something shameful, only available on request. This was due to primarily to the unreadability and contradictions that it contained.

I have worked with both the previous and current MCR committee on putting together a thorough revision of the constitution, which we are now happy with. The changes primarily deal with readability, but also clear up the contradictions and bringing it in line with current MCR practices. In order to turn the proposed draft into Constitution, we need to have it approved by the full MCR at a General Meeting before we can send it to the Clare Governing Body for Final approval. The General Meeting is being held on 31 October at 7pm. The MCR Bar will be open for a liquid incentive.

Please attend this meeting (having read the constitution and draft first). It is in your best interests to attend as it determines your rights to the facilities as MCR members.

I have attached the draft (Restricted Content!! You must Login at the top of the page to see this!) and current Constitution (Restricted Content!! You must Login at the top of the page to see this!). I will now give a very brief summary of the changes.

• Opting out of Membership
  • Change informing President of society to informing President, Vice-President, Secretary or Treasurer
• Quorum number for General meetings
  • Increase from 15 or 1/4 membership to 20 or 1/4 membership
• Update to default Non-Executive Committee Positions
• Clearer rules on who is eligible for MCR membership
• Associate members no longer have limited punt or formal access
• 4th year undergraduate Associate members with committee positions are allowed to vote at committee meetings
• Added a section on the usage of the MCR:
  • A set of policies will be created to govern acceptable behaviour and use of the MCR (approved by the MCR at a later General Meeting).
  • Repeated breaking of the policies will result in individuals being reported to the college.
• Added a clause allowing members to be expelled from the society if they interfere with voting.
  • Previously they were only reported to college. Expulsion requires approval at a general Meeting and cannot solely be a committee decision.
• Updated timings for voting and notifying about General Meetings
  • Previous voting rules couldn’t be followed as the CUSU website wouldn’t allow it.
• Notification time for different General Meeting types has been standardised to 10 days notice.
• Voting at General meetings
  • changed to simple majority from two-thirds majority

Hopefully, that is a sufficient summary for you to see why we need to get this approved). If anyone has any specific points about the constitution they would like explained just drop me an email.

See you on October 31st at 7pm in the MCR,

Richard

MCR Secretary