Minutes of the Committee Meeting of the LGBT Students Association

Held on Monday 17th March 2003 in Room 213 of the Boyd Orr Building

Contents
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Those present and apologies received Publicity Befriendment Scheme Pride Week Manchester Trip AGM and Proposed Amendments Money Special Support Group Status

1.

Those Present

Persons present: Robert McLaggan, Craig Muir, Paul Jordan, Bebba Vaughan, Craig Milne, John Wallace, Roald Oines, John-Andrew Murray, Geneveive Curran Apologies received from:, Ruth Kaplan, Ruth Lloyd, Daniel Donaldson Not Present: Bob Peacock

2.

Publicity

The flyer which was done to publicise the cheese and wine evening and the end of term was shown to the committee. John Andrew Murray criticised the fact that two of the events out of the four appearing on the flyer had location tbc and there was general agreement that this was something to tighten up in future Robert stated that the Icebreakers event was a very large success and those on the committee who had been there agreed The talk from the Scottish Executive Equality unit was well received The person who turned up to give the talk said that he would be willing to add the LGBT to the list of organisations that would be consulted about Scottish Executive proposals and Robert agreed to follow this up John Andrew Murray cautioned that the LGBT should get something out of this and not simply let the Scottish Executives Equality Unit set the agenda Bebba cited the problem that people simply are not aware that we exist or that there are events taking place She suggested putting up a set amount of posters each week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to publicise events in certain places on campus the Unions, the John Mac, the Hub etc She suggested that student accommodation was targeted more Bebba agreed that she was willing to look at publicity in term three The lack of an effective VP Membership was discussed as a central problem as regards publicity, though it was determined that little was could be done about at this late stage in the year. Robert passed around a drafted publicity item with regard to a poster and invited comments on it

3.

Befriendment Scheme

There was a suggestion that the befriendee could bring a friend along

There was a discussion about whether high profile figures in the LGBT should be befrienders, but it was generally decided that the positions on the LGBT committee did not provide campus-wide notoriety. Craig Milne agreed to forward the draft guidelines to the whole Committee in order to initiate a discussion via email. The Committee agreed that it was worth the effort of getting the guidelines in a finalised form and Craig Muir agreed to do this The approval of the COM to the final version can be via email and they can then be put into force

4.

Pride Week

Questions were raised as to the lack of publicity and content The cancellation of a meeting was also criticised Roald stated that Ruth Kaplan had voiced her concerns about Pride Week Roald stated that personal reasons in the run up to Pride Week had a hampering effect Robert praised the successes of the launch night which was enjoyable for all those there Robert also said that the Intercourse talk was good fun and that Intercourse had been in touch to suggest other workshops in the future The talk from the Equality Unit of the Scottish Executive held on the 12th March was by virtue of Roalds initial contact with the unit Roald admitted to being nave in organising the event and didnt realise how much work was involved in organising the event. Roald said that given his experience of trying to organise it, it would have been far easier to have people helping the LGBT Officer on the SRC Bebba questioned the fact that the SRC seemed to take sole responsibility in organising the event John-Andrew Murray said the LGBT should be more pro-active in the future Bebba and other members of the committee agreed that this was desirable, but noted that it was made clear some months ago that Pride was an SRC event Roald and indeed all present at the meeting appeared to favour the splitting of the responsibility for Pride week between the SRC Officer, the LGBT and anyone else interested in helping Roald gave the example that the LGBT Officer could organise speeches from organisations, someone else could look at publicity, someone else could look at sponsorship, a person on social events etc All agreed that Pride week had its strengths and weaknesses and that lessons can be learned for the future from this years event

5.

Manchester / Edinburgh Trip

There was a general discussion about Geneveives attempts to arrange the trip Possibly around 20 would be interested There was concern as to the timing of the trip due to exams in term three, but it was agreed that a date should simply be set and that those who were interested and would manage would come along. Accommodation was suggested to be in a Youth Hostel by Geneveive, but Bebba favoured a TravelLodge As for transport, mini-busses were discussed as was hiring a coach and going by car At the end of the day, it was agreed that other Universities who had done such trips in the past like Paisley should be contacted to enquire about their experiences and to perhaps share the costs There was also a suggestion of an Edinburgh trip towards the start of term three This need not be to a gay bar, CCs was not viewed as an ideal location by Bebba and John-Andrew Murray BLOGS could be contacted to enquire about assisting in organising the evening

6.

AGM and Proposed Amendments

The committee agreed that an AGM would be held on Wednesday 14th May It was noted that this needs two clear weeks notice to comply with the constitution The amendments that the committee broadly agreed to are included in a separate file. As regards Amendment One, Craig Milne stated the current position. A Past President can remain on the committee for a long period of time after they held the post of President and that since the purpose was to facilitate the transition from one Committee to the next this could seen by some to be undemocratic if the person remained in an unelected post up to three or even up to four years after being elected as President. Craig Milne then went on to argue Daniel Donaldsons views that the Past President should be entitled to sit the COM until replaced that they should be allowed to vote on the COM for the first year, and at any time thereafter provided they are a matriculated student Robert and Craig Muir said that it was not democratic to allow them to vote after one year, however, they should be allowed to sit if they so wish Being the view of the committee, this has been reflected in the draft of amendment one The remaining drafted amendments 2-8 received support from the committee Amendments regarding the number of terms a person may stand as President, or stand on the Executive were dismissed as being counter-productive An amendment on having the Chair elected at the AGM was determined to be problematic A point was raised about the legal issue of the confidential mailing list and what the implications of this under the Data Protection Act were. Craig Milne shall look into the latter matter and may circulate an amendment to the Committee at a later date if necessary The position of the SRC Delegate was a little unclear in the constitution and a new amendment has been added accordingly An EGM shall be called if 5% of the Membership so agree shall be proposed as an amendment An amendment providing that votes can be taken by secret ballot if 1/3 of persons present so request shall be added to Amendment Four

7.

Money, Charging at Events

Robert stated that there is a very small amount of money remaining The issue of charging fees for associate members or staff was raised, but generally determined to be problematical to administer The possibility of fundraising was discussed possibly applying to national funds, a guess the hetty quiz in Jims etc Craig Milnes suggestion of charging at Cheese and Wine nights was deemed to be problematical, since the purpose is to encourage new members Craig Milnes point about future Cheese and Wine nights being difficult to fund, lead on to a discussion of the issue of spending in Freshers Week The Committee as a whole accepted that too much money was spent on Freshers week All present agreed that Freshers Week was a tremendous success Bebba raised the point that there appeared to be a witch-hunt against Daniel Bebba and Craig Muir made the point that those persons who chose to get involved in Freshers week got involved and that certain members of the Committee, specifically John Andrew Murray did not get involved at all

John Andrew Murray responded by saying that he had other commitments and that he was never consulted as to the purchase of the mobile phone, Daniel simply bought it and hoped to get the money from a variety of sources, all of which refused him and then he turned to the LGBT for the cash Craig Muir said that he was consulted as to its purchase Craig Milne apologised for causing any offence to those persons who devoted time to Freshers Week and accepted Daniel spent a lot of time on the weeks events, but that he was merely questioning the cost of the event John Andrew Murray voiced his concern that the LGBT was seen as being wasteful with money at the SRC and that the high prices paid for things may endanger future funding of the LGBT Craig Muir responded saying that it was all done at the last minute, so if it wasnt done then there would have been nothing in Freshers Week and that a lot of people did a lot of work for it It remained the concern of Robert, John Andrew Murray, John Wallace and Craig Milne that the spending in Freshers Week was excessive and that there was a severe danger that future funding requests from the SRC will not be dealt with favourably because of the Committees apparent endorsement of excessive spending All present, including Bebba and Craig Muir accepted that the amount of money spent was too high, but remained split on why this was being discussed To Conclude, the Committee agreed to strive to get better value for money in the future

8.

Special Support Group Status

John Andrew Murray raised the issue of Special Support Group Status within the SRC which may be offered to the LGBT in the near future The QM Union president elect may be proposing to amend their constitution to assist with LGBT affiliation The setting up of the Befriendment Scheme is a large step on the way to SSG status The advantages of this are that Member Confidentiality will be more secure, at present this is only guaranteed at the SRC for four years under a motion. In other words, in three years time, we may have to disclose our membership list in order to get funding It will give the LGBT more SRC support It allows representation on the Welfare and Equal Opportunities Committee It will lead to a large budget for activities There will, however, be more SRC influence on our activities There will be more scrutiny of LGBT receipts It will not change the nature of the society, it will merely give us more support in our present role was the view taken All present at the Committee meeting agreed that this was a desirable goal

As compiled by, Craig Milne 18/03/2003