As you may have heard, our AGM is coming up on the 12th of March, and all four committee positions will be free for the taking. We’d like to see as many people as possible running, it’d be nice to for there to be some competition for once.  Even if you’re not planning on running for anything, it’s important to attend so that we reach quorum (minimum attendance), or pass your vote onto someone to vote for you.

Committee Roles

Below are the committee roles, mostly taken from the constitution, with a few extra notes from me :)

President

• Chairs and co-ordinates the committee.
• Ensures that the group is represented at meetings required by the Guild, and in any dealings with the Guild or other bodies.
• Chairs the Annual General Meeting and any other meetings, unless there is a conflict of interest, in which case another committee member shall chair the meeting.
• The President also generally deals with communicating with other student groups on behalf of the society, and keeps everyone organised, though this position does not confer dictatorial power on whoever wins :p This would be a good position to go for if you’ve got good social skills, but can also keep people in line ;)

Treasurer

• Provides the committee with regular reports on the group’s financial status.
• Liaises directly with Student Development so as to maintain and update the group’s accounts.
• Advises the committee on the financial implications of all decisions taken.
• Prepares grant applications requesting financial assistance from the Guild and submits these applications by the required deadline, if the group desires to request funding. Groups may apply for a grant to support some or all of the activities listed in their constitution. This funding should supplement the fundraising and budgeting efforts of the group, and should not be relied upon to ensure the sustainability of the group.
• Maintains an inventory of, (and ensures that safety checks are regularly carried out on,) all equipment; and to provide related information to Student Development. – This basically refers to the library.
  It’d be hard to do better than Kathy, a qualified accountant, for this role, but I suppose this is the role for somebody reasonably sensible with a decent grasp of maths :p

Secretary

• Takes minutes of the Annual General Meeting, Extraordinary General Meetings and committee meetings if required, and submits copies of these to Student Development.
• Maintains and updates membership lists for the group, and ensures that Student Development has current records.
  Deals with correspondence with members, interested students and external bodies.
• Ensures that Student Development receives minutes and full details of the group’s committee within 10 days of the Annual General Meeting or any Extraordinary General Meeting.

Publicity Officer

• Produces and distributes of publicity, including posters, flyers, contacting relevant organisations or deparments (such as the Guild, Birmingham Humanists, or individual University Departments). Obviously, it’d be best to do this if you’ve got decent design skills, but the design can always be delegated to somebody more skilled while this person handles the logistics.

Extra Info..

And that’s the end of the job descriptions :) In practice, the roles are not particularly rigid, and various tasks can be delegated and traded around as makes sense. For example, the Secretary is officially supposed to maintain membership records, but as the Treasurer has to pay in membership fees and forms to Student Development, it makes more sense for them to do it. Also, conspicuously absent from all of these positions is any mention of the forms that need filling in for events, a task best assigned to whoever draws the shortest straw. They won’t be so bad next year though, as the risk assessments have been replaced with an annual one, though there’re still room bookings and speaker request forms.

Motions

The only remaining thing to mention is motions. Anyone can propose a motion to amend the constitution, such as adding new committee members or clauses. To be honest, I don’t think we need one, so try not to propose anything unless you’re certain it’s necessary. I have noticed a few things in the constitution which are out of date, and were overlooked with previous changes, so I’ll be working on updating the constitution. If you happen to see anything in the constitution that you think should be changed, send me a message and I’ll see what I can do.
Well, that’s all you need to know about the AGM. Once again, come along if at all possible, if not, at least pass your vote onto someone else. And run for something! This time next year, it could be you struggling to work out how to finish this news post!

Benjamin ;)