Delegates Briefing 2012

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

democracy@nus.org.uk

What we’ll coverThis training approaches the conference thematically

• Your role at conference

- Policy

- Elections

- Accountability

• 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

• 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 – oneyou 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 yourgroup will have. Think about combining starters or mains, makingthings 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

• Policy sets out what the NUS as an organisation believes about an issue

and what it resolves to do about it

• 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

• Each individual policy is made up of an ideological position (Believes)

and a plan on how to enact that position (Resolves)

• 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

• Each zone has a vice-president and a committee elected by Zone Conference.

• Back in October this Zone Committee researched what sort of issues students and unions were

facing at the Zone Conferences.

• 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

• 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 2nd March 5pm

• 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 2nd March

In your union before March 2nd

• Conference Document (CD) 5 has all the motion proposals from

the Zone Committees, as well as some from DPC

• Your union has 1,400 words with which to amend these proposals

or add new motions

• 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?

• 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

• In most cases DPC will bring text together where it is consensual or even identical to allow the debate

to flow.

• In some circumstances they will contact a union to come to drafting commissions on the 25 th March to

resolve differences over the text.

• 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.

• 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

The Zone Committee report on their work

and present their recommendations

Delegates from students’ unions vote on the Zone

report and any amendments and

motions

April

National Conference

The Zone Committee updates their report

section

Students’ unions submit amendments to existing

text or create new motions.

The Democratic Procedures Committee combine

similar text to make a motions and amendments

document

March

Students’ unions read the policy recommendations

and think about what they agree with.

January – February

The Zone Committee presents their policy

recommendations in the report CD 5

December

The Zone Committee meets and starts

writing a report and policy

recommendations based on Zone

Conference

November

Delegates from Unions attend Zone Conference,

discuss ideas and elect a Zone Committee

October

Zone Conferences

Students’ Unions start their year and work for their

students

July – September

Zone CommitteesStudents and Students’ Unions

Your 1st role at Conference - Policy

• The policy in each zone is split into motions, each dealing with a different

issue

• For each motion you’ll hear some speeches, some in favour and some

opposed

• 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

• 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.

• Amendments then become part of the main motion. If you vote for the motion

you’re also voting for the amendment.

Example

• 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.

• 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).

• 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

Amendment 1

Unreal college submits an amendment to the motion and speaks for it

Fibchester speaks against it.

National Conference votes for the amendment so it is added to the motion

Amendment 2

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

• Some unions will mandate their delegation to vote in a certain way on

some or all policy debates

• 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

• Policy lasts for 3 years at which point it lapses. Lapsed policy no longer becomes something officers

need to work on

• 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

• Policy that changes the constitution needs to be ratified and will be discussed as the first item at

conference

• Policy passed by other bodies will come to National Conference to be adopted and become part of

NUS’ policy

Elections

• The people you elect will be your political leaders for the next year.

• The elections process is governed by the Chief Returning Officer

(CRO)

• You’ll hear speeches from candidates for each position before

having to make a decision.

• After all the speeches you’ll be able to vote in the ballot boxes as

you leave conference hall.

In your union

• Conference Document (CD) 11 has all the information you need to

stand for election including the deadline for nominations

• After the close of nominations for Full Time (24th Feb) and NEC

members (16th March) NUS will put the candidate manifestos and

other information online: www.nusconnect.org.uk/conference

• There will be a podcast debate for each of the full time positions –

you should listen to these before conference

• On 29th February your student media can attend a free Press

Hustings event at NUS HQ to raise awareness of the candidates in

your union

• Your union may mandate your delegates to vote for certain

candidates at conference

Your second role - Voting

• Voting Elections are decided using a system of transferable

vote.

• 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

• Delegates each have a unique book of ballot

papers.

• To vote, number your choices on the ballot

• Tear off at the top perforation. This is to

prevent fraud.

• Place your ballot in the box. Your number will

be removed from your ballot before

counting.

VP Ballot example

COLE Cheryl

SHEARER Alan

STING Mr

007

007

Election Results

• 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

• 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

• You can ask questions about each report by submitting them to DPC (or the

CRO for DPC’s report)

• 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

• 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.

• 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.

• 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

• The Trustee, DPC, NEC and CRO reports will all be discussed at the Annual General

Meeting (AGM)

• The amount NUS plans to spend in each area is outlined in the Estimates and

approved here

• The estimates will include a proposal about the affiliation fee unions pay to NUS for

membership

• Motions that change how NUS’ internal processes are administered are voted for

here too

• DPC will propose the formula to calculate how many delegates are sent to National

Conference

Conference Timetable

• 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

• 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

• Day Two – The last three policy zone debates, the elections for President

and the vice presidents, the adoptions, two fringe breaks

• Day Three – The AGM, election of the national executive councillors and

democratic procedures committee, closing speeches

In your union

• The Estimates (CD6) will be released on 5th March and unions will

be able to challenge them via email by 30th March

• 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

• 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 2nd March

That was… your role at National Conference

• 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

• Not a role as such – but please see the Fringe events and meet lots of

new people

In your union – before Conference

• 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

• Make sure your union has booked for subsidised accommodation and

access needs by 5th March

• Get details of your union-organised transport to Sheffield. Registration on

the day opens at 10am

• The Order Paper (Agenda) for Conference is finalised just days before the

event but will include plenty of time for breaks

• Does your union have an expenses policy?

Your delegation – at Conference

• To register you’ll need to print out your unique e-ticket sent to you

after 5th April. Keep it safe!

• The Fringes often include food so use them over lunch

• There are plenty of stalls to look around and people after your

vote – so enjoy the atmosphere and look around

• There is time to work, socialise & rest – but do all in the right

amounts – not just the first two!

In your union – after Conference

• 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

• Fill in the evaluation form that NUS send you. Feedback is the

breakfast of champions

Any questions?