LSS set for elections and constitutional change

As the current LSS committee’s term of office comes to an end, preparations are being made for the election of the new committee. In addition, this week the LSS is holding a Special General Meeting to propose amendments to the Constitution.

Elections

All positions on the 2015 Committee are up for grabs, they are:

Leadership Team:
1. President
2. Vice-President (2)
3. Secretary
4. Treasurer
5. Director of Sponsorship (NEW!)

Executive Committee:
6. Career & Development Director (up to 2)
7. Activities Director (up to 2)
8. Competitions Director (up to 2)
9. Education Director (up to 2)
10. Communication Director (up to 2)
11. Equality Director (up to 2)
12. Women's Officer (women only - up to 2)
13. Queer Officer (up to 2)
14. Environment Officer (up to 2)
15. International Student Representative
16. 2nd Year Representative (2nd years only)
17. 3rd Year Representative (3rd years only)

Nomination for positions are open from today (1st September) until 5pm on Sunday 7th September. If you’re interested in running for a position you’ll need two friends to nominate you. Nomination forms can be found on at mulss.com.

Once nominations have closed, candidates will be given one week (Week 7) to campaign for their position. The LSS has strict campaigning rules, which DeMinimis will outline during the campaign week. Any candidate found to have breached those rules can cop a penalty of up to 30% of their votes.

Elections will be run in week 8 (15th -19th September). Students can vote at the LSS office between 1-2pm each day that week. The results will be announced at the General Meeting on Tuesday 23rd in G08. The current committee will spend the last week of September handing over the positions to the committee elect, which officially begins its term of office on October 1st.

In the past, some positions have been elected with as few as 70 votes, so students should not be discouraged from nominating just because they do not think that they widespread support. In addition every student should make the effort to vote during week 8 so that the new committee represents their interests. In the past election participation has been between 40%-60%.

Constitutional Changes

Below is a brief summary of the proposed constitutional changes, which all students are encouraged to vote on at the Special General Meeting on Thursday 4th September in G08. More details and the actual provisions were emailed to students by the LSS secretary two weeks ago.

Formal changes:

Proposal 1: Bachelor of laws removal- references to the LLB, which is no longer offered at MLS, will be removed.

Proposal 6: Definition of abstention- abstention is defined as a vote that does not count for or against a motion.

Substantial changes:

Proposal 2: Creation of Director of Sponsorship- Creating a new position in the leadership team. The position will be responsible for all sponsorship matters.

Proposal 3: Removing voting limitation on Women’s Officer- Males will be able to vote for the Women’s officer, and the position can be held by either a female, or a person who identifies as female. [THIS AMENDMENT HAS BEEN WITHDRAWN]  

Proposal 4: Remove Co-opt voting powers- At the moment, in addition to the elected members, the LSS committee also consists of 35 Co-opt members who are not elected. These positions assist the directors in carrying out their duties. Co-opt members currently have a vote at LSS meetings, but as a matter of practice, they do not use that power. This amendment will mean that only elected members can vote at LSS meetings. The voting power of co-opt positions has been a barrier to appointing more co-opt positions to each director. The committee has been weary of introducing too many co-opts in order to ensure that decision making powers remain with the elected members.

Proposal 5: Requirement that elected members must remain in Melbourne- This amendment aims to introduce a requirement that all elected members must remain in Melbourne during their term of office. Although the proposal states that it is not intended to restrict travel during holidays, there is doubt as to whether the proposed wording will actually apply in this way. There has also been a suggestion that the amendment would be more appropriate as a regulation rather than as part of the constitution.

Proposal 7: Treasurer must perform mandatory audit- The treasurer’s responsibilities will include a mandatory audit that must be performed at least every 24 months.