From email sent by the branch administrator/organiser on 4 April 2023

General meeting

The next ordinary general meeting is Thursday 27 April, 12.45pm – 2pm.

The deadline for motions is 12pm Tuesday 18 April.

If you want the branch to propose an amendment to another branch’s motion to UCU Congress 2023, this is the meeting to propose that to. You can see the motions that have been put on the UCU Congress 2023 agenda in the congress business committee’s first report at https://www.ucu.org.uk/Congress2023

Note this meeting is after the UCU special higher education sector conference about the disputes.

Annual general meeting (AGM)

The AGM is Thursday 18 May 3.45pm – 5pm.

The deadline for motions to the AGM (which can include rule change motions) is 12pm Tuesday 2 May.

Committee elections

The annual committee (including branch officer) elections happen at or shortly after the AGM. (Uncontested posts are declared elected at the AGM, for contested posts a ballot of all members will be arranged after the AGM).

The deadline for nominations to committee is the day before the AGM (so, Wednesday 17 May). 

Here’s information about the different roles on committee and about how to nominate colleagues: standing for election to the UCU committee

When making a nomination, or thinking of standing, it’s useful to consider the importance that the committee represents the whole membership and no one group is over-represented to the accidental exclusion of others, as happens some years (but not every year) with the over-representation of white and/or male UCU members.

Every branch officer and committee position is elected every year at or shortly after the AGM, and the term of office is the academic year (1 September to 31 August). The only positions not up for election at the AGM are the immediate past president (which Chloe Wallace will become on 1 September) and any members elected to UCU’s national executive committee who are in this branch.

Department rep by-elections

This summer is not an all-out election for department reps (who serve a two year term (unless they are elected in a by-election part way through it), but there will automatically by a by-election to fill any vacancies. The deadline for nominations for those by-elections is 12pm Thursday 8 June (a couple of weeks after the AGM). I appreciate it is a bit early to remind you about this but it probably makes sense to think about it alongside thinking about who you want to nominate to be on the committee.

You can find out more about the department rep roles at choosing your UCU department representatives

I would strongly encourage all UCU members to think about which of your colleagues might be good UCU reps, either on the branch committee or for your department (including UCU department postgraduate reps, anti-casualisation reps, equality reps, workload reps and health and safety reps). In doing so I’d encourage you to challenge any stereotype you have of what union reps are like, be conscious that white and male union members are more likely to put themselves forward, and bear in mind that while someone who is more vocal at raising problems might be a good rep, it might also be that they are already in a relatively more privileged situation so feel more able to complain without consequence. In my view a good union rep will often be someone that colleagues have confidence in, whose judgement they trust, and who is a good listener.

Here’s a list of the scheduled general meetings for the academic year

Here’s an unofficial guide to how to turn your ideas into collective branch policy (including a link to the rules) https://www.leedsucu.org.uk/making-ucu-branch-general-meetings-work-better/

This page was last updated on 4 April 2023