[committee] Minutes of meeting with Guild President - 2019-06-28

[Felix von Perger]

> Meeting with Guild President 2019-06-28
> =======================================
> Present:
> - Felix von Perger [UCC President]
> - Conrad Hogg [Guild President]
>
> - Floor plan in progress, old Uniprint back room to be split into 3 
> tenancies (?)
>   - (diagram showed 5 tenancies along the wall from the front of old 
> Uniprint including the back room)
> - Conrad can link up with project manager to discuss further requirements
> - some things to consider:
>   - Being able to modify the room
> - Inclusivity
>   - Felix: Posters have been put up in clubroom
>     - Review of regulations in progress, on hold due to exams / half 
> of committee being away
>     - committee committed to contacting other clubs, the Guild, etc. 
> for the purpose of reviewing regulations and processes with 
> inclusivity in mind (not exact wording)
>     - Review of groups enacted
>     - door review
>     - not ideal outcome regarding wheel review process, but it is the 
> most review-like thing to happen in 20-25 years
>     - [forgot to mention: door training in progress, etc.]
> - Conrad: this is a follow-up in relation to a grievance process [...]
> - Governance issues
>   - Conrad: "wheel has to go" [sic]
>     - Felix: BTW, non-students aren't the problem, problem members are 
> the problem
>       - we don't have many of [the latter] at the moment(compared to 
> previous years)
>       - most members, including "wheel" and non-students, are really 
> nice and do respect other people
>       - not just "wheel" which are the source of "cultural problems"
>     - "Guild doesn't have a problem with non-students engaging in the 
> club"
>       - Conrad: note that Guild grants etc. are funded by student SSAF 
> fees
>       - Felix: this was part of my core argument a while ago, although 
> notably not generally accepted by [active] members - many disagree 
> with "UCC is a student club"
>   - Governance is major issue (according to Guild)
>     - Felix: what is the exact problem?
>       - non-students involved in governance? - not really
>       - exec committee has to be students, as per the constitution
>     - Conrad: "Major governance issue in breach of SOC rules" [sic]
>       - "Control of systems/infrastructure not by committee"
>       - "Parallel structure that doesn't exist on paper" 
> [sic](referring to wheel)
>     - Felix: we do have committee regulations, in readily accessible 
> form, which cover the operation/powers/responsibilities of wheel
>       - wheel is thus answerable to committee, and committee can do 
> things like add/remove wheel members per the regulations
>       - (Conrad is not aware of UCC regulations)
>       - Felix: it is true that committee is scared to do many things 
> because there is a perceived threat, made more or less explicitly by 
> some active members with technical competence, that they will leave if 
> the committee pisses them off too much (and that UCC will "fall apart" 
> without them, or something)
>         - the latter part not entirely valid, and probably UCC would 
> be better without themanyway
>         - but UCC does still have to take care of its volunteers 
> (otherwise it won't have any)
>         - UCC has a lot of hardware/computer assets - wheel is 
> fundamentally just a group of members who volunteer their time to 
> maintain the various systems
>           - most of that maintenance not possible without 
> administrative access
>           - although in the case of non-students having admin access 
> (assuming that's what the Guild is concerned about) we could grant 
> access only when necessary, such as when stuff breaks and none of the 
> active student members know how / have time to fix it
>     - Conrad: that the [student] committee should be able to control 
> everything is important
>       - theoretically fine to have a group of members with 
> administrative access, called or not called wheel
>       - current power structures are the problem and are not being 
> changed by the review
>       - Felix: not sure what committee "having power" practically 
> entails...
>     - Conrad: Guild will be pushing for UCC to deconstruct/reform 
> wheel (to fix the "governance issues")
>       - will send a formal letter regarding [apparent] breach of SOC 
> rules and requesting certain actions be taken
>       - happy to ask UWA IT for resources to help UCC with doing so
>     - Felix: lack of engagement is another contributing factor. When 
> 4-5 "wheel members" are a significant proportion of 10-15 total active 
> members (including the already few active committee members) then of 
> course they have power in the club (which isn't necessarily a bad thing)
>       - A better solution is to get more members who are engaged so 
> that they outweigh/outnumber the older members
>       - UCC's events are failing due to lack of attendance, half of 
> committee is inactive, ...
>       - Conrad: something about engagement strategies...
>   - What can Guild do to help?
>     - resources to help writing/checking regulations?
>       - Chair of Guild Council, Conrad, etc.
>     - Felix: facilitated workshop session for different groups of 
> people around UCCwould be good to figure out what we can do, there are 
> many conflicting views and it's hard to agree
>       - if Guild is potentially taking action against UCC then we need 
> to get our act together
>       - also if Guild takes issue with the way UCC operates, it is 
> good to ensure that we are all on the same page before Guild makes 
> formal requests
>       - (concerns include that decisions will be made by Guild without 
> actually knowing how they will affect UCC)
> - Guild will write to UCC with some specific formal requests, in the 
> next 2 weeks, relating to the governance issues
>   - Conrad & Taco will be working together on the Guild side of things
>   - Possibility to arrange another meeting to discuss further before 
> formal action taken
>     - Conrad will be away next week (30/06-06/07 ish)
>
> TODO: send Conrad copy of UCC regs
> TODO: investigate facilitated workshop session?