If you would like to submit a motion to a General Meeting, please keep an eye out for the Calling Notice to find out when the deadline for submitting motion to the next upcoming meeting will be. You can also email ucug@glasgow.ac.uk.

Motions have a word limit of 150 words, and need a proposer and a seconder (both have to be members of UCU Glasgow).

After submitting your motion to ucug@glasgow.ac.uk online before the deadline, your motion will be added to the agenda for the General Meeting on 28 February. Please make sure you invite colleagues along to this meeting and that both the proposer and seconder of the motion attend to move and second the motion. It is important for branch democracy that we have as many people as possible present to vote on motions to be clear that decisions are the collective will of the branch, and occasionally we even find that we struggle to have enough members present to make the voting possible (due to quoracy restrictions), so ensuring people attend the General Meeting is really important.

Please attend the whole General Meeting to ensure there is a good attendance for all motions. We can’t guarantee when specifically a motion will be debated during the meeting, but we will not debate or vote on motions in the first five minutes or the last five minutes of the meeting. The meeting agenda will be circulated to member a few days before the General Meeting.

When your motion is up for debate, the proposer will have three minutes to move the motion, and the seconder has up to two minutes to second the motion (or they can second the motion formally without speaking). Then, the chair will take speeches in favour and against the motion and allow for questions. Before the meeting votes on your motion, you will get the opportunity to reply if there were any speeches against.

If your motion passes, the Branch then will work with you towards implementing the actions demanded in the motion. This may involve endorsing a group, writing to support an action, or making a donation, which may be relatively simple and can be done directly by the committee, or it may be more complex, in which case it is likely it will require work and support from you to achieve the goal. For example, any campaign to change university policy cannot be done without the ongoing support and action of all of the people who want it to happen. It might be useful for you to have a quick chat with Lina at the UCU Glasgow Office before the General Meeting, so we can anticipate what action may be required, and ensure that it can be implemented as smoothly and quickly as possible, if the motion passes. Contact Lina by emailing ucug@glasgow.ac.uk for any further questions.