Students’ Union Democracy:
a rough guide
The democratic structure of the Union works like an inverted pyramid – from the eight and a half thousand ordinary students all the way down to the president and other members of the Executive committee:
Students (General Meetings)
Student Councillors (Union Council)
Executive Officers (Executive meetings)
Executive
The Executive committee meets each week – anyone is entitled to sit in on the meeting and take part in the discussion, but this is where Executive officers vote on the daily running of the Union: the minutiae. Executive officers are elected each year in a vote that takes place across the whole of the UWB campus (including in Wrexham!) in the second semester. There are five full-time sabbatical officers and ten voluntary officers who work for and on behalf of the many different students that Bangor Students’ Union has the privilege to pay host to.
Council
Union Council meets monthly and is responsible for holding the Executive to account. Again, anyone can turn up and have their say in the discussion, but Councillors (who are elected at GMs or as representatives from various other groups including each academic department) hear reports from the Executive committee about what they’ve been up to on a daily basis and decide whether they’ve been doing it properly. Reports are heard from people in charge of standing committees – groups like Seren (Union newspaper) or Student Volunteering Bangor – and then questions can be asked. Council is also where you can submit policy motions to be debated and discussed and then voted on. If a policy motion is successfully passed and then ratified a month later it becomes Union policy for 3 years. Current policy ranges from the Union stance on top-up fees to sending a wedding gift to the Prince of Wales (Chancellor of UWB) and the Duchess of Cornwall (the Chancellor’s missus). Council can also call for referendums, set up ad-hoc committees and censure members of the Executive.
General Meetings
The General Meeting is effectively the sovereign body of the Union – all students have a vote here, and there has to be a minimum of 150 students present for the meetings to go ahead in order to ensure a minimally representative group of people. The General Meetings pass and ratify policy, but also oversee the work of Union Council and the Executive. Positions that haven’t yet been filled within the SU are opened up at GMs to anyone who wants to/is eligible to stand (N.B. Bring two friends who will nominate you). There are two GMs each year.
Constitution
The work of the Students’ Union is run according to its Constitution – a legally binding document that ensures procedures are in place to provide a fully democratic, representative organisation for Bangor students. It ranges from the way in which Union meetings should be run to the Equal Opportunities and Bilingual policies of the Union.
Download the Constitution (PDF, 915KB)
At first glance the democratic side of the Union can look both daunting and confusing. Fear not: help is always at hand. What might seem like tedious procedure one minute can be your way of getting your voice heard the next.
