The Central Societies Committee (CSC) will run its Annual General Meeting (AGM) online on September 30th, despite previously justifying the six-month postponement of its AGM – at which elections to the executive are held – by claiming that the constitution stipulates that all general meetings must happen in person.
In an email statement to society officers on March 26th, seen by The University Times, the CSC executive said that it had considered running its AGM remotely, but had instead postponed it until the beginning of the 2020/21 academic year, citing a section of the constitution which allows the executive to determine “any point of clarification or interpretation of this Constitution which may be required”.
The committee said that according to the constitution the AGM must be held in person, citing section 8.6 and 9.1.(i) as justification. This meant that the AGM would have to be postponed.
Six months after elections were meant to be held, however, the committee appears to be rowing back on this interpretation.
Neither of the parts of the constitution originally cited by the committee in March as justification for postponing elections stipulate that meetings must be held in person or that an AGM could not take place online.
Instead they state that two thirds of members of the Committee must be “present” in order to vote for a motion to adjourn or to suspend standing orders, and that the treasurer of a society may send a proxy to an AGM if they cannot attend the meeting.
The CSC’s constitution states that an Annual General Meeting (AGM) must take place in week 10 of the second semester, and that “at the AGM the Chairperson, the Treasurer, the Secretary, the Amenities Officer, and the eight ordinary members of the Executive, shall be elected in that order, for the following year”.
The CSC did not respond to a request for comment about the apparent u-turn on its interpretation of its constitution.
In an email statement to The University Times earlier this month, Strategic Development Officer Joseph O’Gorman denied that the executive had breached the constitution, and that the decisions had not been “disputed by the general Committee”, which consists of the treasurers of all recognised societies in Trinity.
O’Gorman said that because the AGM did not take place, the section of the constitution stating that executive officers were elected at the AGM for the following year did not apply, and “will not apply until there is an AGM”. He did not elaborate on why the stipulation that officers would only hold their position for the following year no longer applied.
