The Central Societies Committee (CSC) AGM failed to reach quorum this evening and will be rescheduled.
Separately, Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) council also did not have enough members present for votes to be held. The meeting was reconvened as a town hall and the discussion items on the council agenda went ahead.
The CSC was due to elect its new officers and executive members but could not proceed as fewer than the required 46 voting members were present.
Last April, TCDSU lost quorum at council after members raised concerns that people had entered the Zoom call just to record their attendance but had not remained.
First-year Law class representative Daniel Walsh requested a call for quorum, and it emerged that there were not enough members of council present to constitute a quorum for the meeting. The meeting was adjourned and existing motions were moved to the next meeting.
An extraordinary council has since been called and will take place on Friday at 7pm.
The request for a quorum call followed a challenge by first-year PPES class rep László Molnárfi to the Chair of Council Yannick Gloster over the conduct of a vote to adopt a long-term policy on College’s investments related to weapons and arms manufacturers.
A procedural motion was brought forward to challenge Gloster’s ruling that the vote had been correctly run.
The number of people present to meet quorum for council is 120 members.
As the vote was taking place, then-Deputy STEM Convenor Bev Genockey asked how many people had voted for and against the long-term policy motion, and how many abstained.
Gloster said that 29 out of 128 people present on the call had abstained.
Genockey said that people may have logged onto Zoom for “attendance purposes” and didn’t intend on abstaining. Gloster said that there was no way to know whether members of council who were present in the call were still at their computers.
Walsh then called for a poll to see if council had lost quorum. After the vote was finished, Gloster announced that council had indeed lost quorum and all existing motions would be pushed forward until the next meeting.
