SOCIETY AGM PROCEDURE 2022

Every society may hold an AGM to elect the committee for 22/23. Be that in person, hybrid or in a virtual format, which should be decided by the current committee taking into account what would be more successful in order to meet quorum and be accessible your membership.

The guidelines below should be followed when running a society’s AGM and Election. If you have any queries or need any help or clarification please reach out to our Secretary at [email protected] 

THE EVENT 

The procedure for calling an AGM or EGM is laid out in your society constitution.  Please ensure that sufficient notice is communicated to all members (as per your constitution) by email and by any other means you deem necessary, providing: the time and date of the AGM the online location of the meeting an agenda of what is to take place.

Items that should be included on the AGM agenda are:

an overview of the society’s activities

reports from the officers

amendments to the constitution (if applicable)

and elections for a new committee.

Your society constitution is available on on the A-Z on this site

We ask that all Society AGMs be held in Hilary Term if possible but if not at least before the end of April. 

You can book a room or the event as normal, and for online/hybrid each society should have access to their own Zoom account. If you do need to book a CSC Zoom Webinar or Meeting Room you can do so at: https://csc-tcd-ie.libcal.com/spaces?lid=1667  FYI – you must always book the zoom room first on this site and not by logging into zoom if you have the password from a previous booking. If you do not book it properly and there is a clash any booking not made first using the booking system will be null-and-void

You must ensure that each person who attends your online AGM or EGM is a valid member of the society. This can be done in two ways: 

by having your membership list and checking them off at the door or if online by employing a waiting room on the AGM Zoom and verifying each member before admittance

or

by using a registration form for the event, (e.g. a Google Form) which allows a member  fill in their name and email address; this information can then be verified; and, if they’re a valid member, the AGM Zoom link can be emailed to them on the day of the AGM.

If anyone who is not a invalid member of a society votes in the elections of that society’s AGM, the elections will be deemed null and void by the CSC, and the election will have to be run again.

THE VOTING 

Given the constraints imposed by the virtual format of online AGMs, the CSC will accept the results of any Society Election which is carried out on the basis of the first-past-the-post voting system* if you decide to run it fully online. This means that the person with the most votes in any ballot for any particular committee position is deemed elected. You can run a poll in Zoom during the AGM which is the most efficient way to hold elections at the moment. For ease, we would recommend collecting nominations before the AGM and creating the polls before the event. We’ve attached two very handy tutorials on Zoom AGMs and making polls below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHBkEFKeVBM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAnW4jhNxeM

*The CSC will accept these results even if the Society Constitution stipulates the use of a Single Transferable Vote election

That said if you would like to run a Single Transferable Vote election, it is of course possible.  However, the admin and organisation of an STV election does get somewhat more difficult. If you would like to run an STV election, please see this doc explaining the process or get in touch with the CSC Secretary, who can brief you about the many different aspects to running an STV election online.