Instatement manual for SUPRA council

5. Governance

The graphic below indicates SUPRA’s governance structure.

Members ultimately control the structure and official goals of SUPRA. Only the membership can change these. Members meet at a general meeting at least once a year to: approve the Annual Report and financial report; discuss and decide on any major decisions like changes to the Constitution; participate in discussions and ask questions of Council.

The constitution is the document approved by members at annual general meetings which outlines the rules of the association, and gives responsibilities and direction to the elected representatives. Any changes to the constitution approved by the members must then be approved by the DVC(E) as the delegated representative of the University before they can take effect.

The council is required to act on behalf of members and run SUPRA as directed at the annual general meeting and in the constitution. The responsibility for SUPRA as a whole is shared among all councillors equally.

Policy and regulations are the rules and guidelines developed and adapted by council that give clarity and direction to assist in everyday implementation of the constitution. These documents can be altered by council at a council meeting.

Council decisions guide the work of individual councillors. Many actions, regardless of importance, can only be taken after they have first been agreed upon at a council meeting.

The executive is important for the day-to-day work of SUPRA, and leadership of the organisation through the Management Committee. Each executive position has a duty statement that outlines the specific responsibilities of the role.

Committees are extremely valuable for running an organisation the size of SUPRA. They allow for councillors to become experts in their particular area and to be able to give good advice to council. Committees are also a great way to direct workload, for example, if you are in a council meeting and require further information about finances you should ask the Finance Committee for this.

Principles of governance

SUPRA is an unincorporated, not-for-profit association. The association is governed by elected councillors who are bound by SUPRA’s constitution and policies.

When a student becomes a councillor they take on significant responsibility. These responsibilities are financial, legal, fiduciary and reputational. Each councillor must act with due diligence when making decisions and have an awareness of their duty of care.

When making decisions in your capacity as a councillor you should consider these questions:

Financial

• Is this an appropriate use of constituents’ money? Does this carry financial risk?

Legal

• What are the legal risks associated with doing or not doing this?
• What are my obligations as an employer?
• Are we meeting our legal requirements as an organisation (tax, insurance and other reporting)?

Fiduciary

• Am I prioritising the needs of our membership?
• How does this align with SUPRA’s constitutional objects and principles?
• How do I make sure I have enough information to make this decision?

Reputational

• Are we upholding the standards we want our organisation to be known for?

Fiduciary duties

As a councillor you have legally required duties to the membership called ‘fiduciary duties’. You must:

• act in good faith and in the best interests of SUPRA, and the membership
• act with care and due diligence
• disclose any conflicts of interest when appropriate.

This may seem obvious but there may be times when councillors will find that they are focused on internal politics at SUPRA and forget about of the needs and interests of the membership. If this happens, you must try to bring the needs of the members back to the centre of council’s purpose. You could ask yourself or others on council how the matters that they are focused on relate to the constitution’s objects and principles.

Due diligence

Due diligence is one of your fiduciary duties, it means being as informed as you reasonably can be about any SUPRA matter that you are deciding. You should know and understand as many aspects of the matter as possible. On SUPRA Council, this would mean doing necessary reading and research about a matter before attending a council meeting. Then, at the council meeting, take time to deliberate over and discuss the matter. For example, a student group might make a request for support for $500. Before the meeting, you should understand the reasons for the request, and then, with the whole of council, decide whether to agree to the request.

If decisions made on council are ever questioned legally, you need to be able to demonstrate that councillors acted with due diligence, or you may be held individually legally liable for your decision.

Governance policies

Each term the SUPRA Council is different, but it is always bound by the same governance policy structure. The day-to-day governing of SUPRA is framed by policies and procedures set out and ratified by council. Each of these policies must be in keeping with the constitution. If there is a conflict between a policy and the constitution, the constitution is the appropriate document to enforce.

SUPRA has many policies, most of which will not be individually addressed in this manual. You are not expected to know them all in detail, but you should know which policies you will need to use in which situation, and know some details of some policies as they relate to your role. For example, the Secretary should be very familiar with the Rules of Order, and the Treasurer and members of the Finance Committee should be familiar with the Financial Regulations.

If you have a question outside of your regular role, you should be able to identify the relevant policy to answer it. For example, if you have a question about elections, then you should know to check the Electoral Regulations.

SUPRA relies on our policies for sustainable governance practices and to guide council. Each year when the council changes, it is essential that we have functional and easy-to-use policies to enable new councillors to manage the organisation responsibly. Policies are held on the SUPRA server and some can also be found on the SUPRA website.

Policies you will regularly use are:

• Rules of Order: contains rules about how meetings are conducted, and how you should behave in meetings
• Councillor Code of Conduct: enshrines ethical and appropriate behaviour for councillors to adhere to while performing their roles
• Electoral Regulations: govern how we hold elections
• Financial Regulations: detail financial matters, including payments of stipends
• Safer Spaces Policy: outlines SUPRA’s obligation to provide a safer space in SUPRA’s physical and online spaces
• Privacy Policy & Privacy Procedures: state our obligation to ensure the privacy of constituents and members and the procedures in place to protect their privacy.

How to use SUPRA’s policies

SUPRA policies both bind and guide your work as SUPRA councillor. Guided by the Vice President and the Policy Committee, you are responsible for developing, adhering to and enforcing policies at SUPRA. These policies should reflect the intentions of the constitution, and are a valuable tool throughout your term.

Policies are tools to get things done and are not intended to be restrictive. They exist to ensure that SUPRA functions in accordance with its objects and principles (outlined in clause 3 of the constitution).

They are also useful for direction, as you will often find that your duties at SUPRA will require you to perform tasks that you have no experience in. A good example of this is the information in our policies about running elections, or filling a council vacancy.

Policies are good places to start if you have any questions like:

• ‘How much discretionary spending power does the President have?’
• ‘How many stipend hours are allocated to the Treasurer?’
• ‘What do I do if I think I have a conflict of interest?’.

The SUPRA Constitution

The constitution is a strict set of rules that cannot be changed without the consent of SUPRA’s membership. It is used to give SUPRA direction from the members between general meetings. It sets out the objects and principles of the association which should inform every decision SUPRA Council makes. The only way the constitution can be changed is when the membership votes on those changes at a general meeting followed by approval from the university.

How SUPRA’s policies are made

SUPRA’s policies are developed and maintained by SUPRA councillors. There is a Policy Committee that is responsible for this, which is chaired by the Vice President. This committee consults with other councillors, and sometimes members, about the requirements for a policy, and can amend current policies or develop new ones.

When a new or updated policy document is ready, it must be ratified at a council meeting. It is important that adequate time has been given for councillors to review policies before they are ratified. This ensures the final policy is at an acceptable standard and will be easily passed at the meeting. It can take a long time to pass important updates if they are rejected at multiple council meetings.

Committees

SUPRA Council has 3 executive committees and 5 standing working committees. These committees are constitutionally mandated and are explained in the constitution. Each councillor will be delegated to at least two committees.

Committees should be a method of reducing and sharing workloads, and sharing fields of expertise. Committees that are working well will be able to inform council about their specialist area, which reduces the shared workload and discussion time in council meetings.

Within the committees, tasks can be delegated to committee members, which allows for individuals to have ownership of projects or topics of interest – which is both rewarding for the individual and relieving for others with significant workloads!

When the committees are functioning well, council are generally better at reaching their goals, have stronger relationships between councillors, and have more productive council meetings. When the committees are not functioning well, council often experiences uneven workloads and higher levels of burnout.

The executive committees are:

• Management Committee (ManCom): Chaired by the President. This committee allows for the smooth running of the association between council meetings. The matters that can be discussed include staffing, administrative matters and finances.
• Equity Committee: Chaired by an elected member of the committee. This committee can discuss matters relating to equity groups including events, matters affecting their networks, and any other matters determined by council.
• Finance Committee: Chaired by the Treasurer. This committee may discuss matters such as financial modelling, draft budgets and any other matters determined by council.

The standing working committees are:

• Policy Committee: chaired by the Vice President. This committee can work on developing internal policy throughout the term and constitutional changes in the lead up to a general meeting. This committee can also discuss policy submissions to external bodies and other matters as determined by council.
• The Education Committee: chaired by the Education Officer. This committee is responsible for monitoring the quality of higher education, both at University of Sydney and more generally. The committee can discuss the quality of higher education, campaign for the betterment of education, and other matters as determined by council.
• Higher Degree by Research (HDR) Committee: chaired by the Higher Degree by Research (HDR) Officer. The committee is responsible for monitoring, and campaigning to maintain and improve the quality and standard of higher degree by research education both at the University of Sydney and more generally. The committee can also discuss any matters relevant to HDR students, and other matters as determined by council.
• Publications and Media Committee: chaired by the Director of Student Publications. This committee is responsible for the delivery and maintenance of SUPRA’s publications, including both print and digital publications.
• The Community Engagement and Activities Committee: chaired by the Community Engagement Officer. This committee is responsible for outreach, community development, and engagement.