What is a 'motion'?
A motion is a document that proposes a change to the Union’s Policy. Any full member of the Union (Imperial College students are all automatically fully members) can submit a motion to Council in the form of a paper. All motions must have a proposer and a seconder. A seconder is a student who supports the paper, they must also be a full member of the Union.
When a motion is submitted to Union Council it is discussed, debated and voted on. Any student can submit or debate a motion but only members of Union Council can vote on an outcome.
What motion subjects can be submitted?
Motions can be submitted on a range of topics from the decisions of the College and Union to international concerns, or even something that you are passionate about!
Log in to the Union website to see previous papers that have been discussed.
Who can I discuss my proposed Council paper with?
We recommend reaching out to your Officer Trustee team before submitting a paper to Union Council or sub-committee. The Officer Trustees will have a wealth of information about student issues across Imperial and what plans or actions are currently being undertaken to address these. They may be able to help you by providing context and facts to support the issue and proposed motion you are presenting.
You can ask your Officer Trustees to help you, by sending them an email.
Before writing your paper or motion, here are a couple of things to ask yourself
- Is the issue relevant to students?
- Have these issues already been addressed at Council or a sub-committee?
- Does the campaign have a clear goal and message?
- Have I researched the area thoroughly? – Look at similar campaigns at other universities
- Have I approached individuals or groups who might be interested in helping with the campaign?
How to Write a Council Paper
The paper should be structured as follows:
Title – Should be concise and comprehensible
Proposed by – (name of the Union member proposing the paper)
Seconded by – (name of the Union member in support of the proposed paper)
Union Notes (Facts) – establishing factual information on the topic.
Union Believes (Opinion) – What you believe to be true. This is where debate will come in, as what you believe may not be agreed on by all Council members
Union Resolves (Actions) – What do you want to happen. Tell the Union what actions you would like to be taken by the organisation. Such as mandate officers to speak to college/external or what resources (time or physical) need allocating.
The proposer of the motion is expected to present their paper at Council or the sub-committee where it will be discussed.
Amendments
An amendment is when you would like to make a change to any motions. Motion may be amended in the meeting. The proposer may or may not accept the suggested amendment. If the proposer has rejected the amendment, Council will vote on it.
What happens next?
- Motions will be taken to council to be discussed and voted on.
- Motions are passed by a simple majority, of over 50%.
- If the motion is successful it will then become part of Union Policy, as long as it abides by Charity Law and other legal obligations.
- Union officer and proposer are the responsible for the actions to be carried out.
Union Council does not have the authority to pass papers which impact on Union finances and resources.
