[All-societies] VERY IMPORTANT

[Treasurer]

Dear All,

If all I've asked of you this year hasn't been enough already, myself, SUSU
and London Met Students Union really need your help with this issue. Please
take your time to read this and pass this information on to your membership
and urge them to support the cause. The situation is rediculous.


We need your support. A new constitution was decided two days ago by a
LondonMet committee which
ignored almost everything the Students' Union had proposed to be included.

To see the new constitution visit:

http://www.londonmetsu.org.uk/main/union/constitution/Newconstitution

LondonMet is already a non-commercial union and what has been agreed
removes all responsibility we had in organising social and recreational
services to students.  Furthermore, they have taken clubs and societies
away from the union and removed peer support from us entirely.

Final year Semester A students would not be eligible as sabbatical
officers and the Students' Union will no longer be the sole representative
body to the university.  The university also proposes to have 20 elected
councillors who will act as Trustees which goes against all NUS advice on
this matter. All candidates for these positions would have been at
LondonMet for one term, cutting out the possibility of Freshers getting
involved and those with a mental health difficulty are also not allowed to
stand for election.

The university proposes not to fund or recognise the Students' Union if we
do not have 7.5% of all eligible voters take part in elections. This will
take effect from Monday when the election process will be opened.
Furthermore, the officer posts have changed but they have provided no
information as to the job description of the new posts.  Instead, this
will be decided by Council in October.  How are students supposed to take
on the challenge of being a sabbatical officer if they do not know what
post entails?  And how are we supposed to achieve the 7.5% if we do not
have any staff support or funding to help run the campaign?

We need some support if we are to prevent this constitution from going
through our Board of Governors.  Please let your Union know of our plight
and send us letters of support.  You can also sign our online petition and
leave messages by visiting


http://www.gopetition.com/region/222/8217.html

LondonMetsu has been marginalised enough without these new changes that
are being proposed.  With the support of NUS and other students unions we
will hopefully get the London Metropolitan Board of Governors see sense.
Please help.

Kind Regards

LondonMetsu Executive