YouX Plays the Numbers Game
Photography provided by Louise Jackson.
REPORTED BY UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE CORRESPONDENT, BILLY Z.
Nix Herriot, elected director of the Adelaide University Union (University of Adelaide’s student union that has recently rebranded, YouX) Board, is no longer in that position. He was not removed by a vote, or through resignation but rather is no longer a director due to supposedly missing four ordinary meetings of the board.
As of the 28 February meeting, Nix ceased being a board director. As there were only four meetings of this year’s term before he was removed, YouX must be counting him as an absence at each of these meetings for his removal to be valid. Let’s look at the meetings used to remove Nix as a director and how these may or may not satisfy the Constitutional requirements.
Meeting 1 - held 25 October 2023
The Constitution stipulates that only absences from ordinary meetings count towards a director's absences. Ordinary meetings must be held regularly with at least two weeks of notice given. They differ from Special Meetings which have no requirement for notice and attendance does not count towards a director’s four meetings before they are removed.
The meeting held 25 October 2023 is counted as being part of the absences that Nix accrued contributing to him being removed. It is debatable whether it is an ordinary meeting as it was the meeting held to elect the executive of the board prior to the new board’s term commencing on 1 December.
This meeting is referenced in clause 11.10 of the Constitution. It stipulates that it must be held prior to the commencement of the term and that it be “conducted in the same manner as an Ordinary Meeting”. Does this clause make it count as an ordinary meeting? The Board seems to think so in counting it towards removal. However, this meeting was called with less than 24 hours’ notice - hardly close to the much lengthier notice required for ordinary meetings. This signals it to be closer to a special meeting and therefore not count towards Nix’s absences.
Meeting 2 - 20 December 2023
Due to only four meetings being held before his removal, logically the meeting held on 20 December 2023 counts towards his absences. Nix, however, was listed as being present for this meeting in the minutes which were later certified on 13 February.
Essentially this means that Nix's removal from the board was contingent on his absence at this meeting, despite this contradicting both reality and the certified minutes.
Meetings 3 & 4 - 29 January & 13 February 2024
The final two meetings to contribute to Nix’s removal were those held on January 29 and February 13 of this year. Nix did attend these meetings but left the meetings with other directors in an attempt to stop an amendment to the organisation’s rules.
He was listed as an absence despite being present. This is dubious but is technically permitted under Section 13.3 of the Standing Orders which allows a director to be counted as an absence if they left before all items on the agenda were considered.
Conclusion
The above culminates in an unclear situation. Half of the meetings used to remove Nix from the board realistically should not have been used to remove a democratically elected board director. The other two, while permitted to be used as absences, may not pass the pub test. Nix’s board colleague, Sage, was also removed from the board for missing too many meetings; similar inconsistencies may exist for her removal as well. The question remains whether this is a shoddy interpretation of the constitution or whether it is actively malicious against Nix.
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CORRECTIONS: This article was written when the YouX board minutes weren’t released publicly and has been updated to reflect that.