C/1 Guide to Council Meetings
[Please read in conjunction with QUT Council Procedure 1 - Committees, Appendix 10 of the Council Charter which is located in Part A of this Manual.]
Council meets approximately every eight weeks, between February and December. Major Council committees meet in the period between Council meetings so that they may report to Council.
The Chancellor is ex officio chair of Council. Meetings are run by rule of the chair, who has a deliberative and, in the case of an equality of votes, a casting vote on any issue. The meeting quorum is one-half of the current membership, or if that is not a whole number, the figure is rounded up to the next whole number. Vacant positions and co-opted persons are not counted towards the quorum.
Members are requested to declare any conflict of interest with business items on the agenda at the opening of the meeting.
Agenda papers for Council meetings are normally circulated one week before Council's meeting. Papers are not normally tabled at a meeting. Papers marked "Confidential" are normally only confidential until after the meeting. However, in some circumstances, a paper will remain confidential and the Chancellor usually requests members to return these papers to the Secretary for disposal.
Council business usually comes from one of its committees, the Secretary or the Vice-Chancellor. Papers are put to Council in the form of a submission with a recommendation, context and rationale for the recommendation. Council agenda also includes the following standard items
- a report by the Vice-Chancellor on his activities and those of his advisory committees
- a report from all Council committees that have meet in the period between Council meetings
- items for information, such as correspondence, newsletters.
Agenda items are numbered for reference at the meeting. The top right hand corner of the accompanying submission includes a stamp with the agenda item number, meeting date, and committee abbreviation. To expedite business, items on the agenda are marked with an asterisk (starred) for discussion at the meeting. Items are starred depending on their importance or complexity. Matters of routine business or for information are left unstarred.
At the beginning of each Council meeting, members are asked whether they want to star any additional items for discussion. Unstarred items are not discussed at the meeting, and are taken as noted or adopted as appropriate. If papers are tabled at a meeting they are automatically starred.
Permanent records of QUT include committee documents of Council and its Committees and Vice-Chancellor's committees. A complete set of papers for each meeting - the agenda, documents and confirmed minutes printed on archival paper - is retained by Governance Services. Past Committee documents are available to Council members on request. Members' copies of University meeting papers should be disposed of in an appropriate, secure manner.
The Queensland Freedom of Information Act 1992 (FOI Act)provides the public with a legally enforceable right to obtain information about the operations of the University, such as records of official meetings. Documents can include files, working papers and post-it notes, drafts and copies of documents, minutes of meetings, jottings on papers. The Act gives the right to access documents irrespective of when they were created, and may include documents held at a Council member's home.