The Union’s bye-laws set out how the union should work, the rules that govern how we do business and cover a range of regulations from elections to clubs and societies and we've got new ones!

SUBU recognised that we could do better, this is why we undertook a democracy review last year – completed in February 2020. The review involved running a series of focus groups with a range of student groups, from club and society committee members, Student Reps, Volunteers, Part-Time Officers and even unengaged students. The recommendations included: 

1. That the bye-laws by re-written to make them a more useful tool for students to find out more about SUBU and its’ structures as well as simplifying language and removing repetition.
2. That the Big Student Meeting could be improved to enhance the representative functions of the meeting, improve accessibility and provide greater opportunities for students to have their voices heard.
3. That the Officer structure could be improved. 
4. That there should be more opportunities to find out what your Full-Time Officers have been up to and hold them to account. 

What changes were made: 

1. The bye-laws were re-written to reflect the changes to the democratic structures and improve transparency. 
2. The Big Student Meeting has been reworked with a focus on collaboration. The meeting will now be replaced by the SUBU Summit (Student Council) and will be chaired by an independent SUBU Summit Chair who is elected as a Part-Time Officer. We’ve also increased the frequency and made it easier for students to submit ideas to this meeting.  Finally, in order to make the meeting more representative, the voting members have been limited to Student Reps, 1 representative per Club and Society and Union Officers. 
3. The AGM has been replaced by a Student Members' meeting where all SUBU members will still be able to attend, find out more about SUBU's finances and set Union Policy.
4. The Part-Time Officers will now be representatives for specific student groups and have a clear remit. The PTO’s will now be the Liberation Officers- Asian, Arab and Ethnic Minority Officer, Disabled Students Officer, Black Students Officer, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Plus Officer, Trans and Non-Binary Officer, and the Women’s Officer. There will also be four Faculty Officers- Media and Communication Officer, Business School Officer, Health and Social Sciences Officer, Science and Technology Officer. Finally, there will be the SUBU Summit Chair. 
5. The accountability section of the SUBU Summit will also be improved so instead of giving verbal updates the FTO’s will write reports which will be available online beforehand and will be based on progress that they have made on their manifesto’s and policy. We’ve also increased the time dedicated to this during the meeting 
6. We have reworked the Executive Committee to ensure that its focus is on improving the student experience through representation and campaigning. This has also resulted in removing items that legally reside with the Trustees.  
7. Created a new bye-law which provides information surrounding the function of the Liberation Groups, to ensure that they are fully embedded within the Union 
8. Made a few amendments to the Elections bye-law to make the process more transparent.  
9. Reworked matters relating to the Trustee Board. This included removing bye-laws relating to financial controls and code of conduct and disciplinary matters which are now policies produced by the Trustees. We’ve also included information about the functionality of the Trustee Board sub-committees. 

You can view the bye-laws here