Opening the doors: The Trustee Board

“The Board will meddle in politics”

• We have restricted the role of the Board in the document to focus on administrative and regulatory matters
• It can be directed on policy and budget matters, and we have strengthened the reporting and accountability measures for it at National Executive Council and Congress

“The Board will be able to cut spending on campaigns”

• We have clarified the respective roles of the NEC and Trustee Board to ensure that the power to set campaigning and other budgets lies in the hands of the elected bodies.

• In addition the budget will have to be approved by both the Board and the National Executive Council before being presented to Conference by the national president.

“The elected Senate should be able to overturn decisions of the Board”

• The new proposals grant power to the National Executive Council to refer back, in part or full, the report of the Board at its meetings; we have also simplified and clarified the accountability procedures for the board at Annual Congress.

“The way lay trustees will be selected is a total stitch up”

• The new proposals ensure that the nominations committee is broader and that there are proper arrangements for voting on their appointment at Conference

“The Board will not be diverse enough”

• There is now an explicit responsibility to manage the diversity profile of the Board given to the nominations committee

”The Board will be full of student movement cronies"

• There is now a detailed clause ruling out anyone with a direct financial or legal relationship with NUS from becoming an external member of the board.

“The Board could veto changes to the constitution on 'financial' or 'legal' grounds”

• The new proposals reflect that the board will not have the right to veto constitutional or schedules changes. Nor will it have any right to comment on or veto beliefs of the national union or any matter resolved which does not have direct practical financial or legal implications.

“There should be black representation on the highest body of NUS”

• Some comments last year referred to a desire to see liberation officers on the Board. We have now clarified that the Board is a legal and administrative vehicle that plays no role in budget allocation or policy setting and as such could not be regarded as the ‘top body’.