Singapore Polytechnic (Students’ Union) Regulations

The name of the Union shall be the Singapore Polytechnic Students’ Union.

The motto and crest of the Union shall be those of the Polytechnic.

The place of business of the Union shall be the Singapore Polytechnic, 500 Dover Road, Singapore 139651.

Every full-time student shall be an ordinary member of the Union.

Every part-time student shall be an associate member of the Union.

A person shall not be a member of the Union unless he is a student.

All ordinary and associate members of the Union shall each pay an entrance fee of $5 or such other amount as may be determined by the Board.

An ordinary member shall pay a subscription fee of $18 per academic year or such other amount as may be determined by the Board.

An associate member shall pay a subscription fee of $9 per academic year or such other amount as may be determined by the Board.

All ordinary and associate members shall pay their entrance fees and subscriptions through the Polytechnic at the beginning of each academic year together with their college fees.

There shall be no refund of any entrance fee or subscription which has been paid.

An ordinary member may —

An associate member may —

An associate member may not vote in or stand for election to the Council or the Executive Committee or any management committee.

No person other than a member of the Union shall participate in any activity of the Union.

Voting in every election shall be by ballot and a member may not vote by proxy in an election.

The Union shall have a Council to manage its affairs.

Where all the members of the Council resign from office, the administration of the Union shall be carried out by an interim council.

The Council shall consist of —

The ratio of Union representatives to members of the respective management committees shall be not more than 1:5.

There shall be one Executive Committee member for a constituent body with up to 1,000 members and 2 Executive Committee members for a constituent body with more than 1,000 members.

Where there is a vacancy in the Executive Committee, the Executive Committee may co-opt an ordinary member of the Union to fill the vacancy.

The Executive Committee shall not co-opt person in accordance with paragraph (4) except with the approval of the Principal.

Where the Executive Committee fails to fill a vacancy in the Committee, the Principal may appoint a student to fill the vacancy.

A motion of censure or no confidence passed against the Council shall not take effect unless it obtains the endorsement of two-thirds of the management committees of the constituent bodies.

A Union representative shall not be removed from office except by a majority of members of the management committee which voted him in.

A member of the Executive Committee shall not be removed from office except by a majority of the members of the constituent body which voted him in and the endorsement of two-thirds of the members of the Council present at a meeting thereof.

A person who is co-opted into or appointed to the Council under regulation 10(4) or (6) shall not be removed from office except with the approval of the Principal.

A Union representative in the Council shall vacate his office if he ceases to be a member of the management committee of the constituent body which he represents in the Council.

A member of the Executive Committee shall vacate his office if he resigns from the Council.

A member of the Council shall have only one vote irregardless of the number of management committees he represents.

A member of the Executive Committee shall have only one vote irregardless of the number of constituent bodies he represents.

The entrance fee and Union subscription of a student shall be collected and retained by the Bursar of the Polytechnic in the accounts of the Union and the constituent body of which the student is a member.

The Union and every constituent body shall submit their respective budgets for the approval of the Board.

Every payment in respect of expenditure properly incurred by the Union or any of its constituent bodies shall be made by the Bursar from the appropriate account.

All donations to, and funds raised by, the Union and its constituent bodies shall be paid to the Bursar for credit to the appropriate accounts.

The Board may impose such conditions as it thinks fit for the use by the Union and any of its constituent bodies of the Polytechnic’s premises or facilities.

A nominal sum to be determined from time to time by the Principal may be charged for such use.

The term of office of a member of the Council shall be one academic year from the first annual general meeting after the election to the Council.

A member of the Council shall vacate his office when he ceases to be a full-time student of the Polytechnic.

The Council shall hold at least one ordinary meeting per academic term.

The Honorary General Secretary of the Council shall give at least 7 days’ notice of such meeting.

The agenda for the meeting shall be posted on the Union’s notice boards at least 6 days before the date of the meeting.

Any subject for inclusion in the agenda for the meeting shall be submitted by a member of the Council to the Honorary General Secretary at least 3 days before the date of the meeting.

An extraordinary meeting shall be held when a matter requiring urgent attention arises or when a written request for such meeting signed by at least one-third of the members of the Council is received by the Honorary General Secretary.

The meeting shall be held within 5 days of the receipt of any such request.

Only those matters for which the meeting is convened shall be discussed at the meeting.

The Honorary General Secretary shall give at least 3 days’ notice of such meeting unless the urgency of the matter requires a shorter notice.

Half of the number of Council members shall constitute a quorum for a meeting of the Council.

Where a quorum is not present, the meeting shall be postponed to a date within 7 days, but not less than 48 hours, of the postponed meeting.

The minutes of a meeting shall be submitted for adoption at the following meeting.

A general report of every meeting shall be put on the Union’s notice boards within 10 days of the meeting.

The Chairman shall preside at every meeting and in his absence one of the members present, other than a member of the Executive Committee, shall be elected to preside at the meeting.

No member of the Council shall absent himself for more than 15 minutes from any meeting of the Council except with the permission of the Chairman.

A member of the Council shall not be absent from more than two-thirds of the total time in 3 successive meetings of the Council without reasonable cause acceptable to the Council.

At the meeting subsequent to the 3 successive meetings which a member is absent, the member shall submit a written explanation for his absence.

The Council shall at such meeting consider and decide by a simple majority of those present at the meeting whether the member concerned shall remain in the Council.

The first ordinary meeting of the Council shall be convened by the Honorary General Secretary of the previous Council —

The first item on the agenda of that first meeting shall be the election of the Chairman of the new Council who shall not be a member of the Executive Committee.

The election of the Chairman of the new Council shall be presided by the Chairman of the previous Council who shall have no vote unless he is also a member of the new Council.

The Council, presided by the newly elected Chairman, shall then elect the office-bearers of the Executive Committee from among the members of that Committee.

The minutes of the first meeting shall be recorded by the Honorary General Secretary of the previous Council.

At the first meeting, the provisional budget for the ensuing year as proposed by the Finance Committee of the previous Council shall be considered and recommendations shall be submitted to the Principal for the approval of the Board.

The second ordinary meeting of the Council shall be held not later than 2 weeks after the annual general meeting.

The standing committees of the Union shall be appointed at that second meeting.

The Executive Committee shall consist of —

All the members of the Executive Committee, except the Financial Secretary, shall be eligible for reappointment.

The Executive Committee shall carry out the policies of the Council.

All communications between the Union and the Polytechnic or any other person shall be carried out through the Executive Committee.

A member of the Executive Committee shall hold office from the date of his appointment until the first meeting of the Council elected in the following academic year.

A member of the Executive Committee shall cease to be such when he ceases to be a full-time student of the Polytechnic.

A member of the Executive Committee shall not hold more than one office in the Executive Committee.

A person shall not be a member of the Executive Committee unless he is a citizen of Singapore.

The Executive Committee shall meet at least once a month.

The Honorary General Secretary shall give at least 7 days’ notice of such meeting unless the urgency of the matter requires a shorter notice.

A meeting of the Executive Committee shall be convened by the Honorary General Secretary when directed by the President of the Union or at the request of at least 3 members of the Executive Committee.

Half of the number of members of the Executive Committee shall constitute a quorum.

A member of the Executive Committee shall not absent himself from 3 successive meetings of the Executive Committee without reasonable cause.

At the meeting subsequent to the 3 successive meetings which a member is absent, the member shall submit a written explanation for his absence.

The Executive Committee shall consider and decide by a simple majority of those present at the meeting whether the member concerned shall remain in the Executive Committee.

The President, or in his absence the Vice-President, shall preside at a meeting of the Executive Committee.

In the absence of the President and the Vice-President, one of the members present, other than the Honorary General Secretary, shall be elected to preside at the meeting.

The President of the Union —

The President, or in his absence the Vice-President, shall have a casting vote at a meeting of the Executive Committee at which he presides.

If the membership of the Council falls below two-thirds of its possible maximum number of members through resignation or any other cause or where a vote of no confidence is passed on the Council, the entire Council shall resign.

The Council may also resign en bloc, but only at an extraordinary general meeting of the Union convened for that purpose.

Where the Council resigns from office, a new Council shall be elected within 4 weeks in accordance with these Regulations.

Pending the election of a new Council, there shall be an interim council.

The interim council shall consist of not more than 20 members comprising not more than 2 representatives from each management committee of the Union’s constituent bodies.

The members of the interim council shall be elected at a meeting of all the management committees of the Union’s constituent bodies.

The meeting shall be convened as early as possible by the out-going Honorary General Secretary.

The members of the interim council shall appoint a Chairman, a Secretary and a Treasurer from among themselves.

The Union’s Finance Committee shall consist of —

The Finance Committee shall elect a secretary from among its own members.

The Finance Committee shall —

The Union’s Publications Committee shall consist of —

The Publications Committee shall —

The policy of every publication of the Union or a constituent body thereof shall be decided by the Council.

The policy shall reflect the aims of the Union as spelt out in these Regulations.

No matter of Union policy may be published without a written directive from the Council.

No printed matter of the Union shall be published unless it is submitted by a member of the Union or a member of the Polytechnic staff.

Every article submitted to the Publications Committee shall bear the name of the author, but a pseudonym may be used when the article is printed.

An article from a publication other than that of the Union may be reprinted in a Union publication if the source of that article is specified in the article with the permission of the publisher.

The Union’s Student Welfare Committee shall consist of —

The Student Welfare Committee shall —

The Union’s Social Committee shall consist of —

The Social Committee shall organise dinners, dances, concerts, and such social or other functions as may be specified by the Council.

The financial year of the Union shall be the financial year of the Polytechnic.

All fees and subscriptions shall be paid by a member of the Union directly to the Bursar of the Polytechnic.

Any income of the Union shall be paid by the Financial Secretary to the Bursar for credit to the appropriate account.

All bills of expenditure of the Union and any of its committees, properly incurred in accordance with any budget approved by the Council, shall be submitted to the Financial Secretary.

All such bills shall be signed by the Financial Secretary and countersigned by the President of the Union and the Principal’s nominee in the Union’s Finance Committee and submitted to the Bursar for payment.

The Union and its committees shall not operate any bank account.

The Polytechnic’s auditor or such other auditor as may be appointed annually by the Principal in consultation with the Auditor-General shall be the auditor of the Union’s accounts.

The fees for the audit of the Union’s accounts shall be paid from the Union’s funds.

Any application for special or supplementary grants to any of the Union’s committees shall be presented by the Financial Secretary to the Council and submitted thereafter by the Council to the Board for approval.

All committees of the Council shall, before making any collection on behalf of the Union, obtain the approval of the Executive Committee and the Board.

All funds collected shall be paid by the Financial Secretary to the Bursar for credit to the appropriate account.

The returning officer shall give notice of the election at least 7 days before the date fixed for the receipt of nomination papers.

The returning officer shall then publish the register of voters and announce the seats that are to be filled in accordance with these Regulations.

Each candidate nominated for election shall have a proposer and a seconder.

No proposer or seconder may sign more nomination papers than there are vacancies to be filled.

On the close of nominations, if the valid nominations received by the returning officer is less than the vacancies to be filled, he shall declare the candidates nominated to be elected.

If the returning officer receives more valid nominations than there are vacancies to be filled, a secret ballot shall be held for the contested seats.

Balloting shall take place not earlier than one week and not later than 10 days after the close of nominations.

The time, date and place for such ballot shall be announced on the Union’s notice boards by the returning officer.

A member of the Union may attend and speak at a general meeting thereof.

A person who is not a member of the Council or an ordinary member of the Union shall not table any motion at a general meeting of the Union.

A person who is a member of the Board, an official of the Polytechnic or the auditor of the Union may attend and speak at a general meeting of the Union.

The Honorary General Secretary shall convene the following meetings:

The meetings referred to in paragraph (4) shall not be convened during the Polytechnic’s vacations, or on a Sunday or public holiday.

All decisions made at a general meeting shall be binding on the Union.

The annual general meeting shall be held not later than the second week of the second term of each academic year.

The agenda for the annual general meeting shall consist of —

The notice for the annual general meeting shall be posted on the Union’s notice boards together with the provisional agenda at least 14 days before the meeting.

Any business for inclusion in the final agenda shall be handed in to the Honorary General Secretary by any 2 members of the Union at least 5 days before the meeting.