Tag: Branch Meeting

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Elections and AGM

Email sent to members on Friday 24th April 2026. Zoom link removed.

Dear member,

I am writing to you with some more information about next week’s Annual General Meeting (on May 1st – International Workers’ Day) and the ZOOM link. Given how much is going on at the moment, the AGM will be a slightly longer meeting than usual and will take place between 1 to 2.30 pm. We will use the second half of the meeting to discuss our ongoing dispute (thank you again for your votes, link to our press release below), update you on the meetings held, the current strategies we are employing, the future ideas from you, in order  to stop the proposed Future Nottingham 2 which will lead to implosion of our university and further heart ache, let alone the unnecessary loss of livelihoods. 

The AGM is the occasion to declare the election results of Executive Officers and Officers (and ordinary members of branch committee) for the next academic year and obtain member approval.   I’m pleased to announce that nominations (and seconders) were received for all the roles that needed to be filled for the academic year 2026/2027 .  I was informed by our Secretary that there were no more than one nominee per role (aside from shared roles) and thus no ballots have been necessary. We also thank Dr Robin Vandome for acting as independent Scrutineer and Election Officer. A full list of nominees and positions can be found below the agenda. As you know, these new positions will not be taken up immediately, with current roles remaining until the new academic year starts.

AGM Agenda – Friday 1st May 1.00 – 2.30

  1. Welcome and introduction (Lopa Leach – President)
  2. Branch Committee membership 2026/27 (Nick Clare – Secretary)
  3. President’s report on 2025/26 (Lopa Leach – President)
  4. Treasurer’s report on 2025/26 (Tony Padilla – Treasurer)
  5. Discussion of our dispute
  6. Any Other Business

Nominees for UoN UCU Branch Committee 

The following nominations have been received for positions on the UoN UCU Branch Committee to serve during the upcoming 2026/27 academic year:

Officers:

President: Nick Clare

Vice President: Andreas Bieler (S1); Mel Bhend (S2)    (S: semester)

Secretary: Andrew Renault

Equalities and Workload: Jenny Elliott

Past President: Lopa Leach

Treasurer: Tony Padilla

Membership Secretary & rep organiser: Will Paterson and Ella Guerin

Casework coordinator & Policy Review Lead: Onni Gust

Casework (and Health & Safety): Cyril Rauch

Health & Safety: Andrew Jackson

Workload Officer and Rep: Mel Bhend (S1)

APM Officer: Andrew Armstrong

Equalities Officer: Lisa Rull

Communications Officer: Will Paterson

Social Media Officer: Peter Woods

Green Officer: Alan Barker

Ordinary members without portfolio:

Cecilia Testa

Marta Aloi

Peter Rutherford

Nabil Fadai

Hannah Thuraisingam Robbins

In solidarity now and always. 

Yours, 

Lopa

PS. The press release:

https://uonucu.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Ballot-April-2026-Press-Release.docx.pdf

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Two upcoming meetings

Email sent to members on 8th April 2026. Minor modifications have been made, i.e. removing zoom links and email addresses for security.

Dear members,

Hope you are doing well and enjoying the sun, and a final reminder to vote in the ballot if you haven’t already. Just a quick email with key information about two upcoming meetings (Zoom links can be found in original email).

Tuesday 21st April – 12-1

In this members’ meeting we will be discussing the result of the ballot and what this means for the next steps in our dispute. Alongside this we will also be voting on our branch delegates for UCU national congress. If you would be interested in representing the branch at congress in Harrogate (Wednesday 27 May – Friday 29 May 2026) then do be in touch, we currently have one spare space before we hit our quota of four delegates.

Friday 1st May – 12-1.30

This is our branch AGM. As I previously mentioned this is a chance to recap on the year that was, get annual updates from key officers, and elect our committee for the upcoming year. We are still taking nominations for any of the roles on Branch Committee, and if you do have any questions at all about joining do send me an email. We will also use this meeting to continue discussions about the dispute and what is happening with Phase 2 of Future Nottingham.

We will of course send out reminders for each meeting closer to the time.

Take care

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Promotion consultation form and update on Friday’s meeting

Email sent to members on Monday 26th January 2026.


Dear members,

It was fantastic to see and hear from so many of you on Friday. For those unable to make it, the main topics we covered were as follows:

Vote in the indicative ballot

Make sure you vote in this if you haven’t already. Reminder emails for non-voters will be coming this week (do check your spam and it is sent from: ‘UoN UCU Branch Committee’/yoursay@ucu.org.uk). It takes 30 seconds and a strong turnout is vital.

Update on Future Nottingham Phase 2 and new dispute

We have had our first dispute meeting with management, as well as a series of other meetings around Phase 2. As you will probably have seen, the timeline for Phase 2 has been pushed back slightly, with formal consultation on the draft business case to start on May the 6th. 

We continue to push back on the disastrous proposals, especially those around staff student ratio, and have a series of more detailed meetings with management over the coming weeks. Given the wide-ranging nature of the proposed changes – course closures, SSR, reduction in research time, the threat to technical staff etc – it is clear that our new and more encompassing dispute is crucial.

Promotion ‘consultation’

We also discussed the regrettable way in which the university has paused the promotion process while they decide on next steps. To be clear once more, we were not consulted about this pause despite the way it has seemingly been framed. As part of pushing back against their proposal not to run the promotion process this round we have been gathering feedback from members, and had a really productive meeting on Friday. If you want to provide your input to the consultation – either due to your own promotion being paused or because you spent time supporting other people developing theirs – please consider filling in this anonymous form.

In solidarity

Nick (on behalf of the branch committee) 

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Vote in the indicative ballot and meeting reminders

Email sent to members on Thursday 22nd January 2026. Zoom links have been removed, please find in the original email.

Dear members,

Just a quick email with three bits of information.

  1. Do make sure you vote in the indicative ballot! The email was sent first thing on the 19th of January and some people have found it went to a junk/other folder. It was sent by ‘UoN UCU Branch Committee’ from the yoursay@ucu.org.uk email if that helps you find it. It takes 30 seconds to vote, and a strong message now will help us in our new dispute
  1. A reminder of our members meeting tomorrow (Friday 23rd) at 1pm. We will give you an update on the rapidly changing nature of Future Nottingham and all the branch has been doing to fight the restructure.
  1. Promotion pause response. If this has impacted you and you want to help shape our response to it, we will be having a promotions-specific meeting straight after the members meeting at 2pm on the 23rd. Or else please contact the secretary Nick (nickpclare@gmail.com) to provide your input.

In solidarity,

Nick (on behalf of the committee) 

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Call for members meeting

Email sent to members on Monday 19th January. Please see original email for Zoom link.

Dear UCUmembers,

   Despite our agreement of 13 November 2025, it is now clear that alternative proposals to management’s restructuring Future Nottingham – Phase 2 will not be considered, until it is too late. It is for this reason that today, the indicative ballot of all members on whether we are prepared to take strike action and/or action short of strike if management continues to reject our demands, has been launched. Please look out for the email from yoursay@ucu.org.uk with the subject heading ‘UoN UCU: Oppose job losses – protect your workload!’ It should have arrived this morning.

   Please participate in this indicative ballot, which if successful will allow us to move towards a formal ballot in March 2026. This indicative ballot is open from 19 January to 6 February. A strong result in the ballot will in itself increase pressure on management, as it will indicate the strength of potential future action.

   Moreover, please note that we will hold a general members meeting on Friday, 23 January at 1 p.m. Zoom link below.  This will allow us to discuss our industrial action strategy and the indicative ballot as well as update you on our dispute meetings, the parallel collective actions we are currently working on including the drafting of an alternative proposal and contestation of management’s decision to pause this year’s promotion round.

In solidarity,

Lopa Leach, on behalf of branch committee.