Table of Contents
A note: TiTe’s general meetings are held in Finnish. Furthermore, the only official languages allowed for associations by the law are Finnish and Swedish. TiTe’s official language is Finnish, so meeting minutes and other documents are produced in Finnish. Some documents have been translated to English, but these versions are unofficial and non-binding.
General Meeting Handbook
An association's general meeting (sometimes general assembly) is a forum, where members can participate in the decision-making of the association. TiTe has three types of members, regular, external, and supporting members. If you are a degree student at Hervanta, you should be a regular member. Other students can join as external members.
Only regular members of TiTe may vote in the meetings. External and supporting members may attend and speak.
In general meetings, the members of an association decide on the general guidelines for day-to-day operations and other major matters. Decisions are made after discussions and voting. Every member with a right to vote has a single vote.
A prerequisite for a successful meeting is respect towards other attendees while discussing. Members of TiTe receive and can comment on the meeting materials in advance. When the attendees are prepared, the meeting will proceed smoothly.
Before the meeting
Before the meeting members are sent the invitation, agenda, and documents to be considered (e.g. budget, financial statements, or edited rules).
The invitation is:
- sent by email seven days before the meeting, at the latest
- posted on the guild’s announcement board.
The time and location of the meeting as well as the agenda have to be included in the invitation. In practice, the agenda is the board’s proposal for the order of considering different matters in the meeting. The agenda is discussed in the meeting and can be changed, if necessary.
During the meeting
In the meeting, matters are considered in the order set by the agenda. The chairperson of the meeting informs the attendees on how the meeting proceeds. During the consideration of each matter, the process laid out in the image below is followed.
First, the attendees are introduced to the matter, after which the chairperson opens the discussion. Decision proposals can be made during the discussion. A proposal has to be endorsed by one other person for it to be considered. Endorsing happens by saying so out loud. After the discussion, the chairperson reads all proposals out loud. If the meeting is unanimous on the matter, it will not be put to vote. Finally, the decision is marked down in the meeting minutes.
After the meeting
After the meeting the secretary finalises the meeting minutes. The examiners of the meeting minutes chosen in the meeting will check the minutes. The finalised minutes are then added to the Wiki. (The minutes are in Finnish, and logging in requires a TiTe account)