What Happenedet at the Union Council?

The first Union Council of the year kicked off with an introduction to THS and the Union Council as a meeting forum. The representatives were given a brief presentation of their rights and duties.

Decisions

The council decided to change the mandate period of THS Event Manager from the thirteen month period of 15 December–15 January to the fifteen month period of 1 June–31 August. Event Manager will thus now share the same mandate period as THS Reception Coordinator whose time on the post also overlaps predecessor and successor during and just before reception. Reception is a busy time of year not only for the Reception Coordinator, but for the Event Manager as well. The decision had been prepared by the board, and the change was supported by those previous Event Managers who attended the meeting. The Union Board expressed the belief that this change will lead to improved handover conditions for individuals stepping onto the position.

THS has a views document, the goal of which is to provide continuity in the opinions presented by THS towards KTH. This document has previously been lacking in information about degree projects, both first and second cycle. To amend this, a motion was submitted to the Union Council to revise the opinion document in order to include this topic.

The changes have been workshopped with the Education Council and THS Head of Educational Affairs. The Union Council was given the opportunity to comment on the suggested changes last spring. The Union Council chose to grant the motion to revise the views document. The document in question can be found on THS’ website under Documents > Governing Documents > Views.

THS Vice President presented revisions of the budget. Overall, THS is predicted to achieve a negative result this operating year, however the board considers this to be warranted. One major cost is the change of membership system, which the board sees as an important investment. Other revisions include a better result for THS Armada than originally predicted and a slightly lower income from THS Business due to a slow start to the activity of that group. The council chose to approve the revised budget.

Last year, the then THS auditors submitted a motion containing 62 individual suggestions to the Union Council, suggesting changes to the THS statutes. Due to the overwhelming size and scope of the motion, it has not yet been processed in its entirety. A task force of volunteers from the council were formed with the purpose of reading through and sorting the motion in order to make it digestible to the Union Council. Some parts of the motion have at this point been treated by the council, and yet another section was presented at the first meeting of this year. Suggestions that were treated on this occasion were suggestion 63, 64, 65, 66, 67 and 48.

Material regarding the motion can be found in the meeting folder for Union Council meeting number five of the operating year 2024/2025. This folder can be found in THS Documents, which are linked on the THS website.

Elections

Due to the resignation of a member of the board, a new board member was elected at the Union Council meeting. This election had one candidate, who was also elected to the position. The elected candidate is Oskar Sivervik (B).

There was also an election to the THS Election Committee. Out of seven candidates, six attended the meeting, and five were elected. The newly elected members of the Election Committee are: Samuel Tenglid Ryghammar (F), Caspar Skoglund (D), Muhammed Reza Mehdi Hamid Muhammed (D), Felix Åberg (F) and Alice Wasserman (M).

Interpellations

Two interpellations had been submitted to the council: one interpellation regarding KTH’s economy, and one interpellation regarding the possibility of a union committee dedicated to repair and maintenance. The interpellation regarding KTH’s economy was tabled until Union Council meeting number two, seeing as the interpellant had left the meeting and was therefore not present to receive an answer. The second interpellant expressed that his question had been answered.

All meeting documents, including original motions, as well as the meeting minutes, are available in THS Documents.