USI Congress discusses, debates and devises the policies of the organisation.
Prospective policies are submitted by member organisations, members of the USI officer board and Working Groups to the Congress for debate and passage within timescales set by the Steering Committee of the Union. There are deadlines for the submission of motions which are based on the time taken to process motions and are not negotiable.
Types of motions
Policies
New policies or amendments to policies are submitted in Motions to Congress. These should contain an argument and, critically, a mandate, allocating responsibility for an action to a person or body named in the USI Constitution. Without a mandate, a motion has no force and is liable to be rejected by the organisation.
Policy Motion Example
Policy on having the President write using only a blue biro
Congress notes:
Notes written in Blue Biro are so much prettier than notes written in any other colour of biro.
Congress believes:
Written notes from the President are very important and should always look nice
Congress mandates:
The President to only write with a blue biro.
Constitutional Amendments
Amendments to the USI Constitution are submitted in Constitutional Amendments. These should contain notice of any section of the constitution to be deleted and the full text of any additions to the constitution.
Constitutional Amendment Example
Constitutional Amendment
Remove Article 1
Insert:
Article 1
Example text goes in here