At a Central Societies’ Committee (CSC) EGM this evening, members voted to make officer positions paid.
The positions of chair, treasurer, secretary and amenities officer will now be paid.
The payment will be in the form of a stipend paid to each officer at €200 wage per week over 35 weeks of the year.
The motion passed with 57 votes for, and 10 votes against, with a mandatory revision every three years.
“The period of payment shall normally be weeks 1 to 33 inclusive in the Trinity academic year calendar, plus two weeks during the summer vacation to facilitate handover.”
The intended purpose of the stipend is “ to allow the aforementioned officers to commit – indicatively and on average over the course of the 35 weeks of payment – 10 hours per week to the performance of their duties as set out in the CSC constitution”.
These hours will include “weekly meetings of the executive”, “weekly meetings with CSC staff to plan and agree allocation of tasks for the week ahead” and “weekly office hours”.
They also passed a motion this evening to provide back pay for the existing CSC officers.
This back pay “will apply from the week of election (i.e. September 13) for the chair, treasurer, and secretary, and from the beginning of Michaelmas Term for the amenities officer, up until the final week of Michaelmas Term or up until the week before they start being paid if said payment begins before the end of Michaelmas Term”.
Before the meeting this evening CSC Chair Tom Hegarty told Trinity News that the motions are “primarily about accessibility”.
“Currently it would be extremely difficult to do any of the officer roles in the CSC while juggling your college work, a job and potentially society life as well,” he told Trinity News. “This motion makes these roles more viable for everyone in college because of the introduction of payment.”
Hegarty continued: “It will make the CSC function more effectively. By providing pay for the officers, it frees up more of their time for the CSC, allowing them to be more flexible with meeting time, devote more time to the office and generally serve societies more.”
“The reason we are bringing the motion forward is a result of the workload,” Hegarty added. “It isn’t uncommon for each of us to work 10 hours in the week and it is more likely we will work above this.”
Hegarty explained: “Because of this a massive pressure is put on the officers because of how important each one is to the functioning of society life but also because it leaves little room for us to work jobs alongside it.”
“The motions are being brought forward because the work that is done is administrative and advocacy work that is needed to keep society life functioning and also developing along with the growing needs of societies,” Hegarty said. “It is a job in itself and is not equivalent to a volunteer position. We think it is important that these jobs are accessible to all students and for that to be a reality, appropriate payment is needed.”
“It also should be noted that the proposed payment for officers will not affect the amount of money available for society grants, being a distinct part of the CSC’s budget.”
“The payment for officers should remain static, while the amount available for grants is expected to continue to increase as more students register with college over the next few years,” Hegarty concluded.
In the motion proposed during the EGM, that “the value of the stipend may be revised every three years with the approval of the Executive” however, “it may not be raised so that the total amount paid to all four officers in a given year exceeds 7% of the annual Capitation grant received by the CSC in the year prior”.
Last year, Trinity Sports Union (formerly DUCAC) voted to make their Chair a sabbatical position.
