exeposé
FR E E ISSUE 699 22 MAY 2019 exepose.com @Exepose
THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1987
Guild announce major reforms to ExTunes Committee says proposals “will impact over 1,300 members, yet only a fraction have been consulted.” Reforms planned to go forth from August Guild assures committee that student satisfaction is the priority Image: Harry Caton
Aaron Loose & Isabelle Gray Editors
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HE Guild has announced substantial reforms to ExTunes, which has raised concerns amongst committee members of the Extunes Council. Last Wednesday, the ExTunes Council were told that the student group will go through a significant restructuring in August. The Guild has concluded that ExTunes in its current format does not fit within the governing structures outlined by Guild bylaws.
The University handed responsibility for the provision of music to the Guild in 2016. ExTunes was then created to reproduce the musical services formerly supplied by the University. At this time, the Guild took no action to make ExTunes compliant with Guild governance. ExTunes President Katy Jones noted that the “proposed changes will impact over 1,300 members, yet only a fraction have been consulted.” When Exeposé asked the Guild to justify the gap between creating ExTunes and making them compliant,
a Guild spokesperson said “ExTunes and the associated music services were run by the University for several years. When the University decided that this provision no longer fit with their activity, the Guild took on the services to safeguard the facilities and provision for the benefit of students. However, how the governance of ExTunes fits with the rest of the Guild has remained an unresolved issue since then that is now being addressed as part of the bylaws review.” Six months ago, ExTunes committee were informed of the intention
Arts + Lit
velop ExTunes. This document cited several issues that meant ExTunes was not compliant with Guild rules. One of the issues cited was membership. Guild members must first buy an ExTunes membership before they can buy a membership to specific musical societies; a provision that does not exist in Guild rules. At present, ExTunes is defined as a student group that answers directly to the VP Activities Sabbatical Officer. It consists of a committee of eight people,
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MUSIC
A tribute to Virginia Woolf’s non-normative career
Celebrating queer songs by queer songwriters
PAGE 17 Image: Biography
to devise a music development plan to amend how the student group operates. The Guild held consultations with ExTunes members in January. Harry Carisle, ExTunes Treasurer, said “The ExTunes committee was made aware of a meeting, three days prior, without an agenda in which the culmination of the MDP was explained to us. We repeatedly asked for updates throughout the year to no avail.” During the Wednesday meeting, the Guild provided a document that outlined two operational plans to rede-
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