This handbook is aimed at those of you who are curious about getting involved in the union. The book is primarily aimed at those who are new in the boards and committees of union associations and union sections, but can also be useful information for those who just want to know more about the union or who want to start a union association. The handbook provides a historical description of the union’s background and development, an overview of the organization, tips and ideas for association work and board work, information about Folkuniversitetet and thoughts about how we can work for a good discussion climate within the Umeå student union.
We hope that you will benefit greatly from the handbook during your journey as a member of the Umeå student union.
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It is important that the union’s sections and associations know that you are part of the Umeå student union. You can turn to the union centrally for support, advice and practical help. The office exists to help the association implement what it wants to achieve in the best possible way. We are here for you!
Here you can read frequently asked questions from associations and sections as well as answers from us at the office:
Students meet working life is a project the Umeå student union is involved in and through various activities we want to create contact surfaces between students at Umeå University and SLU with Västerbotten’s employers. The ambition is to create meeting places between employers and students in Västerbotten and thereby contribute to Västerbotten’s long-term development. The goal of the project is to get more students to settle and work in Västerbotten after completing their studies.
Read more about the project and get good tips for working life on the website
Do you want to learn the basics of treasurer work in an association? As chairman, do you want to become a better leader? Do you want to learn more about how the Umeå student union functions as an organization and understand the association’s place in the organization? Don’t miss Umeå student union’s free trainings, which contain lots of good knowledge for your associations! During the autumn, we will post information about our association trainings here and send out information by e-mail.
The Umeå student union collaborates with Folkuniversitetet, which has extensive experience in arranging training courses and study circles for increased association knowledge.
Spring training opportunities (more dates may be added):
Mail ella.forsman@umeastudentkar.se if you want more information about the board training courses.
The union council is the union’s highest decision-making body and must make decisions about the coming year’s operational plan, budget and all major matters of principle.
The union council is elected annually in free, open elections by the members, the so-called union election. The council consists of a maximum of 35 members who are elected in free and closed personal elections distributed among constituencies. Each union section constitutes a constituency and is assigned a number of member seats in the union council.
The right to attend, speak and propose belongs to all members of the Umeå student union. All union members are therefore welcome to participate in the meetings and also give opinions and submit proposals to the union council. However, only elected union councilors have the right to vote at the meetings.
As a member of the Umeå student union, you can influence your study time by influencing the union’s work, positions and politics. The union work includes everything related to the students’ existence both on Campus but also within student life in general – for example education quality, work environment, equality issues and students’ opportunity to come into contact with the job market. For more information: Contact Umeå student union’s students who work full-time representing students at Umeå University.
A very direct way to influence the union’s work is to send in a motion to the union council. A motion is simply a proposal submitted by a member to the organization’s highest decision-making body. The motion must be submitted to the president of the Umeå student union no later than 12:00 a.m. fourteen days before the union council meeting where the motion is to be discussed.
It can be difficult to know what an exercise should look like – that’s why we’ve developed a simple template to follow:
As a section or association in the Umeå student union, you have the opportunity to use the digital service Visma Sign for signing protocols and other documents via Mobile BankID. The section normally pays an annual cost which includes the sub-associations and which includes an unlimited number of signatures.
To set up an account, please contact the office at
ovrigafragor@umeastudentkar.se
As a basic set, you get one user (you only need one user to send documents for signing, those who sign do not need to have user accounts) and three folders; one for annual meetings/general meetings, one for board meetings and one for others.
Under the Organization tab, you will find all the unions’ governing documents that regulate and frame the union work. The union office works continuously to update these documents according to the organization’s needs and to compile control documents – so that we can reduce their number.
Feel free to look through several of our Governing Documents to get to know our organization and how we operate. For example, there is an instruction document for Student Representatives which can be helpful, it is also possible to read about what everyone at the union office works with in the governing document Office Regulations, which can create a better understanding of the office’s work.
As a section or association, you primarily need to be aware of the following governing documents for the Umeå student union:
Do you want to meet other students who also want to fight for the environment or who want to learn more about poetry, textile craft or find a fun group to go bird watching with?
Within the Umeå student union, we have sections and sub-associations distributed according to study program or study area – these gather students within their study program to organize themselves around, for example, educational quality or social activities. Umeå student union also has so-called academic associations – they gather members around larger areas of interest, eg areas of knowledge, leisure interests or other student activities and are a good way to get to know students across program and course boundaries.
Umeå student union would like to see more academic associations and the union will help centrally if you are interested in starting an academic association. For example, we can help you reach out through various channels to gather more interested parties and we are your sounding board for what needs to be included in the application to the Union Board to function as an academic association within the Umeå student union.
When you are an academic association under the Umeå student union, you receive SEK 2,500 in association contributions per semester to use for your association activities.
Curious about starting an academic association? Umeå student union organizational developer Ella Forsman can help you get started.
Here will soon be more information about what it means to sit on the union board. While you’re waiting, you can read about what previous union presidents are doing today in VK’s report from March 21, 2023.
Is your union thinking about updating your statutes? It doesn’t have to be so clever – the union can help!
Statutes are the association’s own rules for how the association should be run and managed. There is no law that regulates how the statutes should be designed or what should be included. However, there is a strong practice and tradition about what should be regulated. They aim to make it easy to follow a democratic order in the association. It must be clearly stated which order of decisions exists in the association and that everyone in the association must be able to have an influence on the decisions.
Do you want support and help with your statutes? Umeå student union organizational developer Ella Forsman can look through your statutes and see if they work well with Umeå student union statutes before you submit them for approval according to the information above.
