Deputy News Editor
Lachlan Farquharson’s manifesto is fairly straightforward for a straightforward role. He wants the board to be more open and welcoming to all in order to get more people involved in the QMU. His main change beside changing the culture of board is having more meetings, but having them be time constrained. The reason for this is will create a more responsive board whilst respecting members time and encouraging higher turnout. He also wants to make board members feel more driven, creating smaller goals that show continual growth. With many problems facing the QMU, one might worry that the focus exclusively on board culture is too narrow to address QMU’s many struggles.
In our interview, he quelled these fears by explaining that tackling the problems on board is the first step to fixing the Union’s problem as a whole. If they cannot fix the problems at the board level, there’s no hope trying to change the Union as a whole.He claims that there is a divided board and that more teamwork and dispute resolution will solve this. At the EGMs he was an avid supporter of the amendments, but he stated that there has been a fundamental disconnect with life members and promises to retain their vote, as they have experience that might be useful to the Union. As for the concern that more meetings might discourage people from joining onto board, he states that by creating certainty, by planning and shortening meetings, board members are more likely to attend and solve issues. His overall plan, while seemingly small in scope, focuses exclusively on the position and how to fix the board to create more effective change. He states that he has real plans to create teamwork and by doing this there will be less disputes overall.
Read Lachlan’s manifesto here.
