Page last updated 11/10/2023.
Disclaimer: no guarantees of factual accuracy. Some claims are based on best evidence.
I recall that when I was a secondary student, well before I had made the decision to attend Monash University, for some reason I held the notion that WIRED, the official Faculty of IT Society, was dead. Where I heard or inferred it from I could not tell you, but it turned out to be accurate at the time. Perhaps it was simply my omniscient intuition. Having clubs that were active was an important part of my decision process, but since there were alternatives that were definitely very much alive, I went with Monash anyway.
The WIRED story is a story of how in the space of a single year, a moribund faculty society with double-digit membership and not even a committee was transformed into the largest Clayton C&S club and a political battleground front for the most fiercely contested MSA elections in years.
The pandemic killed WIRED. Despite being the official faculty society, by 2022 its membership had dived to around 80 members, placing it in the smallest category of C&S club. This made it special among the faculty societies; all the rest were still thriving and well above the realm of double digit membership as they emerged from the pandemic. Something about IT students.
No matter, because some of the other IT clubs were still strong and active - Monash Association of Coding, MonSec (Monash Cybersecurity Club), Commerce and Computing Association and some smaller clubs. Actually, a few of these clubs had started by splitting or spinning off from WIRED itself. Also, the student-run MonashIT Discord server played an important role in connecting IT students socially. It was in this Discord server that plans were set in motion which would lead to the drama of the 2023 AGM.
Since nobody cared about WIRED, which could not get even enough interest to hold a committee (which is unpaid) nor a general meeting to replace the committee (remember this is a faculty society!), it was ripe for a takeover. And a takeover would save the club, so nobody would be too bothered - it would be celebrated, even. So a group of friends in the Discord server decided to execute one. The goal was simply to use the club and its funds to get boba. Why not? WIRED was dead anyway, and it was undeniable that this agenda would benefit club members and the IT student community, the very purpose of the club.
At a general meeting attended by about 15 people, majority being part of the takeover stack, the team was elected. The designated President happened to be a member of the Labor Left and Monash Labor Club, but this was not important then. Celebratory boba followed.
Now that the new committee were in and boba acquired, they decided that it might be worth taking it seriously. So they got to work. The membership fee was reduced to the affordable price of free (with MSA+ membership, $5 without). Events were planned and actuated. The first IT Ball since 2018 was organised, and it sold out. Membership numbers quickly shot up as WIRED became the largest registered C&S club; year on year, membership increased from about 80 to over 1500. It is worth noting that other faculty societies have membership fees, including the previous largest club for which membership costs $10-$15.
Despite, and because of, these successes, serious tensions arose within the committee. As a result, the majority of the original friend group which stacked that general meeting to get boba would leave at the 2023 AGM, some having been shut out of governing and organising the club earlier.
The 2022-2023 WIRED President made moves during his term, outside of WIRED. At the 2022 Clubs and Societies Council AGM, they were elected as a general representative on the C&S Executive, a position which is open only to club office bearers. They were also one of the nominees for the Presidency as part of the attempted Labor Left stack at the Radio Monash SGM in July 2023.
From the outset, this was an unusual AGM. Only in-person attendance was allowed. At least 4 of the outgoing C&S office bearers, an extraordinary number, were present. Each member was issued a card to verify voting rights. The elections were conducted using paper ballots provided by C&S. Photography and filming were banned.
120 members, already an incredible number, were present at the AGM, filling a lecture theatre. A massive number of proxies was submitted, amounting to a significant fraction of the total votes. There were two factions with comparable voting power.
The C&S office bearers came into the AGM expecting some trouble, but the extent of it was not clear even to them until the AGM got underway. The election for the Presidency was rocked by the nomination of a candidate from the floor. Another candidate, who had nominated prior to the AGM, withdrew in favour of the new candidate, who went on to lose by a single-digit margin. Both of these people are part of the Change ticket for the 2023 MSA elections.
The losing Presidential candidate also nominated for the Vice Presidency from the floor, creating a three-candidate contest. During their election speech, they controversially attacked the critical thinking skills of members of the audience. This did not win them enough sympathisers; they lost again. The one candidate who appointed a scrutineer in the Vice President election won. The two losing candidates are both part of the Change ticket for the 2023 MSA elections.
Following these elections, which required manually counting paper ballots, the attendance had largely thinned out with the meeting going an hour over time. The remainder of the elections were uncontested and uncontroversial, with several nominations being voided since the candidates were no longer present in the room.
Following elections, attendees belonging to the Labor Left, a delegation which included individuals who were not voting members, instigated a number of motions which all passed unanimously to request the incoming committee investigate affirmative action quotas and supporting staff in their industrial dispute with Monash University management.
2 days after the AGM, WIRED members received an email containing a message from the Returning Officer on the night, an outgoing C&S office bearer.
“Dear FITS (WIRED) Members,
I am writing to inform you that unfortunately I have had to declare the recent elections of President and Vice-President invalid. After the AGM, I noticed a discrepancy between the number of ballots submitted and the number of attendees and proxies present at the meeting. Further investigation revealed that there were more ballots submitted than there were attendees and proxies. This discrepancy may have had a material effect on the election results. Therefore, in the interest of maintaining the integrity of the clubs elections and in my absolute discretion as Returning Officer I have declared the elections of President and Vice President invalid. All other roles (Treasurer, Secretary and 4x General Representatives) have been determined to be duly elected and so the results for those positions will stand.
The next step for the club is to hold an EGM to elect the vacant positions of President and Vice-President. The club will give separate notice for this EGM.”
Before the vote for President, ballot papers were distributed through two C&S office bearers standing on opposite sides of the room, so there is suspicion that some attendees fraudulently obtained ballot papers from both.
The EGM has been scheduled for the second week of October 2023. The Returning Officer will be the incoming WIRED Secretary.
Returning Officers at both the 2023 AGM and EGM are candidates in the 2023 MSA elections on the Change ticket. There is no suggestion of impropriety.
Less than one hour before the Extraordinary General Meeting was to start on the ground floor, WIRED members received an email informing them that the venue had changed to a room on the third floor. It did not seem to affect turnout too badly (although the effects of a sudden venue change are rarely obvious to anybody who did not instigate the move).
Members needed to register by the start of the meeting (22 minutes after the notified start time), otherwise they were unable to vote. This time, neither physical voting cards nor paper ballots were issued.
As the President and Vice President were vacant, the Clubs and Societies President-elect was elected to the chair unopposed. Upon acceding to the chair, they proposed that the meeting have a break for food, a suggestion immediately met with dissent from members of the Monash Cybersecurity Club (MonSec). So the meeting continued.
A motion that “forbids any audio-visual recordings of this meeting except by the Secretary for minute taking purposes” passed unanimously. Not that anybody was intending to, I am sure.
Constitutional amendments passed unanimously. Changes to committee composition were the addition of a General Representative and the introduction of an affirmative action requirement for at least 2 non-male identifying committee members. Affirmative action was originally proposed in a motion at the AGM in September.
Ahead of the elections, the Secretary read out a list of prohibited conduct in full, and a motion to approve these passed unanimously. The elections were to be conducted using an online platform, a move away from the paper ballots of the original AGM. These measures were never needed; the opposition did not show.
The declared victor for President at the AGM, seconded by the outgoing Monash Association of Coding President, won election again. They had run a prominent turn-out-the-vote campaign, but they ended up unopposed. Likewise, the Vice President. So the results ended up the same as the AGM.
There also needed to be a new General Representative elected after the constitutional amendments, and this election was also unopposed.
It was a 16 minute meeting from start to finish, concluding 38 minutes after notified start time. Those who attended hoping for drama may have been disappointed. But perhaps the amazing growth of WIRED over the past year (excluding the conflict) can offer hope for a club who held their AGM the same night, and managed to elect only a President and Vice President - a similar story repeated across too many vital clubs. It could be any club.