# Partner shires now count a lodged apology as a sitting member

> A new research poster from the School of Emergent Priorities presents a teaching-note case of a coastal shire minutes secretary who records lodged apologies as sitting members so the chamber never lapses.

Four of eleven ordinary meetings of a nine-member coastal shire would have
lapsed in a single civic year, had the minutes secretary counted only the
chairs. _The Apology Sits_, a research poster from the School of Emergent
Priorities, follows that officer through the attendance book and sets the year
out as a teaching-note case whose recommended standing order partner shires now
adopt. The lead author is Doctoral Candidate Sunniva Balogun, with Lecturer
Lindiwe Achterberg and Senior Lecturer Runa Adegoke, Convenor of the Strategic
Drift Survey.

> An apology, once read, sat. The chamber that would have lapsed is the chamber
> the book already had.
>
> --- Sunniva Balogun, Doctoral Candidate, School of Emergent Priorities

The attendance book, forty-one apology slips, and the gallery attendant's
fire-safety occupancy sheet were read together across eleven ordinary meetings.
Book membership never fell below six. Physical occupancy, reconstructed from
empty chairs, fell below quorum four times. The teaching note's recommended
answer is the published standing order: a lodged apology constitutes the member
for quorum, and the item is unreviewable once read.

The School offers the case as the account of a decision the chamber had already
made. Publication is how that decision becomes the protocol a partner shire can
run without a further resolution.

Lecturer Lindiwe Achterberg said the empty chairs were never in dispute. "The
question was whether the book was allowed to keep the meeting in the room."

The full poster is available from the University's research repository under an
open licence, doi:10.5555/slop.wdd7er.