By Katherine Gibson (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: November 27, 2013
The Student Union Society (SUS) was all business with their regular board meeting clocking in at just over 15 minutes. On Friday November 22 SUS board members gathered over an agenda full of general housekeeping motions. VP finance Ryan Petersen chaired the meeting as president Shane Potter was in Ottawa on Canadian Alliance of Student Associations business.
Delayed extraordinary general meeting
During the meeting, it was proposed that the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) originally planned for November 25 be delayed until the second week of January. Explaining to the board that not enough student awareness was created around the event, VP internal Greg Stickland encouraged the board to postpone the EGM in order to properly inform students about the different motions that will be proposed.
“I’ve done some info sessions and posted a few things online, but I do feel that the push has been rather lacklustre, which is understandable. We’re all exhausted,” Stickland said. “So I would like more time to get more info out there and more aid [from the board] as well. Even just opinions on what should go out, how it should go out, what it should look like, [and] what venues it should be on.”
When taken to a vote, the board unanimously voted to delay the EGM.
Amended electoral committee oversight policy
Stickland also brought forth an amended version of the electoral committee oversight policy. Although previously approved to go to the EGM at the last meeting, Stickland noted that passing this amendment at the board level is important, as it will allow the electoral committee to begin preparing for elections and the chief electoral officer to be chosen in time for the January EGM.
“This [policy] was actually passed last week to go to the general meeting … I would like to pass it through the board, mainly because we need to start preparing the electoral committee and the chief electoral officer,” he explained.
Stickland went on to clarify what passing this amendment at board level would practically mean for election season and the students who will participate. Specifically addressing the complaints that were made by students last year, in regards to the electoral oversight committee’s role within elections, Stickland explained the changes that are planned.
“Currently for elections we have an electoral committee who act as the oversight for all of our elections. They all do five hours a week and they decide things as a committee. They make sure that rules are being followed and they sanction people who they feel have violated the rules,” Stickland said. “We had a number of complaints last year regarding that the committee took too long to come together and make decisions, and that there was no proper channel for appeals.
“Within the [old] policy, the only way to appeal a decision made by electoral committee was to go back to the very same committee,” he continued. “What this [new] policy will do is have a chief electoral officer decided in the same manner as the electoral committee. [The position will be performed by someone] doing quadruple the hours, who will oversee the elections, make sure people are following the rules, [and] make all decisions by themselves.”
One concern was raised by rep-at-large Jay Mitchell during the board’s discussion: he pointed out that, at times, the language used within the policy was confusing.
“I would like to ensure that all of the language is parallel. The header of 1.0 [is] ‘Formation of the Electoral Oversight,’ and then 1.1 we’re talking about an appeal committee, so I want to make sure that all of those things are linear,” he said.
Minor changes to the wording were added and the board unanimously passed the motion.
Ad-hoc finance committee proposed
The finance committee proposed the creation of an ad-hoc finance committee to begin in January.
As rep-at-large Thomas Davies explained, this ad-hoc committee will be very similar to one that was formed by the finance committee last year.
“Last year we had an expressed budget committee comprised of SUS members and external members to create a proposal for the board and at the AGM. The motion at the AGM last year … specifically spoke to setting up some sort of committee for 2013-2014, which we’ve already done,” Davies said. “So what this is doing is formally striking a very similar committee for this year. We will shortly be having an actual policy for this committee, which will be coming up at the next meeting as well.”
With no discussion, the motion was carried unanimously by the board.
Child-minding policy updated
Davies also spoke to the finance committee’s decision to update all current financial policies. One of these newly updated programs is the child-minding policy, which concerns the reimbursement of UFV students who are also parents with children in daycare. It was changed in order to add clarity to the policy.
“This [policy] hasn’t had expense updates. [The changes] were mostly clerical. We no longer have a financial planning and fundraiser committee for example, which was still referenced in the policy,” Davies said. “And we clarified when someone is eligible to claim for this, what SUS business qualifies, [and] at what rate they can claim child-care expenses.”
After opening the motion up to discussion, the motion was carried unanimously by the board.
