By Katherine Gibson (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: January 29, 2014
The Student Union Society (SUS) returned to their regular board meetings on January 22, despite initial issues with trying to achieve quorum.
After attempting to contact missing board members, the SUS board reached interim residence representative Jun Feng. However at the time of the call, Feng was only available for fifteen minutes. So, in order to maintain quorum and keep the meeting running, SUS president Shane Potter, on leave due to illness, was also phoned.
After the fashion design department’s grad presentation, it was realized that Potter’s call had been dropped, and the meeting was temporarily suspended, as rep-at-large Thomas Davies called Potter back. Once Potter’s phone connection was re-established the meeting reconvened and continued without further interruption.
Fashion design department requests funding for grad show.
Fashion design department head Deanna Devitt spoke on behalf of the 40th anniversary UFV grad show. The request is for $1500 to $5000 depending on the level of funding SUS can allocate.
Devitt explained that a benefit to sponsoring the event is increased promotion at the April 29 event as well as promotion in the “swag bags” which are handed out to event participants and high school students.
“[High school students] will know about the student union before coming here,” Devitt bargained.
Beyond connecting SUS to prospective students, Devitt also expressed the department’s desire to make this grad show a community event, connecting the entire UFV campus and the local public.
“We’re trying to get everyone involved so it becomes an event that includes everybody around campus,” she said. “We want to invite a lot of people around the community, so it becomes a bit of a community event too.”
VP internal Greg Stickland questioned how much of the event was student-driven. Devitt answered that the event was largely student-run, except for larger duties that required her take them on due to liability.
“All the garments are the students’; they put together all their photo shoots, all the look. They help with all the fundraising when they can. We talk to them; I’m in their meetings to help them learn about what it is to put on an event and how to raise money,” explains Devitt. “What’s nice about the fashion design association is the students from year to year have passed on their skills of what to do and what not to do … [students] want to be a part of it — it is their grad event.”
The fashion design’s proposal was heard by the board and will be reviewed by the finance committee before approval.
$570 allotted for Chinese New Year campus event.
The Chinese culture club submitted a request for their upcoming Chinese New Year event. Rep-at-large Thomas Davies spoke on behalf of the finance committee’s decision to approve the request despite discrepancies in the paperwork.
“It’s very well-attended, a popular event, and always well-run each year. Strangely their budget is for $570, yet their request form says $600,” says Davies. “In the end, we decided to recommend funding for the amount that they actually budgeted for, which was $570.
With no discussion, the board voted in favour, passing the motion unanimously.
Opening of new bank account for SUS building.
Further on in the meeting, the SUS board discussed opening a bank account with Envision Financial, in order to directly pay mortgage payments on the new SUS building. Explaining the rationale behind opening this new account, rep-at-large Thomas Davies spoke to the validity of the motion.
“We are required to have an account with Envision basically just to facilitate the transfer of mortgage payments,” he notes. “All of our banking is currently through UFV, but just to make it faster and more convenient for everyone we need to set [an account] up with Envision, because Envision is our mortgage broker.”
After a small group discussion, the motion was passed unanimously by the board.
The next board meeting will take place February 7, at 10 a.m. on the CEP campus.
