“Live from the AGM, it’s Tuesday Night!”
6:30pm: The AGM is set to begin but we haven’t hit quorum.
6:40pm: We still haven’t hit quorum. There is free pizza though. They even had vegan pizza available.
6:45pm: President Shannon Zimmerman announces we’re waiting on quorum and if you have friends near by, give them a ringle (also known as a telephone call).So far at the AGM, I see Chris Saulnier and Neil Bailey, both mingling with a slice in hand. Kurin and Blake are both seated in the audience. Lovett is seated amidst fellow DSUSOers and Wedge is working the room. Leforte is seated at the front of the room at the Executive table.
I missed Karl Dempsey in my initial scan. Dempsey is chatting up the current president, Zimmerman.
6:53pm: We still haven’t hit quorum. There is a solid crew here though. Current BOG member Adam Harris has arrived, past VPEd and pundit Mark Coffin is wearing a charming lavender button up and William Horne, past Senate hopeful and active DSUSO and SustainDAL member has joined Lovett et al.
7:00pm: I’ve now noticed CS student and active punditry.ca commenter John Doucette is on the scene, as is Christian Browne and Henry Whitfield. Eric Snow has yet to sit down or take off his backpack. I think he knows the disbanding of this meeting is only a few minutes away.
7:10pm: We just hit quorum. Hurray! The Chair is introducing himself and the procedure of the evening.
7:11pm: We will go to the first item on the agenda. Acceptance.
The agenda is as follows…
- Roll Call
- Acceptance of the Agenda
- Business of the Executive (President, VPI, VPFO, VPED, VPSL)
- Question and Answer Period
- New Business (Constitutional Amendments)
- Announcements
Voting works by coloured paper, lime for yes, fushcia for no, tangerine for abstain.
7:15pm: Eric Snow moves to accept the agenda. Shannon Zimmerman seconds. Greg Debogorski shows up! He calls a point of information and asks for the chair to read the agenda. Again.
7:17pm: All vote to accept except Debo, who votes no and wants it noted.
7:18pm: Shannon is giving her report on the business of the president
- Makes it clear she couldn’t have done this on her own.
- Pretty incredible year.
- Senate has approved, in principle, the student rankings of professors becoming public.
- Executive 1:1 meetings have helped build stronger bonds between her and VPs.
- CASA policy was approved at plenary.
Paul Forrest, Leforte’s manager, has just arrived.
- Project Hero is taking place now. It’s a program where tuition is given for free to student who have lost parents in combat.
- Student Experience Committee is finally becoming more useful.
7:25pm: Shannon shows us a slideshow of the successes the DSU has had. Pictures of the Premier and Minister of Education meeting with ANSSA are on the screen. More pictures of CASA meeting with members of cabinet like Justin Trudeau (what, no Ben Mulroney?).
Shannon has been excited about her year and she encourages questions during Q&A. She thanks you for her awesome year.
7:27pm: Mark begins the report of the Vice President (Internal).
He has knocked over the mic four times.
He’s happy everyone is here because it means we can have an AGM. He’s written a list of things he wants to talk about. It includes societies, grants, communication, food bank, sexton campus, and the promotion of diversity. It’s basically his portfolio.
Societies: Two society fairs were held this year and the DSU ratified 187 societies. Now he’s talking about communication and tiger society. The new DSU website will encompass more effective ways to ratify and communicate.
Grants: They gave away 60, 000 in grants this year. More than last year. Apparently the grant system needs to be improved so that students can change the world.
Communications: The website. He wants you to have a reason to be on the DSU website. They tried to put those reasons front and center. He shows us some photos of what the new website may look like. It’s all in latin.
Food Bank: New renovation. They have a floor now and managed to mouse-proof the food bank. They have increased food deliveries to once a week. It makes him wonder, though, what is the demand? They are working with FeedNS so they can track it better.
Promotion of Diversity: Diversity can be defined in many ways and the promotion of that transcends what the DSU does or what the societies do (I don’t understand this sentence). Diversity week, however, begins next week and the DSU Execs did the Hfx pride parade. They are also creating a homophobia prevention group. They are working in partnership with the university for accessibility and gender neutral washrooms opened up.
Sexton: Congrats guys, you’ve got an ATM coming. It says on the screen that “classes for females are now being held” but I think it means fitness classes.
Leadership: Brains for Change took place and was a conference with more than 100 students. This new program saw 80% of the students rank the services the DSU gives as “good or excellent”
Mark says thanks guys, it was an honor.
7:40pm: Doyle begins his report.
Sponsorship Policy: Raising for students.
(He’s moving really quickly)
Sponsorship is different from grants, they are looking to see advertising and promotion in return.
- Supernova
- Dalhousie Contingent of the Price Parade
- Dalhousie Eco-Marathon
- Dalhousie Water Polo Society
- Dalhousie Women’s Society
Board of Operations: A committee overseeing the financials and operations. Tim Hill, legal council, also helps out here. Doyle is talking about the Board of Ops but it is really boring. He’s talking about the room they moved in being more conversation friendly. Kudos, friend.
Health Plan: Students will have a more sound concept of what the health plan is and how to opt out.
@rr: Paul Forrest looks quite handsome. Tight, grey hollister long sleeve and he has removed his loafers in efforts to become more at home.
Other Accomplishments: Internet Cafe in the lobby, Booster seat available, electronic marquee(sic) outside, and there are also single use washrooms.
Doyle says his thank yous and wants everyone to give a round of applause to the full time staff.
7:50pm: Rob Leforte steps up to the plate and says “Howdy!” He says that brevity is the soul of awesomeness.
Provincial Election 2009: Produced television commercials with ANSSA and reached 1.7 million impressions among other things.
Student Advocacy: reports of higher incidences of international students being accused of AI violations. formed a working group on int’l issues and academic integrity. Pushed a greater recognition of intellectual honesty and academic integrity.
Late Night Study Space: The Killam is now open until 3am until April 24th. We need to use this time to show the university we need longer study space hours and availability.
Speaker Series: October: Dr. Laura Murray on Copyright // January: Michel Chikwanine, Child Soldier to Child Activist // March: Dr. James Orbinski, former President of Doctors without Borders
Rob mentions they partnered with WUSC on the January speaker, however, he doesn’t remember what the charity WUSC was working for was. He says “I don’t know, but it’s great”.
ANSSA: Tution freeze will be maintained until 2011. Rob likes pictures, too.
Rob just said he has a strong relationship with Shannon, then giggled.
CASA: Parliament lobbying March 6th-12th. Unanimous vote to resubmit order of reference on PSE Access to Senate Social Affairs and Science and Technology Committee… Rob says “I know, lingo.”
Rob is surprised by the end of his presentation. “Is that all I have?”
8:00pm: Kris begins his presentation and stands up to hold the mic. Rock star, baby.
There is a chicken on his first slide.
He says its been a great round two.
Orientation: They sold out. Woop. over 1500 students. Over 150 student leaders. Capacity was becoming an issue in this building. They may have turned away 10-20 students at certain events.
(Mark Coffin is giggling beside me. My heart is swooning.)
Fall Fest: Moderatly successful. Bands played, comedians came, *sniffle*, *snort*, “I’m sick, it’s my last year, common”.
The crowd has significantly depleated. I am debating calling quorum.
8:07pm: Kris says the university is trying to do Homecoming wrong. There will, however, be a stronger connection. Kris is being blunt and not sugar coating – he doesn’t care – and says the university is just trying to get money out of the alumni.
8:10pm: Techball went well. Munro day did too. They had two injuries (which he is saying because they didn’t get sued.)
Student Appreciation Night: All the tickets were given out, almost all the tickets were used. Kris is being very candid.
Paul Forrest just gonged Kris’ report.
Kris says he’s almost done.
Res Charity Game: Risley won. $20 000 for the IWK.
Dal’s got Talent: Nights where attendance has reached capacity. It’s been hugely successful.
Society Assistance: I missed it… I was laughing at the comments… keep it up.
Athletics: It’s been a work in progress, but the position as “Athletics Commissioner” has been in place but underutilized.
Ongoing projects: DSU STORM (magazine) only happened once. It’s on hold. Facebook advertising has been great this year. (Basically, Kris is an expert creeper and you pay him to stalk your photos).
8:18pm: Question and Answer
Glen Kruger: CASA was founded on the princple of one vote per school, as a break from the CFS which is a shit hole. (direct quote). CASA has now moved towards a more size/money based vote allocation. Dalhousie voted in favour of that, and that seemingly gives Dal a lesser vote and therefore, WHY?
Shannon and Rob are bickering.
Shannon: The whole discussion has been at CASA for a while. When it came to a vote, we said yes, because there is a sunset clause that says at the end of the year, they would revisit the formula. If you don’t try new things, they become stagnent. This was an attempt at something new. For a year, there would be data on how it worked and if it helped/hurt Dalhousie and CASA. – In fact, Dalhousie is one of the largest CASA schools but that did not play a large role for her deicison.
Rob will add that this is a place where Shannon and he disagreed initially, “Glen, you were there!”. Between the summer and fall meetings, Rob began to agree when the sunset clause was put in place. It was an opportunity to let CASA grow.
8:23pm: Rob Leforte asked a question about Shannon’s report she gave on First Nations to CASA. I think this is an attempt to incorporate something Rob forgot in his report.
8:24pm: No more questions? Wtf? Shortest Q&A in DSU history.
8:25pm: Eric Snow becomes the cutest geek alive but shrilling “yay!” when hearing that we’re now moving to the constitutional amendments.
Constitutional Amendments:
The only major aspect of the portion we’re talking about now is that Vice President (Education) will now be called Vice President (Academic and External).
8:28pm: Eric Snow is starting shit, as per us.
8:29pm: The motion to accept the amendments has been made and seconded.
8:30pm: That motion carries.
The next motion is to change the spelling of the word “honoraria”.
8:31pm: The motion carries.
8:31pm: Debogorski returns! The party regains momentum.
8:31pm: The new motion includes lots of deletions that will be moved to regulations.
8:33pm: Lisa Buchanan says that if we delete all of this and then council doesn’t vote to put it into regulations, where does it go?
8:33pm: Chair says thats too bad, but its the way it’s gotta go.
8:34pm: Mark Coffin tried to reroute the system, but Zimmerman crushed his dream.
8:34pm: Chair calls the question. The motion passes. Debo abstains.
8:35pm: The membership of council is changing in this motion.
8:36pm: I think the Chair just called a point of information on behalf of the room…
8:37pm: Friendly amendment that Schulich School of Law was spelled wrong.
8:38pm: Question from the floor about the way which group gets to nominate a certain group that they claim to represent.
8:39pm: Shannon says the only group this concerns is the Faculty of Management.
8:39pm: Eric is tearing shit up, again, as per us. He says that this wording change makes it more clear, nothing major changes, and the only thing it really concerns is that unless contested, the previous year dictates future years.
8:43pm: Motion carries.
8:44pm: Pundit corner is established. Mark Coffin, Eric Snow, Lisa Buchanan, Janet Conrad and myself are all seated together. I will point out at 6:35pm I sat alone.
8:45pm: Another motion carries regarding financial wording.
8:45pm: Kris is shit talking Eric but Eric is not concerned. The elections are being fixed up here. It’s great change.
8:45pm: Motion carries.
8:46pm: General meetings are being reworded here.
8:46pm: Question: What is the point of having a general meeting? This seems to remove an avenue of democracy.
8:47pm: The spirit behind this change, Eric says, is not to prevent motions being forward but rather to fix that at general meetings, we don’t always get a full breadth of student representation. In terms of setting this policy, bringing it to council is a much better way to set policy formally.
8:49pm: Greg is talking… he is circling the drain of calling quorum… it’s making me nervous… he’s saying that general meetings are not any better than council. No one comes to either.
8:50pm: Glen Kruger steps up… constitutions are meant to guide the next 50 presidents, not the next one, and to change something for the next year, or because of past years, is a bad idea. He has a hard time believing that this is a valid change. He has a big problem with this, especially since there is a big pull for regulations rather than by-laws, and he feels like this is beefing up council and stripping power from the AGM.
8:52pm: Some random guy in the audience just called quorum. AWESOME. We’re taking a 15 minute recess.
8:57pm: The meeting as been adjourned. They’ll call another meeting at some point so that our constitution actually makes sense, rather than half new/half old.
@Samer
Maybe next they’ll let us women wear pants to class!
As as a current female on Sexton campus (current on both fronts, by the way) I would really love to be able to heat up my tea and toast some bread at the same time without having lighting a fire in the middle of the Alumni Lounge.
For those non-Sexton student who aren’t in the know: a toaster and microwave that can be plugged in at the same time without blowing a fuse would be a legitimate improvement to Sexton campus.
ANDDD… When they get the ATM on Sexton Campus with the photocopy centre open and you use those at the same time it will just print money to pay tuition…
that’s the plan anyway.
@Jacq’s Sis
How has that ACTUALLY never materialized as a campaign promise? Seriously!
@VICTORY, AGENDA STYLE
If anyone could claim to be able to figure out the way the circuits run on Sexton and how to fix them I would vote for them.
@Mike Smit
For those of you who don’t remember or didn’t read it last year, Mark Coffin wrote a post on why AGMs are undemocratic which if I remember correctly elaborates on Mike’s sentiments.
I think something needs to be said to everyone that lives their life within the “DSU world”. No one cares.
There are many reasons why such a small percentage of the Dalhousie student population turns out for elections. The reasons that those deeply invested in the DSU believe are related to student apathy, student ignorance, and the fact that, at the best of times, voter turn out in any elections will hover around the 30% mark. The real reasons that voter turn out is so low is because, once again, no one cares. How many of the votes given in the DSU elections are by people being verbally abused as they wait in line for a morning coffee and forced to vote. There should be a section on the bottom of the voters page asking “do you actually know any of the candidates or did you randomly choose”, just to see how many people are choosing what is considered the democratically chosen, all-powerful executive at random.
The mere idea that there is “democracy” in student government is laughable. There are certain things that will never change about student government, whether it is junior high, high school, or university, the most popular kids get elected and nothing ever changes. Nothing is ever changing in the DSU because the people involved with the DSU were the ones involved with it the last year and the year before that and the year before that. There are no new ideas and even when there are new ideas there seems to be a contingent of students ensuring that they vote down any possibility of change or progression. Everyone would be deluding themselves to think that there are significant contributions from the council that truly effect the day to day lives of the average student. If you were to ask students what the student union does for them many would say “health plan”, “frosh week”, “ski trip”, “booster juice”, “St. Patty’s day in the Grawood”. It seems those within the DSU are less concerned about progression as they are about themselves and the fact that the DSU serves as a microcosm for municipal, provincial, or federal government. Unfortunately it is not in a way to learn about the functioning of government but a building where they can have an identity, albeit not a good one, and a voice. A place where the insignificant become significant and worthless opinions somehow have a value.
I’m actually embarrassed for all the people who try to treat the DSU election week as if it was the first Tuesday in November. It is comical that people are actually saying that a candidates gender will “swing the vote” or that the science or arts vote is a “powerful one”. This is not a presidential election where there are swing states ok, with around 10% of students voting each year it is difficult to find a faculty that is a “swing faculty” unless they occupy a lot of space within the DSU and therefore live in the “DSU world” or, if the elections committee is lucky, have an event in the McInnis room where they can be solicited for their vote.
This website serves as a perfect example of the self-righteousness felt by those within the DSU world. This website seems to be run and religiously followed by a group of people who have felt false significance and that their opinions have value. However, now as they enter the bright and sunny world outside the walls of the SUB they realize where they actually stand. They realize that all of those remarks, comments and hours of gossip aren’t embraced by an insatiable group of followers, and that if they are ever going to get that back they need to crawl back through the glass doors of the sub, hands full of mud, and start slinging…fast. How many people here have actually been a part of the only functional piece of this entire puzzle – the executive? I’m assuming few to none. Everyone else here for some reasons decides to waste their time, energy, and breath doing the easiest thing that a person can do – criticize and gossip. As much as everyone here would love to think that they are providing timely, informative, and in-depth (and any other buzz word that fits in a CNN commercial) coverage on the DSU elections they are not. They are providing biased, embarrassing, pontificating opinions on a topic that, in the end, doesn’t matter.
Not only are those involved with this website guilty of this, so are the councilors and those that sit at council. Council only provides one more forum for insignificant pedants who are more concerned with hearing themselves talk than the actual students they are representing. I have heard from the lost souls who have the unfortunate fate of mandatory attendance to council meetings. Their opinion? “the most devastating moment is when my laptop dies” or “the worst part is that I know I’ll never have those 3 hours of my life back”.
This is the true DSU. This is the student government that provides a selected few a nice resume booster or a good job afterwards, drowns the dreams of those who think they can actually helps students and provides self-worth where it seems to be needed the most. Luckily for the average student outside the DSU….no one cares.
@Zhindra Gillis
Oh yeah, totally forgot about that! Bright guy, that Mark Coffin. Better go check the comments to make sure I agreed then, too.
@Average Dal Student
That has to be the longest, most opinionated diatribe ever written by someone who doesn’t care.
Average dal student-
don’t listen to Tipping, he’s rediculous
@Average Dal Student
Hey, I agree with what you say except for the part where you call all punditry-ers self-righteous. I’m not here because I think reading this will do anything to change the union, I’m here because my thesis is due on Friday and I don’t want to work on it for the next 15 minutes.
@ Victory, agenda Style:
I would come back to school just to vote for someone who would fix the electrical issues!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! say it ain’t so…SAY IT AIN’T SO!
Pretty sure that this is the nicest thing that has ever been said about the DSU exec on punditry.
Also, to answer your question, out of the pundits past and present there are three former exec members. There are quite a few others who put in their two cents every now and again through their comments.