punditry.ca — uncovering DSU elections

6:30:  I arrive at the second floor of the SUB.  I haven’t seen this many students since the War in Iraq motion of ’03.  It’s going to take a long time to get all of these people verified as Dal students.

6:50:  I’m in, but not after getting stuck in the middle of a scuffle btwn. Dal Security and a guy who  “works for NSPIRG” (his words, not mine).

7:00:  I’m sitting in the back with the bad kids.  Next to VP I Candidate Craig Jennex and CRO Sarah Amyotte.  I also made a new friend, Greg A. (not Deborgorski).  He is fascinated by the craziness of tonight.

7:14:  Mat Brechtel starts the meeting.  I hope he stretched well beforehand.

7:20:  Motion to amend the agenda to add a motion re: letting in the non-Dal students who are staging a sit-in outside to be inside.

7:29:  Motion fails.  I can’t remember the number for and against.  I recorded my vote for.  I say we should talk about it.

7:30:  Motion by the VP Finance to strike the contract motion and the CASA motion from the agenda.

7:36:  Challenge to the chair!  Note:  We haven’t even accepted the agenda yet.  Mat is currently explaining what this means.  Better you than me, friend.

7:42:  Tara Gault is here!

7:43:  I am absolutely lost on this.  I have no idea what’s going on anymore.  I am going to run out and get a paper copy of the Constitution.  I can’t scroll through my electronic copy fast enough.

7:47:  The offices are locked.  I don’t have a paper copy as a result.  In other news, the cops are here.  There’s a girl here who isn’t a Dal student who won’t leave.  Apparently she works for the Gazette (according to the guy who was just yelling at the cop).  Greg A. continues to be fascinated.

7:51:  We’re voting on the challenge to the chair.   It just passed, that means that the aforementioned motions will be struck from the agenda.

8:01: We’re moving on a vote to the second challenge to the chair.  If you vote yes, the girl from the Gazette gets to stay.  If you vote no, she goes.  Very clear, Mat (I really hope someone is buying him several beers after this).

8:03: Someone just proposed the cops be ejected.  Greg Deborgorski just likened this meeting to Nazism.  He apologized.  Mat Brechtel ignored the cop outburst.

8:03:  Motion to challenge the chair fails.

8:03:  This must be what it’s like to go to York.

8:05:  New motion to add a motion to the agenda.  Motion about quorum at the meetings.  BIRT:  If the meeting is adjourned, council will hold a subsequent General meeting to discuss the other issues within 3 weeks.  To be clear, this is a motion to simply add this motion to the agenda.

8:09:  Motion passes.  There are now 5 cops here.  Greg A. says “The jails in Dartmouth must be unguarded.”

8:10:  Motion to add the newest motion that we just passed to the top of the agenda after business of the executive.

8:11:  Motion passes.

8:12:  Motion to add a motion.  Daniel Pink moves that NSPIRG makes an official apology by April 1 for being general jerks , they should stop funding their non-student staff and they should vacate the SUB (Daniel is much more eloquent than I).

8:12:  The Gazette girl and Greg Debogorski have just been removed from the room by the police.

8:15:  A NSPIRG member just rose on a point of personal privilege (that wasn’t).  NSPIRG doesn’t organize Lockheed Martin protests, they just have a “working group” that facilitates “critical thinking.”

8:17:  Discussions re: whether or not to put Dan Pink’s motion on the agenda.  Point well taken that this is a motion that greatly affects students and thus should have been moved 2 weeks ago.

8:18:  I’m not going to lie.  I feel really bad for Mat Brechtel.

8:18:  Greg A. says that this is like “chocolate cake on a Sunday morning.”  I agree.

8:22:  I just had an outburst.  One of the NSPIRG people just said that the NSPIRG levy was between students and NSPIRG and had “nothing to do with the DSU.”  I yelled “What?!  Are you out of your mind?!”  It takes quite a lot for me to yell out of turn (ask my grade 3 teacher).  These people are cray cray.

8:24:  We are voting on whether or not to add the Dan Pink motion to the agenda.  I’m not a mathmagician (typo, it’s staying), but this motion is getting on the agenda.

8:28:  Oh, I forgot about the 2/3 part.  Mat is recounting.

8:28:  Sarah Amyotte just levied her first fine against Debo for the Nazism comment.

8:31:  Motion to add the Dan Pink motion to the agenda fails.  VP FO Mat Golding moves for a ballot vote.

8:34:  Challenge to the chair re: allowing the ballot vote.  His challenge starts with “I want to tell you a story…”  It’s a parable about a butterfly…I can’t re-phrase it.

8:36:  We’re moving to a vote as to whether or not we should have a ballot vote.

8:43:  We’re having a ballot vote.  There was a lot of confusion as to how we would go about that.  I went and got logoed paper for us to vote on.  There is a rep from each side (we’re taking their word for it) who will work as scrutineers.  This is officially a gong show.

8:47:  I would like to be in the mind of one of these people…how do you be so contrary about everything?  It’s painful, really.

8:49:  Mat is very patiently trying to make this ballot vote happen.  I kind of felt badly for suggesting to Mat how we might do it.

9:09:  We are having a ballot vote now on whether or not to add the Dan Pink motion onto the agenda.  Mat is currently explaining everything to us.  This needs a 2/3 majority to pass.

9:17:  Just to be clear, we haven’t even accepted the agenda yet.

9:20:  We’re now voting on whether to extend the meeting until the building closes.  We’re kinda sorta close to the 3 hour mark.

9:24:  The meeting has now been extended to 10:45.

9:26:  Shout out to John Hurley for bringing Starbuck sustenance.   Also a shout out to Murray for coming down to join in on the action…liveblogging brings all the boys to the yard.

9:36:  Mat is speaking.  Everyone listen.

9:36:  I think I just had a conniption fit in my mind.  There were 8 more ballots counted than handed out.  This made a difference to the 2/3 majority.  We get to have a ballot vote again.  I’m not joking at all.

9:38:  Fred Perron-Welch “Point of Information:  How did you guys fuck this up?”  Mat says we are very close to the end of decorum.  I think we passed that point a long time ago.

9:42:  Just a reminder.  We haven’t actually passed the agenda yet.

<<9:45: punditry.ca goes down>>

10:11: Punditry.ca just crashed. I have continued on a Word document and will post it later.

10:13: 116 to 56. 67% The motion passes. Now someone is complaining about how close it was. Apparently this doesn’t work out mathematically. Mat has ruled the motion passes.

10:15: Motion to move the business of the executive to the end of the agenda. It has been seconded. Mark Coffin says that the business of the executive is actually very relevant to the new business at hand.

10:17: There was a friendly amendment to just move the motion about having another general meeting w/in the next three weeks to deal with unresolved issues. Passes unanimously.

10:18: Motion to APPROVE THE AGENDA!!!!!!!

10:19: It passes!!! We now have to debate the motion about whether or not we should have a meeting three weeks hence re: unresolved issues.

10:19: Courtney just asked whether or not this motion violates the constitution. It doesn’t. However, because of the wording of the by-laws, coupled with the wording of the motion, we must have the meeting on April 1^st and only April 1^st. Trust me on this one, I couldn’t make it up if I tried.

10:20: I am sitting in the midst of a Mat Brechtel fan club. He is very pretty, apparently.

10:24: Motion passes. We are having a new meeting on April 1^st. We now move onto business of the executive.

10:26: Courtney has started her report.

10:27: Greg A. “Serving students since 1966, eh?” John Hurley “Oh, I thought that’s when the meeting started.” Zing!

10:35: We’re back up and live!

10:38:  Dan just started his report.  There’s a powerpoint presentation.  Someone just cackled rudely when Dan mentioned he wanted to help societies transition into the next year.

10:40:  Why is this writing so small?  I really shouldn’t be the one trusted with the interwebs.

10:45: The meeting is ending…now.  Dan is speeding up so that he might finish before the deadline.  Impressive.

10:45:  Annnd, we’re done.  Thanks to all of you for sticking with me through all of this (two crashes, I’m impressed).  A special shout out to Greg A. for putting up with my snarky comments for the entirety of the meeting, and to John and Murray for providing some much needed mid-AGM hilarity.  See you all on April 1st (of course I’ll be there, it’s not like I have a degree to finish or anything…)

I have been to exactly two DSU AGMs that could have been called “exciting”.  The first was in my very first year at Dal, when NSPIRG, or something similar, put a motion on the agenda re: the Union taking an active stance against the war in Iraq.  There were about 250 people there, and I can safely say it was that meeting that got me started in on DSU politics.

The second was the year I ran for VP Education.  The AGM was early that year, or elections were late, I don’t remember…regardless, it wasn’t during elections.  It was the first time any of us got a taste of then-future (now past) VP Internal Phil Duguay.  Phil is possibly the best example I have of how the “crazy left field” candidate can a) actually win sometimes and b) turn out to do a good job.   At the time, though, I thought he was a lunatic at the mic.

I take the reader on this trip down memory lane because tonight at 6:30 in SUB Room 303  (I think I’m wrong on this…it’s on the third floor) could most certainly be the third exciting AGM I attend.  NSPIRG found the start button on the computer in their totally student funded workspace in the SUB and drafted these motion gems.   Correction:  I have been inundated with comments telling me that apparently these motions aren’t from NSPIRG or their affiliates.  I can admit when I’m wrong, and I apologize to those groups that did in fact draft these motions (who, curiously, didn’t identify themselves…but okay, I can respect waiting for “the big reveal”). The one thing that did confuse me, though, was that one person who claimed said they had a hand in drafting a motion also identified as a “staff member of the Med School.”  If that’s true, I have a huge, huge problem with it.

I’m going to try and put them “after the jump”…it might not work, I can barely turn on my blender…

I won’t do a complete play by play of my thoughts on these motions (you can wait until tonight to hear that) but suffice it to say, everyone should take a look at them.  The “contract motion” is especially damning.  Absence of corporate contracts and partnerships on campus would bring pretty much every professional programme to its knees.  I’m also not *quite* sure who we’re supposed to get to feed the thousands of students in residence.  I just don’t think there’s a local organization that could provide the sheer volume of service without jacking up the cost significantly, which would in turn be passed on to students.  Feel free to prove me wrong on that one…

Read more…

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…

I can’t tell you all how excited I am to be part of such a stellar team of DSU pundits. This really brings election geekery to a whole new level and I love it.

The official list of candidates has some familiar faces and some ones that this old hack doesn’t recognize. Mike gave a good overview, so I won’t rehash it all but just a few more thoughts.

Debo is back! Man, you have to admire that guy’s tenacity. He recently found my blog post from two elections ago where I inquired as to whether his youtube video was encouraging me to vote for him or let him out on a day pass. I also asked him to stop his ill planned act of shit disturbing. His response was thus:

I was just browsing the internet; after hearing rumours from a colleague of this post I cannot help but giggle on discovering it. I find your abrasive comment quite humorous in the context of current affairs within the DSU. I love it when personal aversion of the truth leads people to hatred of those whom promote it.
If I could procure “a day pass” for the entire Union to egress from the administrative insanity occurring within our Union I would.
Criticizing our Union for disenfranchising students and providing good times for the DSU “in crowd” never equates to an “annoying act of ill planned shit disturbing.”
I can only hope that the author of this post will revisit their opinions when considering future political activities and comments.
The Union should operate under the following principle:
Each according to their need; each according to their work!!!
I shall leave up to the reader to interpret its meaning.

I no longer think Debo is an ill planned shit disturber. I think he genuinely cares about students and the union. I do not, however, think he has a clue about the big picture or how to actually, realistically go about serving students. Regardless, his addition to the field should make for some fantastic entertainment.

The VP Education field (one that is close to my heart) only has one candidate I recognize, LeForte. From what I know of him, he seems genuinely interested in the issues and has kept very well abreast of the PSE goings on, even before the election started. He has on occasion asked me questions that have left me stumped and needing to do some research. This is a good thing. I hope to be able to form an opinion on Burns soon.

Internal is also one where my knowledge of candidates is lopsided. I have worked with Jennex on various projects and know him to be very dedicated, organized and good at what he does. He also has a very good grasp on union goings on, which comes from being an employee for the past couple of years. I don’t know anything about Hobbs except that he was the communications commissioner, which is a good start (for him, not me…well I suppose me too). We shall see how this one unfolds.

When did a BoG seat become the new hot item?! Whatever it was that sparked this little trend, I’m glad of it. The field is also amazingly solid. Conrad is a familiar face around the council table and has always impressed me with her maturity and her zealousness in advocating for the students on Sexton. Rai has been very committed to the Dal Debate Society, Sodales, and as a result became very involved during the society review overhaul. Harris is a med student who was the President of the St. FX Student Union in his previous life. He thus already has a lot experience in this type of role, especially coming from X where their union has a very close working relationship with the administration. Welch is the current law rep on the DSU and on the Law Student Society Board. Anyone who has had to work with the law school administration will find the university’s administration a cake walk. I sadly know nothing about Horne.

Senate is yes/no this year. Sad making. I have worked with Evans, she is solid. Like Mike says, though, unless someone unleashes the crazy this will be a bit of a yawn race.

I’ll update my bio soon, so you all know who the crazy ranting lady is.