[temara.brown]

MSU General Assembly Coming Soon!

When: 2PM-4PM, Thursday, January 29th
Where: Council Chambers, Gilmour Hall rm 111
What: General Assembly is:

• A chance for you to pass binding motions on your students union.
  
  
• A chance to tell your or your club's opinions to the public and to your representatives.
  
  
• An open and public forum for discussion on any matter students wish to have heard by your student leadership.

[fullsmash26]

A couple of major corrections.

1) Motions must be submitted 10 days in advance. Monday is the last day.

2) Gilmour Hall cannot hold quorum!

In short, students cannot pass anything because the deadline for motions will pass before students have had the opportunity to think about bring forth motions.

Even if a student brings forth a motion (say revoking the pay increases MSU politicians gave themselves this year), it is impossible for it to pass because the room for the GA will not hold the necessary 550 students required to vote (in person) on the motion for it to be binding.

[temara.brown]

I believe the room will probably be changed but this is what we have for now.

[DannyV]

Come on, Joey, you know the spiel by now. This is only being done so the BoD and SRA can pat themselves on the back because they held a General Assembly.

They don't actually want anything accomplished.

[temara.brown]

Oh c'mon you two. simmer down.

The actual story here is that the date and room were set and then the rest of SRA heard about it. Then members responded and also protested the room, timing, + more. That is why I said it will probably be changed. But, since it is set at what it is now and is coming up, and at least I want people to come out to this, I made this announcement to start to spread the world.

I don't think any of us patted our backs last year when there was a small turnout and I'm pretty sure we all left saying that this was pretty unacceptable. One of the SRA Univ Affairs committee's goals this year was to make sure this was a success.


...why does everyone think we truly want to squeak everything by and then glorify our resumes with it. That's definitely not what I do with my sra time.
..sadness.

[fullsmash26]

Temara,

No wonder Quarters has lost over $900,000 in the last few years including nearly a half-million last year.

You guys can't even plan the basics of a General Assembly. You booked a room that is too small for the event.

Event 101: Make sure the venue is the right size for the event.

I bet the SRA would not book too small a vacation house for their annual summer retreat junket?

The fact is that your advertising Gilmour Hall and even if you change the room, the false advertising will result in confusion. Yet another barrier to student involvement, courtesy of "Your SRA."

[deadpool]

Originally Posted by fullsmash26

No wonder Quarters has lost over $900,000 in the last few years including nearly a half-million last year.

You guys can't even plan the basics of a General Assembly. You booked a room that is too small for the event.

The fact is that your advertising Gilmour Hall and even if you change the room, the false advertising will result in confusion. Yet another barrier to student involvement, courtesy of "Your SRA."

Thought 1: It's great to know that you feel as if the SRA should personally run Quarters...

Thought 2: http://www.wikihow.com/Use-You%27re-and-Your


However, Joey is completely right. Why are there ads running in last week's Sil, and posters being printed up for GA if the room cannot meet quorum.

Secondly, where are bylaws for the GA, incl. references to the 10 day period?

[temara.brown]

The SRA members, myself included, were not involved in setting the specifications for the GA. If others were, then I certainly hadn't been given any information about planning it. I'm not saying this to defer blame but just to get the story straight. I was just as angry as any of you about this.

I put up this announcement as soon as I got word about it in order to reduce any barriers, one of which was that I felt people don't hear about this sort of thing nor do they even really understand what a GA is. This announcement was supposed to be a teaser to a more plump article yet to come.

If there are any details to be changed, I have not yet heard any official word of it. The previous comment was from my intuition based on emails between the SRA.

Joey, what ultimately makes me disappointed with your comments is that you're achieving exactly the opposite of what your comments are suggesting is one of the MSU's failures. That is encouraging student involvement. Constantly you discredit anything in the MSU and blame the SRA, students who have chosen to volunteer their time to help make things better. After reading all of what has been said, I can't imagine why anyone would want to get involved since it seems like anything you do gets shat on. Yes, there are those who sign up soley for resume padding. Yes, there are problems with the way some things are done. But, in my opinion, what is largely the problem with the SRA is how information gets dispersed - always under negativity.

We understand that there is a problem with the room size and yes we do really really want student involvement. Why else would I have posted this to begin with?

I cannot say whether or not the room location or anything will actually change. But, seeing as how this event is coming up quick, it would not be wise to hold off on advertising any further. Especially when we want people to show up.

A GA has not reached quorum in years. Get your friends informed and get people out there!

[fullsmash26]

The GA works under the same rules of motion as the SRA. To change bylaws (repealing the pay increases the MSU politicians gave themselves) requires 10 days notice.

The agenda must be published 10 days in advance.

In terms of Quarters, the GA and the SRA:

The SRA is ultimately responsible for the operations of the MSU and the actions of the MSU. If the SRA wishes to not be responsible, then it is time to abolish the SRA. Think of the money students would save by not paying for the SRA and its junkets; especially since the SRA isn't doing much of anything to begin with.

[McIntyre]

Just to go along with this for a minute, since the MSU does offer important services to students (whether it's our services like EFRT, SWHAT, Union Market, etc or advocacy) which then ultimately requires the VPs and the President, how would you suggest creating a system that has the VPs and President responsible to students?

[fullsmash26]

Making the VP positions elected would be a good start.

Second, they are not accountable right now.

When was the last time the Executive was made accountable by the SRA? The SRA members are more interested in sucking up in the hopes of being rewarded with a VP position than they are interested in holding the executive to account.

This year, the SRA rewarded poor performance with the largest pay increase of any student union in the country. The MSU president is the highest compensation student politician in the country. The VPs are making above average for student politicians.

I was at the University of Saskatchewan Students' Union last week. I attended their Council meeting. The Councillors there were doing their job and holding the Executive accountable. It was quite amazing.

It helps that the VPs are elected and the positions not given out as a reward for loyality to the organization.

It's not surprising that the USSU Council has restructured their campus pub which was losing money two years ago into a profitable enterprise offering great service to students. I ate one dinner and two lunches in the campus pub during my time at USask. It was amazing and affordable.

[Dave.Moore]

I'm not sure where his notion comes from that 10-days notice is required for an item to get on the agenda. Admittedly, major expenditure motions and bylaw revisions require 10 days notice for consideration at an SRA meeting, but an SRA agenda itself closes just 4 business days prior to an SRA meeting, not 10 days

Moreover, the MSU Speaker (who chairs the General Assembly) is not required to follow every aspect of SRA meeting procedure at a GA. I draw readers' attention to MSU Bylaw 3/A, Section 1.9: "Where applicable, the procedures outlined for the SRA shall be used in meetings of the General Assembly; they shall be adopted at the discretion of the Speaker."

The resolutions adopted at a quorate General Assembly are indeed binding on the SRA. They key, however, is that the meeting achieves and retains quorum. The number of eligible electors in last fall's referendum was 19,333 --- so that puts GA quorum at 580 (3% of the membership).

There are some limitations on the motions that can be brought forward. For example, it would not be in order to consider motions to amend the MSU Constitution where the notice provisions and other steps required by the Constitution have not already been completed. In practice, this would take at least a couple of months, so such motions would not be in order at the up coming GA.

I was in attendance at the last three General Assemblies to achieve quorum (1987, 1994, 1995). There were structured agenda items, but also discussion of items that came up on the floor. No prior notice of motion was required --- in most cases, they dealt with policy statements (e.g. taking a position on University decisions), though I note that GAs have also approved [or rejected] proposed ancillary fees.

As for the executive compensation increases approved by the SRA in June 2008, they are embodied in an operating policy, not a bylaw. Even assuming SRA rules were in play, 10 days notice is required for bylaws only.

As to the timing of the General Assembly, it was the MSU president who exercised his constitutional authority to call the GA. Azim Kasmani should be congratulated for the timing. 2-4 pm on a Thursday in January is much better than last year when the GA was called for April --- on the day after classes ended and the day before exams started.

The GA venue is important. From the 1970s through the 1990s, a General Assembly was typically held in a large room (eg. CNH B107, HH 320 and TSH 120) where the people coming in and out could be controlled (i.e. counted). The MSU would have door staff check student cards. Those with a full-time undergrad sticker on their student card were admitted immediately; those students with a part-time sticker were checked against a Registrar's Office printout of undergrads in 18 or more units to confirm they were registered in 18-23 units. A numbered voting card (a coloured piece of paper or file card) was given to each MSU member admitted to the room so that organizers knew how many people were in attendance.

An open town hall style gathering in the MUSC marketplace is problematic in terms of the controlled conditions required to determine quorum and voting eligibility for a General Assembly where binding decisions may be made.

In 2003-04, then-MSU president Neville Boney called an open-style meeting and initially referred to it as a General Assembly. When quorum and voting eligibility logistics were raised at an SRA meeting, he clarified that the gathering would not be a "General Assembly" in the technical sense as stipulated in the MSU Constitution.

Here's an interesting question: how many campus venues can legally [i.e. Fire Code compliant] hold 600 or more people?

[fullsmash26]

Thanks David,

When I brought forth motions in 2006, the Speaker held to the 10 day rule. My error and I thank you for the correction.

[DavidR]

Here's an interesting question: how many campus venues can legally [i.e. Fire Code compliant] hold 600 or more people?

I can think of at least one... and it isn't in GH

I've yet to see an advertisement for the GA posted anywhere in JHE. Is there advertising elsewhere? Not all of us frequent the student center, you know. Frankly, the lack of advertising, small venue and overall lame performance of the MSU is cause for concern. For once I agree with Joey on all counts.

[fullsmash26]

In 2006, over 300 engineering students turned out to try to ban MSU politicians from continuing to receive corporate gifts and junkets. We also tried to create an independent elections commission and force the MSU to provide monthly financial statements.

Needless to say, the MSU was not impressed. While I don't believe they are specifically not advertising at JHE (I chalk that up to their usual poor performance), it is worth noting that engineering students are the most likely to mobilize.

Here's my post from 2006 prior to the General Assembly. You'll probably not be surprised by how the MSU responded to the idea of ending their corporate gifts.

http://www.joeycoleman.ca/blog/2006/...-to-ban-o.html