The OUSA Exec had their meatiest meeting yet last Wednesday, March 5th – coincidentally the first Critic Te Ārohi was in attendance for. Critic parked up in the corner couches and locked into an hour and a half of aggressive note-taking (first-year-lecture style) and aggressive listening during ‘confidential committee’ (eavesdropping-on-neighbouring-$4-lunch-tables gossip style).
Mr President began the meeting at 9:02am by saying, “Fuck it’s a big agenda today.” The typical 13-or-so-item list had expanded to 25 items, proving Liam’s famous waffling tendencies noted in last year’s quarterly reports have carried through. On the agenda: some boring shit about business and marketing plans; some juicy shit about angry student emails about the Exec’s BDS “posture”.
Here’s the lowdown on Exec meetings: every Wednesday at 9am, members of the Exec – students’ elected representatives with designated “portfolios” – meet in the “bullpen” (their office) with the OUSA CEO Debbie Downs and Secretary Donna Jones. It’s at these meetings that they make all the big decisions, like what issues they’ll tackle, whether to back a political movement, any matters arising from the student body, and who’ll man the barbeque at an upcoming event.
If OUSA is the Beehive, the Exec bullpen is Parliament, and Critic sits in the Press Gallery – observing and taking notes on the important shit (and writing fun quotes like every time Liam swears or when Callum’s dog crop dusts the room). And much like Parliament, Exec meetings are open to its members (students) to attend, given they send a cordial heads up to Liam via email before rocking up. In the absence of students, however, Critic’s the eyes and ears.
Meetings start with a round-the-table update from everyone. Liam’s “snowed under” but chirpy nonetheless. Academic Rep Stella was “feeling grumpy” after a Uni working group suggested changing 18-point papers to 15-point, which she thinks is a “stupid idea” (where a Uni staff member “waved his finger in [her] face for 45 minutes”). Finance and Strategy Officer Daniel “talked about financials” at a FESC meeting, admitting to feeling a bit nervous about OUSA’s fiscal situation. Callum came in late with his dog.
Next were the big-ticket items: the Exec’s Treaty Principles Bill submission, BDS complaint, and the Exec’s annual agenda. A quick summary of the Treaty Principles Bill submission and some pointers from Clubs and Socs Rep Deborah on certain inconsistencies on Liam’s hastily written submission from January (prompting him to advise his successor to Pols Rep, Jett, to “be consistent”) was the gist of agenda item 16. And then onto 17: ‘BDS Complaint’. “This is a doozy,” said Liam, before promptly motioning for the meeting to enter into ‘confidential committee’ (no notes allowed) for thirty minutes. Boo.
Liam then hopped out of his seat to skip to the whiteboard and plan the annual Exec agenda: “This is the fun interactive bit.” Each Exec members signed onto the different goals that they intend to make ground on: the cost of living (sucks), student culture (including a student bar), student welfare, education accessibility (like lecture recordings), student housing (also sucks), and a “new era of OUSA” (dramatic but okay).
On the last item, Liam explained he’d “done some thinking” over summer about ensuring OUSA is “student focused” – implying he intends to follow through with his promise in the first OUSA Critic column: “Let’s make this a year of action.” Given that’s the longest meeting in recent Exec history, it seems students can expect further robustness from the fresh cohort of student politicians.