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President Paul Hunt began the meeting by commenting on the executive’s performance so far this year. He said although they are “kicking into gear well,” the team is still only running at “six gears out of ten.”

OUSA has officially put in its submission regarding the proposal to abolish the two exam-free days in the second semester. The executive opposes the idea, unless it sees “data that shows there will be a significant reduction in double-exam days.” Hunt said the argument that there would be a reduction in double-exam days was “only speculative.”

NZUSA was a topic of discussion once again, and the executive has decided to “reallocate the $22,500 it owes to NZUSA.”

“We think there are better uses of that money,” said Hunt, despite the NZUSA constitution requiring OUSA to pay. He said OUSA will “seek to work with NZUSA and other universities about the best way to proceed from this point … We owe it to the students … by paying the $22,500 that blocks projects which are more beneficial to Otago students.”

The NZUSA constitution states that when an association decides to withdraw from NZUSA, they have a one-year withdrawal period. During this period, the association is required to pay the yearly fee of $45,000 to give NZUSA time to adjust its budgets. Hunt said if NZUSA is warned now that it won’t receive the second instalment, then it has at least three months to make any adjustments. “In the real world, that’s plenty of time,” he said. There were no opposing opinions among the executive.

NZUSA President Rory McCourt has also asked to attend the Hyde Street Keg Party for 2015.

“For R U Ok in particular, [Laura Harris — 2014 Education Officer] wants to make sure [volunteers] have some kind of handle on what they should be doing at any given point … so [she is] strongly opposed to Rory attending Hyde, even if he’s there to help out.”

Hunt commented that NZUSA is “always interested in coming down for the publicity opportunities, Clubs Day and Hyde Street. But not so vigorous in terms of some nitty-gritty issues in terms of educational achievement and university budgets. It would be good if they had a bit more interest [in such issues.]”

The executive has a meeting lined up with McCourt on Wednesday 17 March. McCourt requested that student media not be present, but “given there are large sums of money at stake,” Hunt and the executive decided that student media should be there.

Discussion is still underway regarding the possible affiliation of a pro-life group. Jonathan Martin is working with the group to draw up “a fair and adequate constitution,” and a vote will take place in an executive meeting on Monday 23 March.

Renewing OUSA’s membership to VSA was brought to the table again. Hunt was supportive of paying the membership fee as it is “consistent with OUSA’s promotion of volunteering.” He asked the executive if anyone had a differing opinion on the matter, and it soon became obvious that the majority of the team missed out on last year’s debate over the issue between executive members.

“That’s part of being a governor,” said Hunt, “you think before the meeting.” Hunt said the VSA decision “is a classic example of an issue which shouldn’t require three months to work out. Executive members need to be active in searching the information they want before next week.” Renewing the $100 membership will be put to vote on Monday 23 March.

Meeting duration: 25 minutes. That’s got to be a record.