The meeting began with the executives, the whole five who attended, breaking down the hours of work they had done that week. Recreation Officer Johnny Martin was “quite satisfied” he had completed his ten hours of work. Recreation Officer Payal Ramritu was confused with the new process of discussing the time they had spent as she “got really into timesheets.” Vice-President Isaac Yu had done precisely 20 hours and 13 minutes, and Finance Officer Nina Harrap and Colleges Officer TaoTao Li were unsure. President Paul Hunt worked 107 hours due to weekend activities involving Hyde Street and the media coverage that followed. Yes, 107 hours! This wasn’t discussed further, but we hope Hunt got the 8.5 hours of sleep per night left available to him.
The executive was reminded that their reports were due at 1pm the following day, to which Li said “oh shit” with a mouth full of potatoes.
A decision was made for OUSA to renew its membership to Volunteer Services Abroad after withdrawing last year. The membership will cost $100 annually, which Hunt noted was not a great deal of money. Hunt and Li had met with VSA to get “a background of what it is, why it is good, and where the $100 goes to.” Contrary to the remarks made by 2014’s Admin Vice-President last year, it was discovered that VSA “was not sending students away on holidays.” The executive agreed that students, the community and the nations where the students volunteer all benefit from the programme. When the subscription renewal takes place in June, the executive will rejoin.
The team voted on the long-standing issue of a pro-life group wanting to be affiliated with OUSA. Over the last month Martin has been meeting with the group to “form a constitution that both parties are satisfied with.” The constitution states that the group cannot circulate material that contradicts information provided by Student Health. They are also only ever allowed to refer individuals to Student Health. If these rules are broken, the group’s affiliation will be reconsidered.
The Dunedin Pro-Life group and the Dunedin Feminist Discussion group were also “mostly” in favour of the affiliation. Both parties say the affiliation is positive as it encourages discussion. The executive moved that the group be officially affiliated to OUSA, though Ramritu abstained. The motion was still passed as the majority had said yes.
The executive also agreed to implement a buy-back programme for glass bottles; this would be run with the university and the Dunedin City Council. Hunt said there are concerns from the wider community about glass and bottle breaking: “I think it’s important we do our bit to keep the student area clean.” Harrap said she would help run the programme as she would “like to do more” in her role. OUSA has run a similar scheme in the past where they bought back empty glass bottles for 10c. The amount per bottle for this year’s scheme has not yet been decided.
By-Election Results
T he results are in for the OUSA by-election that ran from Monday 23 to Thursday 26 March 2015. The election was held for the positions of International Officer, whose seat has been empty for over a year, and Postgraduate Officer, after Claire Mitchell resigned. 31 students voted in total.21 students voted for the Postgraduate position. Of these, 20 votes went to candidate Christopher Jackson and one went to no confidence.
Ten students voted for the International Officer. Nine people voted for candidate Toa Sailusi and one for no confidence.
Jackson and Sailusi will begin their positions immediately, with their first executive meeting being held Monday 30 March.
