Execution, 01 October
Most members of the USU exec were present for their meeting on October 1 where they discussed the marae and their replacements amongst other things.Powell had not received the official results of the elections for the 2010 USU executive but was able to confirm and congratulate the new president, Pete Hodkinson and Maori representative Togia Lanefale.
Voluntary student membership (VSM) was an issue high on the agenda and Powell said Unitec chief executive Rick Ede supports the USU as a valued body to Unitec. If the bill is passed it would compromise the USU’s ability to represent student concerns, Powell says.
They also discussed the Tertiary Education Governance Bill currently going through Parliament which will limit membership of the Unitec council to eight. There are members of the USU exec who will be going to Wellington to see a select committee to present their concerns regarding the proposed changes.
Hanelle Harris and Pete Hodkinson presented a report on the Marae at Unitec as it still needs to be completed, but is being delayed because of funding, Hodkinson mentioned there were opportunities to merge Unitec student orientations so that students could be welcomed officially to Unitec at Nohotahitanga, however the lack of facilities would make this hard.
Fundraising options were presented to create the facilities like using the ‘Sounds in the Sun’ event to promote the marae. Powell said this event has been free in the past, and wants to keep it that way. He suggested that the bands that perform could be contacted to promote the cause.
Powell requested that a budget, actual space requirements and more details be brought forward, but went with the recommendation to see the operations committee of ‘Sounds in the Sun’ to assist with the plan as a possible fundraiser without compromising the essence of the event.
Powell wanted an audit of the exec’s accounts done as soon as possible and proposed that the honoraria payments to the vice president and the treasurer become wages with a timesheet; to make it easier to table actual work done and that accountability was essential. This was approved.
The board also approved a new rule that if a member was absent from three meetings during the year with or without an apology it meant an automatic vote of non confidence. While there was debate about this issue there was general agreement.