From one MSO to another
Sarah Caufield, MSO, 2005-2006
Dear Mr. Lewis,
Last year, as MSO, I considered both Forum and the Annual General Meeting (AGM) to be two of my biggest responsibilities. After all, how could you be of greater service to members of your society than by giving everyone an opportunity to vote on society-wide changes, enabling democracy within the organisation? With that in mind, I’m disgusted by your apparent lack of respect for both the AGM and Forum, and by the misinformation that you are responsible for, most recently in your letter printed in The Peak last week.
First: Forum. Forum represents more opinions, and a wider understanding of the university than you or even the entire Board of Directors can possibly bring to a meeting. That’s what happens when you have representatives from every student union, grad caucus, and student constituency group in one room. Forum has the potential to be a remarkable tool, which Sam Bradd, Anthony Maragna, myself, and others worked hard to empower last year. The fact that Forum met despite your supposed (impossible) “cancellation,” to hold a long discussion and to ultimately vote for the organisation of an SGM is phenomenal, and your lack of respect for that body, and the thousands of students they represent, is shameful. You took it upon yourself to cancel a meeting because you didn’t have quorum? I’m confused — the majority of the Board of Directors decided to boycott the meeting, which by my count certainly pushed the meeting far beyond quorate. And your disregard for policies put into place to allow Forum the ability to function, such as accepting resignations before the meeting, is ridiculous. So much work was put into enabling Forum, and you’ve decided to ignore it. Why?
Secondly: the Board called their AGM for October 25, the same day as Forum’s SGM (voted on before the Board chose their date) at the last possible minute (according to SFSS by-laws), meaning that when the date was announced, the agenda also had to be finalised. This effectively disallows any special resolutions to be added, which means that although SFSS members can ask you questions, you run no risk of impeachment, because there’s no way to include that in the agenda. Regardless of the fact that you’ve failed to give due notice to all members of the SFSS, if you truly did want to respect society members, surely you could take the time to acknowledge and even assist with planning for the SGM, and take advantage of this opportunity to answer to the membership.
Finally: SDU is not holding an SGM. It’s Forum who has called for an SGM. And the student members of the SGM Planning Committee are already putting a great deal of planning into the meeting. Far be it for me to presume your current Boardwork, but given your history of last-minute notices, ignoring policy, and extreme effort to confuse your membership on the issues at hand, I worry about what will happen with both the AGM and the SGM. Speaking from experience, an AGM demands a lot of planning. five hundred students don’t magically appear and run through a bureaucratic meeting effortlessly. It took us months to figure everything out last year, and we still only managed 375 people in the end. I hope you’re hard at work figuring out how to register everyone, how to collect votes, and finding people to talk to who can help you out with the logistics. Because anyone putting together a giant meeting needs all the assistance they can get.
Glyn, I don’t know what your motivations are. I don’t know why your letter was full of misguided comments. I only hope that you realise the disservice you’re doing to the SFSS, and to its membership, and make an effort to acknowledge and show respect towards Forum, and all SFU students soon.