DSU AGM - Part II

On Wednesday April 1, 2009 approximately 650 Dalhousie students came together in the McInnes room in the Student Union Building to take part in the DSU's Annual General Meeting - Part II (a continuation of the meeting on March 18th).

The meeting started with three of the five Executive reports which were not addressed at the earlier meeting. All of the reports were wonderful and I would like to give a special mention to our Vice President (Education) who gave an informative presentation to all students present about the Halifax Student Alliance, the Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations, and the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations.

After the Executive reports were completed we moved to the first item of business - the NSPIRG motion. The motion came forward from Daniel Pink and the key aspects of the resolutions were to have the DSU remove NSPIRG from their office space on the third floor of the SUB within 90 days, the DSU cease processing payroll for NSPIRG, and for NSPIRG to be sent to referendum in the 2009-10 academic year for all Dalhousie students to decide if NSPIRG should be a levied society. This motion was eventually amended to no longer have any whereas clauses and to only have one resolution which would have NSPIRG being sent back to referendum in 2009-10.

After 45 minutes of discussion on the issue (debate was limited to 45 minutes at 8:36 and therefore at 9:16 we had to conclude discussion) the question was called (we needed to move to vote on the issue). The voting started as a hand vote which the Chair felt was too close to call and so a ballot vote was moved. The ballot vote process was lengthy and this was due to the sheer number of students present (this was the first time that the DSU had seen this many students at an AGM) and that not all students present in the meeting were DSU members with voting privileges. The room was set to close at 10:45pm; however at 10:30pm it was quite evident that there were still lots of students to vote and that we would need to extend hours. Through discussing our options with our staff we agreed to extend the room hours until the voting process had been completed, ballots counted, and the results announced. At approximately 11:30pm the voting process was completed and the Chair announced the results. The motion failed.

At this point in the evening the meeting was adjourned. There were a variety of other motions and By-law/Regulation amendments on our agenda which were not seen to. Another general meeting is not being planned for my term as President; however, I am quite confident that the incoming President, Shannon Zimmerman, will be calling a General Meeting within the next few months to address the unseen to items.

For the agenda and prepared meeting documents please click here.