Student Services administrators to discuss students' unions

At the upcoming national conference of the Canadian Association of College and University Student Services (CACUSS), the following workshop will be held:

Bridging Accountability and Autonomy: The Impact of Poor Student Leadership, Management and Accountability within Student Societies

Frank Cappadocia, Director, Centre for Student Community & Leadership Development, York University
Blaine Jensen, Vice President Educational Services, Douglas College, New Westminster, B.C.

SASA

As student unions continue to grow, so do the levies they draw from their members and the creation of significant enterprises on campus. These organizations are largely controlled by a handful of young individuals many with little or no financial, business or operational experience.

The development of student societies has gone from a leadership development model to that of big business. In most universities and many colleges student societies’ annual budgets are in excess of $1M and staff will exceed some medium sized businesses. The complexity of business operations are often challenging to those with graduate degrees let alone a second or third year undergraduate student. Yet legislation and other factors have created a situation where “autonomy” has become “unaccountability”. Whether through temptation, personal benefit, naiveté, or sheer negligence, some individuals, and indeed entire councils, have used their funds and positions for purposes beyond the benefit of their membership.

Through the exploration of two actual case studies – one from York University’s Glendon College and the other from Douglas College in B.C. – this session will provide Student Affairs practitioners with an advanced review of what can happen to a student organization when self-interest and benefit override the By-laws, the needs of members and, longer-term the validity of student unions themselves. Session participants will be invited to share their experiences and recommendations through an interactive dialogue following the presentation of the case studies.

Though I would disagree with certain assumptions inherent in this description (including the claim that students' unions were originally formed for the mere purpose of "leadership development"), this sounds like a very interesting workshop indeed.

(Hat tip: Jeff Friedrich)

CFS General Meeting Documents

I have scanned and uploaded [PDF] the documents of the CFS Generals Meetings since the fall of 1990, for your viewing pleasure.

The documents include minutes, agendas, National Executive reports, committee agendas, committee reports, financial documents, and other interesting documents which I have obtained.

The 51st Semi-Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Federation of Students(-Services) will now come to order...

I have scanned and uploaded [PDF] the Second Notice of the 51st Semi-Annual General Meeting of CFS(-Services), to be held May 24-27 at Carleton University, Ottawa, for your viewing and commenting pleasure.

One interesting motion on the agenda was a Bylaw amendment to provide that the CFS' auditors will be appointed at the Semi-Annual General Meetings (SAGM) only, rather than at both SAGM and Annual General Meetings (AGM) (which seems to be a quirk in the current bylaws...). (SAGMs take place in May of each year; AGMs take place in November.) This motion seems to contravene sections 130-132 of the Canada Corporations Act, which governs the CFS' operations, and specifies that auditors are to be appointed, and audited financial statements are to be presented at annual meetings, not semi-annual meetings. This motion should probably be amended to provide that financial statements will be presented at CFS AGMs, and not at SAGMs.

Not on the agenda are two motions submitted [PDF] by the KSA (my employer): one directing the CFS to post its Bylaws, Standing Resolutions, Policies, national executive reports, budget, and financial statements online, and another making CFS general meetings open to the media. (Our motions were not placed on the agenda because we submitted them late, which happened because we received insufficient notice of the meeting [for which I largely blame Canada Post and the Kwantlen administration]). However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Students' Society of McGill University has submitted two motions that closely parallel the motions that the KSA has submitted!

Also, the CFS has published its Bylaws and Policies on its website, after voting down just such a proposal just three years ago.