british columbia student federation - how we operate - some brieft notes - august 1977

8/2/2019 British Columbia Student Federation - How We Operate - Some Brieft Notes - August 1977

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B.C.S.F. - HOW WE OPERATE)SOME BRIEF NOTES I

A. THE B.C.S-.F. EXECUTIVEBy-Law 9.l."Within the limits of th e member's pol icy dec is ions the affairsof the Federation shall be managed by the Executive committee."This a ll eRcompassingtask is taken on by nine students elected. a t the AnnualGeneral meeting in th e Fall , seven of whom are at-large, on a Treasurer and onea representat ive for B.C. to the National Union of Students (NUS) Central C o m m i t t e e ~The executive meets,approxilllately every three weeks. These meetings are open'to anyone interested and are held mn a weekend somewhere in the Lower' Mainland asa rule. A l i s t of .executive meetings l ist ing date time and place is usuallydrawn up two-three months in advance , The executive choses i t s 0WJ:1 Chairpersonand Deputy Chairp'iirs0J;1. The following is the . executive as it will stand unt i lthe October AGM. Gordon Bell-Chairperson- (Langara)Rob Lauer-Deputy Chairperson -(SFU) ,'... Punam Khosla-NUS aent:ral committee- (Capilano).Ron White-(Okanagan College-Vernon).Linda Morga'l)- (cNC-prince George).Barb AnsleY-Treasurer-(Langara)As \fell, B.C., is fortunate in that as a resl!llt: of the elections a t the last

NUS conference in charlottown, we have three National executive n\embers in the'province. Punam Khosla B.C. representative (Capilano)Rob Lauer- NUS: Treasurer (SFU)Ross powell-NUS President (SFU)B. THE B.C.S.F. STAFF

At the moment, th e BCSF is operating from an office donated by the Langarastudent Society. .. We currently have a fieldworker and a researcher as s taff .However, as a resul t of the most recent executive meeting, the position of' researcheris to be changed to that .lIlf information co-ordinator, in an attempt to deal withthe press ing problem of i n t e r ~ c o m m u n i c a t i o n .C. COMMITTEES

B.C.S.F. has slowly evolved, through decisions a t conferences, a system ofcotnmittees set up' ,to advise the executive and the membership on the developments,"etc. in different areas of priori ty.

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These have taken the form of lont-term issue committee I s of whiclJ.. (theoretically)there ,exists . Student Aid.Colleges. Universities. Women. and Labour, and practicalcOlMllittees of which there is on;LY one a t th e moment. the press commmittee.' TheC h a i r p e o p ~ e of these committee's a re e lect ed a t conferences and are charged withcalling meetings, ensuring re po rts to the executive happen, etc. The membershipis open to any and'all, s t u d ~ n t s interested. These committees work through as erie s of correspondence as. well as meetings between and a t conferences.' (BetweenconfereDoe meetlings have been hampered by a lack of funds .in the past) .


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Some brief notes Cont.Such c o m m ~ t t e e s are also. charged with developing policy and stratt9Y proposalsfor the executive and members to consider. This could entaD. the preparing ofwmrkshop papers and resourcing the workshops a t conferences./"

D. B.C.S.F. CONFERENCESBy-Law 2.1 "Notwithstanding any other prOV1S1ons of these by-laws . anAnnual. General. or Emergency Meeting of the member unions shall be the highestpolicy body of the Federation."B.C.S.F. conferences are held twice a year (unless an emergency conference

is necessary. in which case the execut ive could cal l one). Each member union has .. ,;.:one vote. Costs are worked out on the basis of a conference fee. which tloverssuch things as hotels. meals. duplicating. extra s taff . etc . , and a travel pOOl.A member union may send as many people as it wishes to a conference, but only twopeople designated as "delegates" take part in the t.ravel pool. This distinctionbetween delegates and observers is only made for the purposes of the tFavel pool,and thus the method.s oJ; casting votes is up to the. individual student unions. ie .some do i t by ~ a j o r i t y within the delegation. some with a,particular person giventhe responsibil i ty of casting the vote.The. conference is basically divided into two types of ,meetings: workshops andplenaries.For each workshop there is .a working paper prepared f the purposes of background on the parti(."Ular tcpic and update on recent developments, as well,as.aresource. person assigned by the executive to lead and promote discussion. Theexecutive assigns a chairperson to each- workshop . Everyone hl!-Iil the r ightto speak and propose motions in theselrisetings, be they delega tes . observers , orinterested persons. A'c anyone time a t a conference there can be as many asthree of these workshops happening simUltaneously on different tQpics. Thisformat gives delegates a chance to develop an underliltandin,g of an issue, debate

th e question. and formulate motions for the membership to consider in a smaller.slightly less '. ,formal setting than ple:naries provide.Each workshop begins by assigning i t se l f a secretary, who meets with thechairperson after th e workshop and prepares a workshop report. which is in turnbrought to the floor of the p lena ry . Subsequently. any m ~ i o n s arising from thereport, are debated and voted on by the membership and i f passed, become partof BCSF policy. .Plenaries a re meetings of the whole conference at.which fOrmal votes are takenand entered in BGSF records. The conference usually b e ~ i n s with an o p e ~ i n g plenary

a t which an executive repiDrt i s preseni;ed. the minutes of the previous conferencedealt with, agenda accepned , etc. If the conference in q11estion is the AnnualGeneral Meeting o f the Feder ation, it would be a t this time that a financialstatement would be put to the :eloor, and a draft budget presented. Usually, theseitems would be le f t on the floor unti l the f inal plenary a.t which timlf.they wouldbe dealt with. As well, nominations for executive positions would open. and theelection held in the final plenary.

In addition to the benefit gaini:;d by delegates to conferences in terms ofinformation gained through formal mee tings, conferences can afford insti tutionsthe opportUnity tOl\lleetlwi:l;h other student und.on .representatives and "cOOparenotes", A valuable exchange of experience takes .place which better equips studentrepresentatives in the :l::asJ;;s theY,face. I t is always a good idea, to send yourrepresentatives with examples of the type of activi t ies you have undertaken,Le, course evaluations. orientation handbooks , c=i t t ee structures. writing your, \ ........

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I 3 Some brief notes Cont.constitutioI)., 'rtUlUing social act ivi t ies etc. , as w!l!ll as instructions to seek outthe tyP!l! of i n f o ~ a t i o n which your council f!l!els it may need ' i n t h ~ fOl16wingmonths

Th!l! above .is only a short explanation of. how. : ~ operate. ,.;;J:f you f!l!el your!l!quire moreinfoJ;Jllation, the BCSF. cOllstitutiol"l can provide you with specificinfomation and regulations, and the millutes of past co!,ferences will give:youanidea of how they work. A more complete explanation o.f conferences will be comingto you in the pre'-conference mail-outs, and please do not hesi ta te . to phone orwrit!l! i n to the BCSF office a t La,ngara.

B.C. Student FederationC/O L a n g ~ r a Student societ:y100 W. 49th St. ,Vancouver, B.C.

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(604) 324-5349

british columbia student federation - how we operate - some brieft notes - august 1977

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