Constitutional changes dominated ANUSA’s fourth ordinary general meeting, with significant changes brought to the College Representative Committee, and other smaller changes to the Club’s Council funding procedures.
The changes to the College Representative Committee (CRC), which is comprised of the College Representatives, General Representatives and Education Officer, come after a year of discussion about the role of the CRC in the ANUSA structure.
The constitutional changes officially bring the CRC under the ambit of the ANUSA SRC. The change will allow for the CRC to provide recommendations, and issue specific advice on related topics and issues.
The ANUSA president, James Connolly, said, ‘A more focused body would be more supportive for college representatives. Representatives haven’t felt supported and it’s important that we have a body going forward that supports them.’
The move follows several resignations of college representatives throughout the year.
The group will, as a result, become more informal and allow for more effective discussion-based meetings. One member at the OGM suggested at the beginning of the year the meeting would go for several hours, and then the work would get done once it ended.
However a concern for many, both prior to instituting and when voting in the change, was that the subordinating of the CRC would result in longer SRC meetings. Meetings regularly run over three hours, with the first of the year not concluding until well after 10pm.
The change means that the SRC would have final say and could debate CRC resolutions, and would receive submitted CRC minutes.
Further motions added to the constitution the role of affiliations officer and communications officer, to make the existing CRC executive roles more manageable.
Another allowed for a specific grant for clubs in financial difficulty. The motion attracted heated debate, with some concerned that the grant would provide incentive for clubs to get into financial difficulty. However others suggested the requirement of super majorities in both the Clubs Council and ANUSA to attain the grant would deter any malicious action.
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