ANUSA held its first Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) this week. This meeting covered ANUSA’s approach to budgets in 2022, including changes to SSAF, rollover expenditure and constitutional changes regarding club regulations.
Officer Reports
In this OGM, Treasurer Jaya Ryan gave the Treasurer’s Report, covering spending across the ANUSA budget. Notably, O-Week expenditure was under budget by $4,709 after updated expenditure recording.
More money was spent on student assistance grants than expected, with students claiming more grants due to recent events such as flooding and the COVID-19 outbreak. The Treasurer also noted the beginning of a wage theft on campus survey for students to complete.
Motions
Following reports, the first motion passed was moved by the Treasurer to approve the 2022 Budget. Ryan flagged a new approach to SSAF distribution by the ANU, with roughly $600,000 withheld, to be distributed mid-year.
The Treasurer noted that this money appeared reserved for ANUSA as in previous years, but also stated that action would be taken by the association if this did not eventuate.
Another notable change is the dissolution of rollover funds, with any unspent funds allocated to ANUSA being sent back to the university. As a result, some funds in the budget have been redistributed, for example to cover the increase in student assistance grants.
Ryan declared an intent to pass budgets at most OGMs with money being redistributed frequently throughout the year. There was also a guarantee of no cuts to the General Representative or College Representative funding pools.
The General Secretary moved the second motion, to create a constitutional provision that Clubs be governed by a set of Clubs Regulations. Importantly, these changes allow Clubs to alter the regulations that govern them without requiring the formal constitutional change process.
Speaking for the motion, Clubs Officer Phoenix O’Neill highlighted the significant changes proposed which would allow for more flexibility in a Clubs system that often faces criticism for its lack of adaptability. This motion also passed.
ANUSA’s first OGM sets the scene for a year focused on financial accountability and systematic reform.
We acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, who are the Traditional Custodians of the land on which Woroni, Woroni Radio and Woroni TV are created, edited, published, printed and distributed. We pay our respects to Elders past and present. We acknowledge that the name Woroni was taken from the Wadi Wadi Nation without permission, and we are striving to do better for future reconciliation.