Meeting highlights
PRESENT
Francisco Hernandez (Chair), Zac Gawn, Pippa Benson, Keir Russell, Jordan Taylor Gianna Leoni, Lucy Gaudin, Kamil Saifuddin and Ruby Sycamore-Smith
IN ATTENDANCE
Neill Ballantyne (Queer Support Coordinator), Darel Hall (General Manager), Sam McChesney (Critic Reporter) and Donna Jones (Minute Secretary)
APOLOGIES
Blake Luff
Ruby Sycamore-Smith for lateness
Gaudin/Leoni
292/13 THAT the above apologies be accepted
CARRIED
MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING
Gaudin/Gawn
293/13 THAT the minutes of the executive meeting held on 9 July 2013 be accepted as a true and correct record.
CARRIED
MATTERS ARISING
University Relay for Life - Darel noted that the university relay for life has been included as a project under Exec Campaigns for 2014 with a $100 nominal budget as the advice from Katy Atkinson is that the Cancer Society will cover any costs from the relay.
OUSA Survey - Darel noted a useful discussion with Keir Russell regarding the OUSA survey.
SPEAKING RIGHTS
Moved from the Chair
294/13 THAT Darel Hall, Neill Ballantyne and Donna Jones be granted speaking rights for the duration of this meeting.
CARRIED
OUSA QUEER SUPPORT DUNEDIN DIVERSITY FUNDING PROPOSAL
Neill addressed the meeting to explain the purpose of the funding request as attached.
They hope to hold an event which provides a platform for queer communities to engage, connect with and provide training to people who work in the community sector. It will bring a wide range of people in a community environment in order to discuss sexuality, sex and gender diversity. Also a chance to create a strategy to make Dunedin a more Queer friendly city.
It is proposed to hold a workshop which involves keynote presentation, breakout working sessions and whole group discussions.
They have also applied for other funding but this will take months before they know if their applications are successful or not.
Russell/Gaudin
295/13 THAT OUSA allocate $400 towards the Dunedin Diversity Hui to come from the Queer rep budget line.
CARRIED
Ruby arrived at 5.35pm
STUDENT HOUSING INSULATION SCHEME
As attached, the idea is to outline a proposal to put together a student-focused campaign to promote the council's "Warm up Dunedin" pilot insulation scheme. The DCC/OUSA Memorandum of Understanding is keen to push this scheme out to students.
The Administrative Vice President has this under his portfolio. He offered to set up a working group to follow through on this. There is also a housing line in the Welfare budget.
A staff member and Fran have been discussing this and both are keen to work together on this.
Darel noted that a tidy up on process was needed. The formal accountability process of the Executive as dictated by the Executive's Delegation Policy and structure of the employment relationships requires all new requests for staff action, ie those not mandated by the executive's Business Plan, go through the General Manager. Darel noted this was rarely an issue, primarily where workloads were concerned or budget allocations, and Exec members should just check in if in doubt.
Gawn/Russell
296/13 THAT OUSA allocate $1000 towards a student-focused promotion of the Warm up Dunedin Pilot Project to come from the Welfare Budget line.
CARRIED
SLA - PWC ENGAGEMENT PROCEDURES REPORT
As attached, the purpose of this report was to assure the students, the university and the public on the OUSA's accountability for SLA monies received for the year ended 31 December 2012.
This report was audited by PWC. This included matching all operational expenditure, work in progress, capex, depreciation and overhead allocations to Ministerial directed funding categories.
Darel elaborated on the main points of this report. He highlighted some of the figures on the SLA Expenditure Schedule including Executive underspends in several areas, Events doing better than expected, communications underspends and a little in the student support area. The major underspend was in the Recreation Service.
This analysis shows an under-spend of $535,200. This was primarily due to "no builders" to get our renovation works started.
The longer explanation is a combination of health and safety works being uncovered, a longer scoping piece of work, problems getting consents with new changes in the Building Act, and the need to bundle work to a size worthy of attracting competitive tenders meant that significant work did not start until 2013.
Darel explained these funds needs to be seen as a contingent liability in that funds have been received to be specifically allocated to work that will take place, just in a different accounting time period ie 2013 rather than 2012.
More work will be done during the budget process although a first approximation of known and normal commitments shows an expected asset spend of approaching $1 million on 2013 and $1.5 million in 2014.
The current expectation then is that should nothing change the OUSA should spend far in excess of SLA income on SLA commitments, with initial approximations in the $150,000 - $500,000 range.
Budget work over the next few weeks will refine that figure.
Te Roopu Maori will give more formal reporting in future as suggested by PWC
Darel asked the Executive if this was clear to all and invited questions.
Gaudin/Leoni
297/13 THAT the Engagement Procedures Report - Service Level Agreement (SLA) provided by PricewaterHouse Coopers dated 9 July 2013 be received.
CARRIED
2014 DRAFT SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT BUDGET
Sycamore-Smith/Leoni
298/13 THAT the meeting move into Committee of the Whole for reasons of Commercial sensitivity at 5.50pm.
CARRIED
Zac out at 6.04pm
Zac returned at 6.05pm
Fran out at 6.14pm
Fran returned at 6.15pm
Gianna left at 6.31pm
Gianna returned at 6.33pm
Sycamore-Smith/Gawn
299/13 THAT the meeting move out of Committee of the Whole at 6.43pm.
CARRIED
It was noted that the Executive were comfortable with this budget and offered their thanks to Darel Hall for an excellent job.
This will now be presented to the Director of Student Services later this week in time for Darel's meeting with him on Friday.
OUSA/OUPS AGREEMENT AMENDMENT
As attached memo requests Keir would like to re-arrange the payment method to six monthly payments in the future to enable the OUPS to have a better cash flow as many members are waiting to be reimbursed for monies they have spent in advance. Darel will organise this.
OUSA/OUPS EVENT FUNDING REQUEST
As attached, a Student Support Centre staff member and Keir Russell have been in discussion with OUPS about providing a joint event for postgraduate students to share information, have a social gathering and highlight what services the SSC and OUSA can offer postgraduate students. This information will be shared with two MP's, David Clarke and Metiria Turei who have arranged a meeting later on.
Russell/Leoni
300/13 THAT OUSA allocate $1500 to run a large social event for postgraduate students, half split ($750 each) from the postgraduate and campaigns budget lines.
CARRIED
SUPERVISORS AWARDS 2013 FUNDING REQUEST
Keir informed the meeting he was about to spend $1500 from the postgraduate budget line to provide prizes and certificates for the 2013 Supervisors awards coming up,
RETURNING OFFICER'S REPORT FOR REFERENDUM
The Secretary addressed the meeting asking if there were any questions about the attached report. There were two complaints and the Returning Officer had dealt with them.
Sycamore-Smith/Gawn
301/13 THAT the Returning Officer's report for the May Referendum be received.
CARRIED
Sycamore-Smith/Gawn
302/13 THAT Sam McChesney be granted speaking rights for the duration of this meeting.
CARRIED
Sam wished to have it clarified if Critic were to assist with filming the forums as stated in the report as he knew nothing of this. The Secretary informed him that it was discussed that between Radio One, Events and Critic this would be done.
EXTERNAL PROVIDER ENGAGEMENT DRAFT COSTINGS
As attached, this was discussed earlier with the SLA budget.
FREE STUDENT BREAKFASTS
As attached, Fran is keen to see the free breakfasts continue for students. The only change is that they be in the Recreation Centre now and not the Student Support Centre. A staff member would appointed to look after them.
It was said that a regular 20 students have turned up in the past.
Sycamore-Smith/Gaudin
303/13 THAT OUSA allocate $2,600 for the free student breakfasts for the rest of semester two to come from the campaigns and welfare lines.
Gawn: Against
CARRIED
OUSA AQUATIC CENTRE BUILDING AND FACILITY MAINTENANCE REVIEW
As distributed this report is a review of the maintenance issues at the Centre, it contains a summary of the condition of the interior and exterior of each space within the building. It was noted that this report is not a Building Act compliance review and is based solely on a visual inspection; no invasive testing has been carried out. It was noted the building is generally in good condition, but certain areas of the exterior are showing the effects of prolonged exposure to salt air and sea spray.
Russell/Saifuddin
304/13 THAT the OUSA Executive approves the 10 year Property Plan Maintenance Review on the OUSA Aquatic Centre.
CARRIED
FINANCE AND EXPENDITURE COMMITTEE MINUTES
Gaudin/Benson
305/13 THAT the meeting move into Committee of the Whole for reasons of commercial sensitivity at 7.19pm
CARRIED
Gaudin/Sycamore-Smith
306/13 THAT the meeting move out of Committee of the Whole at 7.24pm
CARRIED
Gaudin/Sycamore-Smith
307/13 THAT OUSA approves the capital expenditure of $6500 to purchase eight new marquees.
CARRIED
GENERAL BUSINESS
Gold's Panel appointments - At a previous Executive Meeting the Blues Panel were appointed.
Gaudin/Sycamore-Smith
308/13 THAT James Grubb, George McLenaghen, Lorraine Isaacs, Lisa Wilkinson, Francisco Hernandez and Blake Luff be appointed to the Golds Panel for 2013.
CARRIED
$3 Dinners - a document was distributed regarding the provisions of these $3 dinners. It was decided to table this until the next meeting as it hasn't been read.
Potential Conflict of Interest - Francisco Hernandez wished to declare a potential conflict of interest and said he will not be taking part in any financial or strategic discussions about the up and coming Local Body Elections.
International Food Festival - Kamil wished to acknowledge the help from the Events team, Lucy, Pippa, Zac, Fran and Blake at the very successful International Food Festival held last Saturday evening.
A loud applause was heard congratulating Kamil for his hard work and a job well done in helping organise this large popular event.
Next Executive Meeting - Friday 19 July 2013 at 4pm in the Otago Room.
Meeting closed 7.34pm