Salient. Official Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 41 No. 9. April 24 1978
SRC — The Money Motions
SRC
The Money Motions
Last week's SRC spent a fair amount of money — all of it yours. VUWSA's donations budget has been steadily depleted since the beginning of the year with the result that, before last week we had already spent 2/3 of it. This left us with less than $200 in the kitty and with motions coming up to donate $330 to various causes, there were a few concerned faces around.
The first request for money came from the Friends of Hunter who wanted $120 worth of association printing facilities and $100 of association cash. Some rather interesting facts came up in the course of this debate. The Friends of Hunter already have over $12,000 towards the cost of the feasibility study and $100 would not make a significant difference to this amount. As well, they have already collected about $360 in membership fees from individual students, who thereafter didn't hear anything more from them.
It was argued that although the association supports the Friends of Hunter, we could not afford to give half of our donations budget away to them, especially when, unlike many of the organisations which come to us for financial support, they have alternate sources of income; i.e. downtown businesses, private sponsors, members. Others argued that we shouldn't worry about the money and it was the principle of the thing, since after all, Hunter is on our doorstep. The latter won and the Friends of Hunter got their money.
Next up with their hands out were the unholy alliance of National Affairs Officer Sean Touhy and Young Socialists, who were organising a forum on Maori land. Their request was for $30 to cover the costs of Eva Rickard's travel to speak at the forum. Eva Rickard is the leader of the protesters at Raglan. Everyone agreed that the travel should be subsidised but there was some disagreement as to where the money should come from. With the donations budget down to less that $100, it was felt that it would be more sensible to take the money out of the National Affairs budget.
Touhy admitted that he hadn't done anything with his budget and still had $100 left in it. However he and the Young Socialists objected to this use of his budget, arguing that it might be needed later for a Big campaign. As was pointed out though, there was no reason why Maori land should not become a big campaign. An amendment was eventually moved and passed that the $30 come out of the National Affairs budget.
The final "money motion" was not considered by SRC as it came up at the end of the meeting, when there was no longer a quorum. (Lectures strike again). An informal meeting of VUWSA resolved to direct the Executive to find $200 towards the costs of the International Students' Congress Congress is held once a year and is attended by both overseas and New Zeal and Students. Last year's Congress was held at Vic and was attended by over 300 students — it was a roaring success.
As Victor Chang, the Overseas Students Officer pointed out, the overseas students don't ask for much from VUWSA. The money would be used to subsidise the costs of sending students to the Congress and since about 60 students will be going from Vic, it still wouldn't go very far. The meeting directed the Executive to find the money from somewhere other than the donations budget.
So how else did SRC spend your money? Well, a large portion of SRC was taken up with the election of delegates to May Council, the twice yearly NZUSA bun-fight where all the campuses get together (with lots and lots of delegates) and decide the NZUSA policy and action for the coming year.
This Council should be particularly juicy since NZUSA is in a bit of a crisis and many decisions on trying to resolve it will be made. Because of this, the choice of delegates was particularly important. An encouraging sign was that in these elections, unlike previous Council elections, there was a fair degree of contest for positions.
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Voting on another of Gerard Winter's tricks.
The uncontested positions were those of chief delegates, Finance and Administration, Women's and Accommodation. Elected to these positions (in respective order) were: Lindy Cassidy and Kevin Callinicos; Steve Underwood and Simon Wilson; Lamorna Rogers and Caroline Massof; Jim Brown. Standing for Education Commission were Sue Cairney, Patrick Mulrennan and Peter Beach, all of whom said much the same thing. The vote went to Sue Cairney and Peter Beach.
David Murray, Victor Chang and Mike Treen (who was absent) stood for International. Sean Touhy told the meeting that as Treen was their International Affairs Officer he should attend. This was met with criticism from many of those present who felt that it was wrong to suggest that SRC officers go to Council almost ex-officio. There was also an allegation that Treen was absent because he was in Auckland campaigning to stand for NZUSA Education Vice-President at May Council. The election finally went to David Murray and Victor Chang.
There were four candidates standing for National Commission (an almost unprecedented number): Sean Touhy, Jonathan Scott, John Hebenton and Paul Norman. Touhy felt it would be useful to his work (sic) at Vic to go to Council. Scott is a student who's been involved in various campaigns during his years at Vic. and is very concerned about Govt attacks on civil liberties; Paul Norman is Environmental Affairs Officer and right up forests, John Hebenton is inexperienced and wants wants to learn. Touhy and Scott were elected.
Other than that, not much else happened at SRC. Paul Norman, Sue Cairney and Andrew Tees all gave reports, with the last taking a few liberties moving motions which were quite irrelevant to his report and should have come up under General Business.
There were no minutes or agenda because the printing machine had broken down and this made the meeting a bit more informal than usual, which was quite pleasant. Lindy Cassidy reminded everybody that there is a bursaries march this Wednesday, 12 noon Hunter Lawn, so Be there!
One last point to do with money; Steve Connor reported that at the last Cultural Affairs Committee meeting, the following grants had been made: English Club ($295); Abortion Rights Club ($80); Creche Parents Club ($350); Te Reo Maori Club ($840); Radio Active ($290); Environmental Club ($400). So if you want to know what's happening in your Students Association (and I hope you do), come along to the next SRC.
Lamorna Rogers
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Julia Buchanan from Friends of Hunter: "The figures we gave the tax people, you fool."
Bursaries week kicked off last Monday with a poverty auction in the cafe. Gary Lewis was the first to fall for auctioneer John "just look at the texture" Bailey's rhetoric. He bid 50 c for a rock. A gaudy coloured woolen hat provided Bailey with the excuse for a fine adaptation of "Alas Horatio, I knew him well," followed by an offer of a deal for Burton Silver's capping graphic, raised by one packet of yellow zigzags and a box of matches and quickly overbid by the spurious amount of one dollar.
Then came an ancient radiogram which Bailey swore was in working order. "XJ6 model you know," he enthused. "It's not stereo, it's not quadraphonic, but it does go round and round in circles." And on it went, for 2½ hours. Lots of parkas, "a replica of a leather jacket", a top "worn by the phantom" (and bought by Andrew Tees), and a lot of scarves with colours no self-respecting rugby team would ever admit to. There were mysteries too. Who for example, was the guy in the corner who bought a purple crushed velvet skirt for a dollar?
(I feel that for the sake of Mr. Bailey's integrity, as the purchaser of the above-mentioned radiogram, it does work very well as Mr. Bailey promised, and it does go round and round in circles! — typstr)