Salient. Official Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 44 No. 9. May 4 1981

Comparison with other Proposals

Comparison with other Proposals

While this may all seem somewhat confusing, we can summarise by saying the Rennie Proposal represented a total cost of approximately $116,000 — $66,000 from NZUSA (again, more of this later), and $50,000 from whoever the shareholders may be (worth noting this is not necessarily all student money).

Compared with the estimated costs of $160,000 for injecting new share capital, and at least $200,000 to wind up STB (both discussed in the article above) — the Rennie Proposal is clearly the cheapest. This fact prompted STB chairman Steve Underwood to dub it "The Woolworth's Proposal".

Photo of the meeting of the Student Travel Bureau

The scene at Sunday's meeting.

Photo of Phil Chronican, Stephen Underwood, David Cuthbert

The STB Board of Directors, from left: Phil Chronican, Stephen Underwood, David Cuthbert.

But not only is it the cheapest, Victoria's proposal would mean that any student shareholders in the new STB would have their money in a company with real value. In addition, the venture would hopefully mean the elimination of all debts after a five year period.

While all this sounds rather sweet, Rennie was very careful to point out the assumptions upon which this proposal was based. The primary one is that the new STB will trade at least at a breakeven point. We must first be convinced that students will continue to suppport STB; otherwise the proposal becomes, said Rennie, "a recipe for further loss." If, for example, Victoria buys shares in the new STB and it trades un-profitably, we will be worse off under this approach than any other.