The Student Travel Bureau

The Student Travel Bureau (STB) is a travel company wholly owned by NZUSA, and although it has its own Board of Directors, much time is spent in National Executive meetings discussing STB.

In this meeting, the discussions over STB covered three main topics. Firstly there was a question of $168 debt that NZUSA had to STB. While this is a minor enough debt, and resolved in the course of the meeting, one interesting point which did emerge was that STB was witholding a debt of around $2000 it owed NZUSA until the $168 [unclear: debt t] was paid. This is apparently not an isolated case and it shows an interesting attitude on the part of STB towards its owners.

The next item which came up for discussion was a debt that NZUSA owes AUSTS (the travel company of the Australian Union of Students). The proposal was that STB would assume liability for this debt, and would repay it from the $2 surcharge on the International Student identity Cards (ISICs). This surcharge was placed on the ISICs by the International Student Travel Committee (IS (ISTC) last last year in order for STB to repay a debt of some $60,000 owed to AUSTS. The reason for transferring the debt was simply that there was no way NZUSA could have repaid it while STB could easily do so out of the surcharge. When the debt is payed off completely the $2 surcharge will be removed and the price of the cards will revert to its original $3.

For some reason Tony Stuart was unhappy about this proposal. He thought that STB might call in the debt from NZUSA. Stephen Underwood (one-time Treasurer of VUWSA and on the Board to STB) replied that he thought this unlikely. In view of the fact that NZUSA could sack the Board if they tried such a manoevre tends to support Underwood's view. But Stuart was allowed to ramble on unchecked. In part his opposition to the proposal was due to the fact that it tied NZUSA to supporting the ISIC card, rather than trying to introduce the alternative travel card which UCSA has been lobbying for over the past few months.

The benefits of such a move are unclear to everyone but UCSA, who are wisely keeping the tremendous advantages that this proposal would bring to themselves. As Rod Carr from OUSA said in an earlier meeting when Canterbury brought up their proposal, "what they are trying to do is pull STB apart and put it together using an alternative travel card and somehow losing $100,000 worth of debts in the process". Not surprisingly Canterbury have not found a great deal of support for the proposal.

Some of the constituent presidents seemed to be getting a little annoyed with Stuart's ramblings. In part this is due to Canterbury's refusal to honour the guarantees of STB's debts as they promised at August Council 1978. These guarantees (totalling $125,000) which provide surety against STB over-draft, an overdraft which is necessary if STB is to trade its way out of its debts. Gourlie asked rather pointedly how UCSA could even discuss the matter of taking over the debt by STB when they refused to provide the guarantees needed by STB if it was going to indeed trade its way into a profitable position.

The third bit of financial business discussed was a hopelessly proctracted discussion over the sharing of costs of the office (which NZUSA and STB share). It took about half an hour before the meeting realised that STB had not refused to pay the sum NZUSA had claimed from it, but was merely disputing it. As only Dianne Short among the NZUSA contingent, seemed to have the slightest idea about what was going on, it was finally agreed to form another of NZUSA's famous sub-committees to look into it. It was certainly apparent from the contusion in the minds of those present that if the National Executive as a whole tried to resolve the question the meeting would still be going on now. So ended the first day.

Although it was intended that the second day be wholly given over to dialogue with the UGC, the amount of unfinished business (which included at that time a discussion of the submissions themselves) the National Executive continued its deliberations in the morning (as the meeting with the UGC was not until the afternoon).