Adelaide Student Politics

Posted: 26th of September

The first Clubs Association meeting of the new term was held on Tuesday the 15th of September.

Summary:

• AUU President Lavinia Emmett-Grey voiced concerns about the CA's new website.
• The AUES was taken off notice.
• After much brouhaha, the meeting decided that the Hawke Club Affiliation would be postponed to the next meeting.
• It was revealed that no progress had been made with the new CA constitution since the last meeting.

From the moment the meeting opened there were problems. All tabled documents for the meeting, including the agenda, minutes from the previous meeting and a draft CA constitution, had only been sent to clubs two days prior to the meeting*. As a result, few of the delegates present had read any of the material to be discussed at the meeting. CA President Matt Taylor and General Executive Member Ash Brook took responsibility for the documents not being sent out**, with Ash remarking: "The minutes [from the last meeting not being there] was us being slack."

The first point of contention in the meeting was the CA's new website. During his report, President Matt Taylor reported that the CA's new website, which had cost $2000 to set up, had been functional for one week before the servers went down and it was rendered nonoperational.

AUU President Lavinia Emmett-Grey voiced reservations about the CA's website, and the decision of the executive not to put in on the AUU's newly-upgraded one. Instead of spending $2000 on the current website (with further funds now required to fix it), Lavinia said that the CA could have a web presence on the AUU site, with the AUU footing the bill. Furthermore, Lavinia expressed concern at the way in which funding for the CA site was approved, describing as "dodgy" the fact that the $2000 dollars was spent by the executive without the approval of a CA meeting. While Matt Taylor claimed that the previous CA meeting (held on the 6th of May this year) had given the executive license to appropriate funds for the site, the minutes of that meeting contain nothing to suggest that was the case.

Next was the Vice President's Report. VP Peta Johannsen's report was concerned mainly with the ClubFest event that was held during the first week of semester. The meeting was provided with no written report, and nor was there any written summary of the financial details of the event. Peta, while claiming that on the whole ClubFest had been a success, conceded that there had been insufficient advertising for the event. "I think it only became clear on the day that it hadn't been advertised enough", she said.

The next item on the agenda was a motion to move the AUES (Engineering Society) off notice. They were originally put on notice following a series of incidents involving varying levels of harassment by some of their rank-and-file members. AUES Vice President Kevin Chan gave a rundown of the AUES's activities this year, as well as steps that have been taken to combat sexual harassment issues within the organization. The motion to take the AUES off notice was passed with no dissent.

The meeting now moved on to the headline issue of the evening. At the CA AGM of 30th of October 2008, the Bob Hawke Appreciation Society had its bid to be Provisionally Affiliated to the Clubs Association defeated in controversial circumstances, but was granted Provisional Associate Affiliation.

The next item written on the agenda was to grant the Hawke Club, previously the cause of much debate at the previous clubs AGM in 2008, Provisional Affiliation, but, after much confusion, Ash Brook corrected this, saying that the motion at was actually to make the Hawke Club Associate Affiliates.
With all these types of affiliates being described, Matt Taylor took a moment to explain:

• If a club wants to be affiliated to the CA, it must first apply for and receive Provisional Affiliation. This allows the club to receive grants, and get many of the other advantages of being an affiliated club.
• Once a club has been Provisionally Affiliated for 6 months, it can apply for Full Affiliation, which also comes with benefits from the CA.
• A club that is a Provisional Associate Affiliate or an Associate Affiliate is affiliated only in name, and receives no benefits from the CA.
Who knows which of the CAs many constitutions this is outlined in. More on that in a second.

Matt Taylor, noting the absence of anyone from the Hawke Club, specifically it's President Andrew Anson, proposed that the motion to make it an Associate Affiliate be postponed to the next CA meeting. This idea drew criticism from a number of delegates, especially Rhiannon Newman (Labor Club Delegate), Paris Dean (representing the Law Students Society) and Lavinia (AUU President), all of whom were instrumental in defeating the Provisional Affiliation of the Hawke Club last year (and are all part of the Labor Club executive). Paris put a motion stating that the Hawke Club may not apply for affiliation for six months, arguing in an impassioned speech that Anson (who was referred to as though he was synonymous with the Hawke Club) would simply not show up until the numbers would be more in his favour.

The debate primarily consisted of a back and forth between the Labor Club trio and the CA executive. Rhiannon pointed out that there was a precedent for discussing the affiliation of clubs without a representative present, citing the Provisional Affiliation of the Humanities Society at the last CA meeting. General Executive Member James Moffatt responded that, since this was not Provisional Affiliation, there was no precedent for this case. Furthermore, he pointed out, the Hawke club's affiliation was significantly more controversial than that of the Humanities Society, and as such it should be treated differently.

Lavinia then had some questions for Matt Taylor. As part of the conditions of the Hawke Club's Provisional Associate Affiliation, she pointed out, they were required to give reports on their activities and events every two months. Lavinia asked Matt why none of these reports had been made available. Matt, rather sheepishly, revealed that he had indeed received these reports, but they had been kept confidential at Andrew Anson's request.

The argument continued for about 15 minutes before Ash pointed out that, since the agenda had only been sent out two days before the meeting, it was possible that Anson (his name again used in lieu of the name of the club he heads) had not received official notification that the Affiliation would be considered at this meeting. While Lavinia, Paris and Rhiannon all declared that Andrew had known, and that his absence was a deliberate ploy, they conceded that the Hawke club had probably not received official notification, and, after a quarter of and hour of sound and fury, Paris' motion was withdrawn. Matt Taylor was asked by council to table all of the Hawke Club's bi-monthly reports at the next council meeting, and to ensure that they are officially notified that their affiliation will be on the agenda at that meeting.

Having spent a large amount of time dealing with the Hawke Club issue, the meeting demonstrated a surprising amount of efficiency and dealt with the next eight agenda items without any ado. The Spanish and Game Development clubs received provisional affiliation, and the Fringe, Role Playing and Games clubs were all made full affiliates. Three grants were quickly approved, including $494 for the EVAC (Video Games and Anime) Club to purchase a Playstation 3, which, according to the grant application, would be available for members to borrow.

Once all the grant applications had been dispensed with, AUES representatives inquired as to the progress of an application they had made earlier in the year for a $1000 grant to cover some of the cost of a lost cash box. The executive revealed that the application had been lost, and council gave them the authority to give the money in the break before the next meeting.

At this point, President Matt Taylor left the meeting, citing a need to study for an honours presentation. Soon after his exit, a number of delegates also left, meaning the meeting no longer had quorum.

The final issue of the evening came with the proposed new CA Constitution. Originally drafted by and presented to the previous Clubs Council two months ago by James Moffatt, it was presented almost unchanged to the Council a second time. James apologized, became the latest executive member to "take full responsibility" for not getting something done and outlined a plan to draft and pass a new constitution by mid October.

Without quorum and rapidly losing delegates, the meeting moved on to any other business. The final motion of the evening was to order pizza from a different place for the next meeting. With that pivotal issue dispensed with, the meeting was closed.