The Feds General Meeting (GM) happens twice a year to provide public oversight and give students a chance to make decisions about the direction of Feds. The second GM for the current executive team will be taking place Thursday March 28, at 12:30 PM in the SLC Multi-Purpose Room. All full-time and part-time undergraduate students have the right to participate and vote at this general meeting.
Two of the main items on the agenda which are up for vote is the approval of a refined set of By-Laws as well as an “increase” to the Feds student fee.
The By-Law changes do not impact the spirit of the items in the By-Laws, but rather clean them up to make them clearer, more concise, and to remove contradictories. This is a very similar process which took place this past year with the Engineering Society governance documents. The By-Laws have already been endorsed by Executive and Feds Council, so it is expected this topic will pass without issue.
The second main topic is a proposed Feds fee “increase”. The reason for this stems from the new contract Feds signed with the university to take over the management of the SLC. The costs of operating the Turnkey Desk in the SLC is currently covered through a fee which the University collects on behalf of Feds. This fee of $2.45 per student comes out of the Student Services Ancillary Fee we pay and is transferred to Feds. Now that Feds has full control of the SLC, the University has cancelled the collection of this fee. As a result, Feds now needs to collect the fee from students. Our Feds fee will be increasing by $2.45, while the ancillary fee will be decreased by the same amount. This does not change the amount of money we pay.
On top of this $2.45, Feds is proposing an additional $0.50 increase per student totalling $2.95. This $0.50 increase will be used to pay for additional staff in the accounting department to help cover the new workload generated by taking over the finances of the SLC. It will also be used to pay for a full time staff member under the VP Education who will focus on advocacy within the University and in the City of Waterloo.
On top of these two items, Feds will also be going through the standard items of the meeting including ratifying the newly elected executive as officers of Feds and electing the Board of Directors for the upcoming year.
It is highly encouraged to attend to accurately voice the opinions of the engineering student body. If you arrive on time at 12:30 PM, your name will also be put into a draw for a BlackBerry PlayBook!
Further information about the meeting including the agenda and proposed motions will be available on the Feds website at feds.ca/about-us/general-meetings/.
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