Way back in June the UVSS board created the Organizational Renewal committee. This temporary committee has had the mandate to investigate restructuring the UVSS board so that it can better serve members. The last time the board underwent a major structural change was 1996.
After months of meetings the committee has come up with proposed changes to the structure of the UVSS executive. Instead of the current four executives, there will be five positions.
Director at Large Jenn Bowie has created a Facebook event to receive feedback on the proposed changes. I encourage readers to give read up on the new structure and give feedback as changes can still be made.
A few days ago Chairperson James Coccola also posted the proposed changes. Fellow blogger Rich of What does it for me raises some very good questions that have yet to be answered. At this point it is unclear how Executive compensation will be affected and whether the number of Directors At Large will be reduced as a result of this.
One question I am left with after seeing this proposal is "Is the work of the Organizational Renewal committee done now?" Addressing the structure of the UVSS Executive is a good start, however, considering changes to the At Large positions could also be beneficial.
Before any of these changes to board structure can go into effect, Bylaw changes must be approved at a General Meeting. To have this new structure go into effort for the 2011-2012 board term a Special General Meeting will be required in late January.
Special General Meetings are fairly rare in the UVSS as only one has occurred in the past decade. It will be interesting to see if enough students can be convinced to come out to the meeting to achieve quorum since board structure isn't exactly a topic that tends to get students interested enough to attend a General Meeting.
Hey Andrew,
ReplyDeleteOn the issue of compensation, we will be deciding that on the first week back to classes. We simply didn't have time leading up to the end of exams.
The size of the board would be expanded to 21 and there would be no changes to the DALs. I'm not saying that there shouldn't be changes but for this specific amendment we are only looking at the executives.
I would like to see the committee explore a few other things before the end of the year, so yes, we will be continuing.
Thanks for reporting on this Andrew.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first heard of the Oragnizational Renwal Committee, my hunch was that it would be a waste of time and money, and that it would recommend wasting more time and money. Lo and behold, that has proven to be the case. Hire more people and spend more money - that's what they've come up with.
I will be voting against creating a new exec position and spending more scarce student dollars.
You're jumping to a conclusion, Anonymous.
ReplyDeleteThe OR Committee is still determining how Executive compensation will be affected as a result of the proposal.
It is also possible that Resource Coordinator (who makes a much higher wage than the Executives) will be working fewer hours as a result of these changes.
It is possible that the proposed changes won't result in a cost increase.