The meeting commenced at 6 PM MT on December 15th, 2022, with the usual land acknowledgment. President Fletcher called attendance, noting that VP External and Indigenous Circle Representative (VPEX & IC Rep) Trishtina Godoy-Contois was absent. The previous meeting minutes were passed without changes; the agenda was passed with a friendly amendment from Councillor Cilhane Ahmed, correcting the name of policy 2.22 to Alternative Dispute Resolution as it was incorrectly listed as Informal Dispute Resolution.
Work in Progress
President Fletcher provided updates on the action items. During an informal session, which took place before this meeting, Council was able to provide a solution to a concern previously brought up during the budget discussions in September. Some councillors questioned whether it was the best use of funds to hold retreats in person as councillors who are part of an online organization that represent an online institution and live all across Canada. There were also accessibility concerns. President Fletcher proposed for their two-day executive retreat, they hold one day of the retreat online and the other day in person in February when the executive committee will already be meeting for a provincial conference which would reduce travel costs.
Award Applications
Council has been working on updating the award application policies to ensure students’ adequate access. Students can now use all social media platforms to apply for the “IGo2 AU” award rather than just YouTube. Due to a website malfunction, some students missed the deadline. Recognizing this needed rectification, Council changed the timeline so applications could be accepted within policy. Vice President of Finance and Administration (VPFA), Dur-E-Najaf Syed said, “There was a really good conversation happening on the side about how the policy says no more than six weeks, to better reflect that it is only open for a month before.” President Fletcher suggested that the dates be changed from April 15th to May 30th because some students do traditional semesters with summer or alternative semester structures; this allows all students to apply as you need to be in a course to be considered an AUSU member. Fletcher added this allows councillors more time to make the decision and for new councillors to take EDI training before making the decision.
Councillor Amber McDuffe motioned that this item is tabled until the next meeting to allow time for VPFA Syed to work on these amendments, which was met with no objections.
Coming Soon: Student Price Card
Council has been working on an exciting new partnership with Student Price Card (SPC), a company that sells membership cards for students to receive discounts at retailers across Canada. AUSU would promote SPC to students, and for each card purchased by AU students, AUSU will receive a $2 kickback, which Executive Director Jodi Campbell explained would be used to fund student services such as the food bank. Councillor Cilhane Ahmed and Councillor Amber McDuffe voiced concerns with the card’s price not being discounted for students, and that students receive no benefits from the partnership while SPC essentially receives advertising at a low cost, and, if AUSU will be receiving a $2 kickback, it should be formally decided how those funds will be used.
Councillors agreed that they would prefer to see students receive a discount than for the money to come to AUSU. One hurdle in negotiating a discount is that the AUSU website does not have a Point of Sale (POS) system, so they are not able to sell the card on their website explained President Fletcher, however, Executive Director Campbell explained he still sees value in this partnership “I think one of the motivating factors for us is this is still providing AU students with the opportunity for a discount. I think the goal and the intention behind this were to find an opportunity that is Canada-wide, that is accessible – you are absolutely right, Karen, that one of the challenges we did face is the fact that we don’t have a point of sale – so we needed to find a creative solution within SPC so that we could link over to their site and use their point of sale, and that is what we have been able to create with them. So, yea, the intention was to really look at creating a really cool opportunity where we could promote this to AU students.”
Other concerns continued to be discussed, such as AU’s unorthodox student IDs that have validity date stickers that could be questioned (as you often need to show a valid student ID to use an SPC card), and Councillor McDuffe brought forth concerns about SPC membership only being offered in an app, no longer providing a physical card which could be an issue for accessibility. President Fletcher recognized all these concerns but felt that AU students, especially since our students are not always the “typical student,” often miss out on these opportunities because they simply are unaware “I don’t think it’s a perfect service, but honestly I wish more students knew about it so they could make their own informed choice, and I have thoughts about how they could make it better or more inclusive, but sometimes I think it’s a little bit like low hanging fruit, like I’d hate for students to be ‘oh I wish I had known about that.’” After a great deal of lengthy discussion, Council agreed that Executive Director Campbell would go back to SPC and discuss options for membership besides an app and having a $2 discount go directly to the students rather than a kickback to AUSU.
More Policies
There were also changes to policies regarding member representatives on AUSU committees, the most substantial change regarding membership status. Initially, member representatives on AUSU committees had to maintain their AUSU membership, which is active as long as a student is enrolled in a course at AU. As course contracts end, however, many students take a break before enrolling in courses again, resulting in students’ AUSU membership ending; the policy was changed to say that members must be enrolled at the time of their appointment, to prevent issues for members already on AUSU committers. Additionally, Council updated the language to ensure that the executive committee recommends a sufficient number of applicants for committees, ensuring that if permitted, Executive Committee (EC) recommends three applicants per vacancy. The motions passed unanimously.
In August 2022, Council started work on a policy to provide an alternative path of resolution for interpersonal disputes in the conflict resolution policy. This policy, which is based on Alberta law, allows both parties either to seek a mediator or to find an internal mediator but doesn’t allow for arbitration. If both parties agree, it allows them to explore other avenues for resolving their dispute, but at no point does it deny their right to refer to another policy. Council discussed aspects of this policy, such as adding that prior to seeking external mediation, they have to attempt in-house mediation. It was agreed to table this item to be reworked and presented again.
By-Election
President Fletcher announced there would be a by-election to fill the two remaining councillor positions, which were not filled in the last election. Councillor McDuffe inquired about an accessibility officer, referencing that there was an issue with a student who was interested in running for student council last year; the student was advised to wait to enrol by AU accessibility services to get better accessibility benefits; this resulted in the student not being able to run for Council. Currently, Executive Director Campbell Campbell would be acting as the Accessibility Officer; Vice President Community and Wellness Natalia Iwanek offered the idea of hiring a Chief Returning Officer (CRO) with a background in accessibility. Governance and Advocacy Coordinator Duncan Wojtaszek reminded Council that a decision would need to be made soon as he is hiring and onboarding the CRO soon, as he will need to inform them if an Accessibility Officer can overrule them.
President Fletcher rounded out the meeting with an update on the advocacy meeting VPEX & IC Rep Godoy-Contois and herself attended, where they were able to meet with the Deputy Minister of Indigenous Services Canada. Fletcher and Godoy-Contois also worked with AU to reach out to indigenous students to secure some Indigenous Circle applicants.
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