‘Distance makes the heart grow fonder,’ the old adage goes. After three weeks apart, the UVSS Board of Directors conveyed in the Upper SUB Boardroom on July 9 to discuss the latest happenings on campus.
The board had plenty to discuss at their first meeting back, including finding answers to the $23 000 deficit in the 2017/18 elections budget that was discovered in June.
To start the meeting, Director of Outreach & University Relations Pierre-Paul Angelblazer announced Karina Dhillon as the new representative to the recently re-branded UVSS Feminist Collective (formerly known as Third Space).
Karina Dillon will be ratified as the UVSS Feminist Collective (formerly known as Third Space) representative to the 2018/19 BoD. It passes unanimously.
— The Martlet (@TheMartlet) July 10, 2018
Switching gears to executive reports, Director of Finance & Operations Curtis Whittla informed the board that all income statements from the previous year have been accumulated and the society as a whole had a $14 000 surplus after the numbers were crunched.
The society as a whole has a $14 000 surplus, more than what was budgeted for. Also, mentions there will be a full audit completed in a month or two.
— The Martlet (@TheMartlet) July 10, 2018
Director-at-Large Tyler Arnold then took centre stage with a pressing motion pertaining to the elections budget.
Unveiled by Whittla during the last board meeting on June 18, the 2017/18 election budget ran $23 000 over their allocated budget of $26 327.
Whittla says the last election was $23,000 over budget. He says they are goingg to look at individual transactions, Whittla has a suspiction it wasn't as budgeted as well as it could have been. Will look back when they have numbers from the entire year.
— The Martlet (@TheMartlet) June 19, 2018
At the time, Whittla prefaced the statement by saying the UVSS as a whole was still under budget as of March 31, but that he couldn’t pinpoint an exact reason why the board overspent this year.
Whittla previously speculated in an interview with the Martlet that the elections budget may not have taken into consideration both the Fall referenda and Spring elections, and that the deficit was partly the result of the absence of an accounting manager for the first few months of 2018.
Fast forward to the July 9 board meeting, where Whittla cited labour costs (particularly those of Chief Electoral Officer Karen Potts) and advertising costs as the main explanations for the over-expenditure.
While Advertising Costs was also significantly over budget, 4,134 from a budget of 2,775, a 149% jump
— The Martlet (@TheMartlet) July 10, 2018
In his motion, Arnold, who is also the chair of the Electoral Committee, said the committee will recommend changes to the operational procedures and report back to the board on the status of the changes before the next electoral event.
With some discussion on the motion, it passes.
— The Martlet (@TheMartlet) July 10, 2018
Next, Whittla announced three consecutive motions that would see the board transfer money from other funds to cover operational costs from the 2017/18 board term.
Next Whittla previews the next motions which describes how the board can transfer fund from other sources including Government Relations and Outreach Fund and Election Fund to cover costs relating to campaigns in the 2017/18 Board Term, and other special events.
— The Martlet (@TheMartlet) July 10, 2018
A total of $41 000 was moved from the Government Relations and Outreach fund ($12 000), the Elections fund ($24 000), and Special Events Trust ($5 000) to cover the costs.
Both motions pass.
— The Martlet (@TheMartlet) July 10, 2018
Finally, the board concluded the meeting by clarifying language in student appeals regarding the Health and Dental Plan.
Included in the new motion – Appeals will be granted to members that have not yet accessed the UVSS Health and Dental Plan provide proof of alternate coverage for both/either extended health and extended dental insurance, along with fulfilling atlas on of the other criteria below pic.twitter.com/r3OQhHo0oh
— The Martlet (@TheMartlet) July 10, 2018
Students will now be required to provide proof of alternate coverage and satisfy one other requirement as outlined by the board to appeal.
Next there is another motion to address specific language in Appeals language, the motions talks about now assessing appeals within 30 days of submission during the semester in which few are assessed, and not consider appeals made after the last day of classes for that semester
— The Martlet (@TheMartlet) July 10, 2018
The next board meeting is scheduled for July 30 at 6:00 p.m. in the Upper SUB Boardroom.
A previous version of this article incorrectly referred to UVSS spending as a “deficit.” The error has been corrected and replaced with “operational costs.” We regret the mistake.
