The 11 March VUWSA Exec meeting was composed of two main blocks: quarterly reviews and NWRO (New Zealand Union of Student Association Women’s Rights Officer) applications. Essentially, the Exec had to assess a lot of self-advocacy.
Quarterly reviews permit the Exec to hold itself accountable for its election promises mid-way through a scholastic year. Moreover, they’re an opportunity for Exec members to earn up to $200 (gross) in bonus salary—not including the President and VPs, who are not eligible for bonus payment. During this meeting, the Exec was scrutinising performances during the summer period of 2009.
In practice, the pay grade equates to: $200 for exceptional performance, $150 for impressive performance, and $100 for an adequate performance that requires some improvement. This round, no bonus request fetched less than $100, though a final decision on 2008 International Officer William Wu’s application was delayed so the application could be improved on and resubmitted.
The review process goes thusly: each Exec member submits a bonus application articulating their main goals; the key performance indicators for those goals; a personal assessment of how much progress has been made on those performance indicators; and a list of other VUWSA officials who share responsibility for a given goal.
Each bonus applicant has their document reviewed in then is given the choice of remaining or leaving the Exec meeting room while deliberations take place (everyone opted to leave). After five minutes or so of discussion, a number is decided on, usually unanimously.
At the end of the Exec meeting, the bonus applications for the summer period of 2009 stood at:
William Wu, 2008 International Officer – Extended until 12pm Monday 16 (Unanimous except for Campaigns Officer Sam Oldham’s abstention);
Seamus Brady, Vice-President (Welfare) – 185 (Unanimous); Rob Latimer, Education Officer (Welfare) – 125 (four against – 100 for); Georgina Dickson, 2008 Women’s Rights Officer – 100 (U); Nathan Cooper, Queer Officer – 200 (U); Tim Wang, Education Officer – 150 (U); Sam Oldham, Campaign Officer – 150 (U); Marika Pratley, Activities Officer – 180 (U); Nana Wu, International Officer – 100 (U).
The two candidates for NWRO, Tui Head and Rachel Wright, arrived midway through the meeting to present their qualifications and answer the Exec’s questions. With 12 votes to allocate, VUWSA has one of the highest vote proportions among NZUSA members.
Each Q-and-A session lasted about 15 minutes. The Exec’s questions covered how the candidate would combat apathy surrounding women’s issues at NWRO, how she would characterise feminism, how she would react, as NWRO, to the recent cancellation of government investigations into gender-based payroll discrepancies, and what past leadership roles she’s held.
Ultimately, the Exec voted to put all 12 of VUWSA’s votes in favor of Wright, with 11 in favour and Education VP Freya Eng abstaining in lieu of her prior relationship with Wright. The Exec cited Wright’s extensive experience with women’s support groups, her past involvement with student politics while acting as the VUWSA Queer Rights Officer, and her leadership and communication skills as reasons for lending her VUWSA’s support.
By the time bonus assessments and campaign matters ended, the meeting had run about 90 minutes over its initial two-hour timeframe. Nevertheless, the Exec moved on to an overview of urgent general matters. Primarily, Freemantle emphasised the Exec’s need to muster the minimum 100 students necessary for achieving quorum at the upcoming Initial General Meeting. The IGM is the Exec’s opportunity to pass its Change Proposal and the plan for Campus Hub alterations.
Additionally, the Exec formally legitimised the President and VPs’ midweek decision to extend the upcoming by-election’s nomination (the motion was carried unanimously). With a few final formalities, including scheduling the next Exec meeting for a week henceforth, the session officially wrapped.