A blizzard of documents was unleashed last week by the VUWSA Change Proposal Sub-Committee in a portent of significant reform to VUWSA’s structure and governance procedures. In the pile were terms of reference for two brand-spanking new committees: a Performance Management Committee and an Audit & Finance Committee. VUWSA-watchers could barely contain their excitement.
The Audit & Finance Committee—the VUWSA President (Jasmine Freemantle), Administration Vice-President (Alexander Neilson), and one person from each of the VUWSA Executive and the VUWSA Trust—is to have oversight of VUWSA’s financial matters, ranging from annual budget and business plan setting, to managing VUWSA’s assets and implementing any recommendations arising from annual audits.
One of the first tasks for the Performance Management Committee—VUWSA President (Freemantle), Education Vice-President (Freya Eng), and one person from the VUWSA Trust—will be to hire a full-time Association Manager for VUWSA. VUWSA will then become the last of the major students’ associations in New Zealand to abandon the model of the CEO-President and appoint a manager on staff. From there, the committee will be in charge of monitoring the manager’s and VUWSA’s performance, overseeing from time to time any reviews of VUWSA’s structure and staffing that become necessary.
The establishment of this second committee arose from Freemantle’s concern over parts of the Amended Change Proposal and Final Report from the VUWSA Change Proposal Sub-Committee; in particular, a job description for the position of Association Manager that Freemantle branded as “poorly written.”
This probably marks the end of the Great Change Proposal Fracas (2008) that became a major battleground in last year’s VUWSA elections, in which Freemantle was elected VUWSA President in part because of her opposition to the original Change Proposal document. The Proposal, now heavily amended, is now being implemented according to a 120-day plan, available from the VUWSA office.