Name: Chris Palmer

Faculty: Haskayne School of Business

Email: haskayne2@su.ucalgary.ca | palmercm@ucalgary.ca

September 2010 Monthly Report

1. Student Legislative Council Meetings

SLC 68/10 Special Meeting September 7, 2010

 This was a special meeting called by SU President Lauren Webber. This
meeting of the 68th SLC contained two topics:
o Appointment of Chief Returning Officer (second reading):
 SLC voted 15-0-1 to appoint Sabrina Grover to the position
of CRO for the SU elections this year I supported this.
o DRC and Career Services Fee Referendum (First Readings):
 Council voted unanimously on both measures, to send the
removal of these fees to referendum in October, as these
fees are to be included in the non-academic fees charged by
the University of Calgary.

SLC 68/11 September 14, 2010

 Reports from BOG representative Kay She and CRO Sabrina Grover were
given at the start of council. These are detailed thoroughly in the minutes.
 I read an EO report on behalf of Arts Rep Vincent St. Pierre
 The executives discussed the SU strategic plan and fielded questions
from the council.
 The DRC and Career Services Fee referendum came to second reading,
in which it was carried once again, ensuring that students will have the
ability to make a decision on the fate of these fees in October.
 Keeping with the terms of reference, council appointed new members to
the Operations and Finance Committee. I have detailed my reasons for
not re-joining the committee below.
 Council reviewed how campaign/election based clubs fit the clubs
mandate. It was decided to send this to Governance Review Committee.
 We revisited a clubs committee decision to sanction ‘Students for Ric
McIvor.’ I abstained from the final vote on the issue as I do believe that the
club itself fulfills the actual clubs mandate in that it provides a real benefit
to the students involved (in facilitates social interaction, networking and
allows expression of an ideology). I was however concerned with the
timing in which the club sought to become sanctioned. Hence I was
unable to vote against sanctioning the organization or for sanctioning
them.

SLC 68/12 September 21, 2010

  The liquor license issues concerning the new ‘That Empty Space” were
explained. This is an issue that the SU Exec will be working on going
forward.
 Lauren Webber spoke to the idea of charging students for BSD and she
answered a question saying that she did not personally expect that
students would be charged for BSD.
 There was an extensive discussion considering the purchase of a record
board for the Dinos Track & Field team. Adam Wasylyshyn took a straw
poll for support and committed to bringing it back on the 28 th.
 Council approved a term excusal for Law Rep Matthew Grant, as all law
students are required to take a class that conflicts with the start time for
SLC. He will attempt to join council for the later part of the evenings.
 Council decided to table a term excusal for Science Representative Ola
Mohajer. Patrick Tomczyk questioned whether Ola was a UofC student
paying Students’ Union fees at all. I reiterated my support of Ola in her
position and that I felt it would be a serious detriment to not excuse her
should she be an active student at the UofC.

SLC 68/13 September 28, 2010

 VP External Hardave Birk gave a presentation on Partners. This included
details on how CAUS, ASEC, CASA etc are formed, and how they
currently operate. He also outlined how a potential restructuring would
look by making the individual SUs/SAs members of their respective
provincial group (ex. UofC SU – CAUS / SAMRU – ASEC) and then
having those provincial groups be members of a federal lobby group. I
support the idea in that I believe it would offer increased leverage at the
federal level, and overall cost savings for students.
 VP Academic Alyssa Stacy outlined Quality Money and the Campus
Improvement Fund. She explained where the money comes from/came
from and gave examples of how this funding has traditionally been used
(including the Business Day and Club Trailer funding secured by Carmen
last year)
 We spent a significant amount of time debating a term excusal for Science
Rep Ola Mohajer. As this is her third meeting missed in a row, she would
be up for impeachment next week if we don’t support the motion and she
doesn’t step down.

I offered my support for Ola’s excusal early on the grounds that she
provides an immense amount of benefit for the science faculty. She works
hard for students and has championed a number of causes.

This was, to me, no different from the excusal that I supported granting for
Mr. Grant, in that this was an academic commitment that prevented Ola
from voting at SLC. She would still be present via voip and had already
shown that she would make every effort to support science students from
afar.
 Ms. Mansoor stated, and I reinforced that, while it is an important part of
our position, I do not believe our primary responsibility to be voting at SLC.
I am elected by business students, I listen to business students, I meet
with business students, I represent business students on numerous
bodies and I hold office hours to answer questions from business
students. In Ola’s case, she was only not able to attend activities in
person, though, with two science representatives, that should not have
been an issue as this was simply a matter of division of labour.

After discussion, council voted 4-9-3 to deny Ola her term excusal, with
me and three others voting for it. Ola will need to resign her position by
Tuesday evening in order for the Science position to be open at bi-
election, or council will need to consider impeachment and the position will
be filled by a non-voting hired staff member.
 We discussed and approved changes to the committee terms of
reference, and the fact that it had been decided that we would reduce
quorum on some committees (within working levels) in order to ensue that
all of our committees were adequately filled.
 Adam Wasylyshyn brought back his Dinos track & field record board
resolution as a Quality Money initiative, and after a lengthy discussion, it
was decided that this would be best a CIF measure. The proposal was
amended to once again be a CIF project as the Dinos are a program
managed and administered by the faculty of kinesiology and council voted
to support the project unanimously.
 Council discussed a pair of excusals for Ms. Bhuvana Sankaranarayanan
as she had been under doctors orders to remain at home. Alyssa stated
that the situation was being held in confidence and asked for the trust of
council. All but one member of council, voted in favour of the excusals.

2. Faculty Work (and connecting with constituents)

Communications
 A student wrote a letter to the gauntlet in response to a course registration
issue she had had within the Haskayne School of Business. I contacted
her for more details, received an explanation of the situation, and she
noted that the faculty had been in contact with her already with an
explanation as to why she was dropped from her class. It turns out that
everyone was dropped from the section, and as she was overloaded (via
an approved overload request), administration was unable to add her back
to the class.

3. Committee Work
Operations & Finance Committee
 As per the terms of reference, we chose new members for this committee
this month, and as such I will not be on it for the coming term.
  I am unavailable to re-join the committee this term as the time of the
committee meetings (9:30am Tuesday and Thursday) conflicts directly
with my section of Finance 317.

Haskayne Student Levy Committee

 Had a pair of meetings with stakeholders to discuss the structure of the
committee and what students would like to see it look like going forward.
Numerous different ideas have been suggested but nothing decided as of
yet.

Applications were sent out with an end-of-month due date to the clubs
presidents. This due date has since been extended and the first allocation
meeting will be in mid-october.

4. Other
Presidents’ Circle
 September 2nd:
Discussions primarily were around orientation week. I informed CUS
president Daniela Montgomery that I would soon be bringing her the
contract for the CIF funding awarded to Business Day.

I also presented the furniture options that we were looking at for the clubs
trailer as me and Ashley had visited the McCrums showroom right before
Presidents’ Circle. I provided surface samples and we discussed colors.
The colors will likely be much the same: Black, Red and Silver/White
accents.
 September 22nd:
I updated the clubs presidents on the big topics that had been recently
discussed in the SU (including BSD charges and non-academic fees)

We also discussed the HSLC. I explained to the presidents what the

Haskayne fund was, and how they could apply for funding. I gave a quick
overview of the committee and we discussed potential changes that may
be made.

I pushed the book-loan program and encouraged our club presidents to do

the same as the program represents a great potential benefit to students.

Orientation Week
 Me and Ms. Ashley Bradley delivered a presentation at the Haskayne
Faculty Orientation on September 8th. This presentation highlighted what
the SU can offer undergraduate students, and more specifically, what
myself and Ms. Bradley can offer.
  I moderated a pair of mandatory Students’ Union orientation sessions.
One for the Arts faculty with Engineering Rep Abe Kohandel and another
for science students alongside Science Rep Aleena Mansoor.
 I Spent significant time wandering the hallways in Professional Faculties
and Scurfield Hall giving directions and answering general questions.

Office Hours
 I have been offering office hours every Wednesday out of the aim office
(SH 199E) from 2pm to 3pm. Ms Bradley is offering hers from 10 to 11am.
Drop by and pay us a visit.

5. Goals

Status of Previous Goal (if applicable).

 Due to the sheer scope of the project, my previous goal, concerning
renovations to the Student Clubs Trailer in Haskayne has yet to come to
completion.
 September progress on this goal was limited due to a delay in receiving a
quotation from our furniture supplier. Pricing was delivered in late
September.
 I was successful, however, in the minor step of getting the proper
documentation for the CIF portion of funding signed by all the appropriate
parties and returned to Susan Judd in the Students’ Union office.
My goal for September is:
 Continued progress on the Clubs Trailer renovations
The steps to be taken to achieve this goal are:
 Meetings with the various stakeholders to discuss the requirements of
anything outside the original flooring changes
 Discussions with Ashley Bradley and Rita Egizii regarding sponsors and
create a concrete list of potential sponsors
 Create a sponsorship package to be presented to the individual sponsors
on the created list
The Executive Lead for this goal is:
James Delaney – VP Operations & Finance