Come to the AGM. Come to the AGM. Come to the AGM; we will even bribe you with free Subway. It is happening at 12pm this Wednesday (13 August) in the Round Room.

The AGM is the most important event on the ASA calendar; yes, even more important then Orientation. For the AGM this year we want to make some pretty major changes to the positions on the Executive Committee; and we need you to show up to have your say on them.

There are currently 13 positions on the Executive Committee, they are: President; Vice-President, Asian Cultural, Education, Environmental, Graduate, International Cultural, Mature Students’, Pacific Island Students’, Political, Social Activities, Men’s Welfare and Women’s Welfare.

The current Executive has voted to recommend that the structure be changed to the following 10 positions: President, Administration Vice-President, Education Vice-President, Asian Cultural, International Students’, Pacific Island Students’, Post-Graduate Students’, Recreation and Leisure, Men’s Welfare and Women’s Welfare.

The most important change to the Executive is the introduction of a second Vice-President. The key reasons for this move are to increase support mainly to the President and Advocacy Coordinator by being able to focus on the Class Rep System and help students with course problems. It will be expected that the person in the role will volunteer around 20 hours a week and be paid the same honoraria as the Administration Vice-President ($16,100p.a.). In order to afford this additional role we have had to remove three positions from the Executive they are: Political, Mature Students’ and Environmental; but don’t worry the tasks that these roles did have been split across the other roles on the Executive.

In addition to the changes to the Executive Committee there are a number of other items for discussion at the AGM the main ones are: setting of the ASA levy for next year, approving the draft budget, and a raft of constitutional changes concerning the running of the ASA Elections that are intended to go to a mainly on-line voting format.

Speaking of elections now is the time to start considering if you want to run for a position on the Executive next year. I would encourage you to talk with members of the current Executive about their experiences on it. It is expected that you would volunteer 10 hours a week as a general executive, 20 hours as a Vice-President and the role of President is full time, sometimes 35 hours, but more commonly closer to 60 hours a week.

The next issue of Satellite will have a lot more in it about the elections. Nominations open the first week back after the mid-semester break. See you at the AGM on Wednesday. Remember free Subway.