NZUSA January Conference Report

Rawa Karetai

I flew into Wellington for the big conference of the year, not realising how much of a toll it would take on the body, mind and soul. Overall, the NZUSA January Conference went really well. For what seems like a first in recent history one would say that we have a wonderful amount of talent and expertise present within NZUSA, which leads to a general understanding of each other. Gone are the silly little debates, gone are the personal attacks on other people and gone is the attitude of me, me, me, I, I, I. NZUSA and their members this year are actually thinking about what is best for a national student body and have come together with a mind set of “If we were all to work together productively, what would we like to see the organisation look like?” The other thing everyone had on their mind was the lack of funding the national body has and everybody had to make some sort of commitment to cutting some funding in their budget lines (“No, not in this budget, no…”).

There is a sense of seriousness and ownership from the members this year. The members believe that this is an organisation that we need to take control of the organisation, own it, and push it into the right direction, not only for ourselves but for all New Zealand students. There were some niggly little bits of drama throughout conference that came up. Sometimes people’s emotions get worked up. But there is always room for improvement. While you’re reading this, every member who was at NZUSA would have sent back constructive recommendations and criticisms to their associations which will be looked over by executives around the country.

For those of you who don’t know what NZUSA (New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations) is, it is an organisation that consists of student associations around New Zealand that come together with representatives from different campuses to discuss student issues, set the strategic vision and work together as a united group of students working for students. NZUSA advocates for the rights of tertiary students, and is founded on the philosophy that every person in New Zealand, whether they choose to study at polytechnics, universities or any other provider of tertiary education, should be entitled to a barrier free education.

Throughout the week of constant caucusing, there are many workshops that are held in order to educate those who are there to make the best decision to move the aims of NZUSA forward. These are then put into motions and proposed to the rest of the members of the association who then discuss these motions amongst their own Student Associations. These are then voted on by all members.

Finance commission was the most fun though. After going through every budget line and realised that due to these tough economic times, the organisation faced the prospect of running with a considerable deficit. NZUSA went through and dropped every line by 11% except where contractually bound. This was passed with no problems at all, and will make little difference to the outstanding quality of advocacy that NZUSA provides.

Have a look at www.students.org.nz for more information

Here’s an additional report on what your executive got up to both in the boardroom and out on the dance floor…

Some highlights of NZUSA conference:

• Rawa hitting on a group of middle aged ladies out on a Hen’s night and scribbling his phone numbers in areas that phone numbers should not generally be scribbled
• The ASA exec befriending some lovely American girls in the hostel
• Rawa leaving his gear in various places around the CBD, only to have most of it (including his house keys and wallet) returned to him by concerned citizens the next day
• Rawa rekindling his passion with a certain old flame who shall remain nameless
• The gorgeous Grace making quite an impression on all the young men at conference
• Rawa not making it to his own bed one night (make of that what you will!!)
• The ASA van getting defaced overnight. One other associations van was also van-dalised, but unlike them, the ASA actually had a laugh about it and drove all the way home with their newly acquired van-art.
• Steve-o getting stung by a wasp no less than 3 times near the lower back and bottom-ular region in the ASA van on the way home