Adam and Eve, you see,
had the power to change
the colour of their skin at will
in the Garden. Adam and

Eve could express to each_
other how they felt by the

appearance, but _ their
clothes (should yo like)

should they feel blue it
would show and the blue-
ness would be dissipated

To know the knowledge of
good and bad, had to be
learned; to have it did not

require knowledge. Eve ate

of the tree, perhaps in the

Student challenges AGM

| am thoroughly disgusted
with the recent actions taken
by the Northern
Undergraduate Student
Society Board of Directors.
Proposed changes to the
constitution and bylaws
were NOT by definition
amendments, but a revision.
A distinction between the
two is paramount. In accor-
dance with Roberts Rules
an amendment opens only
specific sections to change.
A revision is rewriting the
constitution and bylaws by
omitting original sections,
adding new sections and/or
altering the meaning of pre-
vious sections. Comparing
the proposed constitution
and bylaws with the existing
ones clearly demonstrates
that they have been rewrit-
ten. The significance of
replacing the initial constitu-
tion and bylaws with a new
document is that the Society
can, in the exact words of a
Society Act Representative,
“no longer exist”

Aside from this boo boo, the
proposed changes at the
AGM were presented in a
way that incited confusion.
Since steps to make pro-
posed changes clear in
meaning and purpose were
NOT taken, as outlined in
Roberts Rules, one can not
help conclude the confusion
was intentional. Had mem-
bers been provided with pro-
posed bylaws that included
the words to be deleted—
underlined, and enclosed in
parentheses along with new
words to be added—in bold

" or italics, those attending the
AGM might have clued in to
what some members of the

Board were proposing.

Facilitation of the meeting
was an offensive and
appalling display of incom-
petence. The Chairperson
as not fair, expedient or
impartial—mainly due to the
rather blatant takeover by
the Treasurer. Standing
closely behind the
Chairperson throughout the
meeting the words of the
Treasurer were pretty much
stated verbatim by the
Chairperson. When not
standing behind the
Chairperson the Treasurer

stood in front and addressed
members of the meeting
through the Chairperson’s
microphone. ! heard the
chair being challenged on
two occasions—both were
ignored. Motions were con-
tinually left unclarified. Most
of the meeting was “out of
order’ since members were
permitted to interrupt a
member who had the floor.

Discussion was overtly sup-
pressed when debate was
ended before it began due to
members shouting “call the
question” (statement said to
end debate) from their
seats—in some incidents by
members of the Board of
Directors.

Of course the agenda was
set to favor some amend-
ments over others. “Motions
generated From Students’,
of which some members of
the Board visibly disagreed
with, were left ‘til the end.
These “Student” motions
were presented in a biased
manner, and on one occa-
sion, made out to be not up
for consideration since a
similar amendment was pre-
viously accepted. The
motion to make student fees
refundable was _ clearly
manipulated by the
Treasurer who held up “a
Supreme Court case” book-
let—similar to a preacher
holding up a Bible during a
church sermon. | believe the
case, referred to by the
Treasurer, was concerned
with a single student taking
a Student Society to court in
order to obtain a fee refund
(| was unable to double
check this as it seems the
Treasurer carries this docu-
ment around) IT PROBABLY
HAD NOTHING TO DO
WITH A SOCIETY VOTING
ON BECOMING EXCEP-
TIONALLY DEMOCRATIC
BY MAKING MEMBER-
SHIP A CHOICE.

My major concern with the
proposed “amendment” to
change the Newspaper and
Women’s’ Centre into
“Services” is that it puts in
place a procedure to discon-
tinue them. | believe that pro-
posed “amendments” to
make them both “non-politi-
cal in nature and in activities

February 8, 1999 LETTERS

Gentlemen and Ladies:

colour of blue eyes and
white skin—Adam
approached, perhaps in the
colour of dark skin and dark
eyes and dark hair. Adam
ate too “zap” now they were
not able to change the
colour of their skin or hair or

and principles” along with “A
student service shall be
established or discontinued
by two-thirds (2/3) resolution
of the Board of Directors”
are clear indicators to the
desired authority over the
Paper and Women’s
Centre—despite rhetoric to
“give them more autonomy”.
Funding for “Services” was
“amended” to be determined
by the “Monetary Affairs
Commission’—-by these
guidelines: “a) The overall
need of the service; b)The
overall effectiveness of the
services (not sure why this
one is plural); and, c)The
number of students that this
service will serve”. Each
guideline id not easily deter-
mined—how does one mea-
sure the value of a Women’s
Centre? Who should have
the right to decide? These
procedural questions were
excluded, leaving too much
unsaid and open to abuse.
Procedures are important
to have in bylaws—| was
worried during the AGM
when | realized that there
were none for elections. |
brought this to the attention
of the “Chairperson” and the
Treasurer was quick to
respond that the electoral
procedures in the electoral
procedures in the Society
Act would be followed. Well,
guess what? The Society
Act—Section 6 requires that
the bylaws include electoral
procedures. Soooo, check-
ing over the proposed
bylaws | found in bylaw V, 1.,
vii), “Members of the Board
of Directors may only be
appointed through election
by the members of the
Student Society in accor-
dance with the Elections By-
law” I’ve checked and
rechecked the proposed
bylaws and there is NO
ELECTIONS BYLAW. Big
boo boo.

Although | leave unad-
dressed a number of other
proposed changes that are
in dire need of contempla-
tion, | will close my letter by
drawing attention of the fact
that, according to the
Society Act, A society may
NOT be incorporated for “(f)
the purpose of carrying on a

eyes any more. Should we
have been there seeing
them, we would not know
that anything had changed,
but Adam and Eve would.
Now, for now, they were
stuck with their colour. The
best they could do was

business...7 We are NOT a
business but rather a union,
as the Treasurer (in contra-
diction with earlier state-
ments about NUGSS being
a “business”) made clear
with the statement “mem-
bership has its benefits’—-
something I’ve heard union
organizers say often. Our
Student Society Board of
Directors is supposed to be
advocating in. the best inter-
est of students. Some mem-

Over The Edge Page 5

blush.

Oh, yes, they acquired
death that which up to this
time they did not have.
When you feel naked and |
feel naked, we can under-
stand to a degree how
Adam and Eve felt when

bers of the current Board of
Directors have been acting
in an unfair, unethical and
undemocratic manner—-
RESIGN. Other members of
the Board have silently
allowed the behavior to con-
tinue, through ignorance or
apathy—it matters little (1 do
not care if you “didn’t join the
Board to become a policy
expert’ since not addressing
the issue clearly neglects
advocating in the best inter-

No change on campus

' Dear Sir, -

| am writing this letter in
hopes that we can reach a
solution to a never-ending
problem for the students
trying to get small bills or
change.

A bank machine is avail-
able as well as a change
machine but the bank
machine only gives out
$20's and isn't always in
working order, same for
the change machines.

How do the students get
small bills? They come to
the Wintergarden and ask
for change. Our orders is
not to change large bills for
them and the only way
they can get change is to
buy something. Well,
maybe they don't want
anything! But in order to
change a $20 they will buy
a bottle of juice or a hot

chocolate. In a 15 minute
period or less, we can go
through our small bills and
are left with none. We may
not be able to get small
bills from the office as by
5pm the office staff has
gone home! So now we
are down to giving out $1's
and $2's for change for a
$20! Who needs a pocket
full of loonies and toonies?

So my question is, in
these days of modern
equipment of so many
gadgets and up to date
machinery, why hasn't
someone come up with a
machine that can produce
$5's and $10's?

The students don't
always need small bills for
food, but for bus fare, the
photocopier, or the wash-
ers and dryers. Now the

bank machine only gives

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they no longer could con-
verse in togetherness in
body language, changing
their colour and presence,
their air, manners, emotion,
tenderness, warmth.—Yes,
feeling.

CHAMELEON

est of
RESIGN.
PS. Since, in all likelihood,
the document being sent off
to the Society Act for
approval will be rejected—
keep a copy of our initial
Constitutions and Bylaws
on hand.

students)——

From a space in the
margin,
Leanna Chatten

out $20's and the coin
machine only holds so
much-coin, when that sup-
ply is exhausted they are
left with no way to get
change.

Can someone out there
help us solve this dilem-
ma? | don't like to turn the
students down in their
request for change but |
must abide by the compa-
ny rules.

|, on behalf of the stu-
dents would appreciate
any help that will make it
easier for all concerned.
Thank you for your help.

Dorothy Chisholm
Wintergarden staff
UNBC Campus

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