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Bylaws can be a bitch

By Irene Papakonstantinou

With RyeSAC’s Annual General Meeting a week away, it seems the student government needs to get its act together.

RyeSAC is trying to change its bylaws regarding commissionerships. But squabbling and lack of preparation hampered last Thursday’s board meeting, where the bylaw changes had to be passed before being put on the AGm agenda.

“That was one of the first times the board had any opposition,” said John McGowan, RyeSAC’s VP finance and development. “People tend to resist change.”

The proposal was to merge five commissioner jobs into two and add one for equity issues. There are now eight commissioners at RyeSAC; they must work 10 hours a week and get an honorarium.

“We had to get [the bylaw changes] all prepared for the AGM so we had a short time line, and there was just discrepancies in the format it should have been in.”

Wording for the equity commissionership still has to be worked out, and the health and safety portfolio, set to be merged, will maintain its status.

RyeSAC members met before to decide how to revamp the commissionerships, but not everyone attended. “It’s hard to get everyone together for meetings because of scheduling conflicts, so many of us weren’t up to date on the issues,” said RyeSAC president Angelo DeLuca.

All the bylaw changes must be passed at RyeSAC’s AGM April 1. Students can attend.

 

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