[LIVE BLOG] 23rd General Assembly: As It Happened

By Tamar Bot, Maxime Garcia Diaz and Konstantin Kirilov —

Dear readers, welcome to our live coverage of AUC’s 23rd General Assembly, held in the Academic Building’s ground floor main hall. Below you will find a continuously-updated, time-stamped summary of events, which is also available simultaneously on our Twitter feed.

As always, if you have comments or suggestions, feel free to contact us via our ‘news tips’ sections, our Facebook page, or through Twitter. Now on to the 23rd GA!

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 · 18:30 – People are still coming in and getting registered, looks like there will be a slight delay.

 · 18:40 – Some people still waiting to be registered, the Main Hall is slowly filling up.

 · 18:49 – AUCSA Chair Floris Cobben opens the 23rd GA with a brief explanation of the rules behind the voting system.

 · 18:52 – TEDx is requesting to be first in the committee order.

 · 18:53 – After a question from the audience on why they should be given priority, TEDx have decided not go first.

 · 18:55 – Brief introduction on behalf of AUCSA before the main part of the GA begins.

 · 18:56 – The Audit Commission takes the stage.

 · 18:57 – Six suggestions offered by the Audit Commission, first one being to extend the office of the Treasurer.

 · 18:58 – Second suggestion: get external advice on taxes.

 · 19:00 – Third suggestion: do not overspend at the February GA.

 · 19:01 – Fourth suggestion: AUCSA needs to provide exact number of members, both upon request and annually. 

 · 19:01 – Fifth suggestion: install committee treasurer guidelines.

 · 19:03 – Sixth and final suggestion: committees should estimate their income better, it has been a problem for the Treasurer.

 · 19:04 – AUCSA Treasurer Stefanie Berendsen takes the stage, will discuss the overall budget.

 · 19:05 – October GA was over budget around 4000 Euros, according to Berendsen.

 · 19:06 – AUCSA Event Budget passes.

 · 19:07 – AUCSA ‘Other’ Budget passes.

 · 19:08 – AUCSA Merchandise Budget passes, new merchandise on the way.

 · 19:08 – Voting on the 27 Committees and teams will begin, in alphabetical order.

 · 19:08 – AIMUN budget passes.

 · 19:09 – AUCafe budget is slightly decreased due to issues during OktoberFest.

 · 19:09 – AUCafe budget passes.

 · 19:10 – ASUSA budget passes.

 · 19:11 – Catch budget drops from ~6,500 Euros to ~4,000 Euros, a significant part is due to the absence of a basketball team this year.

 · 19:11 – Catch budget passes.

 · 19:11 – Cuisine budget passes.

 · 19:12 – Curiosity budget passes.

 · 19:12 – Correction: Curiosity wants to shift their budget a bit, Tade Hogenelst speaking on their behalf.

 · 19:13 – Floris Cobben ‘unpasses’ the Curiosity budget, so they can reallocate parts of their budget.

 · 19:14 – Curiosity budget passes (again).

 · 19:14 – Debating Society budget passes.

 · 19:15 – Dormsessions up next, and their budget passes as well.

 · 19:15 – HandsOn budget passes.

 · 19:15 – InPrint budget passes.

 · 19:16 – Junket budget up next, projected income drops from ~9,000 Euros to ~8,000 Euros, expenditure also down almost 800 Euros.

 · 19:18 – Junket budget passes.

 · 19:18 – Lingua up next, they have decided not to propose any budget this time around, not sure if the committee will be around next year.

 · 19:19 – Lingua ‘budget’ passes.

 · 19:20 – Jeugdlab budget passes.

 · 19:20 – OnStage budget up next, expenditure up by ~500 Euros to almost 6,900 Euros.

 · 19:21 – OnStage budget passes.

 · 19:21 – PlayUC motioning for additional 75 Euros for the acquisition of an additional PlayStation 3 gaming consoles.

 · 19:22 – Question from the student body on what equipment PlayUC owns. Answer: just one PS3 console and two controllers.

 · 19:23 – The 75 Euros will be taken from the AUCSA ‘Unforeseen’ budget.

 · 19:25 – PlayUC budget passes.

 · 19:26 – PlayUC will actually like to shift some of their budget around, starting a motion now. Chair Job Zegers speaking.

 · 19:29 – Shifts include 80 Euros for a new couch for the PlayUC common room, since the ‘original’ one recently disappeared.

 · 19:31 – Multiple questions from the audience, students proposes that the couch could be acquired for free online with ‘a bit of effort’.

 · 19:33 – The issue will now be voted on, PlayUC wants to make a brief statement.

 · 19:35 – The 80 Euros is just a reallocation, and it has now passed.

 · 19:36 –  PlayUC budget passes.

· 19:37 – PubQuiz budget passes.

· 19:37 – Screen budget passes.

· 19:38 – Scriptus budget passes.

· 19:39 – Solace budget passes, almost 11,400 Euros in projected income, 10,200+ in projected expenditure.

· 19:39 – TEDxAUC budget up next, they will like to increase their budget by a total of 800 Euros, mostly due to the Bimhuis needing an additional worker for the event.

· 19:41 – TEDxAUC Chair Felix Beer proposes the money should come from AUCSA’s ‘Unforeseen’ budget.

· 19:43 – Student body voting on the proposal right now. Beer stressed that the event might not go through if the budget is not increased.

· 19:44 – TEDxAUC motion passes. Students mention that it would be better if they include their entire budget next time, and not only the AUCSA part. According to TEDxAUC, the ~2.100 Euros from AUCSA are about 20% of their entire budget.

· 19:46 – TEDxAUC budget passes.

· 19:47 – The Art Committee is up next, budgeted income is up by almost 800 Euros, expenditure is up by around 500 Euros, both due to an additional Scopophilia event being planned. 

· 19:47 – The Art Committee budget passes.

· 19:49 – Yearbook Committee coming up, TAC Chair Campbell Kenny proposes the Yearbook board members get their own discounted yearbooks. Vittoria Dentes (YB Chair) specifies the discounted yearbooks are meant as rewards for people who write a submission.

· 19:51 – Yearbook budget increases by 48 Euros for discounted yearbooks, coming from AUCSA ‘Unforeseen’ budget. Student body voting now.

· 19:52 – Yearbook budget increase passes after student motion.

· 19:54 – ZEN budget next, and it passes.

· 19:55 – Lastly, one of AUC’s newest committees – FEMCOM (Feminist Committee). They are also debuting their logo on screen. Initial budget is 375 Euros (income) and 625 Euros (expenditure). Since their Boobie Bible project is going to turn a profit, they plan to donate all of it.

· 19:58 – FEMCOM has plans for 2 speakers per month for the remainder of the semester. The Women’s week budget has been incorporated within FEMCOM.

· 19:59 – FEMCOM budget passes.

· 20:01 – Team voting going ahead now, Acquisitions Board up first.

· 20:01 – Acquisitions Board budget passes.

· 20:02 – Dormfest is next, projected income is 8,100 Euros, projected expenditure is 13,890 Euros.

· 20:05 – Dormfest has the highest projected expenditure among all committees and teams so far.

· 20:05 – Dormfest budget passes.

· 20:06 – Lustrum team is up next, projected income is 7,750 Euros, projected expenditure is 16,711 Euros, even more than Dormfest. AUCSA expects to sell around 400 tickets, costing 15 Euros each. Students will be transported to and from the location by bus, which AUCSA expects to cost around 1,200 Euros. The decoration will also cost around the same amount. AUCSA have also decided to add a photographer to the event, which will add another 200 Euros or so in total.

· 20:11 – Students are questioning the numbers behind the upcoming Lustrum, in particular the decoration and professional photography\video sections.

· 20:15 – The discussion on the Lustrum continues, many questions from students.

· 20:33 – Approaching 30 minutes of debates on this big, big budget.

· 20:35 – Students are proposing to vote on the Lustrum budget at a later date, after it becomes more clear what the resource allocation is.

· 20:37 – AUCSA announces an updated budget will be sent out on the 7th of March, propose to vote on the overall motion for the Lustrum budget.

· 20:39 – AUCSA also proposing an additional meeting for anyone interested in the Lustrum budget. 

· 20:40 -Voting on the Lustrum budget to follow.

· 20:44 – 58 in favor, 8 against, 23 abstentions in the vote for Lustrum, which means the updated budget passes.

· 20:45 – Nearly 40 minutes of discussion for the Lustrum, on to the last few teams now.

· 20:46 – Both Means and Women’s week budgets’ have been adjusted to 0, since they are now incorporated in other projects.

· 20:46 – Final vote on the entire AUCSA budget, which is now officially passed.

· 20:49 – Honorary AUCSA member Aram Zegerius presenting the board with an impromptu gift, around 80 ‘thank you’ notes from various members of the AUC community. 

· 20:51 – That’s it for today’s live blog, as well as the 23rd General Assembly. Less than two hours this time, which AUCSA says might be a new record. One more Assembly coming up later this year, and of course we will be around to cover that as well. Have a great evening, and keep an eye out for our new article tomorrow!

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