By Tamar Bot and Maxime Garcia Diaz
— Dear readers, welcome to our live coverage of AUCSA’s 24th General Assembly, held in the Academic Building’s ground floor main hall. Below you will find a continuously-updated, time-stamped summary of events.
As always, if you have comments or suggestions, feel free to contact us via our ‘news tips’ section, our Facebook page, or through Twitter. Now on to the 24th GA!
· 19:11 – First people are entering the common room. Long line for registration.
· 19:21 – Common room is slowly filling up. Still some people waiting to be registered.
· 19:31 – GA starts. Current AUCSA Chair Cobben termed this “the busiest GA in the history of GA’s.”
· 19:33 – Voting on the sequential ordering of the agenda starts.
· 19:35 – GA votes on changing the order of the personal statements and the recommended board as proposed by the Election Committee. Current structure: first personal statements, then recommended board.
· 19:36 – Ten members vote in favor. The motion doesn’t pass.
· 19:38 – The ordering of the agenda passes.
· 19:39 – Next year’s advisory council announced: Maarten Albers, Sezgi Iyibilir, Steffan Oberman & Stefanie Berendsen.
· 19:40 – Former AUC student Job Zegers presented as honorary member of the AUCSA.
· 19:42 – Former AUCSA treasurer Jan Willem Bruggeman presents two new honorary members: former AUCSA secretary Esther Baar and current AUCSA treasurer Stefanie Berendsen.
· 19:44 – Cobben presents the last honorary member: Bruggeman himself.
· 19:45 – The Audit Commission (Anouk Ide, Bruggeman and Andy O’Daab) present their financial advice for the AUCSA.
· 19:47 – Audit Commission advises AUCSA to set up a financial working group.
· 19:48 – Second advice: build up savings account.
· 19:50 – Third advice: increase role of Audit Commission and install quarterly audit.
· 19:51 – Fourth advice: extend office of the treasurer by appointing a vice treasurer.
· 19:52 – Fifth advice: install tax commission for the taxes AUCSA has to pay.
· 19:58 – Voting on the new Audit Commission. Proposed members: Anouk Ide, Jasper Meijer and current AUCSA secretary Tim Moolhuijsen.
· 20:00 – Composition of the Audit Commission passes.
· 20:00 – Berendsen presents the UCSRN policy manual.
· 20:04 – UCSRN policy manual passes.
· 20:06 – Elections start. Procedure: all candidates present their personal statement in 2 minutes, followed by a maximum of 3 questions from the audience.
· 20:07 – First up: Josh van der Kroft running for chair.
· 20:09 – Van der Kroft emphasizes “member-centric approach.”
· 20:13 – Next up: Lance Bosch running for chair.
· 20:16 – Bosch wants to centralize AUCSA’s promotion by listing all its events and opportunities in one place.
· 20:20 – Next up: Rens Visser running for chair.
· 20:21 – Visser (current AUCafé chair) surprisingly refers to the AUCafé Buezeday gate.
· 20:22 – Bosch asks Visser how he tackled this problem.
· 20:25 – Visser said he got together with AUCSA and the AUCafé board to solve the issue, and replaced the scheduled Dormsessions event to the dorms.
· 20:26 – Student Bram Jaarsma raises motion and proposes to not allow candidates asking questions to other running candidates.
· 20:27 – Motion becomes recommendation.
· 20:28 – Next up: the secretaries. Questions reduced from 3 to 2 due to time constraints.
· 20:30 – Personal statement by first secretary candidate Ankie van Dijk.
· 20:36 – Next up: Lasse Rogie running for secretary.
· 20:38 – Rogie emphasizes improving clarity of internal and external communication, primarily by providing online and offline calendars of committee events.
· 20:40 – Storm Gibbons asks question to Rogie, and mentions he heard rumors that other candidates tried to convince Rogie to run for a different position. Rogie is asked to explain.
· 20:41 – Election Committee member Maria Gayed explains that the Election Committee recommends a position to all candidates after reviewing their letters, CV’s and doing a personal interview with them.
· 20:42 – Next up: Liselotte van Balen running for secretary.
· 20:43 – Van Balen proposes two vital changes: setting up an AUCSA app and helping students finding the right committee for them.
· 20:44 – On to the treasurers.
· 20:45 – First treasurer up: Andy O’Daab.
· 20:52 – Second and last treasurer up: Beau Furnée.
· 20:53 – Furnée wants to increase AUCSA’s funds by getting sponsors.
· 20:55 – Critical questions from the audience about the corporate nature of funding.
· 20:57 – Next up: the 8 candidates running for CAO. The clock is ticking, as the Academic Building is only open for another hour.
· 20:57 – First CAO: Gordon Lucas.
· 21:00 – Next up: Heleen Vos.
· 21:02 – Next up: Tara Elsen.
· 21:05 – Next up: Ilen Madhavji. His statement features a significant amount of Katy Perry lyrics.
· 21:08 – Next up: Muzi Ndiweni.
· 21:14 – The next CAO: Petra Stangvik.
· 21:16 – The next CAO: Thomas Litan, who also ran for CAO last year.
· 21:16 – Litan reiterates his motto from last year: committed, approachable, open.
· 21:20 – The last CAO and the last candidate of the night presents his statement: Joris van Schie.
· 21:23 – Cobben announces the results will be announced at Polder because of the limited opening times of the AB.
· 21:25 – On stage: the Election Committee existing of Bruggeman, Gayed and Tim Alpherts.
· 21:26 – The Election Committee’s task is to review all applications and, after consulting candidates’ motivation letters + CV’s and holding personal interviews with them, propose a board.
· 21:27 – Bruggeman explains that their criteria during the selection were: empathy, self-reflection, motivation, awareness of job, time-management and performance under stress.
· 21:32 – Alpherts and Gayed present the proposed board.
· 21:33 – Gayed recommends Lance Bosch for chair because of his commitment, engagement and research for the position.
· 21:37 – Motion to exclude the reasoning behind the proposed board to make sure members will not be too influenced.
· 21:39 – Votes on the motion are being counted.
· 21:41 – The motion has not been passed.
· 21:42 – Alpherts proposes Liselotte van Balen for secretary because of her professional and structured attitude.
· 21:43 – Gayed proposes Andy O’Daab for treasurer because of his ability to express his visions in accessible ways.
· 21:43 – Alpherts proposes Petra Stangvik for CAO because of her working experience and committed character.
· 21:43 – Gayed proposes Ilen Madhavji for his positive energy.
· 21:44 – Alpherts proposes Gordon Lucas because of the unique flavor he will add to the board.
· 21:45 – Cobben explains the voting process. Students can exchange their coin for a voting ballot.
· 22:15 – Students moved to Polder while votes are being counted.
· 22:31 – No results as of yet.
· 22:49 – Still waiting.
· 23:12 – Still no news.
· 23:22 – If no miscounts, the results will come in 5 minutes.
· 23:30 – The votes are in. Students gathering inside Polder to hear the results.
· 23:32 – Cobben thanks all candidates.
· 23:33 – Bruggeman gets ready to announce the board. 238 votes casted.
· 23:34 – Lance Bosch announced AUCSA chair.
· 23:35 – Lasse Rogie announced AUCSA secretary.
· 23:35 – Andy O’Daab announced AUCSA treasurer.
· 23:36 – Gordon Lucas announced AUCSA CAO.
· 23:36 – Ilen Madhavji announced AUCSA CAO.
· 23:37 – Petra Stangvik announced AUCSA CAO.
· 23:39 – End of live blog. Thanks for reading!
The Herring 