By Lisa Jesudas
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13:58 – The live blog is now closed. We hope you enjoyed keeping up with the Budget GA and we wish you a great rest of the week!
13:57 – The 48th annual general assembly has swiftly concluded ahead of schedule! Students clap in celebration.
13:55 – Kahnamoui announces that the final budget is now calculated. Some students clap a drum roll before they are met with groans of surprise at the total budget: -3,480.20 euros. Heyning addresses this disappointment by explaining that the budget usually always falls in the negative due to not finalising the calculation of unforeseen costs. Voting over the final budget proceeds and it is passed by acclamation. Kahnamoui congratulates all students on this general assembly and moves on to the open floor. There are no questions.
13:51 – All block four budgets will now be voted on and they are all passed by acclamation. The AUCSA will now do a calculation of the Total Budget and the Kahoot theme song rings from the speakers during this brief hiatus.
13:49 – The OnStage budget is next and no motions are raised. The AUCSA Other budget is now reviewed. Ringeling asks on behalf of Catch to add a budget cost for a ball pump and Heyning asks for clarification on this. Ringeling replies, “we’d like a ball pump to pump our balls,” in preparation for the spring and summer months. Heyning proposes to amend this motion to the AUCSA Other budget as equipment for 15 euros. The motion passes by acclamation.
13:48 – An awkward silence sits as Heyning continues to search. Heyning answers Ringeling’s question and the next budget proceeds with no motions raised.
13:47 – The Dormfest budget is presented next and, at last, there is a question. Ringeling asks about the price for non-AUC tickets and whether it is in line with previous years since he finds the number high. Heyning asks for a second while he pulls up numbers from previous years.
13:45 – Audit Commission is up first and there are no motions for this budget. The next budget is for Junket and there are no motions raised. The Couture budget is presented and, again, no motions are raised. Next on the agenda is the Solace budget and there are no motions raised either. The Cuisine budget is presented and there are no motions raised. 13:40 – It is time for the final block of the budget GA. Once again, students have five minutes to view the budgets.
13:16 – Another break will take place before block four commences.
13:15 – There are no more questions about the CUT budget and there are no motions raised. All the block three budgets are passed by acclamation, concluding the scheduled block. Kahnamoui emphasises that students must sign out when they leave the GA and that there snacks are provided on the side.
13:12 – Ringeling then suggests removing some of the trips in the budget to aid their costs. Lockwood says that they are removing these additional trips from the budget. Heyning states that there are four trips left to go and Lockwood confirms that this is accurate. Ringeling is still confused about how many trips will take place. Heyning clarifies these budget changes according to the accurate number of cinema trip planned by the CUT committee.
13:09 – The PlayUC budget is next and there are no motions. The Winterformal Team is up next and there are no motions raised. The Scriptus budget is presented next and there are no motions raised. The next budget is for AUCSA Events and there are no motions raised as well. The ART committee is next in line and there are no motions raised. The final budget of the block, CUT, proceeds. Ringeling asks a question about why CUT still plans to do six cinema trips. Zoe Lockwood replies that CUT plans to reduce the number of cinema trips for the next semester and they also plan a cinema festival trip.
13:07 – TEDxAUCollege is first up on the agenda. There are no motions raised. The next budget is AUCafé. Greta Boccaletti asks for clarification on an article in the budget. Heyning responds that the ‘real’ columns in the budget are a new addition and it some of the articles have not been updated yet. There are no motions raised.
13:00 – Block three has officially begun. Students are given five minutes to peruse the budgets.
12:30 – The last budget of the block is AUCMUN. There are no motions raised. The voting over all the budgets in this block proceeds and they all pass by acclamation.
12:28 – The Pangea budget is presented and there is a motion to change the an article to 12.50 euros and this is passed by acclamation. Heyning raises a motion to increase a budget that was decided on budget weekend, but not updated yet. This motion passes by acclamation.
12:25 – The AUCommunity budget is next. There are no motions raised. The next budget is Dormsessions. There are no motions. The Diversity Commission budget proceeds and there are no motions raised. The Newscast budget is presented and there are no motions raised. The AUInvest budget is next on the agenda and there are no motions raised as well. The next budget in the block is for Yearbook and there are no motions raised.
12:24 – The first budget is Hands On. There are no motions raised.
12:21 – Kahnamoui gets the audience’s attention for block two. Students are given five minutes to review the budgets in this section of the agenda.
12:02 – The next budget is for AUCanDance. Ringeling asks for clarification on the venue costs for the dance show. The AUCanDance board explains that they have three shows over two days. No motions are raised for the budget and now the total block will be voted on. All the budgets of block one are passed by acclamation. There will now be another break before block two.
11:59 – There are no motions and the agenda moves on to motions for the Sustainability Commission. There are no motions and the next budget is introduced. Next up is the Catch budget and there are no motions as well. The PubQuiz proceeds with no motions. Next, the AUCave budget is reviewed. Ringeling raises a motion to increase gas costs to 75 euros. Roorda from the AUCave budget clarifies that the gas cost is included in the van rental. Ringeling no longer wishes to raise the motion. There are no motions.
11:58 – Next on the agenda is AUCSA Merchandise. Ringeling asks how many ties and Lea Heitbrink clarifies that this will be around 35.
11:54 – Camelia Terraza asks AUCave whether the tent budget part of the AUCave budget. Heyning adds that the next motion is to add an extra income of 100 euros for tent rental. Ringeling raises his hand to vote on this motion. Voting is now underway. Heyning clarifies that the idea behind the motion is that: “people who do not have a tent can pay a few euros extra to get a tent”. Since this clarification, the motion passed by acclamation.
11:52 – Another motion is to add a tent rental into the budget. Sam Ringeling asks why we need to rent tents if it is not part of the event. Members of the AUCave board reply that AUC doesn’t have tents and that although people are expected to bring their own tents, it would not be enough. Ringeling re-establishes that people should be expected to rent their own tents. Heyning responds that including tents into the budget would make the event easier overall and lowers the barrier of entry.
11:50 – Heyning suggests a motion to increase the budget to 75 euros for gas. This motion passes by acclamation. Another motion is to increase the budget from 355 euros and this passes by acclamation as well.
11:46 – The GA is joined by a few more students. Kahnamoui announces that block one will now proceed. First up is the UCSRN team. A motion is raised to change 34.i.2.1 from 50 euros to 75 euros in order to match it to the correct value. Ytse Roorda raises his hand and notes that the camping expenses seem underestimated. Heyning is happy to increase it to make the unforeseen costs more accurate.
11:41 – The number of voters in the audience has slightly increased since the break. Now, the budgets in the first block are under review. Everybody is given five minutes to review the budgets before the the procedure continues.
11:14 – The timeline of the budget discussions is presented before Kahnamoui announces a quick break. The GA will continue again at 11:40.
11:11 – Kahnamoui introduces several policy manual changes. Firstly, Article 5.9e will be changed to count abstentions. This change is passed by acclamation. Secondly, a proposed clarification on the AUCSA election process is passed by acclamation. The third proposed change is passed by acclamation, which is to keep the policy manual up-to-date.
11:08 – Kahnamoui now presents the general procedure for this GA. This includes general GA etiquette and processes.
11:07 – Tom Heyning, AUCSA Treasurer, notes that the budget is “almost balanced.” There is also a surplus in the budget for the student association in the next academic year. He also notes that AUCSA events brought in profits larger than expected.
11:05 – Versailla Kahnamoui officially commences the Budget GA. The AUCSA President runs through the agenda for the day, which includes 10-minute breaks in between blocks. The order of the agenda has passed by acclamation.
11:00 – Welcome to the February Budget GA! The AUCSA board looks over two voters seated in the audience.
Once again, The AUCSA February Budget GA is underway! Today, the student community will have the opportunity to review, amend, and approve the allocation of the AUCSA budget for the next semester.
Welcome to The Herring’s account of the 48th AUCSA general assembly as it happens! Tune in to receive live updates, starting from 11:00.
The Herring 