The second Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Board of Directors (BoD) meeting of the fall semester was called to order on Sept. 20. The meeting’s public session included discussions of board members’ committee membership obligations and confirmation that the motion to hold a by-election to fill the currently-vacant vice-president (VP) Finance position had been ratified.
The Board’s first order of business was to welcome Maya Marcus Sells, the new SSMU General Manager and the latest addition to the BoD. As General Manager, Marcus-Sells will sit as a member on the executive committee and as a non-voting member on the BoD.
Discussion then turned to a motion from the Legislative Council calling for a by-election to fill the VP Finance position. Proposed during the last BoD meeting on Sept. 7, this by-election will fill the VP Finance position, which has been vacant since former VP Finance, Alice Fang, resigned on Aug. 18. SSMU Speaker and BoD Chair Jonathan Dong affirmed that a motion to ratify the previous motion to hold a by-election had been distributed via email after the Board’s last meeting and was unanimously approved on Sept. 12.
SSMU President Alexandre Ashkir subsequently delivered the Executive Committee’s Public Report. He stated that there was nothing for the committee to share, joking that the only notable update was the committee’s decision to continue holding their weekly meetings on Wednesday mornings. VP Student Life Nadia Dakdouki chimed in to clarify that the President’s statement was indeed a joke.
“We did do work, […] there’s nothing worth reporting here, but there was a lot of work done,” Dakdoudi said.
While there were few updates from the committee to be shared during the public session, Dakdouki noted that the Executive Committee’s members had engaged in many lengthy discussions.
Ashkir then stood for questions on the report and reminded attendees that any future questions about the report or about the Committee’s activities in general could be directed to him. As there were neither any questions raised nor opposition, the Executive Committee’s Public Report was quickly ratified.
With no other topics on the agenda, the Board moved on to a discussion item that Ashkir raised, reporting that he had received a request from an unnamed employee and leader of various SSMU committees to discuss the matter of board committee membership.
“Currently, the Board of Directors is understaffed,” Ashkir said. “For the time being, I would propose that we hold off on any board membership questions on committees unless [they’re] extremely urgent […] so that none of our current board members are overwhelmed with the sheer amount of board committees they would be expected to sit on.”
Ashkir added that holding off on appointing current board members to additional committees would allow for newly-elected members to fill these positions in the near future.
As no one raised questions or points of opposition, Dong declared the discussion items to be exhausted and concluded the public section of the meeting, which lasted a total of ten minutes.
“Unfortunately for our guests, we do have a confidential session this meeting, and, at this point, I will kindly ask you to leave, or else we will have to remove you or put you in the waiting room until we’re done [with] our confidential session,” Dong said.
Moment of the Meeting:
After attendance had been taken, Ashkir proposed an addition to the agenda of a point of discussion regarding board committee membership. The motion was seconded by Lalia Katchelewa, VP University Affairs, and added to the agenda after facing no opposition.
Sound Bite:
“The [Executive Committee’s public] report mostly covers the motions [to call for a by-election for the position of VP Finance] that were approved, but a lot of the work that [the Executive Committee] does is in confidential discussions on a variety of topics for the day-to-day running of the society”
— Ashkir on why the Executive Committee had so few updates during the BoD’s public session.
