AMS Council met on Wednesday to hear the quarterly financial report and pass code changes.
This is what you might’ve missed.
Making money moves (sorta)
VP Finance Gavin Fung-Quon presented the first quarterly financial report which looks at May to July 2024.
Fung-Quon said “this first quarter was honestly a very strong start to the year.”
He said Blue Chip performed 28 per cent above the projected net contribution and brought in $176,452. Other outlets like Grand Noodle Emporium and Honour Roll also performed above the projected net contribution, but still lost $17,573 and $8,551 respectively.
The Pit, however, performed 99 per cent below the net contribution — it only brought in $403, but was projected to bring in $24,006.
Fung-Quon attributed the lack of revenue to low drink sales. “A lot of people are pregaming before going to The Pit rather than buying drinks. So we're trying to see what type of strategies we can approach on the business side,” he said.
Gallery Patio & Lounge also performed 306 per cent below its projected net contribution.
“When it comes to our outlets that sell liquor, we have been noticing a drop in liquor sales, which is a general trend … people are drinking a little bit less,” said Fung-Quon.
“Every year we try to make sure we're more and more strategic and pre-planning … and we maximize revenue, so they go back to students for the services and offsets costs,” said Fung-Quon.
To pass code change, or to not pass…
Council also saw three code changes proposed by the Governance Committee.
The first change was to change the number of seats on the Executive Performance & Accountability (EPA) Committee from five to seven — despite the seat numbers being reduced from seven to five at the last Council meeting.
Governance Committee Chair Eshana Bhangu said “I have no issue apologizing and honestly admitting that, yes, I don't think [the previous change] was fully thought through.”
“It feels a little embarrassing to backtrack … but I believe in good governance … and that's why we're proposing this change,” she said.
Board of Governors student representative Kamil Kanji disagreed with the code change and moved a motion to send the code change back to the EPA Committee for further discussion.
Nursing Councillor Riley Huntley said he opposed sending the code change back to the EPA Committee. “We should focus instead on the root cause of what we were trying to address, rather than sending this [back and] delaying the process only to reconvene this conversation at our next meeting,” said Huntley.
However, Commerce Councillor Abeer Amir said as a member of EPA Committee, she agreed with Kanji and said “I think good governance also means having consultation with the people you are affecting.”
The motion to send the code change back failed with 11 against and 5 in favour. The original code change to increase the seats passed with 13 in favour and 3 opposed.
Two more code changes were presented to Council.
One was around committee attendance. The change read that if a committee member missed three meetings, they would automatically be removed. If committees also failed to meet regularly in accordance to AMS bylaws, committee chairs would also be removed.
Bhangu said this is not to discourage people from re-running for committees, but to “prevent any awkwardness or unnecessary confrontation that could be uncomfortable for people.”
The final code change was to allow councillors to have access to their electronic devices during in-camera sessions for EPA sessions. Normally councillors cannot have electronics out during in-camera sessions, but Bhangu said “it's very difficult for [councillors] to productively engage in EPA sessions” when they cannot check executive updates or goals.
Both code changes passed.
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