Minutes
ASSOCIATION COUNCIL MEETING
(3/43, 3/13)
27th May 2013
Meeting of the 43rd Student Association Council opened at 11.06am by J. Cook (President)
PRESENT
J. Cook (President, Via Video Link), A. Theuma (Vice-President, Via Phone Link), L. Modlmayr (Cairns
Campus Officer, Via Video Link), M. Hodgson-Garms (Townsville Campus Officer), S. Smith (Equity &
Diversity Officer, Via Video Link), E. Mostyn (International Student’s Officer, Via Video Link), K. Ward
(Remote & External Officer, Via Phone Link), S. Kift (VC Nominee), A. McConnell (Community
Specialist), J. Lemon (Cairns Campus Director, Via Video Link), L. Ellis (Secretary)
IN ATTENDANCE
R. Vecchio, (Finance Manager), M. Wilson (WHK Presenter), C. Ryan (WHK Presenter), T. Shaw (WHK
Presenter), S. Stone (WHK Presenter)
1
APOLOGIES & PROXIES
C. Rayment (Townsville Campus Director) Apology with no proxy available
A. McConnell will arrive late, no proxy given.
2
DECLARATION OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST
J. Lemon declared a conflict with item 7.3 – Remuneration Committee Report
RESOLVED
That J. Lemon removes himself from the meeting and leave the meeting when
item 7.3 is discussed
MOVED:
SECONDED:
ABSTAINED:
CARRIED:
J. Cook
A. Theuma
M. Hodgson-Garms
Yes
RESOLVED
That the Agenda be amended to include the following items:
- 7.8.8; Amnesty International JCU Affiliation
- 7.8.9; JCU Snow Sports Affiliation
- Presidents Report
- International Report
And that item 7.12; Student Case Data be removed from the agenda
MOVED: L. Ellis
CARRIED: Yes
RESOLVED
That the Agenda be amended to include the item
- Mackay Funding
MOVED: L. Ellis
CARRIED: Yes
S. Kift entered the meeting at 11.11am
RESOLVED
That the Agenda be amended to include the item
- Townsville Campus Director
And that the meeting moves In Camera for these discussions
MOVED: J. Cook
CARRIED: Yes
3
APPROVAL OF UNSTARRED ITEMS
The following items were starred for discussion. All other items were unstarred
therefore passed.
6.4
7.2
7.3
7.6
7.9
7.10
7.11
7.12
7.13
4
Townsville Campus Officer’s Report (Verbal)
New Not-For-Profit & Charities Legislation and introduction of ACNC
(Australian, Charities and Not for Profit Commission).
Remuneration Committee Report
Clubs & Societies Club Fund
UCROO
The Green Plate Tender Cairns Campus – Update
JCUSA Cairns Campus Forced Shutdown; 22nd June – 28th July
Mackay Funding
Townsville Campus Director
CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES
4.1
Ordinary Council Meeting Minutes, 22nd April 2013 (2/43, 2/13)
RESOLVED
That the minutes be accepted as a true and accurate account of proceedings
MOVED: J. Cook
SECONDED: S. Smith
CARRIED: Yes
6
REPORTS
6.4
M. Hodgson-Garms gave a brief overview of events and meetings she has
been involved with over the last month. Highlights include;
The mature age function was held last month and did not go
particularly well. She would not recommend that this event be
held again as only one person attended. It was pushed back a
number of times due to bad weather and she believes this could
have contributed to the lack of numbers.
-
-
-
The Global Village Fair was a huge success. It was a big harmony
day celebration with collaboration between Elizabeth Gilson, Kate
Simpson and herself. This event has taken up a lot of her time
over the last couple of weeks.
The Uni Club hours have been in the news a lot so she will see
how that goes next semester. The general consensus was that
being an all student club will be a positive difference. A lot of the
students think it is the general community that have been coming
in and causing the problems. They don’t have the level of respect
for the campus that students do. They will see how it goes next
semester. Hopefully it clears up nice and easily. There is an
understanding that the behavior has to stop.
The next thing that they have to think about is O’week and who is
going to be helping her. J. Cook advised that E. Mostyn, K. Ward
and A. Theuma will come down if they so wish.
RESOLVED
That the Townsville Campus Officer’s Report be accepted
MOVED: M. Hodgson-Garms
RESOLVED
That all reports be moved on block
MOVED: J. Cook
SECONDED: S. Smith
CARRIED: Yes
7
GENERAL BUSINESS
7.2
New Not-for-Profit & Charities Legislation and Introduction of ACNC
(Australian Charities and Not for Profit Commission)
T. Shaw, from WHK, advised that she was here to talk about the new ACNC,
where you are at and where to go and the issues that may arise. She
introduced the team who were with her to present, they include: C. Ryan;
Specialist Tax Consultant, S. Stanley; Business Advisory Consultant, M.
Wilson; Tax section and works with both S. Stanley and C. Ryan.
Today they will talk about what has bitten us and where it will go. It has
taken the ATO 2 years to get this new legislation into function and then
another 16 months to get it working completely.
Arriving from the audit, partly through the fact that you have got a
situation where the JCU knows the SSAFunding is under challenge, we have
the Gonski report that might pull money out of funding, they have put
together the main issues that you need to be acting on, if you have to make
the move then you have less than 30 days to act on it if it passes.
The presentation (appendix A) advised what they would be covering off
and T. Shaw went through the presentation.
The main idea behind the new legislation is to stop people running
businesses that they could tax in the name of charity. The legislation is now
through and they have clarity on what you are going to do if you’re in it.
There is a bill in parliament that gives a new definition of charity, one major
exclusion that may impact on us. The ATO is currently re-writing the not
for profit rules, that still hasn’t made it into parliament. They have had a
couple of goes to see what they would like to do.
Risk Assessment:
The audit management letter raised a number of risks that should be
looked at, they include that there wasn’t adequate control over cash
handling in the club. What happened is you were banking more money
than you were supposed to have. We care because there are a fair few
issues that we have. This is in fact a fraud risk because it means it is not
correct behavior. It was in relation to the doors and everything from issuing
tickets, clickers, tables etc and particular later in the night it is hard to get
those working. Had a look at staff selection, they don’t know the premises
they don’t know the business the staff selection issue causes an issue.
When you are dealing with bar activities, does this person have an RSA
certificate? If not, that’s ok we’ll put them on the door. You have put them
in control of crowd management, implication for fire safety; this then has
implication for liquor licensing. They then come back to us for financial
penalties. This is a high risk thing; we know you’ve got more money but the
trail of the risks is a significant thing to look at.
The ACNC has for a registered entity of which we are, you now have to look
at everything you do and have to come up with a risk assessment for
everything we do. This is a long winded and quiet frightening process.
During the next few months you have to go through this process knowing
we have protected ourselves. One of the risks we have the ACNC says if
you are a registered charity you may not carry on a commercial entity
unless you are incidental. If you are in a position to make money to fund
other activities, they are going to be commercial activities and not
incidental. Will the ACNC class the activities as commercial, if you don’t do
that you lose your charity status. That is what we were asked to consider
and the things that you have to look at.
A preliminary assessment of the business activities has been done to look
at what is likely to be caught and what is viable and feasible as well as what
you might need to think about changing and closing.
He said they looked at the financial results of the commercial activities,
they looked at the present structure.
They compared the weighted average of the results to benchmark and
what is the viability of the outlets moving forward. The shop wages are
fairly high; it is profitable but not trading in a true commercial
environment. The wages are well above the average, we averaged out the
benchmark, and we would need a substantial increase in turnover.
Food services: Both entities make money; they are shown to make money
so they went together as one. In the scheme of it, they both make profit,
some years are better than others. From a benchmark perspective, wages
are way up there. M. Wilson has done the analysis on this. Wages need to
be pulled down by a quarter of a million this is a 30% reduction, overall the
business is performing slightly higher than the benchmark it excludes rent
and depreciation that normal commercial outlets would do. Your business
earns 4% profit where it should be increased by 10% overheads can’t
increase and up your sales by 50% or pull back your wages by 30% it is the
wages that is the significant contributor and if they were to bring in a
commercial rent the business would be less than the benchmark.
J. Lemon explained that a lot of the premises we don’t pay rent for.
L. Modlmayr asked why there is a big discrepancy on the wages, are we
comparing it to McDonalds where they pay juniors. They used five places,
they don’t include McDonalds, we aren’t being compared to the multinational organisations. S. Smith asked why our wages are so high; they are
issues that need to look at. We need to look at the possibility of those
businesses operating in a full commercial environment and giving revenue
back to the Association.
In the area of the bars, these figures are based on the last three years and
WHK haven’t factored in the change of trading hours and the change of
clientele. That intuitively will create a worse result than this. We have an
average loss over the last three years in the Townsville bars. The gross
profit margins are quiet good, which is a pat on the back in relation to the
sales compared to the cost of sales. The overheads are out there in terms
of wages. The Cairns bar is a small operation and is only open on a Friday
afternoon. It is failing on a lot of levels; it is too small to stand on its own.
You would need to watch that the Cairns bar doesn’t grossly
underperform; a failure of this would put the Townsville bar at risk. The
gross profit margin is about 10% above the benchmark, but it is really just
the overheads that are blowing out. Wages is a problem but isn’t the only
issue. If you were able to sustain the revenue, you would need to trim
wages by $60k, you don’t have commercial rent and you still aren’t
meeting the benchmark. One of the options they thought of, there is a
potential to merge the food and bar businesses together. If the bar can’t
make enough money to sustain itself, the food services could support the
bar. The failure of the bar would be a concern if it pulls down food services.
JCUSA Student Association is subject to an EBA which is a problem and that
potentially means your wages condition are higher, commercially there is
no such thing as banking your toil balance there are various other things
such as RDO’s that will make your wages higher. A lot of the bars tend to
rely on casual staff so you are paying them a loading as well. J. Lemon said
these figures will get much worse when we take into account the new
trading hours.
An analysis has been conducted on the percentage of Thursday and
stopping of Tuesday and substituting a Saturday, it looks as though if the
overheads remain the same we would be looking at a loss of $50k given the
reduction in revenue that could relate back to ta problem. Having a bar on
campus is a good thing as far as the type of activities that happen, they
aren’t saying close it down but you have to think about how that can be
sustainable going forward. That is why M. Wilson has thrown that in the
ring to say bar and food move together as one. There are some economies
of scale by merging them and help to make it more of a profitable
enterprise. J. Lemon said it is unlikely that we will return to Tuesday night
trading and Thursday night late trade as the University has advised that
there is a clear academic problem with students attending lectures on
Wednesday and Friday mornings, they aren’t in the mood to negotiate. He
doesn’t believe we will be trading to 1am again. They are looking at writing
it into the lease agreement that unless there is a band or toga etc, then we
wouldn’t be able to trade on those days.
Travel agency: Obviously there is a lot of red figures across the bottom, it
is there as more of a service than commercial activity, as far as benchmarks
go its wages are the thing that make it not viable, it is a full time position
and in order to bring it up to benchmark, you would need to increase the
sales substantially to get the level of commission, it is quiet substantial. The
Travel agency benchmarking is a bit trickier to do; it is travel and ticket
agency. He did some numbers to work out how much more commissions
you would need to do, excluding growth in the ticket agency, you would
need to get $50k. There is quite a lot of revenue and he doesn’t see that
you can push those wages down; they don’t see that being feasible in the
long term. The Travel Agency is also responsible for $2k of the audit fee.
Moving on to the fitness centre, it is a good profitable business within
bench marks. It does pay rent at a commercial level; it is well under the
market. It does make money and it does have a future. Benchmark wise, to
bring it up to benchmark, increase sales by $90k to make the rent if it came
to commercial rates. As far as this year goes, it is a viable business.
Publications: A very small business that includes the student diary and the
Bullsheet. In the newspaper, print media has showing a drop in far as the
research seems the trend is moving away from print media. It doesn’t
make much money and it’s not a big plus. He doesn’t know how we can
make that into something without a major contract to print something. The
issues aren’t clear enough in the act to see if the paper can be a part of the
commercial venture.
Sporting club: They are there, they are more a social kind of an entity,
without the funding that would come from SSAF they are loss making
entities. An option would be to charge a membership fee that could bring it
into a commercial entity. It may come under the charitable purpose part of
things, as long as it is offering inter-house type activities.
T. Shaw said the definition of charity excludes sporting and social events
except when they are not significant. It looks like they will interpret it as if
you are hosting events as a regular thing, it will probably be a social event
and sporting event and won’t be an acceptable activity where one off
events you would be able to run those events. Social sport wouldn’t be
acceptable.
For WHK, a very clear thing to take into account is we look at revenue
streams from a taxing point of view, the sporting club from a tax point of
view; it has a long way to go before it becomes an issue. It is a contentious
issue; unfortunately those that are arguable for you aren’t making any
money anyway. That would be the least of our worries.
R. Vecchio said the one benefit in moving it from a charity, would be the
ability to apply for grants. A very important aspect is we aren’t sure if the
Tax office will attack a commercial revenue stream, it might come after the
gym activity or if it will attack at the entity level. All of these entities are
basically income tax exempt. Keeping a sport under that, it might give ATO
an option to attack at the entity level. Therefore your entity is excluded
from the definition of charity, that could be while there are some items in
there that aren’t going to cause tax problem, they may cause indirect tax
problems.
WHK rated the feasibility of the businesses moving forward.
They found possible issues with the Shop, publications, Sporting Clubs.
Things that would have potential to go ahead include Food Services, Bars
and Fitness Centre. Outlets that do not have potential moving forward
include Travel.
S. Smith asked if the change in the legislation proceeds will we need to pay
commercial rent and if so, is this something that we need to lock in for the
long term. A number of our businesses will fail should the commercial rate
for rent be charged. He said the thing you might have in your favor is if you
decide not to go ahead with it and a commercial entity comes in to run it, if
you can’t make it without commercial rent, it will be hard to make it a
commercial rent.
C. Ryan said to be honest he talks about tax problems when people make
money but this is an interesting situation whereby you aren’t making
money. You have to be aware of the possible implications ACNC
organization to police everything and corporate governance.
While this is for our benefit, yes, the government wants to make a dollar
out of it too. Go and have a read about Word Investments. The ATO in that
case tried to attack a commercial activity, they ran a funeral home which
was highly profitable, the funds were channeled towards there altruistic
activities that is what saved them. The court decided in favor of the tax
payer, putting funds into the charity. With the current case law, it doesn’t
have the arsenal to attack the not for profit sector. This will give it the tools
to do so.
The timeframe for this is January 1, 2014 subject to further extension. They
have been very slow to move, he wouldn’t be surprised if they pushed out
that deadline again. We would d need to do a hell of a lot to restructure
the entity by that time. We would need to set up new companies and
shifting those businesses into newly established companies. There is a lot
to do. Licensing in the pubs and clubs for example would be tricky in that a
liquor licence is very hard to obtain let alone transfer to a new entity so
even if the entity is wholly owned you are still transferring to a new
company if that takes 3-4 months to achieve, that brings the date that we
would need to look at this to September. We don’t want to do a
restructure while we don’t know what the ATO will grab at. It might suit us
to move the GYM, we can’t restructure on the basis of the charity status
but we need plans in the back of our minds because that date is going to be
on us before we know it.
The whole tax entity could become taxable but they might just look at each
businesses activity. It may then be too late to transfer those businesses.
That 1st January 2014 is the definition but we need to take action prior to
that date because we could get taxed on transferring and capital gains etc.
The 31st December 2013 is the date they hope to have it done.
Structuring for new activities, we have go the gym, the bar, the travel
agency you are going to have to go through and see what activities could
be taxed and what could be looked as a taxable entity. The nature of the
time frame that is upon us, if we were to apply to the tax office to confirm
that position, they wouldn’t’ rule on it because they have no legislation.
There are a lot of challenges, WHK will send you a lot of publications it is
just flagging it as a potential restructure moving forward and stay up to
date.
A. McConnell arrived at 12.14pm
He was going to flag on how that situation would work. Let’s use the
example of the gym. It has effectively got the business from JCUSA, year
one it would make a taxable profit, we would then pay a freight dividend
up to the head company, and then the head company would pay the
dividend to JCUSA. It is not a tax return it is a refund for tax implication
credits. Even if JCUSA invested in shares in Telstra it would pay for the
dividends. It is passive investments. You could have BHP and Telstra shares
in the same manner and have those dividends on the same form. There
would be about a 12 month delay in the process which can be a pain in the
backside. He understands there is a consideration based on the U.K model
that allows for the money to be transferred up direct to the income tax
exempt entity. It means that you can finish your financials for the year and
basically get an after date deduction to cover you for the transfer of the
cash. That is not a deductible donation as such. It is a special concession to
not smash poor not for profits. It could be a complex restructure.
L. Modlmayr asked for clarification on if there was a difference in owning
100% of the head company compared to shares in Telstra, basically no, not
from a corporate governance point of view. You could judge them as
passive investments, if you treat them like that when you expect a rate of
return it’s not a bad way to go. From a tax point of view there is no
difference. He said that to be honest, that is quiet quick presentation; we
would need a couple of hours to present fully to a client. There is plenty of
time to go through it.
T. Shaw said we don’t know where the tax is going, for the past year and a
half accountants have been going back between the Treasury trying to
thrash out the implications. They have some ideas where it is going. Apart
from whether you will pay on it, there are implications on the governance
body i.e. board, council etc. That body has certain obligations and under
the ACNC act, those sitting on that body are expected to have a certain
level of skills, financial, concepts that ensures you can run those
businesses. Does this mean that all members need to know how to run the
bar, gym, food handling laws etc? Theoretically yes. Particularly, one failure
of a business could wipe out your entire funds i.e. asset protection. Put the
gym here, travel there. If it goes down you don’t lose everything else. The
Bars might pull the food down but these are the decisions you have to
make.
There are 2 columns on the spreadsheet (included in the attachment). You
could put in place a board that would run the entity and that board would
be in a place to run the commercial aspect. The councilor’s responsibility is
to select that board. Currently the wages are dictated by the Enterprise
Bargaining Agreement, when it lapses move them to commercial standards
to sort out the excess wages bill. There are a few issues; it allows you to
put things on a commercial footing. It allows you to have a board to run it
and select them properly. This is being done right throughout the not for
profit world. You can actually ask people, to be a director of your company.
You do it by putting an ad in the paper or go to alumni. Possibly having one
seat for a member of Council to sit on but that could have problems. It
allows Council to controlling the composition of the board; give them a
contract to sign. It is a solution to put one further line between you.
Passive investment: J. Lemon asked what type of, if any, remuneration or
indemnity insurance would we have to do for the board of directors.
Medicare locals have just been through this process, their boards are not
remunerated and carry an insurance that says they haven’t been negligent
but you don’t remunerate them. It is a matter of the people running your
organization without the benefit of remuneration. You have the entire
alumni to choose from. She advised having 3-4 year appointments, initial
appointment for 4 years, half of whom retire at the first term and then
rotate. A. McConnell said it’s a major commitment you would be requiring
without remuneration. T. Shaw said they are out there and they apply and
they need to meet commitments. You probably will have the ability to pick
and choose, but university boards are pretty easily filled. The processes
are there that would allow us to do this, we don’t know right now when
these decisions will have to be made for the tax laws. It is worth thinking
about now even if the tax becomes a particularly important thing. There
are a lot of people watching this; you have to be planned for where you are
going because we won’t have time when we know.
T. Shaw said the presentation is with you but we hope to lead the council
through this process moving forward.
M. Wilson, C. Ryan, T. Shaw and S. Stone team left at 12.33pm
7. 3
Remuneration Committee Report
J. Lemon left at 12.33pm
J. Cook said that over the last few months we have been organizing the
process leading up to the interviews for campus positions of campus
directors. They have interviewed the candidates. A. McConnell and A.
Theuma could attest that we had very good candidates who got through to
the interview round. It was rather difficult to weigh up these candidates
work history and there relevant experience.
The successful candidates for the position of:
Townsville Campus Director is Wayne Preston
Cairns Campus Director is Jonathon Lemon
These two individuals will commence on 1st July, these contracts are three
years.
He asked if A. Theuma or A. McConnell had anything further to add A.
McConnell commended J.Cook on his conduct through the process, it is
really commendable to J. Lemon that he performed at the level he did. He
would like to note that R. Vecchio was there and provided great input for
the questions. He also would like it noted that R. Vecchio was not involved
in the decision process. Peter Wally Thompson didn’t turn up.
J. Cook asked if Council had any questions in relation to this item.
RESOLVED
That the Remuneration Committee Report be accepted
MOVED: J. Cook
SECONDED: M. Hodgson-Garms
CARRIED: Yes
J. Cook will contact all applicants and advise them of the outcome. No
party is aware of the decision.
J. Lemon returned at 12.37pm
7.6
Clubs & Societies Club Fund
L. Modlmayr said he had the idea when they were going through the
funding process and he came up with M. Migdale and Tony Hewitt. We
have been given an extra $10k funding. A lot of clubs wanted to do similar
activities or events. He suggests that we instead of allocating that money
directly to a Club or Society use it between campuses to purchase
equipment that they can use and access. Simple things would include a
BBQ, portable PA system that clubs can use. We would need to look at the
agreement with the University and see if there is any formal consideration
process to utilize the fund. The other problem would be is if we haven’t
already allocated that money. J. Lemon said in your list there are issues in
that the Estates office might be looking at a BBQ like what Townsville have
in Market Square. But these are great ideas.
S. Smith said that having a portable BBQ would be good for events that are
held across the other side of campus. J. Lemon said there are possibilities;
you could even buy Webber etc.
L. Modlmayr said the other thing they discussed is paying for oil, gloves,
gas etc. If we earmark this money so we can cover ongoing costs.
M. Hodgson-Garms left at 12.42pm
R. Vecchio said that some of the grant funding was set aside for
administration costs, approx $3-5k. J. Lemon said he agreed in principle,
continue to be active.
RESOLVED
That we set aside the $10,000 to be spent on infrastructure and
maintenance on clubs and societies pending clarification from the
University that we can use that fund for this purpose
MOVED:
SECONDED:
ABSTAINED:
CARRIED:
L. Modlmayr
J. Cook
A. McConnell
Yes
RESOLVED
That we move item 7.14; Townsville Campus Director forward in the
Agenda
MOVED: J. Cook
CARRIED: Yes
R. Vecchio left the meeting at 12.48pm
7.14 Townsville Campus Director
RESOLVED
That the meeting move in Camera for the purposes of item 7.14
MOVED: J. Cook
CARRIED: Yes
L. Ellis left the meeting at 12. 49pm
RESOLVED
That the Townsville Campus Director be relieved of her duties effective 27th
May 2013, and that the remainder of the contract be paid out including
leave entitlements on provision that a release from further legal action is
signed
MOVED: J. Cook
SECONDED: L. Modlmayr
ABSTAINED: A. McConnell
S. Kift
CARRIED: Yes
RESOLVED
That all complaints received from the JCUSA in relation to union and
delegates will be assessed and lodged through Fair Work Australia
MOVED: J. Cook
SECONDED: L. Modlmayr
ABSTAINED: A. McConnell
S. Kift
CARRIED: Yes
RESOLVED
That complaints made by the former Townsville Campus Director will be
assessed and investigated through internal channels with the assistance of
James Cook University Human Resources or other independent entities
MOVED:
SECONDED:
ABSTAINED:
CARRIED:
J. Cook
L. Modlmayr
A. McConnell
Yes
Until such time as a new contract is in place J. Lemon will also be acting
Townsville Campus Director There is the option of J. Lemon holding both
roles or potentially appointing one of the managers in Townsville as acting
Director once we know a start date for W. Preston.
S. Kift suggested that J. Cook mention to the VC when he has a meeting
with her next. If this is going to be a media thing, she should be let know
ASAP. What we have done today will contain that. We have done what was
requested. She said that you still should make the VC aware.
7.9
UCROO
Essentially this is a University a network or social networking opportunity.
S. Kift advised that the platform takes a whole university approach. They
have currently trialed it at Monash and will engage in open universities
Australia they want to know if JCU will be involved. www.ucroo.com.au
There is a little video presentation on the site; it seems to be a nice
opportunity to engage in social media opportunity. The various matters
they have under that website include the classes, where Clubs and
societies could advise and update, subject and reviews, uni fees. They can
also earn points that could use to get discounts on club discounts and
ticketed events. The Uni have enough going on across the institution but
they are happy to liaise with UCROO. The organiser wanted to attend VCAC
but she isn’t sure that VCAC would be the appropriate venue for that. You
might like to go back and look at the website. She doesn’t think there is a
cost. J. Lemon would like to look at it. It connects in an online website
tailored to the university network. There is an opportunity that we may or
may not want to proceed. There seems to be a lot of the University based
networking things out there, this is a good opportunity to look at them. She
is not advocating for it one way or another.
7.10 The Green Plate Tender Cairns Campus - Update
The Green Plate tender for the Cairns institute went back out to market,
JCUSA has re-submitted making a number of adjustments, and we were in
the top 3. They had another meeting with JCU to have further discussions;
they don’t know as yet, he was hoping to have a result before this council
meeting. He is hoping to hear either today or tomorrow. Which would be
fantastic for the organization, the figures would be horrific if we lost the
café.
7.11 JCUSA Cairns Campus Forced Shutdown; 22nd June – 28th July
The roof leaks on the cairns campus student complex, they finally got the
builders back to fix the problem and it is going to take approximately 5
weeks. The company is coming back which is great. The way they built the
roof is incorrect, The Refectory, the Office, the Bookshop, Loading Dock,
the Donga are all affected. The Deck Café might be able to get access but
only limited preparation area; we have got a couple of options.
Unfortunately in the lease agreement there is no option for compensation,
the builders insurance might be able to cover the cost. There is an old lease
agreement where it says we have like for like spaces, mining kitchen
shipping containers. They are getting quotes on how feasible that is. 28th
July is when they intend to have the work completed, it will affect O’week.
It is going to be a little bit difficult. What is of concern is he has never heard
of a project being delivered on time, so they are planning on not being
operational in week 1. L. Modlmayr asked if there is a chance of moving it
out to December. J. Lemon said rain becomes an issue, to get the builders
back on the table and back on the roof, took threat of legal action so the
builders don’t want to be there they want a window of time and aren’t
concerned with how it impacts on the Student Association. He will speak
with T. Brand in relation to some form of compensation package. L.
Modlmayr asked if we could look at getting another coffee cart. J. Lemon
said he was looking at getting the portable kitchen in the student zone. At
least student council will be in the student zone. Looking into the future,
we are going o lose funding. The Cairns institute won’t be open in that
time. L. Ellis put forward the option of getting the Library coffee cart from
Townsville shipped to Cairns when Juliette’s opens.
If the deck café goes down as well, one coffee cart isn’t going to be
enough. If we can get the library coffee cart from Townsville then that is a
viable option. He will keep Council up to date when he gets more
information.
7.12 Mackay Funding
Approval for funding was sought from R. Vecchio and it was given.
RESOLVED
That $375 be provided for Mackay students to hold an end of study get –
together. These funds will be sourced from the Campaign budget.
MOVED:
SECONDED:
ABSTAINED:
CARRIED:
8
K. Ward
J. Cook
A. McConnell
Yes
QUESTION TIME
8.1
S. Kift said the University is very grateful for the support the Student
Association has given to the promotion of the Your Subjects survey. They
have had 20% returned and in 2011 the response rate was 4%. It is a
considerable increase and it is still going. They are trying to put in measures
on how we are using the data being collected. A. Hill wanted Council to
know she is very grateful for the assistance from the Student Association
and so is S. Kift. She advised that the Engineers & Dentistry responses are
down; perhaps email the dentistry Student Association advising them that
things aren’t going to get better until feedback gets better.
8.2
S. Smith raised the concern that the trading hours of the Refectory haven’t
been advertised and a number of students had been disappointed when
they went to purchase food. She also didn’t realise the coffee cart was
closed. J. Lemon said the location of the coffee cart sees issues arise when
it rains due to the location of the power supply. It is a safety issue. It was
scheduled to close when the Cairns Institute was open, they have just
brought that forward. Crowther is also looking as if it will go back to being a
kitchenette for events being held. The University is determined that
whoever is given the new Café space is able to proceed and that the
assumption is there that everyone in the middle of the campus will walk to
either side. He also advised that the food lab is closing during the 5 weeks
break. This will include both the Food Lab and the Student Zone and S.
Smith asked if we can repatriate the microwaves to another area so
students can still access them. She said the hours aren’t displayed and
when we are going into lecture recess the hours change. J. Lemon advised
that notice is generally given 3-4 weeks before that happens. S. Smith said
there isn’t trading hours posted in those spaces.
8.3
E. Mostyn has been doing some hard work surveying international
students. About 2 weeks ago they did the free bbq for international
students while they were there they surveyed them. The Townsville
Campus has on campus accommodation for both domestic and
international students; unfortunately this isn’t the case for Cairns Campus.
As JCU is trying to attract more international students, they need more
reasonable options. Most of those students are from North America
particular Canada and United States; most are here for a Dentistry degree
so are here for 5 years. 70 out of 370 international Students participated in
the survey that equates to 19.5% of the total international students on the
Cairns Campus. There were 48 people in favour of on campus
accommodation and 33.3% were not. We had female to male ratio as
equal. Mostly students from North America would really like to live on
campus and have that available to them. Whether it is a single or multi
bedroom units something should be offered. In America and Canada, all
universities have on campus accommodation. The Student Lodge isn’t a
reasonable option for accommodation as it is very noisy, it is privately
owned and the security is an issue which was raised during the survey. She
is asking for a building that will provide the security and self contained
units, there isn’t even a sink at the student lodge. L. Modlmayr asked if
they are looking at building a 250 bed facility on campus as that is what he
had heard. J. Lemon said that all of the models had fallen short. S. Kift will
raise this with T. Brand and understands it is an ongoing issue in Cairns. She
said they are in no position to move in the finances, but T. Brand might
have another plan and she will find out and feed that information back
through J. Cook.
8.4
K. Ward asked how she would go about getting the money to the students
in Mackay in relation to item 7.12. J. Lemon will work it out with R. Vecchio
and get back to K. Ward. The student from her committee is co-ordinating
it so we might be able to organise it with her.
Meeting closed at 1.55pm
Confirmed (Chairperson)____________________________ Date___________________
Confirmed (Secretary) ____________________________ Date___________________