June 25th 2015
Trent in Oshawa Student Association (TOSA)
Board of Director Meeting
5:00pm
Room 110
• Call to order at 5:27pm
• Call for New Business
• Approval of the agenda
All in favour
• Declaration of Conflict of Interest
• Executive Update
Shawn
-concert, finding sponsors and sponsorships, services. Audio, advertising, etc
-June orientation
-Meeting with MPP Jennifer French, administrative bloating.
-Guest blog for OUSA about environmental initiatives
-building relations with UOIT/DC SA. Election strategy for fed election in oct
-Logistics for name change. (TOSA to TDSA)
-terminating contracts with companies that we no longer use, that are still getting billed for
-convocation meeting, potential to move it to Oshawa (Nick also was in attendance)
Point of interest: Alyssa – explains what she has heard regarding the convocation. Students could
attend with their degree to Peterborough convocation or attend durham grad.
Convocation would not fit on durham campus
Nick
-concert, negotiating with the band contract
-Sept 8th concert date
-Native Other is opening
-Insurance, risk management
-trying to get in touch with the City regarding the contract, not receiving responses. Planning on
going in person
-migrated website content
-mytdsa.ca is the new website
-Planned the June BBQ
-changing names on all social media accounts
-marketing strategies with the university
-June orientation
-Class of 2019 facebook group, monitoring and answering questions
-teambuilding event
Chris
-research and review for operating policy, with chris nelan`s assistance
-OUSA bill 184. The first act brought o the table within 6-8 months. Student autonomy bill, provides
SA`s with clarification of the power. University can`t withhold membership fees from the SA.
Legitimate organization with legitimate CRA membership (further explained by Shawn) what is the
purpose of the SA, how much security do they have within the university
-red flags: the university can withhold funds if there are any discrepancies in the bilaws. And the
administration has the power to govern the SA. Deal breakers that are planned to be further
discussed
-met with Yvonne Baker (mpp of Etobicoke) discussed surveys for students, guidance counsellors
-VP finance for OUSA, investment options for the surplus
-made a communication strategy for TDSA. How we can reach out to students through a variety of
campaigns, including social media
-updating the website (should have been a call for new business)
-peterborough meeting on june 24th for the secual violence committee. Trent is re-vamping and
making changes
-going over clubs policy for next board meeting with nick
Discussions and Decisions:
A) Budget (Shawn)
Generally what the revenue is (sept athletic fees and memersbhip fees, explains the levies.
Explains how everything can fluctuate
Lowballing the tuck shop revenue and also the event revenue
Other revenue can include leo`s name change $
We low balled how many members we will have in the fall. Projected a large increase in
student enrolment
Expenses
Operating budget, salaries, conference fees, travel, professional development, agendas,
awards, webpage, bank service fees, etc.
Semi formal has become membership appreciation night. Giving away awards for
dedication, hoping to boost engagement
Tiffany explains the decrease of expense for the agendas and the clothing orders, for this
upcoming school year compared to last year.
Lawyer charges for the name change
Chris nelan explains the difference between operating fees and levies (the columns in the
budget spread sheet) spread sheet is accessible to BOD through google docs.
Removal of the board swag budget line. Converted into the awards. Going to be giving a
discount for board members.
Money allotted for the campaign budget. Currently 1150, shawn states that it might be over
budgeted
Might be getting an on campus voting booth
Nick explains the budget for the clubs, annual events, orientation, giveaways, athletics and
intramurals, etc. (16 clubcs, $250 per club) additional funding might be available for the
clubs to put on slightly larger events. We are decreasing the budget, for example the career
gala was very expensive for TDSA (explains the matching grants)
Concert may have a surplus depending on number of tickets sold, currently need about 2
thousand more for the direct cost.
Budget is at $0 balance. Any potential surplus can be put into the investments. Non-profits,
we are not making money (direct profit) but we can set the investment aside to further
benefit the organization in the future. Specifically for expansive. Closer to February we can
determine what the potential surplus would be and whether we would like to deal with it
now or allow the following year`s executives to decide.
No questions. Move to discuss standing committees
B) Standing Committees (led by Christ fernlund)
How do we engage the student body and get them involved in student affairs. Potential to
create volunteer positions for students, student advisors to the ORD.
Market student committee positions to help out with the board of the executives. Student
advisor for the finance committee, student clubs advisor, etc.
Joe Cassidy: what is the role of an advisor
External student who is not a director, who wishes to get involved
Ord = organization review and development (bylaw committee)
This may shorter the board meetings, smaller groups can go over various topics, and bring
any concerns to the board meeting directly. Also allows board members to express areas of
interest (IE finance interest, etc)
Marilyn requests further description. Shawn reiterates
Standing committees have their own consultations regarding very specific topics. Board is
the governing body that can ratify all the decisions
Is student advisor an appealing title (chris fernlund)
Depends on the committee.
Instead of having a club advisor, just have a board member attend the club meetings (joe C)
Nick: club policy under construction.
Clubs committee vote whether or not they should be given additional money, some clubs
that do not have enough members, apply for matching grants, etc. should not just be done
amoung the club executives, but should be approved by the BOD as well. (club packages that
are incomplete are a waste of time to go through)
Have the name the student advisor of the specific area of interest
Going to be selecting which BOD are part of which standing committee. Pre-made tentative
list.
Finance: shawn, joe, Marilyn, morgan and laura
Membership issues and services: shawn, nick, alyssa, Jaclyn, Emily , morgan (health benefits
and athletics)
Organizational review and dev: chris, joe, Marilyn, kayla, Emily, laura (once a month, every
two month)
Clubs: nick, Jaclyn, alyssa, kayla and laura (people who will not be a club executive, kayla is
an anthro club exec)
Marilyn may exec the business club. ?
Advocacy and campaigns: chris, marily, shawn, kayla, Emily, laura
C) General student outrearch (chris F)
D) Contracts – shawn
Tiffany’s contract
Newparamount studios for grad photos
Terminated one and one emails (webmail)
Contract for concert sponsorship
Buster rhinos contract, main alcohol provider for events
The city
E) Executive priorities
Shawn: reshape the organization is structured and looked at, improvement of the openness
of the budget. Provide adequate services to students and board members
Already organizing election dates and AGM dates. Make things easier for future executives
Nick: making sure people know what events are and what the clubs are doing. Making sure
students are attending on campus activities. Improving the event attendance for the overall
campus. Support the clubs, meeting more frequently with the executives so they are aware
of responsibilities. Push athletics. Making sure students get something out of what they pay
for.
Chris: organizational reform through the bylaws and the budget and operating policy. Make
sure we are held accountable. Process of elections and how we reach out to students,
advocacy, why do students pay memberships, what do we do for the students?
Transparency.
F) Tuition framework gauge
Chris F: approve to skip topic for the moment
G) Upcoming dates (nick)
Some ideas for summer events that are not expensive, include, additional TDSA BBQ’s, July
13th or July 15th. Announcing the concert on the 13th. Approved to have BBQ on Wednesday
so that we can advertise on Monday and Tuesday.
Rubber ducky race.
Video game event. Tuesday evenings could work potentially.
H) General Discussion (chris F)
Executive log. Purpose to keep board members up to date on what the executives do on a
daily basis. Is very tedious to do on a daily basis and takes additional times out of the day.
Useful for when executives work from home, so that we know what executives do when
working out of the office.
Alyssa: proposes to do a weekly log instead of daily, to view what has been accomplished at
the end of each week. Does not waste as much time.
Joe: agrees to do weekly
Chris Nelan: could potentially include, what you have done for the week and also what you
plan on doing the following week, or things you did not get to that week
Joe: could colour code, one colour for things you did accomplish and one colour for things
we have yet to do
Nick: save time in board meetings by giving the info on what the executives have done
inbetween the meetings, by having the BOD’s read this in advance
Jaclyn: the week ahead, point form. Revisit this next meeting.
Chris N: more beneficial to have the executives state in the board meetings what they are
going to do next month instead of talking about what was already completed, as the BOD’s
will already have access to the logs.
Alyssa: can everyone make an effort to connect with students via the class of 2019 facebook
page. Recommend courses, etc.
Chris: move to general discussion. Teambuilding. Formal could be ziplining. Informal could
be having a bonfire in little Britain at chris’ mother’s property.
Joe: would like to see more structured team building, rather than just hanging out with
colleagues outside of the board meetings.
Discussion with Nick: funny photos for the website. Request for bios from the directors.
Decisions:
Jaclyn - Motion to move to the operating policy
June 25h 2015 motion to approve the operating policy. Board of directors approve the
amenments of the operating policy, has not been updated in thepast 5 years. Current
amendments reflect the operating practice.
Chris F goes through major changes in the operating policy document, quickly, for those
who had not read the document in advance.
Chris move to amend the approve of the operating policy.
4.4 – approval of banked time in excess of 20 % of hours per week instead of 5
Board approves
Chris amends the current motion 5. 116 – transitional exec training from 10 to fifteen
All in favour.
Chris amends 8.1 removing the last sentence in the paragraph
Move to approve
All in favour
Chris amends policy 7, suggest that we remove the credit card report (already taken care of
by tiffany)
All in favour
Move to approve the operating policy
All in favour
Jaclyn : approval of advocacy and campaigns
Move to discuss
Shawn, seconds
Chris f: adding a standing committee of advocacy and campaign in addition to the ones
listed above. Move to approve
All in favour
Joe : requests all board members reach out to the chair for their department. Establish
relationships with incoming students as well.
Jaclyn: for everyone to arrive five to ten minutes prior to the beginning of the meeting.
Nick: explains the use of proxy votes.
Chris: voting can become invalid if we amend motions
Joe: state availability, dedicate yourself
Jaclyn: move to adjourn
All in favour