AMS Decoded: What to look for in the Sept 16 AMS Council meeting

Viet Vu
author
Published on Sept. 15, 2015

Every few weeks, your student government spends a Wednesday night to talk about a number of things. In most cases, what we talk about wonʼt affect a student's day to day activity, but there are always a few tidbits that might interest you. Hereʼs what to watch out for in the upcoming AMS Council meeting on September 16, 2015.

Committee Appointments:[/ub_subhead

The AMS Council is a large body of around 42 individuals. Considering how difficult it can be to organize 30 of your friends for a birthday party, you can imagine what we deal with -- especially when it comes to deciding on the details of a decision. To make our lives easier, the AMS has a committee structure where a lot of leg-work is delegated to a subset of Councillors (and in most cases, members at large -- UBC students who are not AMS Councillors). Appointments for almost all of these committees will be done during this meeting. If you are interested, you can still put your name on the ballot by going to the AMS website.

Code Suspension: Education Committee:[/ub_subhead

There's a motion on this meeting’s agenda, submitted by the Executive Committee, to suspend code so that the AMS Council doesn’t have to appoint anyone to this committee until May 2016. The Education Committee (EduComm) is one of the Standing Committees of the AMS, which means that it is considered to be one of the most important committees of the AMS Council. Not appointing members to it would have many implications for the governance of the AMS. The debate on this suspension is sure to be interesting.

The Forum[/ub_subhead

For the past 50 years or so, the AMS Council has almost always met in the Council Chamber of the old SUB. Last week, we held our ceremonial meeting in the Forum, the new Council Chamber in the new SUB. The new Forum is arranged to resemble a UN meeting chamber with many layers of seating, advanced AV capabilities, and really comfortable chairs.

Viet Vu is a fifth-year Economics major, AMS Councillor and current chair of the Oversight Committee. His views are his own and do not necessarily represent those of the Alma Mater Society or the Vancouver School of Economics Undergraduate Society.