AMS Decoded: What to look for in the October 23 meeting

Every other week, your elected student government meets on Wednesday night to talk about issues concerning the AMS. Agenda items can seem long, mysterious and confusing without the proper background, making it difficult to see how these issues affect students. Here’s what to watch out for in the upcoming AMS Council meeting on October 23.

This week’s food is lasagna! Food is served at 5:30 p.m. and the meetings are called to order at about 6:00 p.m. in the Michael Kingsmill Forum on the fourth floor of the Nest, across from the Gallery.

Presentations

There is one presentation on the agenda for this council meeting: a sustainability update from AMS VP Administration Cole Evans and Dani Stancer.

This presentation is the October update to the sustainability priorities set by AMS Sustainability back in June. Key goals include: AMS Sustainable Action Plan, a new sustainable resource document, partnership with other groups to support student-led initiatives and targets building on previous sustainability projects.

Code Changes

Council is also considering a series of Code changes recommended by the AMS’s Governance Committee. There are a wide variety of small changes being considered as part of this motion, which include the removal of a section regarding the “strategic framework” of the AMS, the Executive Procedures manual, Executive Project Officers and subsidiary organization publication procedures, among other things.

Job Description Approval

The HR Committee has put forth the motion to update the job title. The current job title is Executive Projects Assistant, Indian Affairs and this would be changed to Indigenous Student Engagement Facilitator. The current job title references language used previously by the Government of Canada. The language has since been updated to reflect what Indigenous peoples prefer to be referred to as. The AMS Indigenous Committee was consulted in the process.

Katherine Westerlund is a member of the Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS) and the AMS Council. Tyra Phillips is the EUS president and a member of the AMS Council.