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The first Student General Meeting (SGM) of 2010 is going to be held this Thursday at 1pm on the OUSA Lawn. SGMs are a pretty archaic process, though.

The views of 20 000+ students are meant to be adequately expressed by a village-style vote by whoever doesn’t have class and is available and engaged enough to turn up. Furthermore, we have many historical examples of a small chunk of students stacking an SGM and ramming through some significant changes. Like a very expensive rowing facility, or another rep on the OUSA Exec, or supporting illegal actions. OUSA has been pretty good at carrying out the directives it has been given, though, and all of these motions have been respected.
One of OUSA’s biggest criticisms of the current system is that the majority is ruled by the minority. Most of the motions on the books do not have any relevance to the majority of students, and there are almost as many in-jokes as the capping show. “That Ross Blanch should be impeached and a plate of soggy cold Union Cafeteria chips replace ‘it’,” for example. There are directive motions that have been ticked off the to-do list, standpoints on issues that are no longer issues, and a whole host of just plain silly motions.
What grinds my gears even more, though, is OUSA having motions on the books about political issues that aren’t of direct concern to students. OUSA has pretty limited political capital and when it is spent directing the Exec to write to the UN about overseas political issues, or the Auckland City Council about its penis-shaped Sky Tower, core business gets forgotten and our legitimacy gets lost. 
You don’t see the New Zealand Vice Chancellors’ Committee (a very strong political voice) commenting on the Foreshore and Seabed Act, or proposed changes to alcohol laws. You don’t see the Tertiary Women’s Focus Group publicly discussing mining. OUSA certainly supports our members and their views, but OUSA’s core business should be focusing on students at the University of Otago, and staff and Executive members should not be spending time on minor issues to the detriment of other, more important ones that affect all students.
Therefore, I am proposing to rescind all previous motions and put forward more relevant ones that better describe what OUSA should be doing (IMHO). See ousa.org.nz for the full list of current external policy.
I know at least one current Executive member will be speaking against me, and I’m looking forward to some good debate. It’s gonna be juicy – I’d love to see you there (especially if you agree with me).