Columns

This week's column comes to you from the middle of the holidays (not because I have a time machine, but because that's when my deadline is) and while you have all been away there's been heaps going on at OUSA.

Planning and preparation have been in full swing for ReO-Week. Art has been working with Events and our International Clubs to bring us the International Food Festival, and James has been rallying around to organise an epic celebration of all things stereotypically manly: OUSA's inaugural 'Manday.' Steph has been working on 'University Policy Made Easy', translating the rules we all should know into plain English. Claire has been sitting on the review panel for Student Health giving student feedback and making sure that student-friendly improvements are built into the recommendations. She's also been working with the Student Support Centre to bring you the next 'speed flatting' – an opportunity to find people to fill an empty room in a flat or find a flat to move in to. 
The flatting magazine gets released this week – it’s full of helpful advice, so pick one up. We are also going to deliver some 'flat taken' signs to flats. These will have 'flat taken' printed on one side and on the other, spaces for you to fill in the rent, landlord contact details, and the flat's STARS rating (WTF is that? check out housingstars.co.nz – a new benchmarking scheme for student flatting that has all the details you might forget to ask about). 
Travis, our new Postgrad Rep, has hit the ground running and is working on a whole bunch of stuff, from continuing the Postgrad Friday drinks and running (with Events) the new weekly Postgrad Coffee Hour every Wednesday at 3pm in the Gazebo Lounge, and putting some really valuable input in to the OUSA Exec structure review.
I've been putting a lot of work into that, too. After an (almost) excessive amount of consultation, brainstorming, and getting legal advice, we finally have two massive changes: reducing the Exec size, and consequently increasing student involvement, representation, and internal efficiency via the structure review, and hopefully making SGMs a thing of the past, replaced by online voting. 
The changes we are bringing in are ones that have been demanded for too long, and many Execs have attempted to bring them in but never quite made it. I've done my best to fix the problems, and will continue to work on all the supporting policy and infrastructure. What I need you to do is to vote in the referenda next week and have your say.