OUSA to Inspect Financial Records of Dunedin Fire and Circus Club

There’s no smoke without fire

The Dunedin Fire and Circus Club (DFCC), perhaps best known for dreadlocked guys with fire who randomly appear at parties on Castle Street, is having its financial records inspected by OUSA. OUSA decided to inspect the Club’s financial records in an emergency OUSA meeting on Thursday 2 July. 

A member of the DFCC confirmed that Josh Smith (aka Josh Smythe) resigned as President of the DFCC at the Club’s meeting on the night of Wednesday 1 July. The DFCC has chosen not to comment on the matter for now, but Josh said “What I can say is that the stuff going on with DFCC has no relation to my stepping down from OUSA - the reasons for which I will share [at a later time]. They just happened to occur over the same period.”

OUSA President Jack Manning said that OUSA decided to investigate because “members have brought forward concerns with the finances and asset register of the Fire and Circus Club”. There were also concerns about the “ratio of students to non-students”.

“This has been brought to [the Exec] so we are looking into these, looking into their financial records and membership list,” said Jack Manning. The DFCC is affiliated with OUSA, so has to comply with the rules that OUSA set out. The Club Affiliation Policy requires the Club to provide its financial records each year and for the Club to be made up of at least 75% students.

At the meeting, the OUSA Executive officially requested “that the Dunedin Fire and Circus Club… provide Financials records, asset register and membership list – for the purpose of club affiliation inspection.” 

The OUSA Exec gave the club a 24-hour deadline for the financial records, which have to be provided by 5pm on Friday 3 July. The Club gets “two weeks to provide additional supporting documents”.

The DFCC did not wish to comment on this story “until we have gone through the process with OUSA”.

This article first appeared in Issue 9, 2020.
Posted 1:54am Friday 3rd July 2020 by Erin Gourley and Sinead Gill.