USI Congress

little miss

Just read now that USI congress starts today... not sure if its worth noting or not, given how awful the organisation is. All the talk about change over the years, and it only gets worse. Anything worth noting about congress? Anything contentious coming up? Any exciting election? Or, should I just not care? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Nietzschean

i'm going to go strongly with the option of just not caring... i never have....

though donal/neil/joe are all gone on some pissup in ennis so i hear....

cuckoo

I'm getting more and more curious about your identity little miss.....do i know you? Are you one of my alter egos, 'cos sometimes i find myself reading your posts and being convinced that i wrote them.

Trinity's being represented down there by a delegation that has some boardsies, so they can keep us updated.

My 2c:

elections? nothing interesting to see here. move along now. the only election being contested is Education, the other races are equality, president and welfare and they're one horse races. this year's hustings at congress will be over very quickly.

the motions? i had a quick skim of them, they can be found here:

http://www.usi.ie/pages/usi-congress-2006.php

my quick impressions are:

there's a lot of the same old, same old (condoms - good. non centralised grant authority - bad). Kudos to NUIG, usi president and (first time in aaaages i've seen them put in motions) american college for well written motions. real clunker there in UO7 from our own tcdsu

contentious?
-the siptu link, the usi education officer has a motion in there about getting rid of it
-the rossport 5, support from USI, again from ucdsu
-two year terms of office for usi pres, dep pres, educat, welfare and equality, proposed by the USI welfare.
-abortion, iadtsu have a motion in calling for usi to campaign for safe and legal abortion in ireland
-weighted voting, there's a motion in reversing the decision from the emergency congress held before christmas, which meant that international/national affairs that didn't affect students needed 2/3 majority to pass.

should we care about what goes on at USI congress?

well, we've paid for tcdsu to be members with the 8 euro levy, and we've paid for 20+ of our fellow tcdsu members to travel down to ennis, stay in a hotel and their 20e daily expenses, so yeah, i think we should care about what's going on down there.

and, if USI is an awful organisation, well, then it represents the strength (or lack of) of the member organisations.

(edited as in my hurried skim through the motions i mixed up USI education officer and ucdsu. apologies!)

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

little miss wrote:

Just read now that USI congress starts today... not sure if its worth noting or not, given how awful the organisation is. All the talk about change over the years, and it only gets worse. Anything worth noting about congress? Anything contentious coming up? Any exciting election? Or, should I just not care? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

lol! you must be an insider of some sort to come up with this post! WHO are you? Are you Ruth?

MaxBax

asl

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

what does 'ASL' mean?

shay_562

Age/Sex/Location. It's how people who aren't capable of interacting like normal human beings ask for personal details on message boards/chat rooms/MSN.

MaxBax

. It's how people who aren't capable of interacting like normal

That hurt. :-(

shay_562

Sorry, it came out a little bitchier than intended. Actually, a lot bitchier. Blame it on the mental scarring of years of internet use.

MaxBax

BLame it on the weatherman! What ever happened to b*witched? I think one of them works in my chipper.

shay_562

Louis Walsh had them ground up into mince and fed to Girls Aloud to save on feed costs. Like what they do with cows, only...um...actually, I'm drawing a blank on where the difference is here.

cuckoo

Roundtower2 wrote:

lol! you must be an insider of some sort to come up with this post! WHO are you? Are you Ruth?

I've been pouncing on various ppl around coll, looking them squarely in the eye and asking "are you little miss?".

So, little miss, please pm me your identity if i know you. Put me out of my misery! (and, i'm seconding michael's question - are you ruth?)

MaxBax

i thought she was denise keogh. obviously not.

cuckoo

MaxBax wrote:

i thought she was denise keogh. obviously not.

I think little miss is a lot more cynical than denise, although i could be wrong. Denise? is that you?

MaxBax

It could be Chick.

Agent Smith

Is it Dave quinn in drag?

Agent Smith

so hungover...........

osd

agent smith wrote:

so hungover...........

Ditto... Actually no... Still tipsy...

cuckoo wrote:

their 20e daily expenses

€10 actually...

Crash

plus a bit of the ole' benefit in kind...

little miss

cuckoo wrote:

contentious?
-the siptu link, ucdsu have a motion in there about getting rid of it
-the rossport 5, support from USI, again from ucdsu
-two year terms of office for usi pres, dep pres, educat, welfare and equality, proposed by the USI welfare.
-abortion, iadtsu have a motion in calling for usi to campaign for safe and legal abortion in ireland
-weighted voting, there's a motion in reversing the decision from the emergency congress held before christmas, which meant that international/national affairs that didn't affect students needed 2/3 majority to pass.

Two year officer terms? Are you serious? That's a crazy idea! Its difficult enough to get people to go for one year - who the hell would be stupid enough to willingly go for two? And what if they're really bad at their jobs? We know how difficult it is to get rid of people in USI... unless they resign of course!

It would also stop a lot of potentially good people from running, as they would have to chose to run in a year that may not suit them if they are in final year, etc... Hope that proposal bombs at congress!

Crash

i'm assuming its gonna get highly contentious over that i'd say - hell its already getting slightly heated over the fact that there is no english translation of irish motions (and dead right, my irish really isnt good enough to follow them that well).

ilovemybrick

ask conán to translate. fluent gaelgóir that he is. although surprisingly enough i agree with you. if people are to put motions forward in irish they should also be made provide a translation that is accurate. otherwise we get why i like to call the patriot-act-shuffle where people pass things they dont understand.

Crash

well i abstained from most of the Irish language issues as they were untranslated, and thus i had little idea as to exactly what i was voting on. i mean i could understand the general gist of what was there, however wouldnt have understood the exact semantics (and we've all seen what can happen with this), so its a pain in the hole.

Annoyed USI didnt think to have them translated and put up to be honest.

Nietzschean

can you 2 stop with inquisition to find out who Little Miss is, if she doesn't want that known then fine....no need to go all phsycopath stalker on her...

USI Positions:

President:

Total Poll: 158
Spoils: 0
Total Valid Poll: 157
Quota: 80

Yes: 133
No: 25

Colm Hamrogue was deemed elected.

Deputy President:

As no candidates were still in the race, the position will be down to be elected at the next National Council.

Education Officer:

Total Poll: 158
Spoils: 1
Total Valid Poll: 157
Quota: 79

Carroll, Patrick: 3
Farrell, Bernadette: 153
RON (Re-Open Nominations): 1

Bernadette Farrell was deemed elected.

Welfare Officer:

Total Poll: 158
Spoils: 0
Total Valid Poll: 158
Quota: 80

Yes: 151
No: 7

Kelly Mackey was deemed elected.

Equality Officer:

Total Poll: 158
Spoils: 0
Total Valid Poll: 158
Quota: 80

Yes: 70
No: 88

With no exceeding the quota, nominations will be re-opened for the next National Council.

****

These are my quick notes from what was said, I'm sure that the full details should be available on the USI website in a few days. Still, thought some people might want to know!

MaxBax

I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian. I must not annoy Ian.

Nietzschean

dat a boy kev.

MaxBax

THe moderator must be obeyed.

Pet

Yes. You wouldn't want to get banned now would you?

MaxBax

Good one.

osd

crash_000 wrote:

i'm assuming its gonna get highly contentious over that i'd say - hell its already getting slightly heated over the fact that there is no english translation of irish motions (and dead right, my irish really isnt good enough to follow them that well).

UCC were good enough to give me their written copy so I typed it out and USI have printed 70(ish) copies of it.
Here's the English language version of the motions.

Vainglory

cuckoo wrote:

the siptu link, ucdsu have a motion in there about getting rid of it

Good lord, no we don't. The current Education Officer of USI proposed that scandalous motion, not us. Argh, I really hope someone has already corrected this because I haven't read the rest of the post but felt obliged to post myself as soon as I read that.

cuckoo

Vainglory wrote:

Good lord, no we don't. The current Education Officer of USI proposed that scandalous motion, not us. Argh, I really hope someone has already corrected this because I haven't read the rest of the post but felt obliged to post myself as soon as I read that.

oops, sorry about that, my post on the first page has been duly fixed.

re: motions in irish

um, guys, these motions have been floating around out there in the ether for a good while now, and there was nothing stopping you getting a translation of them from the TCDSU irish language officer, or any of the many fluent irish speakers in tcd. but, it's not very respectful of the diversity amongst the member organisations of USI to have not sent out a courtesy translation.

ilovemybrick

cuckoo wrote:

um, guys, these motions have been floating around out there in the ether for a good while now, and there was nothing stopping you getting a translation of them from the TCDSU irish language officer, or any of the many fluent irish speakers in tcd. but, it's not very respectful of the diversity amongst the member organisations of USI to have not sent out a courtesy translation.

raises the question of whether it is the responsibility of the representatives and delegates to be aware of and capable of responding tomotions in a language they may not speak. or is it the duty of anyone bringing motions forward to ensure the understanding of the majority of the delegates by providing a courtesy translation. although personally i would prefer that anyone who represents me either at public representative level or Union level to be able to make themselves understood and understand Irish as the first official language of this country.

Oirthir

crash_000 wrote:

hell its already getting slightly heated over the fact that there is no english translation of irish motions (and dead right, my irish really isnt good enough to follow them that well).

USI Constitution wrote:

The Union of Students in Ireland has a bilingual policy, with regard to the Irish and the English languages. USI should give equal standing to both languages in all operations of the Union

Ahem, I must have missed all those Clárs that were translated from Béarla to Gaeilge for the gaeilgeoirí on Congress floor.

:P

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

Vainglory wrote:

The current Education Officer of USI proposed that scandalous motion

do USI have one of these?

Nietzschean

bleh motions should be provided in english, regardless of any offical status Irish just isn't the common tongue of the people here, gawn crash kick up a fuss.

xeduCat

yes, but not me!

(sorry, just had to).

osd

Here's the first batch...

Congress Karaoke

I'll be working on the website all day...

Nietzschean

is dee on cruches?

Agent Smith

Cant write a montion to save his LIfe, but WHAT A SINGER!




USI CONGRESS.... DEADLY BUZZ!



Trinity's First Karaoke Band.... Performed Jonnney be good, simply the Best....



Suit you sir....

more coming soon....

Comhra....

yes I am afraid that I am hobbling around with a metal stick.
I fell down some stairs in Cork...no alcohol was involved
We are just going into our 30th minute of debating the SIPTU motion
I don't think we will get to the Rossport 5 motion today but the word in the bar is that either NUIG or DIT have it in for UCD,D and there is gonna be a fight, I predict a riot

Nietzschean

Comhra wrote:

yes I am afraid that I am hobbling around with a metal stick.
I fell down some stairs in Cork...no alcohol was involved

Sounds sore, did you consume alcohol post falling down the stairs to offset said pain?

We are just going into our 30th minute of debating the SIPTU motion

O am i ever sad to be missing that event...tho then again the library isn't quite the happening place i was led to believe!

I don't think we will get to the Rossport 5 motion today but the word in the bar is that either NUIG or DIT have it in for UCD,D and there is gonna be a fight, I predict a riot

Ah nothing like a good fight, get the locals involved too, need a good riot....

O and your such a lurker, never realised that was you....

Agent smith Just Spoke On Reducing vat on condoms and Is Getting set to Talk on STI Testing. Sounds Interesting.....

[edit] I lent Joe my laptop - and this is him, not me.

Comhra....

Congress drains your soul

lunch was nice though

cuckoo

Comhra wrote:

Congress drains your soul

lunch was nice though

it is an exhausting experience.

any death threats so far this year?

and..... GMT?!?

What? The motion was going to fall, the chair was operating under his own time-frame and I wanted him to act under Greenwich Mean Time so that I would know exactly when the guillotine would fall, and how much time is left.

Agent Smith

Yeah, the chirs a Berk, IMHO....


The President is talking about Non-affiliated Co's at UOS...



He's Annoyinmg me.... A LOT

rsynnott

shay_562 wrote:

Louis Walsh had them ground up into mince and fed to Girls Aloud to save on feed costs. Like what they do with cows, only...um...actually, I'm drawing a blank on where the difference is here.

Well, it's been banned for cows for some time now

crash_000 wrote:

i'm assuming its gonna get highly contentious over that i'd say - hell its already getting slightly heated over the fact that there is no english translation of irish motions (and dead right, my irish really isnt good enough to follow them that well).

Yep, that bit worries me. Deliberate obfuscation.

Two year terms are stark raving mad.

I've always wanted to go to Council, as I enjoy the USI LGBT standing conference (this year's was a little boring, due to no crazy motions). May go next year.

Pet

I lent Joe my laptop - and this is him, not me.

We Never Would Have Known.

cuckoo

Pet wrote:

We Never Would Have Known.

*snort*

so, everyone fired up for the lobby of the oireachtais?