This thread will tell you about how to get involved in AUSA. All tips and advice welcome!

1. SRC. Weds 1-2pm in the Quad. An open forum where you can vote and have your say on decisions being made. Free beer and food is also given out.
2. Become a class rep.
3. Write for Craccum.
4. Join a political party.
5. Attend exec meetings.

thats all i can think of! if im wrong someone who knows can correct me.

add your own!

Ahhh good things to know!
I was a class rep last semester.. still have to go and pick up my reference form. I was told they would be sent out but it wasn't :( Here's a question where the heck do I pick it up from? The AUSA building opposite the library?

reference form? wassat?

Ya knwo the one that says "Hey this person X was a class rep. Aren't they great and responsible? You should give them a job" kind of form

man, i was a class rep too and didnt know that!

Has there every been a successful class party organized by a class rep? I went to two and they were both failures, with less than 10 people turning up.

Dunno.
I didn't bother organising one cos I knew that no one would turn up.

I found the key to organising a class part is to poll people to find out whether they want to have one or not. In my case they didn't... *losers* ;)

Yep, had one kickarse one for Chinese 100 where me and another dude proudly sang the national anthem.

someone tried to organise one for one of my compsci classes. I think it ended up a few guys going to some internet cafe and playing countrstrike for 5 hours :blink:

Computer Science does class parties right.

What do they book out the lab for a lan?

Nah, they go to internet cafes. Thats what one of the 101 reps organised for the second semester. Needless to say, I didn't go along to that. I went and bought new boardshorts instead!

This should totally be an option.

I'm pretty sure they do this for the Tamaki LANs.

Someone looped an old switch in my brothers office at the Tamaki campus and crashed the entire Tamaki campus network once lol.

there is wc3 installed on the uni network (and on the hdd's of all lab computers, at least the last time I checked)

they must use it for something? Although is probably just for the IT dudes to play on after hours

We really need to get behind making AUSA compulsory. Me and Hannoir had a chat about this: who else would be enthusiastic in getting involved in a somewhat homebrewed campaign for it that would be untainted by AUSA executive involvement?

The devil is in the detail. That is, the misinformation that the voluntarists have put forward.

If the AUSA wanted to make a point, they would make Shadows entry conditional on being part of AUSA. Although this would probably make fuck all difference and it would be dumb to do anything to risk patronage, people need to realise that these services, and more importantly, the people who run them; don't work without cash.

surely that should be 'offer the cheap beer to only ausa members'??

I don't see why that would be a bad thing (to either totally restrict Shadows to AUSA members or to make beer more expensive for non-AUSA members). Of course, the voluntarists would throw an absolute fit about denying freedom of association or something like that, and how it violated the Bill of Rights and New Zealand constitutional precedent (since the 80's union activities becoming les infants terribles of anti-unionists).

Nevertheless, I still reckon if we could actually get together a group of people from the left, right and centre to support voluntary unionism, do leaflet drops and class speeches (something I'd definitely be up for), as well as put shit up everywhere, we could get quite a strong thing going. Using non-traditional arguments would be the most important thing, in that saying that AUSA should be representing all students and that it's denying students rights to give them the choice to be non-protected, focusing on the effect on all students being really positive if everyone joined AUSA, etc.

WE HAVE A WINNER

I think the cheap beer for AUSA only would be good.

If you were serious about getting some ideas about Compulsory Membership bouncing around; you'd:

Write a balanced article for Craccum. I don't think Ryan would publish anything to sadistically one-sided. Introduce people to the AUSA, what it does for students, how it works with the University and what it could do with that money. At the same time, look into the merits and arguments behind VSU. Try and deal with any myths you read (a good place to start is studentchoice.org.nz; see what you'll be up against!).

Get people together who share your views. I believe you need ten percent of the students to call for a referendum to get one.

Don't be too militant about it. We've all seen what happens when fundamentalists get on soap boxes. It's definitely something people should be talking about, so aim to encourage debate instead of forcing your views.

Do some research. AKLU voted in 2003 to persist with VSU, by a larger margin than when they elected to swtich to it. Understand what happened at those campaigns and what may have made a difference.

Talk to ShedEvil. She knows her shit.

Lets do it!

I may be keen to help out. I definitely do support compulsory, I always have. The state of AUSA is pathetic compared to its Otago equivalent (OUSA, to those in the know *winks*). It will sort of depend on whether I can be arsed. Inspire me, Hauser!

To get a certificate for your service as class rep, you just have to go to AUSA reception and ask to get a class rep certificate. You fill out a brief form and then you can go pick them up in a few days.

You need to apply... to me funnily enough

Why?

AUSA was rocked by being forced to go voluntary... now we are fine. Legislation will be introduced soon to force ALL student associatios to be voluntary then AUSA will be the best in the country.

You really want to have $130 added to your fees each year to pay AUSA. It just causes ill feeling

Hmm, can't help you out then, even though i'd love to :P

*Puts Sardonic over knee and spanks him for being a very naughty boy* I guess now that you've gone over to the other side voluntary is quite appealing, eh?

;)

Haha, well, I mean the idea that the Executive didn't look like they were just trying to powergrab. On more reflection, I don't really see the problem with Executive members helping out anyway ;).

Brother, a brighter world awaits us! A world where Auckland University has a friendly student culture where everyone knows everyone else, where the beer runs like flowing water from the mouth of a student flat tap, where Cuban socialism and the merits of heavy metal are debated by people who have never met before, and where we can stand proudly as kicking Otago's arse with our student association!

Legislation introduced by the Government? Are you kidding me? A modern Labour-NZ First government would never do such a thing: the Greens would ardently oppose it, the Maori Party would oppose the idea out of it's communitarian background, etc. The only real supporters of such legislation would be the union-bashing individualists in ACT, United and National, and they don't control a majority.

If Aussie Labor was in power across the ditch, they wouldn't have ended compulsory student unionism there.

Heh, thanks for advice on how to get my reference sheet. Will pop in to AUSA on Tuesday :)

Are you sure about the legislation sardonic? I thought it was National who had listed that as one of their tertiary policies, not Labour. Although it was a good few months ago now.

Dudes, I feel very strongly about this... compulsory just works better. I don't think this is because compulsory is inherently better; merely because compulsory unions mean that the university is obliged to allocate a percentage of its charges to the association. Whereas here, to paraphrase Allan Swann who I flatted with for a while, the uni just gives AUSA enough funding to keep it propped up, because it looks fucking bad for the university's ferociously guarded reputation if the student union topples completely.

I think he also said, and I agree with this, that it would be better for students if it DID fall apart, because then the university would be forced to step in and make a new one and start funding it properly.

I don't agree that having union fees tacked on costs us students anymore; or maybe a negligible amount compared to the rest of it - it just means that the uni is clearer about where the money is going. Instead of miscellaneous costs.

If I recall, OUSA is doing very well financially as of 2005 and I think they were able to drop the levy to around $75, and were hoping to drop it again this year. There is far higher financial accountability there, and the draft budgets are published in Critic. There was a big hooha in the letters section because the exec didn't let students know it was planning to buy the other 50% of the Dunedin UBS off Whitcoulls (it wasn't allowed to due to a confidentiality clause in the contract with Whitcoulls). Here, six months later, AUSA bought the other half of our UBS without telling anyone and no one even noticed that they'd done it without letting us know (again, there was probably a similar clause, but no one cared enough to complain).

I don't think I'm really keen to get involved in AUSA unless it goes compulsory, to be honest. That said, if anyone does solidify plans for doing something which would help the State of the Union, as it were, let me know because I can probably be brought around to it.

It seems most VSU proponents claim that the VSU has brought some accountability to the AUSA, and has stopped fat-catting.

They claim the AUSA is now more streamlined and efficient than it was.

The AUSA isn't something that can be thrown a few scraps from the Unversity table. It needs to be constantly investing in both facilities and student social activities. It will reap it's own rewards.

Sorry SheDevil... never have agreed with compulsory. If AUSA cant do a job to attract students to join purely on the services they provide then forcing students to be members doesnt solve anything.

AUSA has made huge progress in inproving its image with the masses in the last 2 years. Thats where the future lies. Get people to WANT to be involved not force them to be.

And when Graham comes back to fight you again I can sit back and watch the AUSA lose more control over what really matters whilst you are distracted fighting Graham.

AUSA insists to serve ALL students. The membership numbers matter purely because the Uni likes to know what % of students we represent. Well compulsory or not we represent every student on Campus already. Having their names in a database means nothing.

And if you are naive enough to think the Uni would just hand the student levy to AUSA think again. A new Student Association Levy would be added to every students bill. Another $130 a year of debt just so AUSA can be rich again. The exec need to stop living on this misconception that they are important because they are executive members and do something to earn that respect. And just because a student is forced to be a member that doesnt mean they'll respect the place.

The only service you have to be an AUSA member to be able access is lockers. Thats it.

Yeah cheaper beer for members at Shadows...great idea. More deals at UBS...wonderful. Money off at the cafe...stunning.

Trouble is...AUSA doesnt run those companies anymore. You cant force them to do anything. Get you own house in order (and quickly before you lose control of everything) before thinking about telling students what they HAVE to do.

Accountability? Bullshit. What it means is that Craccum's ability to operate takes a large hit, because it is a free service that AUSA provides - advertising doesn't come anywhere near close to covering its budget, I believe. BFM is a lot closer to being self-sufficient; but the fact remains that these and other services would be better with more money, which compulsory would provide.

Speaking of accountability, where are the AUSA budgets? I've never seen them. They've certainly never appeared in Craccum. Unlike Otago, where a compulsory system is in place. I'm sure that I could get access to them if I made an effort - but the fact is, having something a little bit harder to access means much less accountability. Refer to the first part of Hitchhiker's Guide.

Maybe more "streamlined and efficient", but only because AUSA is on the bones of its fucking bum. This is the richest uni in the country, and we have the poorest student union. A larger size invariably leads to some inefficiency, sure. But the overall services would still be better.

I agree with your third paragraph. But currently scraps is all AUSA gets. It will never be self-sufficient, in the same way that the government will never be self-sufficient (it needs to collect taxes). Yeah, ideally the AUSA companies should make profits. But it won't ever cover the cost of the rest of the services. A student levy will always be needed. And I'd rather it went to AUSA than the cunts in the university administration, who, let me remind you, by and large do not care about students. Or if they do, only as a distant second to keeping the uni financially viable and getting the lion's share of government funding.

I would probably rather a percentage of my fees went to the AUSA as opposed to a fixed service charge.

Damn right Archie and Sloan. Considering we all have so much debt from university education being user-pays, I honestly don't think 70 bucks a year more is going to make a huge difference, really.

The fact is that right now, I really get the sense that there is a total lack of a unified student spirit. I know that Sardonic or someone else will come in here and say that shouldn't exist in the first place, but to be honest, I think that it would be fucking cool to have a proper student culture at Auckland Uni that allowed everyone to actually enjoy getting involved in life on campus with a huge variety of other students, pushing people outside their comfort zones and actually making uni a cool place for people without very many friends (as well as for those of us who already have our own social groups at uni).

Hearing my Dad telling me about how awesome life in Auckland Uni was in 1968 made me seriously fucking jealous, with AUSA (or whatever the equivalent was at the time) meetings overflowing with screaming radicals and being utterly packed to the brim with enthusiasm, anger and excitement

Contrast that with today: there needs to be free beer at SRC meetings to get a quorum, and most of the people there sit there looking bemused and laughing at the student politicians who are forced to put themselves into an utterly ridiculous position as being simultaneously part of a financial enterprise and a organisation that is designed to help students.

I'm not bagging the AUSA for the good work it does in many areas, including through things like WAVE/foodbank services, and it's club regulation service (with cool advantages for them etc) and a lot of other stuff. But from what I've seen of it, it seems to be really missing the mark in terms of actually serving students if it's totally reliant on the scraps that were pointed out that are given to it from the University.

Having AUSA as a mass-membership organisation, which it would become under compulsory student unionism, would actually allow it to defend the interests of students by having a large numerical force to fight against the continuous bullshit we get from the university (Does anyone else here think this increase in papers per year thing is a fucking fraud?), and also will stop student politics from remaining the domain of a small few. It's effectively democratisation, and makes AUSA infinitely more accountable.

Hear Hear!