[committee] The Stairwell and SOC situation - resolved

[Daniel Axtens]

Hi all,

I attended the Tenancy Committee meeting last night on behalf of UCC.

The behaviour of the SOC president was very different to what her emails led us to expect. She, whilst still believing our actions to be in breach of the tenancy agreement, openly accepted that our actions were done in good faith.

She even suggested that we could be reimbursed - which I was not originally going to bring up. This suggestion gained significant support when the costs incurred doing the painting (around $160) were compared to the price of having the work done commercially (multiple thousand dollars). Several groups also spoke favourably of the quality of the paint job. 

The only significant objection was raised by Solid Gold. Their rep argued that by reimbursing the Tenancy Committee was effectively condoning our actions. I acknowledged that in the ideal situation, the approval of the tenancy committee would be sought, and their objection didn't seem to gather much momentum. 

In the end, the motion to reimburse was carried 11-5. For administrative convenience, the money will be passed to UCC on the expectation that we pass it on.

On the negative side, UCC *may* receive a formal warning with respect to the work. Whilst not ideal, I believe this to be a good outcome because the warning seems to be a mere formality rather than a substantial concern. Our good faith was openly acknowledged, as was the fact that we used a key from Guild staff. I believe that damage done to our reputation is minimal (especially amongst other clubs) and can be repaired. The situation, as far as we can tell, is now resolved to the satisfaction of SOC and the Tenancy committee. I think, all things considered, we came out of it as well as could be expected.

== Other notable issues canvassed at the meeting ==

- Amendments to the Tenancy Agreement: I submitted some possible changes last year and the SOC president independently came up with some amendments as well. We attempted to discuss if my amendments provided anything further that should be adopted, but attempting to merge 2 multi-page documents in hard copy on the fly proved more than most attendees --- including myself --- could really handle. Expect some discussion on this to continue. We'll keep this list updated. To the credit of the SOC president, some of her amendments addressed some issues I independently identified, and she was quite receptive to other suggestions I raised. (mainly technical issues re: insurance)

- The policy for allocation of clubs to clubrooms in the new building was discussed. While little detail has been pinned down, one of the criteria that the Guild will use which I'd really like to bring to your attention is "being good to the Guild". We're very good at developing relationships with Guild staff, but there are a few things we could do to build a better relationship with the elected councillors. A particular example that was raised was showing guild signage at club events. UCC was also used at least once as an example of factors that would weigh towards keeping a clubroom - for example that our club essentially revolves around the clubroom.

- Busy bee/cleaning dates were discussed. Between me, [CJS] and [ASH] (who were both observers), we all managed to miss writing them down, but expect them in an email sometime soon. From memory, they were the Sunday after prosh, the Sunday before Sem 2 starts, and the Sunday before the study week before exams in Sem 2.

== Conclusion ==

I'd like to commend the following clubs and people for being particularly helpful:
- UniSFA
- Leisure - I know Leisure-bashing is popular, but they deserve a *lot* of respect for how they handled this issue.
- Guild Finance Staff
- UniGames, and the rest of the Cameron Hall nerd/geek mob.

Finally, thanks all for supporting me in representing you on this issue. I appreciate your trust and confidence, and I hope you're at least as happy as I am with the outcome. Thanks especially to those who asked good questions, made suggestions, and offered advice, either in person, by email or on IRC. 

PLEASE continue to respect SOC, the Tenancy Committee and the Guild in your dealings with other people and on social networks. 

Again, if you have any further questions, feel free to contact me.

Best Regards,
Daniel Axtens
UCC OCM 2011