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28 March 2003
uwRyan.com This website is meant to provide value to UW student by delivering information. It shares its name with the column that I write for Imprint. Please provide feedback on what I write as well as give me suggestions of topics to cover. You can send e-mail to me to ryan[at]uwryan[dot]com.
uwstudent.org
Federation of Students 
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Imprint must communicate
In the first issue of the year I criticized the Federation of Students for a lack of communication and, for the most part, they have obliged; Imprint has not. It might seem strange that a newspaper would be poor at communication, but however you view the publication, Imprint provides information about most other things better than about itself. Very little news about Imprint is reported, little information about the workings of the organization is available. There should be more coverage of Imprint in Imprint. Many of you may say, "I don't want to read that boring bullshit," but the scrutiny that newspaper coverage provides ensures the accountability that makes the organization better, the product better and things you do want to read better. Of the 275 news stories published this year, only three of them have related to Imprint. The three are about our new editor-in-chief, tobacco ads and a story about inappropriate changes to content and attempts to prevent content from being published. Of the 30 columns I have written this year, three have been about Imprint. These six stories clearly don't cover the events that affect the organization. On a board of directors of five, there have been five resignations and four appointments. The only originally elected director that hasn't resigned is, Brian Code, the only one that has been away from campus for two out of three terms. There will be a special general meeting, and further decisions that the board makes aren't well known. Yet none of these have been the subject of an Imprint story. Students and volunteer staff do not have easy access to information about the workings of Imprint publications. Most of the board meetings this year have been held without notice to members. On the general announcement e-mail list notice has been sent out for only five meetings and I haven't seen notice posted in the office more than twice, though board meetings must be held at least once every three weeks. Since May more than 47 weeks have gone by, which means that there should have been at least 15 meetings. I don't know how many there really were because I did not receive notice. Giving notice of meetings to members is not a requirement under the bylaw because just the directors can be notified or they can waive notice. While it is not a requirement under the bylaw, it is a requirement of democratic principle. Once those meetings have been held, information of what happened is not readily available. Board minutes used to be posted in a document holder on the wall of the office. While there are many sets of minutes there, there are none from this year. In order to get some of the minutes I e-mailed the secretary of the board, Tim Mollison, and asked him for minutes from 2003. He replied and told me to ask the business manager for them, who then replied to him saying that it was Mollison's job as secretary to supply them. I have yet to receive them. At the end of February, Imprint had its annual general meeting where under the bylaw members needed to approve the policies. At that meeting attendees expressed concern that they were being asked to approve a document that they had not seen before. Tyler Thomas, sensibly, made a motion for another meeting to be held. Another part of the motion required that the policies that were to be passed be available 10 days before the meeting. The meeting is today, March 28, and so they should have been available on March 18. The document that was placed in the Imprint office didn't appear there until March 24, and it is dated March 21. What should be done about all this? The new board, Andrew, Michelle, Neal, Mike and Tim, must comunicate and provide more information more readily. We've come to the end of another year. Thank you for reading when you did. At the close of a year of columns, I think it appropriate to consider the motto chosen by George Brown when he founded what would become The Globe and Mail. "The subject who is truly loyal to the Chief Magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures." |
Misprint
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