Coming only once a year, Annual General Meetings of VUWSA are always interesting. The meeting this coming Wednesday (4 April) will not only have the fascinating presentation of accounts, but several constitutional ammendments are planned. All are moved by President Andrew Tees, and one, if passed, will have particularly far reaching consequences for VUWSA. It is moved Tees/Stainthorpe that:

The Salient editor each year shall be elected by SRC in the third term of the previous year and if a vacancy shall occur for the position of editor of Salient then SRC will elect a new editor within at least thirty days of the position becoming vacant, the Publications Board retaining the power to appoint an interim student newspaper editor for Salient if it becomes necessary, or if the vacancy occurs during the vacation.

Under the constitution as it presently stands, it is the Publication Board which appoints the Editor, as well as generally administering Salient (and other publications of the Association like Handbook). The Publications Board contains six reps from the SRC. three from the Executive, (one of whom is the Publications Officer), the Salient Editor, a member of the Technical staff, the advertising manager and the Pulications Board Treasurer.

The creation of the Publications Board was to separate as far as possible the officers of the association from the student press which has the responsibility of reporting on the activities of these representatives. It is my belief that of all the changes Tees could attempt to make to the structure of VUWSA, this is probably the most damaging and short-sighted.