The Council of Representatives held their fourth meeting on Thursday 2nd of April. The meeting was a General Spring Meeting which is statutory, or required by the Finnish Associations Act. Due to the current situation the meeting was held remotely in Zoom. The Council and Board members joined the conference call and the meeting started at five o’clock. 

The meeting began with an introduction round because we had Laureamko’s new advocacy specialist Nikolas Bursiewicz and Laureamko’s contact person from SAMOK, Emma Hannonen, on the line. After the introductions Hannonen explained SAMOK’s activities on a general level and shared current themes and how the coronavirus epidemic has influenced them. She also introduced SAMOK’s plan of action for this year and the idea behind a contact person between SAMOK and the student union. We also caught up with the Board of Laureamko: all the events from the spring are cancelled and there’s been plans for new event concepts to replace them. All of Laureamko’s activities are now done remotely. The plans for the autumn are right now made with the assumption that the situation has normalized by then.  

In a General Spring Meeting there are certain statutory matters that need to be covered. Those matters are the financial statement, the annual report and other documents related to them. The Council stated that everything was good with the documents and also granted freedom of responsibility for those accountable (so last year’s Board of Laureamko). 

Next we discussed the membership fees for the academic year of 2020-2021. During an earlier meeting the Council had decided to take back long membership periods and now the fees for those were approved. From autumn 2020 onwards the students can buy at once the student union’s membership for one semester or up to four years. The debate about the fees was long and many points of views were considered. In the end the Council voted from two options and the vote was tight. By votes 6-5 the second proposal was accepted.

Laureamko is working on a new strategy beginning from the next year onwards. An outside consult has been decided to hire to guide the process, and the Council accepted the offer for the strategy consultation. The strategy process was approved a 6000-euro-budget overall. The aim is to finish the strategy by November so that the Council can approve it in the General Autumn Meeting. In the end of the meeting the Council congratulates Kati Komulainen for being chosen as the new principal of Vaasa UAS.

Written: Antton Laaksonen, Member of the Council of Representatives