Representative Council 1/2021

Agenda

1. Opening of the meeting
2. Recording the members and deputy members of the Council who are unavailable, disqualified, ineligible, resigned and present
3. Recording lawfulness and quorum of the meeting
4. Summoning two minutes reviewers and two vote counters
5. Confirming the agenda
6. Announcements
7. Latest news from the office
   • A member of the Board presents the latest news from the office.
8. Stating the composition of the Representative Council groups
   • The composition of the RepCo groups is noted, as there have been changes in the presiding officers of the groups.  
9. Results of the membership survey
   • In the autumn of 2020, Research Foundation for Studies and Education Otus drafted a membership survey for AYY to review the thoughts and experiences of the members about the student union services. The results of the membership survey have now been completed and the results will be used to develop the activities of the Student Union.
10. Establishment of the Representative Council Committees 
    • The Representative Council may establish committees by a separate decision. The Representative Council must determine the mission, term of office, chair and members of the committee when establishing it.
    • The Representative Council establishes the Finance and Real Estate Committee, Strategy Committee and Community Committee
    • The Representative Council assigns committees to assist in the preparation of the Student Union’s decision-making by drafting statements on committee matters independently and at the request of the Board or AYY employees. The committees carry out their duties in the manner they deem best and receive support, training and presentations from the AYY Board, AYY employees, independent specialists or volunteers.
11. Preliminary debate on the establishment of the Administration Committee
    • At the beginning of the year, there have been plans to establish a new committee, the Administration Committee. Matters to be discussed in the Administration Committee would concern the administration and AYY as an organisation. These matters could include amendments to bylaws or regulation updates.
    • With this committee, the committees would cover more issues and a suitable committee could be found for most of the issues addressed in the RepCo. This year, there are plans to amend bylaws and update regulations, which could be addressed in the Administration Committee.
    • In accordance with the other committees, the proposed composition for the committee is one member and one vice member per each group. The chair would be elected from among the RepCo members and the secretary would be appointed from among the members of the Board. The term of office would last until the end of 2021..
12. Appointment of the Representative Council members to Scholarship Distribution Committees
    • The Student Union has the Scholarship Regulation according to which the Student Union has three scholarships, which are: Exchange scholarship, Community scholarship and Study scholarship.
    • In accordance with the scholarship regulation, the Board appoints a distribution committee for each scholarship. In addition to board members and specialists designated by the Scholarship Regulation, each Distribution Committee includes two members appointed by the Representative Council. In accordance with the regulation, the members appointed by the Representative Council are selected at the Council meeting prior to the distribution period of the spring scholarships.
    • According to the Scholarship Regulation, the first application period for scholarships is March–April each year, and the distribution decisions must be made by the end of May. The second application period is October–November, and the distribution decisions must be made by the end of December.
    • The Scholarship Regulation will be updated in the spring and the Distribution Committee is expected to participate in the process to some extent.
13. Decision on AYY’s strategy
    • AYY has carried out a strategy reform in 2020−2021. The goal of the strategy reform is to create a unified strategy for AYY, which reflects the members, responds to future challenges faced by the Student Union and supports strategic management and prioritisation.
    • So far in the strategy process, AYY has reviewed the members’ views on the Student Union’s current strategies (Direction of the Student Union and Property Strategy) through a survey, drafted a driving force analysis, elected representatives from the RepCo groups to the Strategy Committee, which has met regularly, discussed the survey results and worked on values and goals. In addition, the AYY office, management team and the Board have addressed the survey results, the driving force analysis, values and goals. The work on the goals has continued in January 2021 together with the Strategy Committee, office and the Board by addressing the feedback based on the last preliminary debate, the carbon neutrality target and the recording of the target in the strategy, strategy communication and the visual identity of the strategy.
    • The latest version of the strategy is presented to the Representative Council, which includes any changes and additions to the strategic goals made on the basis of the preliminary debate. 
14. Preliminary debate on the Student Centre Project
    • The Student Centre Project has progressed at a fast pace during January under the leadership of ACRE. Before Christmas, AYY, KY and TF signed an agreement to start negotiations and ACRE has started drafting a project agreement. If the decision is made to commit to the project, the deadline for signing the project agreement is 31 Mar.
    • The purpose of the project agreement is for the parties to make a strong commitment to the project. ACRE presents to the parties an agreement which they can, in principle, either accept or reject. The purpose of the agreement is to settle major policies, budget and the issues that have caused dispute in the past.
    • The Representative Council must discuss which preconditions AYY can/cannot commit to in this agreement. The final commitment to the agreement will be decided by the Representative Council at the RepCo meeting 2/2021.
15. Other business
16. Closing of the meeting

Notice of the meeting and the official agenda can be found here:
 https://inside.ayy.fi/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=68091963