Salient

Eye on Exec

By Jenna Powell | 5 May, 2008

This week the Exec were as insecure as a group of little emo kids with Education Vice-President Paul Danger Brown caring deeply about how the Exec were being portrayed in Salient and a general concern over how they are portrayed as an organisation. So much so that he added Exec meeting conduct and “lack of formality” to urgent items to general business.

He also protested doing the minutes as he can not keep up cause everyone “talks shit.” Later in the meeting he said, “I want a beer in hand.” For someone who wanted to be taken seriously it was amusing to see “Told Sonny (Campaigns Officer) that I loved him more than 20 times” included in his report of his work.

The Exec, especially Brown, stressed the need for VUWSA to be a “transparent” organisation so everyone knows what is going on. The VUWSA staff are “uncomfortable” with the Exec receiving copies of the minutes of their meeting. Most likely because they are having bitch sessions about the executive. This demand for transparency in VUWSA seemed a tad hypocritical when the Exec went off the record three times during their meeting. The Exec went off the record “for reasons of commercial sensitivity.”

Surprise: the Exec has to deal with more unbudgeted expenditure! Last year the Exec spent well over $4,000 on 12 people at Victoria’s Fun Day. “It wasn’t that fun!” Paul protested.

Joel Cosgrove and Paul Danger Brown were at the forefront of the decision to use disabled kids as a perfect PR photo op. Every year VUWSA give $150 to the Rotary Club of Wellington to allow three “special” kids to have a day at the circus. “It’s all about the PR and I love the children,” Paul explained. Cosgrove explained it as “a positive acknowledgement of what we do.” ] Paul concurred stating that VUWSA “needs as much good press as we can possibly get.” Campaigns Officer Sonny Thomas and UniQ President Nathan Cooper were the only members who opposed the motion to take cameras along. Sonny believed taking photos of the event would be exploitation. Club Officer Katie de Roo mentioned that the three kids might want VUWSA to take photos because “they might think we’re cool.” A d m i n i s t r a t i o n Vice-President Alexander Neilson reminded Sonny that VUWSA takes photos of all its other events so “why not” at the circus.

In a dramatic twist Sonny decided to leave the meeting as he was angry with this decision. This prompted Joel to boast: “You’re not serious? I have left for better reasons.”

Sonny’s reaction may have been an overkill but it did not seem to occur to the members of the Exec that voted in favour of this “positive PR opportunity” that it might not be good publicity at all. It might just make them all look like a cliché: desperate, sleazy student politicians. It makes you think.