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Meeting of the Dalhousie Law Students’ Society Board of Directors

 January 12, 2009

1. Call to order - motion by Stewart Carstairs, seconded by Jade Buchanan – 7:10pm

 

2. Roll call of members present – all present
1.  Gord McGuire – President
2.  Adam Picotte – VP Academic
3.  Alia Rosenstock – VP Executive
4.  Frederic Perron-Welch – VP External
5.  Michelle McBride – VP Finance
6.  Michelle Black – DALSA Representative
7.  Jessica Upshaw – DBLSA Representative
8.  Melissa Grover – First Year Representative
9.  Jade Buchanan - First Year Representative
10.  Stewart Carstairs - First Year Representative
11.  Greg Gilhooly - Second Year Representative
12.  Brian Kuchar - Second Year Representative
13.  Erin Tolfo - Second Year Representative
14.  Dan McGruder – Third Year Representative
15.  Mark Leung– Third Year Representative
16.  Gill Carter - Secretary
17.  Sean Fraser – Chair

 

3. Adoption of Agenda – motion by Sean Fraser, all in favour

4. Approval of Last Meeting’s Minutes – all in favour

5. Chair’s Remarks

-welcome back, congratulations to Erin Tolfo for BLG Research Fellowship

-need to establish new meeting time; motion to establish 7pm meeting time Tues

-motion by Jade Buchanan, seconded by Brian Kutchar , unanimously carried

 

6. Questions from Public – N/A

7. Reports of the Executive
1. President’s Report

-Law hour – Leah Bruschetta got some key speakers

(1) Peter Hogg Jan 22

(2) Justice Binney March 5

(3) Honourable Peter MacKay March 19

-Pith & Substance Fri Feb 13

-Law Ball Saturday March 14^th

-Law Games team didn’t happen – disappointing, going to look into why not

-Library hours – don’t have info at this point, Ann has said she did collect data over exam period, will be given to the President

-Lounge update – see email about lounge meeting sent out to all students

-Aim of this semester to improve CANS website – in upper year courses, very few if any CANS – want to make it better – keep this in mind for next week’s meeting

-Comment from Dan McGruder: suggestion to remove ftp, make website

 

2. VP Executive Report

-Admin clean-up for Legal Who

-Ensuring that mentorship program w/ Fred Perron-Welch is up and running, trying to recruit more students b/c have huge influx of mentors (from 6 to 100)

-Mentoring program started last year under Fred’s position, for 2^nd and 3^rd year law students, will send out an email for first years to become more familiar w/ it

 

3. VP Finance Report

-Thanks to budget committee – Jade Buchanan, Dan McGruder and Brian Kutchar who spent time viewing society applications

-Coffee and tea during exams, although shortlived, was a success, going to expand volunteer recruitment efforts for April so the program can run for longer

-DSU audit for next installment cheque finished, waiting to hear back from DSU

-After society allocations done, hope to get started on preparing financial statement to resume status as registered company with Nova Scotia Joint Stock Registry

 

4. VP Academic Report

-Grades are available now on website

-Teacher awards – looking to first year reps to encourage class mates to nominate profs for first year award, forms available in Elizabeth Sanford’s desk, nominations meant to be in by Friday

-All teachers can potentially be nominated for general teaching award that Dal Law puts out, also available from Sanford

-JD/LLB debate plebiscite –moved due to scheduling conflict w/ law hour, now being held on Jan 29^th, 4 people participate in debate: Matt Brechtel and Samina Tham and 2 practitioners, noon rm105

-Jennifer Hodgins DRO will be taking care of the plebiscite

-Actual plebiscite from Feb 2^nd to 4^th; on the “ivote” website

email will be sent out with regards to this, may suggest if anyone interested in running yes or no campaign contact Jennifer; sense that there was no need for LSS to be more involved than that

 

5. VP External Report

-Need to think about place to put pith and substance plaque, need new plaque for last year and this year; cost estimate for a new plaque

 

8. Representative’s Reports
1. DALSA Representative’s Report

-Food drive – section reps did a good job w/ rallying troops, had 34% increase from last year’s increase; all $300 went to the food bank, staff opted out of pizza party; plus $200 donation by a staff member

 

2. DBLSA Representative’s Report

-Back to school jam on Friday, about 200 people came

-Also invited African society and Caribbean society from Dal, profits going towards conference in Februrary

-Gord to find out about addressing conference on faculty meeting

 

3. First Year Representatives’ Report
1. Melissa Grover - looking forward to pith and substance
2. Stewart Carstairs – nothing to report
3. Jade Buchanan – Midterm Transcripts

-Concern w/ first years of nothing legitimate that these are actual grades

-Form made up for marks to print off from website – VP Academic to look into it

 

4. Second Year Representatives’ Report

-Greg Gilhooly, Brian Kutchar, Erin Tolfo – nothing to report

 

5. Third Year Representatives’ Report

-Dan McGruder, Mark Leung – nothing to report

 

9. Old Business
1. JD/LLB Update – Adam Picotte

-Proposed question “I prefer to maintain the current degree designation of LLB (Bachelors of Law) or I prefer to change the degree designation to JD (Juris doctorate) –

-JD/LLB information are now available on the LSS website - regarding debate and fact that this is not the final decision, has to go to faculty and degree designation committee (all this will be included in email)

-motion by Adam to pass as is, seconded by Michelle McBride

 

debate on motion: surrounding langugage – concern about creating a bias/want neutral wording, but also including name designation (JD/LLB), issues brought up about having a yes/no question; debate about including “I am indifferent” in the question –support from many that if the purpose is to gather student opinion, a 3^rd option (I am indifferent) allows an opportunity ty to understand the debate better

 

motion to amend to have a 3^rd option – Dan McGruder – I would be indifferent to degree designation” – seconded by Erin Tolfo

-debate on this motion – concern that this will promote the status quo (LLB), but mertis a     also recognized, that would help to understand the debate/where people’s opinions lie

-vote over this motion– all in favour of 3^rd option, 1 abstention Adam Picotte

-new motion will have 3^rd option (I am indifferent)

 

further discussion/debate: about the language “graduate” and the retroactive component; decision that this component will be discussed later on, information on the website about this

                      

motion from Michelle to use the following language” I would prefer the degree designation of LLB (Bachelor of Laws), I would prefer the degree designation of JD (Juris Doctorate); I do not have a preference with respect to my degree designation” –Jade seconded – motion passed, unanimously carried

-vote on official motion: all in favour, motion unanimously carried

 

  

2. LSS Society Funding Allocations – Michelle McBride, VP Finance

-$15,000 available for society funding under total budget of 26,000; trying to return student money to students whenever possible & provide support to societies that facilitate the majority of student involvement at Weldon

–received 20 applications in total; obvious from quality most people took it extremely seriously, very detailed, pleasure to read

-reviewed, assessed independently on relative merits

(1) size of membership (2) parties who benefit (3)planned activities (4) quality of financial record keeping (5) thoroughness of application (6) society history (7) financial need (8) requested amount

- budget committee weighed applications

- not all requests were fully granted, but the budget committee believes they have reached a fair compromise based on the limited funding available

 

motion to adopt proposed society allocation by Michelle, seconded by Jade – debate:

clarification on decisions for society funding:

General comments in response to Board member questions:

-IP society wasn’t granted any funding because the now defunct SALT society has offered to donate their balance of $1600

- Sports committee $250 early funding from fall included in $1000 total allocation

- Grad committee and journal have relied mostly on LSS funding in the past, both requests were fully granted

-Law hour got what requested

- DBLSA is hosting the National Black Law Students’ Conference this year and their increased allocation is mainly due to those costs

-SALAD biggest allocation to newest society - very impressive application - pro bono work and policy consultation on animal cruelty act for NS

-Social committee did not request specific amount, and have a lot of $$$, put on pith and substance and law ball, funding for P & S running out b/c given in 5 year block, VP Finance will work with committee in future to make sure funding doesn’t run out and secure additional future funding for those events.

 

All in favour of accepting recommendations, motion unanimously carried 8:30pm

 

10. New Business – N/A

11. Announcements – come to comedic debate on Thursday, tickets on sale tomorrow at noon in lobby

12. Adjournment – motion to adjourn, Fred, seconded by Erin, all in favour, 8:40pm