SFU students and CFS settle out of court

SFU Students Society no longer a member of the Canadian Federation of Students.

After a long dispute (since 2008), the SFSS and CFS have settled out of court.

This is the text of the statement that was agreed upon Dec 23rd and publicly released today.




"The Canadian Federation of Students and Simon Fraser Student Society Reach Out of Court Resolution.






The Canadian Federation of Students, Canadian Federation of Students - Services, Canadian Federation of Students - British Columbia Component (collectively, the "CFS Entities") and the Simon Fraser Student Society


("SFSS") have come to an amicable, out of court resolution of their dispute regarding the SFSS voting membership in the CFS Entities.


As part of this resolution it is agreed that the membership has ended.


The agreement was motivated by a desire on the part of all parties to resolve all outstanding issues. The parties have agreed to this common statement and have agreed to make no further public statements regarding this matter."

See ya, Joe, and thanks!

GSS director of Communications Joe Kolthammer has stepped down. The Grad Council passed a motion to thank him for all his hard work, and I want to add my personal thanks.

Joe was first elected in Spring 2007 and worked tirelessly producing four issues of the source, largely without any assistance. To give you a sense of the immensity of this, the magazine to be managed by a part time staff person. However, Joe managed to pull off high quality work with limited resources.

Joe also led the GSS referendum campaign to leave the CFS, and prior to the referendum gave many (frustrating) hours to that dispute. What could have been largely unpleasant was fun because of working with Joe.

This year, Joe didn't stand for re-election. However, when no one stood for the position, he accepted nomination from the floor of the March 2008 SGM and undertook to revamp how the Director of Communications position works--partly with an eye to making it more do-able for a grad student with other full time commitments. Joe also knew that due to the enormous shift in communications, and the work required in producing a magazine, it was time to rethink how we managed our publication and communication strategy.

All this was an enormous amount of work, and I will miss Joe's contribution to the GSS.

Most of all, though, I will miss having Joe around: his always hilarious (but rarely sent) letters to the Martlet, his old green cardigan, and making me laugh (and increasing my vocabulary) with every visit. Oh! And wearing my son's crazy bird costume!

Hopefully all that won't have to change (except maybe the bird costume... that might not bear repeating!).

Ok, maybe once...

Here's to the kudzu of anarchy!

Stacy

Bird on holiday

I know grad students never really get holidays, but bird is taking a tropical vacation none the less. He promises to submit a draft on Dec 26. Ginger Punk is taking over for the rest of the year.