Caerus

Caerus started off this year with their first General Assembly last Wednesday. Even though around fifty lovely individuals took one for the team and joined, not all Caerus members were able to attend this event. Which is why /SLASH/ decided it would be a smart idea to report on it. Unfortunately, most of our team was unable to attend the evening, including myself (travelling from Venice was just a bit too much of a hassle). But fear not, because minutes were recorded during the evening. Using them, I will make sure to inform you about all there is to know, from my own unique perspective.

Caerus pulled out all the stops to make sure people would give up their Wednesday evening. Caerus’ new chair, Sush Gupta, took matters in his own hands and promised free drinks and snacks to all. He even took to Snapchat in the hopes of getting students to sacrifice their precious spare time for an evening on Hoendiepskade. In some cases, he even made crazy promises like beating people in chess, just so they'd take pity on him and join the assembly. But in the end, his attempt proved to be, at least, somewhat successful.

Unfortunately, for most, they were not greeted by their number one reason to attend the event; free beers and snacks. Instead, it was Gupta who greeted them by kicking off the GA with the matter-of-fact announcement that the drinks and snacks would only be served during the break, to much disappointment. Our chair started off with the usual GA procedures, but it was clear he was not fully comfortable in his new position, being unable to show the minutes of the previous GA. He supposedly blamed it on technical issues with the system, but other sources confirmed these issues were solely caused by him not including the link in the slides.

It quickly became apparent that it would take a few more, say, minutes, for everyone to see the minutes, so Sush wisely admitted defeat and continued by announcing the independent body, Florence Denham. Even though I wasn’t there, I can imagine she must have been very excited to be there and count votes three whole times that evening, on what turned out to be extremely controversial topics.

Next up, the previous year was briefly discussed. One moment in particular seemed to generate laughter in the crowd, when last years’ finances were revealed. The budget showed that there had been a surplus in spendings on social (alcohol including) activities, while also a deficit in spending in the educational budget. So, it seems Caerus is showing good signs on becoming a great student organisation.

After the annual review Sush tried to implement a break, most likely so he could find out where those damn minutes were without publicly being judged. Unfortunately for him, it seemed that most people were onto him and chose to see him struggle a bit more. He finally managed to show the minutes. After having to vote on these, the break started, with seemingly all the people in favour of last year's minutes rushing towards the much-needed free alcoholic drinks.

Refreshed and with all technical difficulties out of the way, the GA continued with the most important part of the evening, the policy plan. Numerous things were discussed in this part, but since nobody likes an article going on for too long, just as nobody likes to sit in the study landscape for an extra half hour to discuss the waste policies in Frascati, here are some of the highlights.  

• New merchandise will drop soon for Caerus, it will be there before winter, so get ready to see everyone at UCG wearing their new red and blue hoodies in school.

• PayPal and Credit card payment options are added on the website for events. So now there are no excuses anymore not to join Caerus’ events.

• Instead of drinks at the Doos, Barco will organise Bi-weekly drinks at UCG, times are not known yet, but beer will be cheap, so stay tuned for that.

• The UCSRN tournament in Leiden next semester will be promoted better this year. Personally, that made me very happy.

• Caerus is trying to become more sustainable, but does not exactly know how to yet. But it sure brought some totally relevant discussions to the table.

And finally, my favourite part of reading the minutes occurred right at the ending, when Niek van der Kuil started an intriguing discussion on the stickers policies of Caerus. For many this might have been a bit dragging after more than 90 minutes but not for me as a reader. I think it is safe to say that if the phrase “I understand your concern about stickers” isn’t used in a General Assembly, it has not been a good night.

But all jokes and sarcasm aside, I really think the Caerus board did a great job with this opening GA. Many points of criticism that came up over the last couple of years were addressed and even by just reading the minutes I can see that the board is doing everything they can to make Caerus a great and sustainable student organisation. So, congrats to the whole board and I cannot wait to report on the next GA.

//Olle

Were you there and did I miss an interesting moment? Let the others know in the comments!