Last week, OUSA held our 64th General Assembly (GA) at Queen’s University! Their student government, the Alma Mater Society (AMS), hosted us from November 5th - 8th, and we brought together over 60 delegates from across our nine member organizations. This biannual conference is an opportunity for students to engage in critical discussion, provide feedback, and ultimately approve our student-written policy papers.
At this GA, our delegates reviewed and approved the Principles, Concerns, and Recommendations in two policy papers:
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Two-Spirit (2S) and LGBTQIA+ Inclusion
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Student Entrepreneurship, Employment and Employability (SE3)
The conference started with a welcome ceremony from Elder Al Doxtator from the Office of Indigenous Initiatives at Queen’s. He opened with a prayer of gratitude and shared words of wisdom ahead of the conference.
After getting acquainted with an OUSA 101 presentation and icebreaker, our delegates headed into their first round of breakout room sessions. This is when students get the first in-person opportunity to go through their feedback on the policy papers with the authors, in small rotating groups. The authors then integrate this feedback during rewrite sessions in the evening before the next round of breakouts the following day.
The second day kicked off with a presentation from Leah Wales, Interim Assistant Dean in the Office of the Vice-Provost, Student Affairs [on the work of the Student Affairs Office at Queens and how institutions can work with student leaders to support students on campus. Then a presentation on Plenary, the final meeting of GA when the delegates vote on final edits to the papers.
After a second round of breakout room sessions that morning, we had a talk from our Diamond Sponsor, Alumo, on the issues facing students today and how to transform them into change. This was followed by a networking session with both sponsors, Alumo and OCUFA. Later that afternoon, authors completed another round of rewrites and held drop-in sessions, giving delegates a final opportunity to share feedback one-on-one before submitting amendments the next day. We wrapped up the second day with a bowling night social!
Day three started with formal amendment submissions for the papers ahead of plenary the following day. Then we held a mock plenary session for first-time plenary attendees and had preliminary consultations for Spring GA’s papers. Saturday was a much appreciated slower day for many of our delegates!
Sunday morning brought us to our Annual General Meeting and Plenary! This consolidated the delegates' and authors’ hard work and critical discussions from the previous days. During plenary, every amendment suggesting changes to the papers is introduced, discussed, and then voted on before the papers can pass. This GA, plenary was chaired by Shemar Hackett, former Steering Committee member and Research and Policy Analyst at OUSA!
After much critical discussion and collaboration, both papers passed unanimously, and plenary concluded before 3 PM! We ended with an OUSA tradition, awarding a certificate to those who have attended five or more plenaries!
We’re excited to have wrapped up another successful GA with the approval of two more papers! Thank you and congratulations to all the authors for their efforts, patience, and dedication through the review and critique process. Thank you to Claudia, our Manager of Operations, and Racheal of AMS and the Steering Committee, for their hard work in planning and supporting the proceedings of this GA. Thank you to our co-managers of Research and Policy, Abi and Alyssa, for their tireless efforts in supporting the authors with rewrites and facilitating paper edits. Last but not least, thank you to all incredible delegates who attended this GA for lending their time, knowledge, and lived experiences to work on policy that advocates for students across Ontario!
We’re looking forward to the next GA at Wilfrid Laurier University next spring – planning is already in progress!