AMS’s October Assembly finished in under two hours, split evenly between open and closed sessions.
Assembly met on Oct. 21 at 5:30 p.m. in Wallace Hall, discussing the six motions on the agenda for about 50 minutes. The meeting was largely procedural, with three of the six motions relating to the approval of the agenda and previous meeting minutes.
The meeting was themed around environmental sustainability, with the Society For Conservation Biology Kingston offering a presentation on what they do and the events they host. The group also hosted an activity, distributing “native wildflower seed bombs” to Assembly members. They were given clay and seeds and encouraged to mix them and then plant the seed bombs to promote local biodiversity.
“You can either plant them [the seed bombs] before the onset of winter, or you put them in the fridge for a month, and that wintering phase helps a lot of our native seeds here actually get their cues to germinate. Then you can give them some water and plant them in the ground, and they should be good to go,” Co-President Julia Atteck, ArtSci ’26, said to Assembly members.
Following reports, AMS Assembly moved towards the Internal Affairs Office (IAO) budget and goal plan. Secretariat Emily Henrique prepared the budget, requesting $115,604 in funds from AMS Assembly, an increase of roughly $18,000 compared to what was requested in 2025. Most of this is attributable to a $15,000 increase in salaries for Assistant Managers in the office.
Most of the budget went towards salaries, with $96,173 going to personnel. $8,200 went to the fee for the AMS’s voting platform, Simply Voting, and $7,750 went to Assembly operations—including room bookings, food, and streaming costs.
Henrique also spoke about her new plans for the year, including a Referenda Open House to allow groups campaigning to pass their referenda an opportunity to spread their message to students. Additionally, the IAO is implementing an Election Reveal Night to announce election results, with exact dates not yet announced.
“This is an initiative to support a more engaging approach to announcing results, as well as just garnering an engagement for our election season,” Henrique said. “It’s just meant to be a moment to celebrate the future, the hard work of all of the election team as well as all the candidates, and to support participation.”
The budget and goal plans passed unanimously with no questions from Assembly members.
AMS Assembly then moved on to motion five, which called for the deferral of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA’s)—a group of student unions that work to lobby against the provincial government—budget presentation to AMS Assembly. The motion was moved by Vice-President (University Affairs) Alyssa Perisa, who is responsible for presenting the budget.
“October’s been a very busy time for my portfolio. I didn’t want to submit the budget haphazardly. I want to be able to walk all the way through it, so you fully understand it. And unfortunately, I didn’t have the time and energy to put into that presentation as much as I would like,” Perisa said.
The motion passed, unanimously, moving on to motion six, which called for the deferral of Perisa’s Vice-Presidential portfolio budget. She cited the same reason, and the motion to defer its presentation also passed unanimously with no discussion.
After a brief discussion on the Rector Election Policy Review Committee, with Rector Niki Boytchuck-Hale asking Assembly members to give their input on the committee’s recommendations, AMS Assembly then moved into a closed session where only voting members of Assembly could attend. The session lasted about 50 minutes before AMS Assembly adjourned.
Tags
AMS Assembly, Budget, Internal Affairs Office
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Anonymous
Hyperlink to Rector Election Policy Review Committee doesn’t work.