“We’re in a successful position right now as a corporation and a society,” Laura Devenny, chair of the AMS Board of Directors, said as the AMS Corporate General Meeting (CGM) commenced on April 6 at Sutherland Hall.
At the meeting, the Board’s six committees presented their annual reports. Devenny explained the three main priorities of the board: strategic guidance, fiduciary responsibility, and human resources.
The AMS has a positive continued non-profit standing and created 20 employee facing policies and 10 new positions this year.
The AMS risk matrix was amended to add more layers of responsibility and policy around risk management, said Chris Metzler, chair of the Finance and Risk committee.
“[The risk matrix] helped us consider […] trends across the organization to make sure all our services, our offices, everything is in good standing,” Metzler said.
Vice-Chair of the AMS Board of Directors Luca DiFrancesco spoke next, presenting the reviewed and updated AMS policies. The board took “outdated” policies and transitioned them to make individual, user-friendly policies.
DiFrancesco said they looked at hiring employment policy and programs, making changes to ensure they are aligned with “current practices.” This involved doing a formal review of the HR office.
“This has been something that’s been going on for many months since we came into this role, and we’ve felt great working relationships with everyone,” DiFrancesco said.
Tina Hu, AMS vice-president (operations), presented the AMS Consolidated Operating Statement as of Feb 2023. Overall, the AMS received $4.5 million in revenues, with expenditures totaling $4.4 million.
There has been an increase in expenses and cost of goods due to inflation and global supply chain issues, Hu said.
The offices, managed by the AMS president, oversee marketing, communications, human resources, and the general office. They are sitting at “slight” surplus of $44,000 due to a delay in transition and “professional development expenses,” as well as lower marketing costs.
The AMS’s nine services, including Common Ground, are under the purview of the AMS vice-president (operations). They have around $3 million in revenue, from student activity fees, donations, and sales.
“Common Ground this year saw higher sales and our desserts and pre-mades, which is very exciting,” Hu said.
Sales at the Printing and Copy Centre and Tricolour Outlet were lower than projected, which Hu attributes to the services’ relocation due to the JDUC renovation.
“In the big picture as an operations group we should be oscillating around zero,” Hu said. “We currently are a little better than zero.”
The government branch of the AMS ran a small surplus of $60,000, which Hu expects to be rectified by the distribution of grants at the end of the schoolyear.
To close the CGM, the AMS ratified five incoming candidates to the AMS Board of Directors. Amir-Ali Golrokhian Sani, HealthSci ’24, Niki Boytchuk-Hale, ConEd ’24, Linda Xu, Comm ’24, Nate Feldman, ArtSci ’24, and Tiffany Li Wu, ArtSci ’23 will all serve as Board members for the upcoming school year.
—With files from Sophia Coppolino
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AMS, corporate general social meeting, Finances, meeting
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