UNA Elects Officers

Richard Alexander was elected Chair and President of the UNA at the first meeting of the new UNA Board, Tuesday October, 9th.  Also elected were:  Shaohong Wu, Vice-Chair and Charles Menzies, Secretary.  In a move that shifts authority into elected directors hands and breaks with a longstanding practice, Thomas Beyer was elected UNA Treasurer.  This is the first time that an elected director, as opposed to a UBC staff appointee, has filled the critically important position of Treasurer.  Beyer, an independent businessman, was elected to the UNA Board last year on a platform of bringing more resident control and greater democracy to the UNA.

Newly elected Chair Richard Alexander advised the audience that the UNA standing committees would be revised (sustainability will become a free standing committee, governance and operations will be linked, and a new civic engagement committee will be established).  In the meantime the following were elected chairs of the current committee: Human Resources, Richard Alexander; Governance, Charles Menzies; Finance and Audit, Thomas Beyer; Sustainability, Erica Frank.  It was also announced  that Shaohong Wu will become the chair of the new Civic Engagement Standing Committee.

After some discussion and a series of technical questions from UBC Appointed Director Nancy Knight, our proposal for the Listen In series of forums for community engagement was approved.  Knight asked about the purpose of the community engagement forums, what would be their direction, how would they be organized, what would they cost, what would come from them, etc.  Th final vote was 7 in favour, none opposed, one abstention.