RPIRG signals new year with AGM
author: kristian ferguson | news editor
the rpirg staff and board credit rpirg twitter
General meeting held to discuss RPIRG success
RPIRG (Regina Public Interest Research Group) held their Annual General Meeting on the Oct. 20 to discuss their new business, how their previous fiscal year went, and where they are headed in the future. The Carillon was there to report on what happened for those who could not attend.
The first thing to be announced was that this year is RPIRG’s 10th anniversary, and that everyone from RPIRG, including president Anna Dipple, was pleased with what RPIRG had accomplished and still have planned for the remainder of the calendar year.
The RPIRG staff started off by talking about some of the successes they have had so far in the calendar year with events like Generating Momentum, which had a turn out of over 45 people. Generating Momentum is described on the RPIRG website as a “4-day, province-wide event held at Camp Easter Seal, located on Little Manitou Lake (near Watrous), [with] a focus on providing the practical skills, knowledge, education, and networking opportunities necessary for young leaders to make a difference in their communities.”
RPIRG has had many notable events so far including Apathy into Action, their refugee relief concert, their year of elections campaign which included the federal, provincial and municipal elections, as well as their incredibly popular and completely packed David Suzuki conference.
The RPIRG Green Patch, a volunteer-run community garden, had successfully yielded over 2200 pounds of produce in the summer just past. This is more produce than the Green Patch has every yielded in years prior. The vast majority of that was donated to Carmichael Outreach and with the leftovers split amongst the volunteers. This AGM was also celebrating the Green Patch’s fifth anniversary.
The next order of business was RPIRG’s financials. The finances were independently audited and proven to be “sufficient and appropriate to provide basis for our audit opinion.”
The total revenue of RPIRG for the previous financial year was $182,387, which is up around $12,000 from the year prior. The total expenditure was $169,359, which is up from the year prior by about $30,000. RPIRG was happy that they were able to provide more money for grants and events due to a previous surplus as well as their increased revenue.
The final order for the AGM was all of the new business. The voting body in attendance approved the minutes and financials as well as the auditor appointed for the new financial year. A change to the RPIRG constitution was passed that allowed board members a shorter amount of time between being a board member and being a paid employee of RPIRG. This was shortened from one year to six months. RPIRG hoped to address concerns that someone qualified on the board would not be given the opportunity to apply for work before graduating.
A second change to the constitution was approved that would remove the Advisory Committee from the constitution and institute it as a policy for the director so that the committee can be changed and altered without having to hold an AGM to get approval. The Advisory Committee is described on the RPIRG website as being “made up of faculty at the U of R and members of the community of Regina. The committee supplies the RPIRG Board with guidance and support from non-students who have experience in campus and community organizing.”
After those had been passed, the AGM closed and welcomed RPIRG to a new financial year. The Carillon will continue to provide updates on events and news related to RPIRG as the year progresses.
