2025 Annual General Meeting Agenda 

Friday February 28th 2025 at 5pm-7pm PST 

In attendance:  

Marissa, Julia, Anika, Acorn, Marten, Lola, Zoe, Jess, Katherine, Valentine, Kush, Hannah, Brennan, Jitendra 

Call to Order/Welcome 

  • Chair calls the meeting to order at 5:07pm. 

Land Acknowledgement 

  • Chair offers land acknowledgement. 

Access Needs Check-In 

  • Break every 45 minutes
  • Totally fine if you just want to be in the chat! Or have camera off! 

Ratification of SGM Minutes (Acorn/Marten) 

Adoption of 2025 AGM Agenda (Acorn/Marten) 

  • Agenda adopted 

General Overview and Intro to the SSD 

    • Website
    • Chair offers overview of the SSD. Lots of programming going on as well as #Access4All.  

Yearly Executive Council Reports  

  • Co-Chairpersons 
    • Julia  
    • Hannah 
      • No staff turnover in the past year, it has been great to have stability 
      • Adrean’s contract ends May 2025, Marissa’s October 2025, Diana’s March 2026 
      • Elected 12 students at last AGM, at the November SGM we elected remaining roles however treasurer and 5 general member positions remained open. 
      • September 2024 and February 2025 meetings with UVic leadership. Topics discusses included: 
        • Ask for lecture recording info to be posted publicly (will a prof record lectures or no?) 
        • Physical accessibility 
        • Snow removal 
        • Continuing to have ongoing meetings 
    • Peer support groups are running for the third year 
    • More robust training on group facilitation 
    • Disability justice training added for facilitators 
    • #A4A Survey 
      • 66 responses so far 
      • Students and instructors 
      • Majority having good or okay time with CAL, however large chunk still having a bad time with CAL 
    • Faculty want to learn more about accessibility but they are overrun with responsibilities 
    • Meeting with BC Post Secondary Disability Alliance 
      • Talk about access to wheelchairs on campus 
    • NEADS connections 
    • Julia and Hannah have both been involved through panelists and job coaches 
    • Isabella is the new communications director 
  • Treasurer 
    • [Vacant] 
  • Student Liaison 
    • Marten 
      • Nothing to report 

Break 5:47-5:52 

  • UVSS’ SSD Representative 
    • Acorn 
      • On AIR committee 
      • Help develop programs like AIR Yoga 
      • ARC 
      • Collabs with NSU for Indigenous Disability Awareness Month; SOCC for International Student Roundtable 
      • Campaigns Committee 
      • UVSS campaigns including #A4A 
      • Senate committee for Accessibility 
        • Being left off list but that should be changed soon “allegedly” 
        • This has been happening repeatedly and feels intentional 
      • Meetings with UVic Admin 

Staff Reports 

  • Office Coordinator 
    • Adrean Meuser (absent) 
  • Research & Communications Coordinator 
    • Diana Viafara (absent) 
  • Education & Administration Coordinator 
    • Marissa Donaldson 
    • Prize Draw! 
      • Any student can enter! 
      • 2 small prizes: Julia and Lola
      • Grand prize: Kush 

Exiting Office and Elections 

Motion to appoint Scrutineer and Electoral Officer (Acorn/Valentine) 

  • Marissa Electoral officer, Brennan scrutineer 

Nominations for Council positions 1 by 1 

  • Co-Chairperson(s) or Chairperson (up to 2 positions) 
    • Hannah nominates Julia 
    • Julia nominates Hannah 
      • Julia and Hannah motivate for themselves 
      • Hannah and Julia elected. 
        • Votes: 10 yes to both; 0 no 
  • SSD Representative on UVSS Board (1 position) 
    • Dacian and Gabi nominate themselves via the council interest form 
      • Dacian is elected  
        • Votes: Gabi: 3; Dacian: 8 
  • Treasurer (1 position) 
    • Mia nominates herself through council interest form 
      • Mia is elected 
        • Votes: 8 yes; 0 no 

Break 6:35-6:40 

  • Secretary (1 position)  
    • Zoe nominates themselves 
      • Zoe is elected 
        • Votes: 9 yes; 0 no 
  • Student Liaison (1 position) 
    • Valentine nominates themselves 
      • Valentine is elected 
        • Votes: 12 yes; 0 no 
  • International Student Representative (1 position) 
    • Lola nominates herself 
    • Kush nominates himself 
      • Kush is elected 
        • Votes: 9 for Kush; 3 for Lola 
  • Grad Student Representative (1 position) 
    • Muskan nominates herself via the council interest form; Hannah reads motivation 
    • Jitendra nominates herself 
      • Jitendra is elected 
        • Votes: 7 for Jitendra; 3 for Muskan 
  • General Members at Large (up to 8 positions) 
    • Acorn nominates themselves 
    • Lola nominates themselves 
    • Gabi nominates herself via the council interest form 
    • Kat nominates herself 
    • Valeria nominates herself via council interest form, though it was quite awhile ago so the vote is pending confirmation of Valeria’s confirmation of continued interest 
      • Acorn, Lola, Kat, Gabi are elected 
      • Valeria elected pending confirmation of interest 
      • Votes: 10 yes to all; 0 no to anyone 

Discussion 

  • Council bios for website (not mandatory) 
    • Short personal introduction & a photo (can be of you, a pet, or something else) 
    • e.g. first name, pronouns, area of study, year at UVic, pets, etc. 
  • Future Meeting Times 
    • #Access4All Committee Meetings 
    • For anyone interested – please fill out this poll 
  • Council Meetings 
    • For all Council members – please fill out this poll by March 14th at noon 
  • Council Training 
    • For new council members – please fill out this poll by March 7th at noon 
  • Staff/Exec (Thrive) Meetings  
    • All Council members welcome but executive Council & staff required 
    • Currently on Thursdays at 3:30pm on Zoom, link in agenda or email Adrean (uvicssd@uvic.ca)  

Adjournment (Valentine/Marten) 

Chair adjourns meeting at 7:10pm 

 

Thank you for coming!