The Science Society held a Special General Meeting on the 8th of August after almost a year of inactivity.
The Science Society won Best Event of the Year for the Science Ball at the ANUSA Clubs and Societies Awards Night last year. The Society held the ball at Old Parliament House, however, afterwards the society held no more official meetings and held only one other event which was a science careers night in the September of 2013 .
There was also no General Meeting to elect a new Executive for 2014 at the end of 2013 or the beginning of 2013. The August Special General Meeting was held in order to elect a new Executive for 2014.
Laura Wey, treasurer for the Science Society in 2013 and current education officer for ANUSA was elected President at the meeting.
According to ex-President, Oscar Morgain, two annual general meetings were called at the beginning of the year. There were, however, not enough science students or science society members to make quorum. Quorum for the Science Society constitution is only 10 students or members.
Oscar Morgain told Woroni that “I personally take responsibility” for the inactivity of the Science Society over the past year.
Morgain stated that “The lack of momentum of the science society now occurred because I faced some personal circumstances.”
The Science Society also experienced financial problems last year as $3000 was locked into an account that the Executive could not access. Woroni was told that this was due to handover problems with the 2012 Science Society President, Abby D’Cruz, who failed to hand over the trusteeship of the Science Society account to the 2013 Executive although being consistently requested to do so.
Problems with handover is endemic to many student societies and organisations. Executives often start the year strongly but loose momentum as the year progresses or are unwilling to finish the job. A current goal of the new Executive of the Science Society is to try to reinvigorate the society as much as possible so nobody has to face the same issues relating to an ineffective handover.
Oscar Morgain is running for ANUSA President with the ticket ‘Fetch’.
We acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, who are the Traditional Custodians of the land on which Woroni, Woroni Radio and Woroni TV are created, edited, published, printed and distributed. We pay our respects to Elders past and present. We acknowledge that the name Woroni was taken from the Wadi Wadi Nation without permission, and we are striving to do better for future reconciliation.