SFSS Explained - How and Why You Should Get Involved
So recently (as there is every election season!) there has been a lot of debate in regards to the funtion and governance of the SFSS. I usually lurk on here and decided it is the time to clear up some misconceptions.
Who am I?
Former Council member and VP Finance. You may know me as the VP that took charge on opening the SUB Gamer's Lounge in 2023. I'm not running again nor am I connected to the current Exec but I do know a thing or two about the student society. I was also the one who wrote in The Peak about the legal issues surrounding the SUB closure in 2022. I do not represent the Society, all this yapping is my own.
First off, what is the SFSS?
The Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) is an independent from SFU, not-for profit organization. You may be familiar with charities - the SFSS isn't that kind of not-for-profit organization. Nor it is a co-operative (such as Modo the car share or Vancity the credit union) but it is similar. It is a Society.
A Society by BC law is an independent, democratic organization that is required to comply with the Societies Act and their own constitution and bylaws. It does not earn profit for its members as would a co-operative where each member owns a share of the organization and there are dividends. No one "owns" the SFSS. It is its own thing funded via member fees. Aside from the SFSS there are other student societies such as The Peak, CSJF Radio, Embark, and SFPIRG. Those are separate from the SFSS but they too are incorporated in the same way the SFSS is, less the fact that they are the official student society for representing undergraduate students to the university. There is also the GSS which is like the SFSS but for grad students. I won't go into much about the other student societies and the GSS in this post, but may save that for a later time.
What does the SFSS do?
Lots of things, mostly non-academic such as day to day staffing of the SUB, club and departmental student union funding, constituency groups, the health and dental plan, and U-Pass. They also have a Student Advocate Office (good resource if you need help with academic issues/accommodations) and support programs such as a legal clinic, food vouchers, etc. There's a lot more and you should check out the site at sfss.ca. Most of these programs are supported with the help of unionized staff independent from the Executive/Council and overseen by the union-excluded management. More on this later.
Governance Structure
Up until the summer of 2020, the SFSS relied on what is known as the Carver Policy Governance Model where an Executive Director sat on the Board with Table Officers (roles such as the President, Treasurer, etc) + one rep from each faculty. The Executive aside from the Executive Director whom was not a student but a professional handled all communication to union-excluded management (eg. food service manager when the SFSS ran it's own bar, who in turn would direct unionized staff such as the bar tender in this example). Council was an advisory body comprised of every department student union (eg. SFU Computing Science Student Society) and its decisions for the most part hold no weight.
That all changed around 2020-2021 when the Board of Directors (with approval of membership via the annual general meeting) decided to restructure the society to a policy-administrative hybrid model with no executive director and made Council act as the legal Board of Directors of the Society. The prior managers were let go and replaced with an Operations Organizer (HR and day-to-day stuff) and Board Organizer (supports Exec and Council with governance and admin matters). The Facilities Manager was retained to manage the SUB and other Society assets such as the SFSS Undergrounds and Forum Chambers. The Executive Committee as we know now became more involved in day to day operations particularly the roles of the President who now became an official liaison to staff (meaning hire and fire privileges in short), new VP Internal role (tasked with governance and policy matters) and VP Finance (former Treasurer role but on steroids - direct oversight of finances). A new VP Equity role was created to support the constituency groups.
Most recently there appears to have been a small "governance" restructuring at the union excluded (Management) level but not a lot of information was released publicly - I'd argue the current Executive team really should've put more effort into informing students even if it is not as a dramatic change as the 2020 restructuring that saw Council gain a lot more autonomy over Society affairs.
There's quite a lot more to be said about governance but Reddit does have a post limit and I'm sure y'all aren't gonna read a 10 page rant of governance models but the cole's notes summary is the SFSS Executive can make or break the Society. Anyone hoping to run for a position particularly President, VP Internal, and VP Finance better brush up on their knowledge of labour relations, employment and non-profit law. Then we have Management which supervises Coordinators and Assistants (unionized staff) that run most of the services you rely on. The Exec are full-time co-op eligible positions with significant input on Society operations and Council is comprised of the Executive, reps from department and faculty student unions, reps from constituency groups, and reps from independent student societies (I think only SFPIRG exercises this entitlement right now). There is also a TSSU (Teaching Support Staff Union) seat. Don't bother the front red/orange/yeah there's debate over the colour desk people about your grievances - they are just unionized staff responsible for the SUB. Instead contact your Department's Council Rep or the Executive. Tbh I have no clue how approachable they are this year but during my year we all maintained office hours and you could request a 1:1 meeting with us
OK, all this yapping for?...
How to get involved
I mean, by all means shitpost on this Reddit, scream about tearing down the organization but that'll get you nowhere. To enact positive change you can:
- Show up to the debates on Tuesday, February 25 from 5:00PM - 7:30PM in the SUB Ballroom and ask questions to those running, then vote on whoever you think would do a good job or align with your views. Voting is end of this week via SFU Mail survey link.
- Run for Council. Get in touch with your faculty or department student union and inquire when the elections are, this usually happens in March or April.
- Show up at the AGM and vote for/against the proposals. The SFSS is legally required to hold an Annual General Meeting to go over the audit and by-law proposals. They usually give out AirPods if you're lucky enough to win the spin the wheel thing at the end of the meeting lol.
- Run for Exec. The most brave option out there. If you do, required reading might include BCGEU's Paul Finch's Governance PowerPoint, Robert's Rules (the small yellow version NOT THE BIG BOOK), skimming over the Societies Act/Universities Act, the Collective Agreement and of course all the policy documents on the SFSS website. Of course I don't think most people who run read this type of stuff and this is where we get one of the problems that I believe face the SFSS today - the Executive have all this power but such low training. You either figure this all out on your own or make mistakes. That's not to scare anyone from running, I fully believe that any student can and should run. And you get $100 to print posters. I do wish the Elections Committee/SFSS itself educated the average student about the onset of and outs of governance. If you're one of the current Executives reading this - ask the Policy/Research department to produce a paper for public release on this.
- Run a petition. Well I guess someone on here discovered the Jotform template. Just maybe run a petition to require SFSS to minimize deficits or hold monthly general meetings instead of tearing down the whole damn thing. Or maybe do, I may be biased.
Oh and certain Committees accept volunteers. This is usually announced on the SFSS social media and a great, low-stakes way to see what sitting on a committee is like. One of the more "fun" committees is the Events Committee usually.
One thing that sucks is the low voter engagement and until that is fixed there will be discontent. I'd advise everyone vote and contact their Council reps if they are serious about making the SFSS more representative of the students.
As for why should you care? Well aside from services (main one being the health and dental which in my opinion deserves a BIG review and public consultation with everyone given the coverage has been cut due to inflation and lack of fee sustainability) you do pay into this thing. Rage posting on Reddit won't ensure that your fees are spent responsibly or going to the issues you care about. I can say that while the SFSS does have a lot of disconnect between the student body and itself on some issues - the one positive thing for student life has been all the clubs under it. If that all goes the little we have in terms of community is at risk. Let's face it we're not like the Ontario unis with massive street parties and nightlife and the SFSS can for sure fix that - given the right people decide to be involved.
(Read Jen's comment)
https://www.reddit.com/r/uwaterloo/comments/16cgjbh/wusas_chronic_distrust_students/ (look at us mentioned on the UWaterloo sub)
https://sfss.ca/about/policies-guidelines/