@ www.theotherpress.ca

 

By Jacey Gibb, Opinions Editor

ast Wednesday was one of
L« biggest days of the year

for the Douglas Students’
Union (DSU), as their Annual
General Meeting took place in the
Dougout Lounge. I understand that
politics can be drier than a piece of
toast, but this stuff affects me as a
student, so I was forced to give a
damn.

An Annual General Meeting
(AGM) is a once-a-year meeting
held by societies/ organizations
where any changes to a society’s
constitution or bylaws can be
made, as well as where financial
reports are made available to the
public. While the majority of the
AGM’s motions for changes were
passed without opposition, the final
proposal 3.16 was subjected to a
thorough dissection by attendees.
And for good reason.

The proposed change was the
inclusion of the following into the
DSU’s Administrative Policy: “The
Douglas Students’ Union purchase all
materials through the Bulk Purchasing
Program through the Canadian
Federation of Students’ Services,

whenever possible, and if any item is
not available through the Canadian
Federation of Students’ Services

that all efforts be made to purchase
matertals that are ethically produced,
environmentally friendly and produced
in an environment where high work
standards are provided.” So what does
any of this mean?

The DSU is commonly
associated with free swag, ranging
from USBs to water bottles, and
they have an obligation to do
the majority of their purchasing
through companies that are
approved by the Canadian
Federation of Students (CFS) based
on their ethics, environmental
impact, and working conditions.
The CFS does their homework and
ensures that all of these standards
are met, but the argument from
several DSU Board Representatives
was that this often “handcuffs”
them. If a company other than the
one approved by the CFS is able to
provide the same products, meet
the same ethical standards, and can
offer the goods at a cheaper price,
the DSU is unable to buy from
the cheaper company. From what
I can remember, saving money =

Opinions
Proposed change to DSU’s Administrative Policy met
with mixed response

good, and this change would have
allowed the DSU to possibly save
on future bulk purchases.

I voted against the change,
and so did a majority of the AGM’s
attendees. The motion didn’t pass.

From the moment I read
the proposed addition to the
DSU’s policy, I wasn’t on board.
Generality is a major weakness of
constitutions, and what is defined
as “ethical” and “environmentally
friendly” can be tailored. The
resources and time it takes to
thoroughly inspect a company
for all these traits is something
the DSU shouldn’t be taking
upon themselves, especially if
the CFS is already providing the
same information. Isn’t a national
organization better equipped to
handle this sort of thing than our
local operation?

My main concern is the
window for conflict of interest,
especially stemming from the
“whenever possible” part. I’m not
saying that everyone, everywhere
is only interested in doing what
benefits them, but positions of
power are susceptible to abuse. It’s
common sense. I’ve been assured by

 

Pining for Pinterest

By Allie Davison, Staff Writer

ecently, Pinterest was
Res the fastest-growing

independent site to hit 10
million monthly unique visits (in
the U.S.) by comScore, the leading
digital world statistic measuring
system. Though Pinterest was
originally launched in 2010,
they only just catapulted to the
10-million monthly user range in
the past few months.

What is Pinterest? Pinterest
is a virtual pin board, or rather,
pin boards. How it works is you
create boards according to a subject
matter you’re interested in. For
example, a few of my boards are:
Dream Home Stuff, Books Worth
Reading, and Adorable Clothes.
While browsing the Internet, if you
come across a must-have item, you
“Pin it” to your board. People have
used Pinterest for planning their
weddings, decorating their homes,
finding awesome recipes, and even
looking up new hair styles.

When you sign up for Pinterest,
you select which genres you're
interested in, and then you can
browse other peoples’ pin boards to
see what they’re pinning. You can
also repin, like, or comment on the

ones you like. To add people who
you actually know on Pinterest,
you simply link your Facebook or
Twitter accounts and then their pin
boards will show up on your feed
as well.

It’s easy to see why Pinterest
has become such a hit—with its
slick design and the assortment of
fabulous pictures that grace your
feed, it’s hard to refuse.

But there are a large number of
Pinterest copy-cats out there, and to
help you avoid getting sucked into
these fakers, I checked out a few of
them to see if they had any merit.

Fancy: www.thefancy.com

Fancy is very similar to Pinterest.
You browse through websites, or
other people “catalogues” (their
version of pin boards), and if you
“Fancy” something, you can put it
in your catalogue. Nothing special
here. However, they do have one
cool feature: lots of companies have
offered “Deals” on Fancy. They
seem to be generally web-based
companies, offering anything from
clothes to wacky gifts. Although
this is a super cool feature, with the
recent rise in traffic that Pinterest
has experienced, I wouldn’t be
surprised to see something similar

interest

Pinboards ‘You Follow - Discussions « Everything - Gifts

countless sources that safeguards
are in place and that the Board has
done thorough inspections in the
past before dealing with companies,
but that doesn’t eliminate the
window completely.

Discussion over the proposed
motion covered a wide range of
viewpoints. People were reminded
that the CFS works with businesses
in Third World countries that
benefit local populations while
maintaining ethical treatment of
their employees. Someone argued
that buying internationally wasn’t
ethical at all, considering the
environmental impact of having
to ship products across the globe.
Another attendee wondered
why we weren't supporting local
businesses instead. Eventually
the discussion became so diluted
that, for some reason, the issue of
starving children in Canada was
raised. Like I said, there was a wide
range of viewpoints.

Personally, I’m glad the motion
failed to pass and that the CFS
will continue to have the DSU’s
unwavering support, if only
because their policy “handcuffs”
them into doing so.

Seacch [iGana- Add- Boerds- People- About -

Find Friends: invite Friends

 

   

 

appearing on their site in the near
future.

Pinspire: www.pinspire.com
Pinspire is a complete rip-off of
Pinterest. At least the others had
the decency to change the colour
scheme. But not Pinspire—it’s red
and white and pins all over, with
nothing new to offer. Certainly not
very inspired.

Gentlemint: www.gentlemint.com
Gentlemint is Pinterest for boys.
It’s all robots, and Star Wars, and
tools—so, if you like that stuff,

 

Qn cia

Wieh-tH ant take Ree
CEM DE (CoAT Paint a PeMPLAN
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then you'll get along fine. My only
complaint is that Pinterest has all
of these things, but also has more.
Overall, Gentlemint is pretty cool.
My favourite part? This quote
posted on their website: “...one of
the more manly websites on the
planet” ~ American Moustache
Institute.

Despite the competition,
Pinterest is coming out on top.
It’s the hottest new social media
platform out there. If you haven’t
already gotten it, I strongly
recommend checking it out before
you get left behind.

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