This blog should have
been published last week but due to various external complications (this is
code speak for “I was too lazy”) I am stealing one day from the next blogger to
spread my last words of wisdom for this fall in this blog. So here it goes….
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| Beef bourguignon |
As I told you in my
last blog, we finally got the recipe booklet ready on Friday. In inspiration of
that, I spent the weekend cooking for an entire army. Or more accurately, just
for four people. But when I get into a kitchen something happens to me. It is
like a housewife monster takes control over me and I become a new age Sikke
Sumari. So I cook and I cook and I can’t stop. This weekend I made beef bourguignon
(a 5 liter pot of it…yeah I am not even kidding), ratatouille (a 3 liter pot), French
cheeses, and a chocolate cake big enough for at least 12 people. Two former
JAMKO chairmen of the board and one JAMKO alumnus had a taste and it seemed to
go down well. None of them have reported any food related illnesses so far so
at least my Red Nose day inspired cooking hasn’t killed anyone.
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| Ratatouille |
But food is important
for this week because we will need loads and loads of energy to get through
the week. So much is going on that the board members and staff have difficulty
keeping track of what needs to happen next. But at the same time it is also an exciting week because we will see the new Representatives elected. We
elect 25 five members and 25 vice members. After the Representatives have been
elected, the people wishing to act on the Board come forward. They will then be
elected by the Representatives.
Now what I would like
to do is to question this model a little. There’s always talk about cutting the
number of representatives down a bit hence questioning the benefit of having 50
people elected. Is it too big for an organization this size? Hard to say. But
is seems to me that people’s only suggestion is to cut down the number of
representatives without actually thinking about the consequences and what would
be a better model. This dual model we use in JAMKO is commonly used and works
fairly well. But here’s another model which I have seen done.
My former university
in the UK has 26 000 students and they are all automatically members of
the Students’ Union. Now, they elect both the Representatives and the Board by
a direct vote. So basically, the entire student body of 26 000 students
can vote who will become the Chairman of the Board, the Vice Chairman etc. What
this means is that people wishing to act on the Board have to do an actual campus
wide election campaign. They effectively have their own campaign team, go from
campus to campus talking to students, visit classes to state their election
promises, hand out fliers, give interviews, compete against their runners in
open panels etc. Sounds like much work? It is. But would this be a better model
for the representatives elections? I say no because it would be more costly to
the students themselves. At the moment, JAMKO makes it fair and equal for all
candidates.
So my food for thought
for this coming week: eat well and stay tuned for the representatives
elections.
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