Students! Freaks! Countrythems! Lend us your ear!

Take notice: Arthur is holding its Annual General Meeting (AGM) from 5:00–7:00 PM on Friday November 28th in the Board Room at Sadleir House (751 George Street North) and we want YOU to come out and vote!

If you’re a Trent student, you’re probably a member of Arthur, which means you have a stake in the way we do things around here!

That’s right! As a non-profit incorporated without share capital, Arthur is collectively owned and funded by a student levy collected from her membership, the undergraduate students of Trent University. 

This means that if you’re enrolled in 1.5 credits or more, you’re a levy-paying member of Arthur and have a crucial role to play in how our organization works! Yayyyyy!

As a member, you get to vote and add your name to the speakers list in our AGM. This meeting is also an excellent opportunity for our members to provide us guidance on how Arthur operates and how she spends your money. 

Our membership also consists of all past Editor(s) of Arthur, anyone who is part of the Staff Collective, and anyone who applies and is approved by the Board as a member. This now allows for up to two community members to participate in Arthur’s governance, subject to the approval of our Board of Directors. 

If you are a George Brown nursing student, a Trent Durham student, or a graduate student, you are unfortunately not a member of Arthur, so you cannot vote or participate in our AGM. These programs don’t pay into our levy! Sorry. 

HOWEVER: Keep reading! We’ll tell you how you can still be involved regardless of that, as we would still love to have you come out to our AGM! We’re always happy to host people who are just as passionate about independent, local, and radical student journalism as we are! 

You might be asking yourself: “But dearest Arthur! What is an Annual General Meeting? Who is that?”

All non-profit corporations (what Arthur is) must hold AGMs to be accountable to their membership. Our Members will receive an update from the editors on what they’ve been doing, how they’re spending the paper’s money, and will get the opportunity to bug the management team (the editors AND our business manager!) about both of those things.

Our Annual General Meeting is also when the Arthur membership (that’s you, bud!) elects volunteers to the Arthur Board of Directors. If you’re eligible to vote, that ALSO means you’re eligible to run for a seat on our Board!

Membership directors play a vital role in the administration of Arthur, as the Board oversees the Editors and reviews the general status of the organization on a monthly basis. This ensures that the Editors remain accountable to the membership while operating the paper in accordance with both our policy framework and the interests of the student body who funds us. 

If this is something that interests you, email editors@trentarthur.ca and board@trentarthur.ca with a statement of interest in joining the Board. You can just straight up nominate yourself at the AGM, which is always funny. Either way works. We’re easy.

We should stipulate that due to the nature of what we do, prospective Arthur Board members must not be working for or serving on the Board of the Trent Central Student Association, any college cabinets, Trent University’s Board of Governors or Senate. This upholds the editorial autonomy enshrined in our mandate.

Remember that caveat we mentioned earlier? New to our governance model this year is how we welcome students and community members to apply to be granted Honourary Membership to join our Board as Community Directors. This is a great opportunity for members of the Trent/Peterborough community to get involved. 

Both Membership Directors and Community Directors serve a term of one year until next year’s AGM. We’re currently looking to elect one more Membership Director at our AGM, so hit our line or rock up to our AGM if you want more experience in non-profit governance.

Also, it’s a pretty good time regardless of the voting and financial stuff. You get an opportunity to meet the Editors, Board, and Staff of Arthur while eating lots of yummy food from our besties at The Seasoned Spoon. We might even watch the Tapeworm screening of Mac and Me (a cinematic masterpiece) after it’s all said and done. 

Anyway! That’s about it from the Universal Collective Arthur. We hope to see you at Sadleir House that Friday! Before you rock up, you should also register your student card to access the space via their website, because it’s just a cool space that you should absolutely take advantage of. You also pay for that! 

One million kisses,

The Stewards of Arthur, Volume 60

Madison Preston, Board President

David King, Editor-in-Chief

Louanne Morin, Co-Editor

Ian Vansegbrook, Digital Media Editor

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For more information on our year end financials, check them out on our Governance page.