Alma Mater Society

:"For other meanings of Alma Mater Society, see Alma Mater Society (disambiguation)."Infobox Canadian Student Association
name = Alma Mater Society


motto =
established = 1858
institution = Queen's University
location = Kingston, Ontario
members = 13,500
affiliated = Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance
colours =
free_label1 = Incorporated
free1 = 1969
homepage = http://www.myams.org
The Alma Mater Society of Queen's University, otherwise known as the AMS, is the central undergraduate student government at Queen’s University in Canada. It is the oldest organization of its kind in Canada. Its roots lie in the old Dialectic Society (now known as the Queen's Debating Union), which created the AMS in 1858.

An umbrella organization, the AMS each year hires over 500 student employees and 1500 volunteers, as it works with member faculty societies to offer resources, services, support and opportunities to Queen’s students.

Day to day

The day-to-day operations of the AMS are overseen by the AMS Council which includes an annually elected three-person executive (the President, Vice-President (Operations) and Vice-President (University Affairs), selected as a slate), five commissioners who are each responsible for a specific aspect of student life, and three directors who are responsible for overseeing the AMS’ 14 corporate services.

AMS Assembly

The AMS’ ultimate authority lies with the AMS Assembly, which is composed of elected representatives from each of the 11 member faculty societies (Arts and Science, Applied Science, Education, Concurrent Education, M.B.A., Commerce, Rehabilitation Therapy, Nursing, Medicine, Physical and Health Education, and Computing) and the Residences (Main Campus and West Campus).

History

The AMS was incorporated in 1969 as a non-profit organization without share capital and thus the Assembly representatives also serve as the voting members of the corporation and annually elect a Board of Directors that oversees the services and financial affairs of the Society. These affairs currently have an annual operations budget of over $12 million.

At its inception, the AMS represented all students attending Queen’s University; however, that changed in 1981 when the Graduate Students’ Society (GSS), an AMS member society formed in 1962, voted by referendum to secede from the AMS. This secession developed out of a conflict around graduate student representation, student services, policy positions and other issues. In the 1990s, the AMS saw the Theological Society and the Law Students’ Society depart for membership with the GSS, prompting the GSS to rename itself the Society for Graduate and Professional Students (despite the fact that the student societies of most Queen's professional programmes remain within the AMS). The Law Student Society split with the AMS over a dispute regarding student constables.

Representation

Currently the AMS represents over 13,500 students, each of whom becomes a member of the Society upon paying the mandatory student activity fee along with their tuition.

Today, the AMS seeks to enhance both the academic and extracurricular experience of its members while fostering connections with the surrounding community.

Federally, the AMS is unaffiliated. Provincially, they are a founding member of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance and rejoined the organization in 2004 after leaving in the mid-1990s over a scandal involving OUSA's budget and accountability.

Employees

Employing eight permanent staff, the AMS places full managerial and oversight responsibility in the hands of students. There is a 100% annual turnover with new students appointed to every supervisory position each spring.

ee also

*List of Ontario students' associations

External links

* [http://www.myams.org Queen's Alma Mater Society official site]
* [http://www.queensu.ca Queen's University official site]