Voluntary Membership Best Model For Wananga Group

Voluntary Membership Best Model For Wananga Student Group

Voluntary membership is by far the best model of membership for the student organisation proposed at Te Wananga O Aotearoa, pro-voluntary group Student Choice said today.

A meeting held earlier this week proposed establishing a student organisation at Te Wananga O Aotearoa, an institution with over 23,000 EFTS.

Student Choice spokesman Matthew Flannagan said a voluntary organisation had substantial advantages over a compulsory group. Voluntary organisations have real legitimacy because they speak on behalf of the people who've freely decided to join. Compulsory organisations with forced membership have no legitimacy.

Voluntary organisations have to accurately represent their members and meet their needs otherwise they'll lose support. Compulsory organisations are able to misrepresent members, ignore their views and are prone to capture by factions.

Voluntary organisations are constrained in what they can charge members and have to provide value for money. Compulsory organisations have monopoly powers and can force students to pay exorbitant membership levies.

Compulsory student associations have long records of misrepresentation, waste and fraud. A compulsory student group at Te Wananga could easily take $1,000,000 a year from Wananga students. Any decision about joining an association should be made by people on an individual basis and not decided by any sort of majority vote.

Matthew Flannagan said Student Choice would be willing to assist Te Wananga O Aotearoa students if they wished to establish a voluntary student association.

Student Choice upholds voluntary student association membership on the grounds of freedom of association.

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