VP Finance Abhi Mishra stabilized the AMS/GSS Health & Dental Plan and raised student financial literacy, two important objectives. He intends to keep working on developing a plan to deal with AMS’ ongoing deficit, which is anticipated to be $738,766 in this year’s budget.
With a focus on funding the AMS food bank and bolstering the organization’s economic system, Mishra has goals in business that are generally in line with what he pledged when running for the position. His campaign pledge to provide housing assistance for students has since been revoked because his office no longer has control over it.
Mishra continues to work on corporate transparency, economic structures, and deficits.
“Our main objective when we first began earlier in the summer,” he said, “was to correct the health and dental plan.”
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the AMS/GSS Health & Dental Plan has seen a sharp rise in usage, forcing it to use up its resources to pay the extra expenses.
A new revenue model for the AMS/GSS Health & Dental Plan was unveiled by the organization at the beginning of the term. His work in this area contributed to stabilizing the plan by transitioning it from a payment accounting model to one that was completely insured, thereby lowering the AMS’s deficit liability.
Mishra also collaborated with the president’s office, VP of Academic and University Affairs, and UBC to secure a one-time funding allocation so that students’ mental health coverage is 100% per appointment rather than 80%.
Additionally, his office developed a plan to control how the plan’s funding reserves may change over time. A portion of the total money may be put into a “rainy day” reserve using this method.
By publishing unified financial information, reviewing money uses, and making financial information more readily available to clubs and students, Mishra has even worked to maintain financial transparency.
He claimed that attending Finance Caucus meetings had improved his office’s ability to “better understand what other districts and clubs are thinking.”
Through regular updates produced in association with the Commerce Undergraduate Society, Mishra has even worked with students to raise their financial literacy. He claimed that in order to close knowledge gaps on important financial issues affecting individuals, the AMS is also in the process of hosting some workshops on financial education.
The AMS is still working to address the significant economic problem of deficit reduction. He claimed that the business and the organization are still working to develop a systematic strategy to enhance procedures and lessen the overall deficit. Notably, all AMS businesses—aside from Blue Chip—lost money in the first quarter. The AMS is “making a lot of progress” on the plan, according to Mishra, who said he couldn’t share specifics at this time.
New Alliances in Food Banks
According to Mishra, “the price per discussion has drastically been brought down,” which he attributes to the work his office has done to secure better partnerships and boost funding donations, costs per use of the AMS Food Bank have decreased.
Acuitas Therapeutics, a biotech company based in Vancouver, may sponsor the order of eggs for the remainder of the academic year, the AMS announced late.
The AMS experienced a sharp increase in visits this season, with October 2023 being the busiest time. These user spikes, according to Mishra, presented the team with a fresh challenge, but the AMS has made the necessary adjustments.