History
The AMS was formed as an offshoot of the Dialectic Society, the precursor to the Queen's Debating Union. It split off to form an independent organization in 1858.
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 $14 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.
In January 2009, the Education Students Society (ESS) voted to leave the AMS, primarily over a debate regarding fees.
Read more about this topic: Alma Mater Society Of Queen's University
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