Exec meeting December 8, 2008
Present: Michelle, Maddie, Kara, Hayleigh, Aiden, Lily Harris, Elizabeth Esser-Stuart Minutes taken by Kara
Budgeting and Treasurer
Hayleigh: We have 76% of our money left in the following lines: clubs, speakers, dances and parties, special events, and joint purchases. After Bacchanalia costs we will still have 50% of that money left.
Michelle: So you are feeling good about the budget.
Hayleigh: Right now, yes.
Hayleigh: I want to talk about a few specific budgets recently. One is the Griots Gather budget brought forth by a student who has misappropriated funds in the future.
Michelle: So you made a decision that it won’t be seen at SAS.
Hayleigh: I can explain that decision. Based on the situation that occurred coming from the same student last year, the misappropriation of funds is an issue. It was the Saul Williams Project Rhythm event, we paid $8000-$9000 for him to play for an hour and a half, but he only ended up performing for half an hour. The student running the event pushed him back further until the event ran out of time and she said he was only supposed to be given a half hour, which was not what the contract said. She also brought the budget in very close to the date of the event.
Michelle: Did you and Josh make that decision together?
Hayleigh: Yes, I also wanted to talk to you guys about it.
Michelle: So you told the student you weren’t going to see the budget in SAS.
Hayleigh: I put it on hold and told her that, I wanted to talk to you guys first. Josh told her I was talking to exec about it tonight and there would be a decision tonight whether to see it or not. Josh thinks that what happened last year was ridiculous and he agrees with the budget not being seen.
Michelle: Let’s go around and give our opinions. I feel a little conflicted because while I think it’s clear there were problematic things that happened last year around her event, I wonder if it’s fair to say you can never ask for funds or having an event again. I would be hesitant to just say no, you can’t.
Maddie: I know what happened last year, I wasn’t on SAS but it was brought to big Senate. How much is she asking for for this event?
Hayleigh: $600. So it’s not the same scale.
Maddie: I feel there are so many details I don’t know, both this year and last year. I remember than Jen Montalbano was very frustrated and upset last year. I feel uncomfortable penalizing someone permanently, especially since this student has thrown a lot of events and done a lot of campus organizing. But it’s appropriate to be wary. $9000 was a lot of money. It’s really problematic.
Michelle: What if we brought it to SAS and asked SAS to decide, but say that the process has to be overseen by Josh and facilitate the planning of the event with the student.
Maddie: Maybe if it’s a club bringing it forward, another
Hayleigh: I would like if the club was recognized so we knew if there was a co-chair, treasurer.
Michelle: I feel like we’re taking into account the scope of the event last year and it’s about the amount of money rather than the actual occurrence. I understand that something really messed up happened but I’m hesitant to penalize the student in such a permanent way.
Hayleigh: The advertisement for the event was very poor, it was advertised as just Saul Williams rather than Project Rhythm.
Maddie: So a problematic string of decisions led to a significant loss of money.
Aiden: I don’t think that we can punish her according to our bylaws, the misappropriation of funds bylaw is for the fiscal year. I think it’s important to talk about it because it was $9000 and I would be concerned if this budget were a larger amount, but I think that it should go before SAS and according to our bylaws it has to.
Michelle: So it seems that because of the bylaw, we can’t penalize her for the misappropriation and it has to go to SAS.
Maddie: I would feel very strongly that there need to be other people involved in planning the event—other people in the club or some oversight. Being aware of the history. But I think it needs to come before SAS.
Michelle: The event will have to be pushed to next semester, there is no SAS meeting next week.
Next: Dakota submitted a budget for the FLUID event as affiliated with QVC, but both QVC chairs said that it wasn’t their budget and they weren’t sponsoring it. So I told her that we couldn’t see the budget but that she could come forward as a student.
Michelle: The conversation I was hoping to have was, regardless of whether she brings forth the budget again, she wasn’t getting the information that she needed and had not gotten contact about her budget. I think this has happened with a few budgets recently.
Hayleigh: I took a day to think about it because I had to talk to the chairs of QVC and Josh.
Michelle: I think we just have to really make sure people are getting the information they need immediately. People have no idea if they are submitting
Hayleigh: because of the process of changing the budgets over to mySLC, it’s been difficult. It will be easier after the switch.
Michelle: Do you think there’s a disconnect in communication?
Hayleigh: I often don’t hear back from people even if they do something like change the date of the event. I also feel there’s so much information in the email that some of it probably gets lost. Maybe if I organize the email separately.
Michelle: I think that would be a good tactic.
Senate- Elizabeth Esser-Stuart
Elizabeth: I’ve been unhappy with Senate this year and don’t feel like we’ve done anything substantial. I am really frustrated and I haven’t met my requirements of what I’m supposed to do as a class president and I know other people haven’t as well. There’s too much to do in the bylaws and it’s not feasible. I am torn because I want to leave but I don’t know if that’s productive. I talked with Mary today. I know you all have been trying as hard as you can and I know it’s not your fault. I know we’re talking about actual things tomorrow.
Michelle: I think a lot of us share a similar frustration. While I do and we do set the agenda, we’re under constraints of what doesn’t get finished during the meeting and has to be continued the following week. I think you are not alone, a lot of people feel that way.
Elizabeth: Then there is a problem. It’s not working.
Hayleigh: I think next semester we will be doing more important discussions. It’s hard to get past some fundamental internal things that are wrong with Senate, but I hope that you stay because I value your voice and opinion, especially on SAS.
Michelle: We all value you so much in that room and it’s obvious. To not have you there would be devastating.
Maddie: As a class president, you’ve had an event. You’ve constantly taken the initiative to bring things up in SAS about consistently. What do you feel you haven’t accomplished?
Elizabeth: I’ve had trouble getting interest in class meetings.
Maddie: I think we need to be looking at our bylaws, you’re doing an amazing job.
Michelle: We are going to talk about Mary’s retreat idea, chucking the bylaws out the window…josh and I have been looking at how different organizations function- complete and total revitalization of the bylaws.
Elizabeth: Last year Kit and Jacki spent so much time doing the bylaws.
Michelle: So maybe that speaks to the ineffectiveness of the system- that much time and energy was put in and there’s still so many inconsistencies. It’s not to disrespect their work.
Elizabeth: The decision is to stay and work through a system that isn’t functioning or to leave which might be for myself and the community a better use of my time.
Michelle: What Senate could be and could do in the community I think is something very powerful and inspiring. That that potential exists is what keeps me there.
Lily: I think unlike many Senators, Elizabeth, you actually have an idea of what that is and goals and what you want to accomplish. I have things structurally about the school that I want to talk about. I think it’s really helpful that you sat in Senate meetings last year and you have a clear voice and I would be really sad if you quit.
Kara: So while I think it is great to talk about potential that Senate has, I think it is also really important to recognize the problems at hand. I think the big part of the problem is the way we sit in that room and talk about things and the way people feel about the meetings and the tone of them.
Elizabeth: So many of my friends come and want to cry afterwards.
It is so pretentious.
Lily: I feel this way because I always get attacked. I feel like people like really like to… its about personal vindication.
Kara: People are trying out power dynamics.
Maddie: Senate every year has been an emotional roller coaster. The last few years I have focused entirely on my subcommittees. I felt like I had something keeping me committed. Now it is all the time internal dynamics. We need to discuss and figure out and make them feel as productive as possible. Infastructural change is not fun. They never will be fun. I am really frustrated and I feel like I get attacked. We need to have a larger more productive conversation. I think changing our bylaws will have a major impact.
Aiden: I actually really like bylaws until they get to Senate and take a month. I looked at the proposal Neil passed. There were tons of bylaws changed at once. I find the bylaw in theory really interesting. The way we talk about them has been really masturbatory. It hasn’t really been about the bylaw. It has been this tiny symbolic bylaw. I get that. If it takes a month to pass a single bylaw….
Michelle: I think the bylaws can be really strong if we don’t manipulate them in a weird symbolic way. If we talk about creating totally new bylaws, the conversation in Senate will longer be about that. I think the potential is realized when your bylaws don’t become the central focus of your body and you can actually talk about what’s really important. Senate doesn’t even have a mission statement and I think that is the crux of it. If we create and define actual realistic goals and our role in the community beyond the coordination of individuals in other committees. I think we’re in a perfect moment to do that because of the strategic planning and where the college is. We just can’t do it alone.
Elizabeth: If you had a dream about Senate and it wasn’t a nightmare: What happens?
Michelle: I have dreamed about Seante a lot since becoming chair. If I could make it my fantasy organization it would be partially a funding body but not as its main focus. Senate as a whole would do what the chair does: communicate actively with students, act as an arm of the administration that are students, open format for communication that doesn’t make internal dynamic and bylaw changes, that’s a separate subcommittee. We talk about things that are going on in the college but not student life, more academic. And that we have no advisor and are totally student-run and kept in check by a relationship with student life, their administrators would be the oversight.
Maddie: I struggle a lot with senate and remaking it would be difficult because everyone including class presidents has another committee that they are working on. They’re somewhere between volunteers and workers, you sign up for a significant responsibility to sit in a room with students who signed up for committees so different from our own. Throwing out our bylaws and thinking about us as a larger body. having a big conversation and having a mission statement will let us know what we’re working towards.
Aiden: I also think Senate has changed dramatically recently, general Senate used to oversee much more funds, now SAS has much more decision making powers and Senate has less. Essentially Senate doesn’t do budgeting anymore and that used to be what Senate did. Because of that change there needs to be a new conversation about what Senate is, what it does, why are we here. If the retreat is going to be at all productive, I think it will have to be vested with the power to change the bylaws outside of Senate.
Lily: What would it take to make your vision happen, Michelle? We’d have to change the bylaws for next year or next semester?
Aiden: It depends what kinds of changes.
Michelle: Unless we can finish a whole rewriting before exec is elected in the spring and have them approved by the college, it won’t be until the following year.
Lily: The only way to make it so Senate has time to talk about big things is having a smaller committee deal with making bylaw changes. Would I have to propose that as a bylaw change?
Elizabeth: I like it but I feel that other Senators would object.
Maddie: I feel that committee would have to be open and publicize their agenda. Any Senator attending could vote?
Michelle: What if someone crafted a really concrete proposal for how bylaw committee could handle this responsibility.
Lily: Not taking away a Senator’s right to make those decisions, just having it happen in a different space.
Maddie: We’d have to limit their power to change specifics of how we function, couldn’t change someone’s role midyear through this committee. Shouldn’t be in effect immediately.
Aiden: an appeals process so any decision can be brought to big Senate.
Michelle: Bylaw committee could also elect to bring something to big Senate if not comfortable voting.
Anti-oppression training
Michelle: YK is available Jan 24 and the first week of Feb.
Aiden: I think 24th is too early.
(consensus on first week of Feb)
SLC Anonymous Livejournal
Michelle: There’s a letter that was drafted by Dani that they want to present tomorrow at the meeting about needing to address it as a community and possible actions we can take. Not saying we need to come to a conclusion or motion in tomorrow meeting, but that we can’t ignore that it’s going on.