The following are meeting minutes from the House of Organizations meeting. The House meets every Tuesday at 5:30 PM in Room 318 on the third floor of The Commons. These meetings are open to all students to listen to discussion. If you would like to present an issue, please contact the Speaker of the House, Nayana Davis, in advance so you can be added to the agenda.
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Call to Order
5:37
Roll Call
Absent: Joy, Ross, Archana
Approval of Minutes
New Business
A. JL10-0607- General Ledger Allocation for SGA ads in The Retriever Weekly, Spring 2007
Phil- more ads in the Retriever weekly. There is no money for the Spring adds. 405 for full page ad, we are getting twelve ads.
Nayana- Yesterday the senate failed this piece of legislation.
Danielle- I don’t want to hear about the Senate before the vote. I don’t think that we should be paying for it, at least not for this amount.
Joy- These are things that SGA advertises.
Phil- this is the standard rate. They have purchased a new printer and they can’t afford a further discount.
Ross- Why didn’t we budget for an entire year of ads?
David- Last year, cost had grown but student fees hadn’t been accounted for. They budgeted conservatively. They thought if we have the money next spring, we will pay for it.
Danielle- I think the problem is should we be giving them 3888, I’m assuming that if they don’t get this money, then they will fall short.
David- Does the SGA get benefit out of running the ads? If they give SGA a discount because SGA funds them, then you can hold them hostage.
Danielle- I hesitate to give this money because we don’t know the impact of these adverts.
Joy- I think we do a poor job advertising on campus. But have we always been doing ads?
Phil- It has always been the standard rate for the current time.
Joy- This is the price for the spring?
Phil- Yes, if we choose not to allocate the money, then we won’t have the ads. We will get 2 from carry over from the fall. We won’t have advertising for the SGA events.
Ross- I think that it si important that we keep the SGA ads. If The Retriever doesn’t step up, maybe the money could come from.
Danielle- we do need to keep the ad, are we going to keep not budgeting things and keep pulling from the general ledger.
David- you don’t get a choice to until the student fee increase.
Phil- we can put on that page, whatever we want to. You can’t think of how much money we gave them in the past. It was money for an organization.
Toks- can you still negogiate with them over the price?
Phil- There weren’t any further negogiations. They were reluctant for another discount because they need the money.
David- Senate was on the verge of tabling the legislation.
Joy- who decides what the ads are?
Phil- Jay Lagorio. It costs the Retreiever to print per page.
Danielle- why is this just getting to us now?
Phil- it wasn’t just addressed earlier.
Stan- have we taken money out of the general ledger for them before?
David- This is the first year. We will survive without a Retriever ad.
Danielle- do we know the price for additional fees for stress free zone, etc.?
Phil- all the extra things for the elections come out of the election board, but all the other stuff comes from these adverts.
Joy- If we vote for it, would anything change?
NO
Joy- any event that SGA is doing, they could use these adverts.
Phil- yes.
Danielle- we can’t afford not to have that ad. There are a lot of events. This ensures the success of the SGA. We are in a position that it doesn’t matter. I think we need to vote for it.
Nayana- how effective do you think that the retriever has? We put adverts but it doesn’t guarantee the success of the event.
Phil- SEB is also getting the same rate that we are.
Danielle- I appreciate all the arguments against it. Are we going to lose out on all this funding? But at the same time we should be thinking about this, before the last week of the semester.
David- You do have some time because the retriever does have some time because we have those two carryover ads. Do what you think is right for this legislation?
Liz- why not just advertise for the events that have already budgeted advertising in it.
Ross- what did I want to say? I REMEMBER!! The retriever prints in four page sets, they can’t just drop one page.
Phil- They format it so it fits.
Nayana- there is a SGA weekly update in the retriever, so people will see what is going on in the SGA.
Danielle- What kind of agreement is it?
Nayana- It is an agreement.
Ross- I suggest not tabling it. Amending it won’t change it since SGA
VOTE For 3 Opposed 1 Abstaining 2
B. HL61-0607- Additional Allocation for Student Organization for Spring FY07
Joy- Our total for all the organization for 61538.50.
Ross- this is the number off the spreadsheets.
Joy- I sent the budget lists.
Danielle- the ones that were missing were deliberated on right?
Phil- Yes.
VOTE- For 6 Opposed 0 Abstaining 1
Phil- there si about 21000 left for the spring semester.
C. HL62-0607- Acceptance of Pre-Nursing Society
Danielle- A group that came to a vote last year. i looked over the constitution. We think that there was just a bad flow of information.
Ross- I thought that it went through last year. They thought it went through. They have done everything that a groups does.
Danielle- As far as the funded/not funded, we don’t have to come through with all the funding they ask for. Last year they decided to come up and create a new group, something wrong happened. This group was told that it was passed. We can change it to unfunded now.
Ross- i don’t know why we would change it to non funded, there were a lot of things misplaced last year. My questions is whether they were recognized organization and then they were derecognized. But if there is no pre-Nursing group, we should definitely recognize them.
David- their application came in last fall. They think that there is a problem with the constitution and they never addressed it.
Nayana- if ross really wants to look at the constitution, then he should look at it. This is tabled. We can’t find the constitution.
D. HL63-0607- Acceptance of Amendment for Billiards Club
Danielle- their aim is to change to special interest to be funded.
Nayana- I think the purpose was to change to funded. Friendly amend it to funded.
Danielle- They want to become funded and that is why they are amending their constitution.
Ross- I am fine with it. But if they ask us for competition materials, I will have a problem.
Joy- They were asking for new equipment for the game room.
Danielle- I think they wanted instructional videos.
Phil- You have to treat it like the equstrian club. You can’t buy them lots of nice equipment.
David- couldn’t any sports club asked to be funded for money not just with competition.
Alex- i don’t think that sports club should be funded to compete. The sports clubs are sports and not special interest.
Ross- it’s really tricky. I would be fine to fund the tennis club to fund a fundraised. But i wouldn’t fund the tennis club to buy racquets.
Joy- this opens the door for any sports club. I think it would be nice to fund the clubs to teach people but I don’t think that we should fund them for transportation.
Alex- The tennis club situation, originally there was going to be teachers and competitors. There wasn’t money to fund people. Our club now is more focused on being competitive.
Joy- Why can’t we fund an organization that a lot of students are excited about?
Danielle- They are not going to compete and they are going to promote the general interest. We won’t fund them as a competitive group.
David- 3.5 years ago, that resulted the funding of sports clubs over to athletics. I don’t think we should try and redefine boundaries for athletics to pay for athletic groups. Decide where you are going to draw the line.
Liz- if you are going to fund something equipment,
Danielle- they are not a sports club, according to their consitution their purpose is not to compete.
Phil- the thing to keep in mind is. Let’s say a whole new house ocmes in, but you can use all the equipment as casual interest.
Ross- I think it would be great to get the Judicial board to solve it. It would be great to give the justices something to do.
Danielle- how much continuity going to be between houses.
Toks- can you do this? If you do this now, you are allowing other people to come in and ask to change their consititution. Rather than letting these people switch their constitution, we can fund particular things for the clubs for event wide campuses.
Danielle- There is a bigger argument within this to, we have been having this problem about organizational categories.
Ross- in the end, it is up to us to decide what category they should be under. It is arbitrary. I don’t have a problem with it.
Danielle- I think that we should just move to vote.
VOTE For 2 Opposed 3
E. JL07-0607- Confirmation of Kanwar “K.B” Singh as SGA Election Board Chair
Alex- what do you do?
K.B- I plan and organization the elections and handle the disputes.
Danielle- how will you increase advertisement?
K.B.- I felt last year there was too much advertisement. One thing I want to change is to have an advertising blitz. I proprosed that SGA elections move far away from Quadmania.
Ozell- Do you propose any change to the voting system? Earlier we looked at 3 different methods.
K.B.- I don’t know what you are talking aobut.
Ross- If it does happen, it will have to change our constitution. A class is looking to change the voting process. How are you looking to keeping yourself impartial.
K.B.- I don’t currently know how to keep yourself impartial, if you have any suggestions.
Nayana- How would you deal with conflicts?
K.B.- I would just talk with them and see if they can work it out.
Danielle- Some people run and don’t really know about the time commitment. How will guarantee that all candidates know what they are getting into?
K.B.- Make sure we emphasize how much time is required. Part of it is up to the house to work that out.
Nayana- how are you going to encourage people run and vote?
K.B.- We are going to focus on word of mouth to get people to run. That will be our primary method for people running. For voting, I hope to have a short and sweet advertising campaign.
Joy- We can also help spreading the word.
Alex- What kind of ways are you advertising?
K.B.- I don't really know all the details yet. I am going to emphasize facebook.
Alex- Are you having mixers?
K.B.- Yea, we will have meet and greets.
Ross- Are you having give-aways?
K.B.- Yes, they are to serve as a reminder about the elections
Danielle- Do you propose to limit the amount of things that people give away?
K.B.- I don’t think we are going to have any restrictions.
Danielle- I think we sometimes we forget, people will pay for it to be on their resume.
Ozell- Timmy wants can do anything to get votes over me.
Ross- If someone is going to put a lot of money in their compaign, they might drop out. are the rules something the board will come up with?
K.B.- It is something that the board will come up.
Danielle- Will the hosue have to approve the rules?
Ross- No.
Ozell- How many people are going to be on the board?
K.B.- I will put up signs around, and then they will apply.
Stan- If people break the rules, are they disqualified?
K.B.- It depends on what happens. I don’t see why certain things should be illegal.
Alex- Is there anyone else interested in this position other than you?
K.B.- I don’t know.
Ross- We get to approve the rest of the members on your board, is that correct?
K.B.- I don’t think so, I think that is my decision. I’m not sure.
Alex- Why are you interested in this position if it is hated?
K.B.- I like to be in the center of the power.
Joy- How many people do you approve for your board?
K.B.- 4-5 people will be chosen from the application pool.
Alex- What are the guidelines for the people chosen on the board?
K.B.- Their work ethic. They have to be impartial. They have to keep their mouth shut…confidentiality.
VOTE K.B. Singh
F. JL08-0607 Confirmation of Shane Spencer as SGA Justice
Nayana- what would be your experience working with shane?
Lesa- she takes on a lot at a time.
Danielle- I don’t feel comfortable confirming someone that isn’t here. I am going to abstain.
Nayana- do you table this legislation?
YES
G. JL09-0607 Confirmation of Lesa Marks as SGA Justice
Nayana- what do you do?
Lesa- I would serve as chief justice of the supreme court, which is what i do know. There are 3 other members. We deal with amendments to the consititution or challenges.
Danielle- You spoke openly about the election process, would that you keep that biased.
Lesa- My concern is about the people who don’t follow the ethics rules when they come into the university, but I wouldn’t be biased.
Joy- have you had any situations this year?
Lesa- No, nothing.
Stan- if something goes wrong, do you decide if a candidate gets kicked out of the election.
Lesa- no, if a candidate feels something unjust happens that is when we deal with it.
Ross- Would you try and get involved in any projects, even though you need to remain unbiased.
Lesa- i am on the formal dance committee because I don’t see a lot of conflict coming up on that.
Danielle- Strict or loose interpretation of the constitution?
Lesa- It depends on the situation.
Nayana- any more questions.
VOTE Lesa is SGA Justice
Special Projects
Greek groups- we need to have a body statement what the groups need to do to be derecognized. The student life committee makes recommendations. We need to decide whether to recommend to revoke the group or define the statements they need to follow.
Joy- Tell them that need to follow certain guidelines.
Danielle- we need to decide what the consequences are. They will be notified before the end of exams. Treat them separately and they have been dealt with separately.
Joy- Why is the multi-cultural group funded and the other one not funded?
Phil- they presented themselves not as a sorority.
Danielle- we dropped the ball in a very big way. so look at them in a different way.
Ross- I think that statement justifies the power of our recommendation. i think OSL is letting us do our job.
Danielle- I need an answer then, I don’t think that I should be drafting the letters.
Ross- we need to decide what we want to say and I will help draft up the letter.
Nayana- you can decide to help us right something up.
Ross- I think we need to agree that they need to stop acting as a Greek group and if they don’t, they will be derecognized.
Joy- I don’t know what greek groups act as.
Ross- if they go underground and do these thing, then we don’t know about them. But when we see them, we will act accordingly.
Phil- your recommendation is only for the recognized group, the students can still meet. But we need to separate the recognized SGA group from the other one.
Danielle- we need to make a recommendation and not think of a solution. we need to create a focus group.
Ross- I don’t understand why OSl is looking for a recommendation. It is also our job if we want to nip the problem in the butt. I don’t think it has been two years.
Phil- Since you are only making a recommendation, tell them to stop acting as a greek group and then tell OSL to deal with it.
Danielle- we can recommended that they will still be recognized as a group if they cease acting as a greek group.
Ross- what has OSL done about this group in the past few years.
Danielle- they want us to do our job. But OSL can make the final decision.
Ross- we shouldn’t let this other group influence us.
Nayana- this discussion is closed. Do you need anything from us right now?
General Discussion
Executive Report
Roll Call
Absent: Stan, Ozell
Adjournment
7:23
Pass the Gavel
EAT FOOD AND HAVE A HAPPY HOLIDAY!!!