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.
---
Call to Order
8:16
Roll Call
Absent: Archiana
Approval of Minutes
Approved
New Business
A. HL62-0607-Additional Allocation for Habitat for Humanity’s “Collegiate Challenge”
Ozell- HFH are trying to go down to FL. Normally we don’t like to approve money for gas, but this is the cheapest way to get them down there.
Nayana- They also asked for 1000, and we thought to cut them down to 500, this is a weeklong trip for their big event in FL. They are driving 4 mini vans.
Joy- How many people?
Nayana- twenty. They have 4 vans.
David- Why doesn’t the house fund gas?
Ozell- if it is gas that isn’t really going to help student life, then we aren’t going to fund it.
Ross- A lot of gas goes into personal cars, but we can’t guarantee that all of the money is going to the gas directly to the event.
Nayana- We turned down a request for hotel fair
VOTE For 4 Abstaining 1 Opposed
B. HL63-0607- Additional Allocation for Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s “King of the Ring”
Nayana- We decided that we would only fund the jousting equipment.
Ozell- The only issue that came up, it will be open for the whole community but it is taking place during rush week, it may be possible that they are using the event to attract the issue to rush week.
Dustin- It is rush week and it won’t be on main street cause we are.
Phil- Narmin has had that date reserved since November, she isn’t moving her event. They will have to have it at a different time.
Ross- What is the date?
Nayana- The 21st
David- Open to all students?
Nayana- Yes.
Dustin- Free?
Nayana- yes
Joy- what will they do with the equipment?
Nayana- they rented it. We decided not to fund the food. I think we should table this since we can’t fund it for this date.
Ozell- Why don’t we try and get it for a different week?
Dustin- they are probably trying get it in during rush week.
Nayana- I sent him to Narmin and she said that she isn’t budging and he didn’t come and see me after that.
Phil- I know Tues and Wednesday, but if the general opinion is not to fund it we should vote, but if we table it they won’t be able to do it this week.
Ross- If it can’t be pushed back to another week because we can’t push it through.
Ozell- I think that we should just table it.
Nayana- It is tabled
REVISITED
Colles- It is the 20th now. There is nothing really big that happens in February. Our fraternity is trying to do things on campus. We have never really worked with SGA. There are going to be live fees. There are going to be raffles. We’ll have food.
Ross- So the book scholarship, is that just a raffle?
Colles- There is an application, then we will just be pulling out names.
Ross- Is this a rush event?
Colles- No, our rush events are at night.
Ross- My only concern is the large amount of money.
Nayana- can you push the event back at all?
Colles- No because there are many national events coming up.
Dustin- You mentioned co-sponsored with SEB, are they helping with funding?
Colles- No, they will help with advertising, popcorn.
Phil- SEB never helps co sponsors with money.
Colles- we have tried to get some other co sponsors but nobody has wanted to help.
Nayana- Other questions?
VOTE For 4 Opposed 0 Abstaining 1
Colles- a bunch of student leaders wanted to sit down and talk with SGA.
Ross- I like talking about things.
Phil- I think we should all of SGA involved.
Colles- it is really hard going up to people to ask questions. People are having trouble with communicating their problems. Many people have issues but they can’t convey their emotions. Maybe send out a survey.
Dustin- Have you tried to talk to your house representative?
Colles- I didn’t know who my representatives were.
David- will someone here take responsibility for getting this meeting together.
Nayana- I want everyone to help out.
C. HL64-0607- Additional Allocation for Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s “king of the Ring”
Ozell- This group is planning to meet at College park, they initially asked for a hotel but since college park is so close, we said no. 140 is the cost of registration for the members of the group.
Nayana- I would like to friendly amend this for the total to be $140.
Vote For 4 Opposed 0 Abstaining 1
D. HL65-0607- Additional Allocation for Taiwanese Student Association of “A.S.I.A with ASC”
Stan- ASIA is the big event for all the big Asian student organizations. We decided to fund everything and they said that they would use the clothes for other events and the food is for 50.
David- If the event is co-sponsored, why are they asking for money themselves? You don’t know how much the total request will be.
Ross- When is the Asia event?
Phil- I think that it is near the end of March.
Ross- I agree with David. Suddenly you have 7 or 8 groups asking us for money separately and it could add up to be more than we think. And I think that more than 50 people will be coming.
Nayana- This is food only for the 50 people that the Taiwanese students will be serving.
VOTE For 3 Opposed 1 Abstaining 1
E. HL66-0607- Additional Allocation for Interdisciplinary Studies Council of Majors “Petronich Lecture”
Nayana- Asking for audio/visual support. This event has been successful in the past.
Stan- I think that we gave them all they asked for.
Joy- How many people.
Nayana- 75-100
Ross- Last year was really well attended and put together.
VOTE For 4 Opposed 0 Abstaining 1
F. JL08-0607 Confirmation of Shane Spencer
Shane Spencer- I am a poli sci major. I did this last year but we didn’t have any election disputes. If I were confirmed, I would be asked to decide who is right in a dispute situation. I think that I can do that fairly, I think that people who are running for office to be subjective in my position.
Ross- There is a lot of interpreting the constitution, whether between an org and us, and if someone was to be impeached. How familiar are you with the SGA constitution?
Shane- I have read it a few time but I would definitely reread it.
Nayana- do you think that you show preference or prejudice over one member to the other.
Shane- I am relatively uninvolved in SGA so I don’t think that that would be much of a problem.
Shane Spencer is sworn in.
G. HL67-0607
Nayana- They are going to have some sort of presentation, this is something they hope to do every month and it has been successful every month.
- How are the mics different from the audio/visual?
Ozell- they are wireless and they aren’t included in the av equipment.
Nayana- I would like to friendly amend the to $195.
Dustin- where does the food go? Because it has to be on the bottom floor or else it is exclusive to students over 21.
Ross- I thought they were in conjunction with a larger group. They are doing a whole bunch of these?
Nayana- didn’t they say that they wanted to do a whole bunch of these?
Phil- this is for one Thursday and they usually get about 40 people.
VOTE For 4 Opposed 0 Abstaining 1
H. HL68-0607 Acceptance of Arab Student Union
Ross- let’s table this one.
I. HL69-0607 Acceptance of Migraine Help Club
Ross- their purpose is to help people deal with migraines without the use of drugs.
Nayana- they aren’t providing pills or anything.
Stan- I met with the person who wants to be the president. She showed me the web site. i thought it was a really good idea.
Nayana- what is their mission statement?
Ross- Education. They go by MHC.
VOTE For 4 Opposed 0 Abstaining 1
J. HL70-0607 Acceptance of Orthodox Christian Fellowship
Ross- Christian Fellowship
Phil- is this for eastern or Greek orthodox?
Ross- I can’t remember.
VOTE For 4 Opposed 0 Abstaining 1
K. HL71-0607 Acceptance of Pre-Nursing Society
Ross- Earlier, I thought there was a problem with their constitution. There is no pre nursing major so they formed and org to help people follow the right path for pre nursing.
VOTE For 4 Opposed 0 Abstaining 1
L. HL53-0607
M. HL54-0607
N. HL55-0607
Special Projects
A. Share Objectives for “Spotlight on Organizations”
Finance Committee
Nayana- Joy will be responsible for the finance committee report.
Phil- I will make appointments for the student orgs.
Ross- We have a couple more constitution coming up. Is anyone interested (Ozell)? Good, there is a lot of Greek life stuff coming up. If anyone comes up to you and has questions about recognition, tell them to shoot me an email and tell them not to panic.
Nayana- Ross is the new head of the student life committee.
General Discussion
A. House Structure
Nayana- We have 17 seats that we can fill and there is 5 of us. We want to change it so we can have a constructive house.
Ross- when the house was created 6 years ago, it was created with the intention to deal with the funding and student organization stuff. As time has gone by, our body has worn itself out because we try to do to many things. We all want to help organization but we spend our time looking at money and making sure things follow the rule. The idea is to create a new structure that allows the house to be efficient: money and rules. And create something else that deals with projects. We haven’t really had the opportunity to have the time to do anything but to enforce our own rules. The idea is to change our entire structure.
Ozell- how would we go about changing the body?
Nayana- We want to have a finance board with 6 members with some ex officio boards.
Ross- The short answer is we are going to have to change the constitution.
Nayana- we want to be able to address the student life part of our job. It isn’t fair to the student orgs for us not to help them out. These changes might come into effect next year.
Dustin- What happened to the treasurer hiring assistants?
David- I think that that has happened, but since there are fewer and fewer members. It has allowed the house to do its job to do it well.
Joy- I think we have a problem getting people into the house. It seems many people do not run because they do not want to be in a specific chair. If there is some way that, it could be more general.
Ozell- There aren’t many people who want to be involved. Maybe if we don’t have specific seats, we could join the house as groups- finance, social- then that would break out into the seats.
David- What would they do?
Ozell- If you had a group that was cultural- religion, etc. Sports- recreation, athletic few. Just 3 or 4 groups that encompass the seats. It would take less pressure off people.
Nayana- How would you deal with those groups that aren’t represented?
Ozell- I think it would be hard for a group not to be a part of a larger group. Maybe if we looked at the seats and found a way to fit all the seats in those groups.
Ross- 2 groups- one with money and one with projects doing things for groups and not just giving them money.
Ozell- Have the people just choose a group and not a seat.
Dustin- The purpose of the seats is so every type of group is equally represented. People get an idea in their head that the seats limit their jobs.
Nayana- Why did you guys decide to join the house?
Joy- I joined it because this is the place where you could represent my organization.
Ozell- I joined because I wanted to find a way to affect the decisions about Greek life. I looked up the information about Greek Life.
Stan- I joined because Toks encouraged me. I ran with the idea that maybe this year there would be two people. I had a preconceived notion of what SGA was. When I saw the decision-making that goes on here, I wanted to be part of that decision-making.
Ross- I joined for the comrades. Jordan convinced me that I wasn’t involved in the SGA. I got an email from the radio guy saying that there were in house elections and I went to check it out, and I’m still here.
Nayana- If we advertised as the house as it is, do you think that we could get more people.
Joy- I don’t think that we should completely do away with the seats. People should have an idea of what they want to represent.
David- could you accomplish this with the way that you campaigned.
Joy- I think that is something that would be important in each individuals campaign. If we just have the senate and house, but if we say what you can represent in the house.
Ross- I have been a long time opponent of dropping the seat names. My major fear is that one organization would fill the house. If that happened, next year’s election would be really really competitive, maybe we need that. I think that we should drop the seats. We have the power to define what the new house would be and how to define it. We are here to represent something much larger than ourselves.
Macaulay- Combining it into broader categories but instead of having people run under a category, but after you are elected you become part of a committee.
David- I think the word government is very misleading but I think it is more of a union. I think the house has been a governing organization but it hasn’t been a union rep. The house hasn’t been able to track newly recognized organization. It hasn’t been very consistent. We now have our 3rd chair of the student life committee. How do you get the work done without coming across any problems and still representing the student orgs? I think that is why Ross wants to separate groups (money and student Life). If you have people running for jobs that they want to do and they know what they are getting into.
Dustin- what about recognizing and derecognizing?
Ross- It is very mechanical. We could debate whether we want to hand it over to OSL.
Dustin-I am sure Jay can come up with a list about the information about orgs.
Ross- OSL came up with a list already and it has helped a lot.
Nayana- we will be continuing this. The house applications are the same. And we need to change that.
Ross- It would be great if we could get some legislation out there, talk to your groups.
STRESS FREE ZONE Nayana- I want us as a whole house to make this transition. If there is no more discussion on the structure, I want to talk about the stress free zone. They want to take that out of the senate and make it a whole house project. And take the money out of the GL.
Phil- There should be operating funds, so we don’t need money out of the GL.
Nayana- The big thing is if you want it to be a whole house project.
Stan- A lot of people expected to have massages. Maybe it is something that we could add.
Joy- I like the idea of having a big project but I don’t like getting it out of the general ledger.
Phil- There should be money that it is budgeted for.
Nayana- I am getting the impression that you would be ok to make it a gnereal SGA projects if the money comes out of the operating budget.
Phil- I think you guy should be a part of it, wherever the money comes from.
Ross- Let’s talk about fees. WE have talked about referendum questions; we are talking about increasing the student activity fees. The idea is to put this question on the referendum, but we need to educate people what it does. We only want to put things on the referendum only if we can educate them. This is the pot that all the money comes from for the orgs. Are we all for pushing this question and making sure everyone is educated?
Ozell- I am definitely all for it. We should tell people what their money is going for.
Ross- We talked about tee- shirts that said something about ask me about referendum question. We talked about having a town hall meeting set up. It would be cool if we could get a panel of people who would sit there. If anyone can thing of something extravagant, let me know.
David- last year, everybody like the idea of the question, but no one wanted to educate people.
Nayana- There has a referendum committee that has been formed.
Ozell- how hard would it be to create a commercial? It could be played everywhere.
Dustin- Jordan Eberline actually tries to get student programming on channel 3 and we could play them on the commons TV.
Ross- The TV studio on campus is no longer being used by students; it is being used by Erickson retirement home. It only effects if we will have our own studio.
- How does that stuff slip under the radar?
Ross- money.
-To make something you want happen, it seems so difficult.
Dustin- is there a student advocate?
David- there isn’t a student advocate. There needs to be a student union rep.
Dustin- Should the athletics teams take sponsorships? It would cut costs.
David- donors aren’t drawn toward athletics.
Phil- I have heard that UMBC is trying to raise so many dollars, and there is a list of places where they can donate, and athletics isn’t on there.
Michael-Athletics does have sponsors; they sponsor UMBC as a whole because teams can’t sponsor a specific team. Athletes has been forced to raise their own money through fundraisers.
Macaulay- The question should be more targeted to administration, Should administration support something like athletics but not exactly. Phil was talking about so many millions in ten years. Administrations doesn’t want athletics being messed up. The problem is much deeper.
David- Referendum questions- what should students vote for that will actually be able to change? If you know that is something that will make a difference that is something, you should vote.
Macaulay- Student recreation fee question.
Ross- Are you talking about a question like should students have a say in how the recreation fee is spent?
Macaulay- There isn’t anyone to ask Charlie Brown the question.
Dustin- I just remember a tour of the athletics. I think with student support it might make administration make another look.
Macaulay- That is pretty much what I was trying to say. Student fees aren’t going to help build a new RAC. Corporate sponsorships are what we need.
Ross- I don’t know when the referendum group is getting together but I will make sure everyone knows when it is.
B. Updates on First Year Ambassadors
C. Others
Ex officio-
Carrie- thanks for helping the displaced walker students. We have managed to get them food. We will send thank you to those who have helped us out. With the executives, I went over the stuff that needs to be reported. I don’t want to stop helping the walker students but lets make sure we refocus in on the immediate stuff that is affecting the SGA. Question about the budget will be able to be answered.
Ex-Officio Reports
Macaulay- There are always many people dealing with different issues dealing with athletics. I want to get all of those people together. So, we don’t have 20 different people having different meetings.
Announcements
Nayana- A USA Today rep has come to me and Steve wanting to come to the meetings to talk to us about the readership program. I am sure that everyone knows what happened in Walker. Carrie Mann called an emergency meeting to talk about donations, care packages, etc. Just contact people to see who else is working on what.
Dustin- There have been a lot of talking about people pulling down other people’s flyers.
Ross- Any events this week?
Dustin- IFC rush week
Roll Call
Absent: Archiana
Adjournment
9:55
Pass the Gavel