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Minutes

October 26, 2008 Minutes

Roll Call

Announcements
Meeting Procedure Discussion and Vote
Special Events Fund Discussion and Votes on Proposals
Old Business
New Business
Your Two Cents

Roll Call (coming soon)
Announcements (coming soon)

Meeting Procedure Discussion and Vote
Aheli Purkayastha, President: Our first thing is to discuss meeting procedure. This is a follow-up to a meeting before fall break where we brought up a few issues. Next meeting, 9th November we will be talking about procedural issues so this will be an abbreviated meeting. We would like to address two issues right now – move “Your Two Cents” up in the meeting to allow community members to speak earlier, and to also allow us to extend time if we do not have quorum. Kendra sent out an email to ask you review the minutes from the last meeting – just in case, we can have a two minute discussion if need be.

Vote on moving “Your Two Cents” to right after Announcements: In favor, 29; Against, 0; Abstain, 1. Motion Passes.

Aheli Purkayastha: We thought that it would be nice to be able to have a straw vote in the room if we need to extend time when we do not have quorum.

Vote to make extending time into a straw vote without quorum: In favor, 29; Against, 0; Abstain, 1.

Your Two Cents
Taline Cox, ’10: I like that we have the circle again. I like that it’s the big circle, and that there isn’t a ton of chairs in the middle.

Susie Kim, ’11: Someone brought up the point of getting what goes on at Bryn Mawr to last more than 4 years. I think someone should write up the history of SGA. Passing down these ideals and thoughts would be good.

Christina Wagner, ’10: I like the circle. Can we get roaming mics?

Sofia Nitchie, ’09: Does anyone agree that the Sunken Garden should have more flowers? Sofia conducted a straw vote that passed in favor of recommending more flowers in the Sunken Garden.

Elise Nelson, ’09 and Amanda Ciccone, ’09: We would like to take a straw vote because we are having pressure about having ID bracelets at Radnor Halloween. We wanted to see what you guys thought.
Caroline Troien, ’09: Doesn’t party policy mandate that right now?
Katie Kellom, ’09: What is the ID bracelet?
Taline Cox, ’10: It would state your age, to know if you are over 21 or not.
Steph Hilton, ’09: Isn’t it that if you have the bracelet you won’t get served, and if you don’t have it you probably will anyways?
Patricia LeBron, ’09: The amount of time it already takes to gt into Radnor is long in addition to the fact that this would add to it.
Sarah Gelfand, ’11: Since ID’s haven’t been checked before, people might not know to bring them.
Amanda Bowes, ’10: How would Public Safety enforce this? Would they keep an eye on this? Is it Honor Code based?
Elise Nelson, ’09: It is. It should be either way. Elise then conducted a straw vote, wherein the majority of the room did not support having ID bracelets.

Liz Ritchie, ’11: I’m one of the Rhoads South dorm presidents, and we wanted to know if people would be in favor of extending Rhoads Halloween because of Daylight Savings Time.
Kendra Hayde, ’09: Can’t the party not be longer than 4 hours because of the party policy?
Sadie Marlow, ’11: Point of Information: Technically, as soon as it hits the time that we change, it goes back to the previous hour. So if quiet hours is hours are at 2, it goes back to 1 again.
Ashley Gavin, ’10: Are we counting for the fact that a day is only 23 hours and 56 minutes?
Liz Ritchie, ’11: We will bring this up to Mary Beth. Thanks everyone.

Special Events Fund Discussion and Votes on Proposals (50 minutes)
Aheli Purkayastha: This is a process where students who want to bring a one-time event to campus can request money for those events. We have 8 proposals, and we will go over one, vote, and then move on with each one. Presenters will present, discuss, and then vote assembly members only. Klaralee has asked me to inform everyone that we have $65,000 dollars in the Special Events Fund for this and next semester. We have enough money. If you have problems or questions, please ask the presenters for clarification.

Presentation 1:
Liz Hood and Melissa Carn: We are the alternative concert series co-heads. It is an SGA-ordained organization to try and bring concerts to Bryn Mawr, in the style of Haverford’s FUCS, etc. It’s been around for a while, but it hasn’t been used in a while, and this year, instead of doing this every weekend like other schools do, we are looking to bring 3 pretty well known acts to the campus. All three have agreed to play on November 22nd, the concert would be from 8-12 probably in TGH. It would be open to Tri-Co, and it would probably have the option of charging to outside community members. It would make sure that people know that we have a strong commitment to the arts scene. It would be great for our community. It’s a lot of money, but it’s three great acts, and it’s a lot less than other schools. It would be a source of legitimacy of our program. Instead of a charge to the outside community, it could be a donation to a cause we agreed upon.

Cara Sogliuzzo, Athletic Association Representative: Why did you decide to put them all on one weekend?
Liz and Melissa: It’s mostly scheduling. It’s on a night when there is nothing going on around here, and at this time, it’s really hard to book shows. Because of the way that we have been funded, we needed to fund this way, and it’s late.

Sofia Nitchie, Residence Council Co-Head: Where will it be held?
Liz and Melissa: Probably TGH. We don’t want a big space with a lot of people, we’ve talked about Erd pit and living room.

Christina Wagner, Class of ’11 Co-President: Point of Information: The fall student dance concert at Haverford is that day.

Taline Cox, COPS Co-Head: What would the money go towards if you take it?
Liz and Melissa: We do have the option to charge, and we can give it back, or find a charitable organization to give back to.

Vote on this event: In favor, 22; Against, 0; Abstain, 7. This event passes.

Presentation 2:
Adrienne Webb: The Art Club would like to host workshops from 12-7 pm on one day, with workshops at about 2 hours long. They are all workshops that a kindergartner could work and do it, and you can make a giant craft kit for your family; we are going to have a zine maker come, embroiderer, found objects jewelry maker, paper maker. You could stay for 2 minutes, or an hour. It’s also right before finals, so it’s fun for de-stressing. There would be an exhibit afterwards, too. Our budget is $1507.

Patricia LeBron, Pem East Dorm President: Is there any flexibility with the date and time, because thats the same time as the East-West party.
Adrienne Webb: This would not conflict a whole lot, because it’s not at night.

Elise Nelson, Radnor Dorm President: I think this is awesome and you should do it every semester.

Amber Zambelli, Elections Co-Head: You all should think about doing it as a Hell Week alternative, as well.
Adrienne Webb: If we get Arnecliffe, we thought about using that.

Vote on this event: In favor, 30; Against, 0; Abstain, 0. This event passes.

Presentation 3:
Zanny Alter: This proposal is to bring a sociologist and educator to campus on December 2nd. She’s read in two classes this semester here at Bryn Mawr. I’ve been emailing her and she’s offered to do a lunch, a visit to a class, a dinner, and a reading. The total is $1867.28. She wrote a book about street culture impact on schooling, a lot of her work is really relevant to many departments here, and is cool and very interdisciplinary.

Patricia LeBron: Based on what you have said, it seems like it would be limited to a small number of students.
Zanny Alter: Dinner is scheduled to be at the DVR, but it could be in a larger place if we get funding from other offices on campus. It would be RSVP for people to come. The lecture is open to the whole community – everything is open to everyone except for the class time.

Vote on this event: In favor, 22; Against, 0; Abstain, 8. This event passes.

Presentation 4:
Amelie Raz: My proposal is a fair trade celebration. It would be in 3 parts, held on Nov. 13, 14, 15. The first part on the 13th, a Thursday, would involve a panel discussion about fair trade. We would have 3 different people from 3 organizations with different views on fair trade, and getting them together would be very interesting. The second day would be a fair trade picnic. It would be only fair trade food. It would be through White Dog Co-op and Dining Services. The third day would be a trip to Media. It is 15 minutes down the road, and its the only fair trade town in the country. It would fulfill an interest in the student body. The budget – it’s cheap – the only thing that really costs money is the picnic – the total is $520 dollars.

Anne Bugnaski, Traditions Mistress: Would picnic be open to everyone?
Amelie Raz: It would be, and the $400 dollar budget is rather small, because many One World activities are well-attended for a small club, but they don’t usually attract more than 30-40 people.
Anne Bugnaski: How many students would be expected?
Amelie Raz: We would expect about the same amount.
Anne Bugnaski: My guess is that more students would be interested in bringing more people. So I would suggest more money.

Jen Pierre, ’10: Was there something similar to this last year?
Amelie Raz: In the panel that was last year, they had similar viewpoints, but it was not funded through special events.

Christina Wagner: I would be interested to see the numbers adjusted in terms of the amount of people that you perceive coming to the picnic. A lot more than 20-30 people.

Aheli Purkayastha: If this was something to expand the budget you can do that here tonight.

Jill Walker, ’09: Where would the picnic be?
Amelie Raz: The CCML.

Amanda Bowes, Class of ’10 Co-President: Have you factored publicity into this?
Amelie Raz: It would come out of the one world club budget.

Anne Bugnaski: Can we take a straw vote of people who would be interested in going to this event?
A majority of the room stated they would be interested in attending this event.

Caroline Troien, ’09: Is it possible to table this to the next meeting for the budget to be updated.
Aheli Purkayastha: Yes, we could, we would need a motion.
Taline Cox: Motion to table.
Motion to table requires 2/3 majority vote: Vote taken had 29 in favor of tabling, 0 against, 0 abstain. Thus, the proposal is tabled to the next meeting.

Presentation 5:
Ashley Gavin, of Smart Women Vote: We have been very successful at throwing non-partisan events, and we are very good at what we do. For the election night returns party, we plan to have pizza, candy, popcorn; we would have a quiet room for people to watch if they want to. We will give out a goody bag, etc. Everyone will receive a map to fill in as the election returns come in with a blue and red crayon. Everyone will receive a tiny American flag, this will be very important. This election will effect people on other planets, too, it’s so important. To come together and celebrate would be great. Oh, and we will have bracket to predict the winner of states/the election, and the winner will get a prize. We will get a live feed of who is winning because I wrote a Python program to do that.

Sadie Marlow, Member-at-Large: This is a fantastic idea. I want this to happen so badly.

Judy Barr, Student Curriculum Committee Head: How many people will you project to get bags?
Ashley Gavin: The first 500 to come. If we expand the budget by 500 dollars, we can get them for all.
A straw vote was conducted that passed, in which Ashley elected to add 500 dollars to the overall proposal budget.

Jasmine Howell, Haffner Dorm President: Where would this be held?
Ashley Gavin: TGH, where we will project CNN on a large screen.

Vote on this event: In favor, 30; Against, 0; Abstain, 0.

Christina Wagner motioned to extend time until 8:30 for this discussion only. Cara Sogliuzzo seconded. Vote to extend time: In favor, 29; Against, 0; Abstain, 1.

Presentation 6:
Taline Cox: I am presenting on behalf of Rachel Corey who couldn’t be here tonight. Rachel would like to bring a Palestinian comic to campus for a night of comedy – it would be a cultural event brought to campus by SJP. Saturday the 15th works date-wise, with a budget of $2145.50 total.

Amanda Bowes: Is it necessary that she fly from NYC to Philly, and for that much money, especially?

Patricia LeBron: Motion to table until next week, when Rachel can present.

Motion seconded. Vote to table: In favor, 20; Against, 1; Abstentions, 7. Proposal tabled to next meeting.

Presentation 7:
Taline Cox: This again is for Rachel. This one is called the “Gender Redesigner”. Rachel went to a screening a few months ago and saw this documentary. Rachel thought that bringing this to campus would bring a dialogue to campus, and it’s relevant. It would be a screening, and then a Q&A, and they are looking at weekends in Nov, specifically the 21st.

Vote on this event: In favor, 22; Against, 0; Abstentions, 8. This event passes.

Presentation 8:
Nina Jankowicz: I’m a member of a wizard rock band. It’s music about Harry Potter, for those who have never heard of it. Last year we had this concert here, and it was well-received. As I was touring over the summer, I talked to a lot of my friends about the fact that Bryn Mawr is basically Hogwarts. Saturday Dec. 6th, I wold like to bring the Ministry of Magic, the Mudbloods, the Whomping Willows, — and they are only asking for travel costs. They are playing for free. It would be a lot of fun to have a concert in the Great Hall, and they have heard great things about the community. The total was $2338, which covers airfare, advertising, and food for them to eat.

Jen Pierre, ’10: So it’s a concert?
Nina: Yes, it’s a dancy-concert-y thing.

Taline Cox: Do you know if this conflicts with the Snow Ball at Haverford?
Grace Kung, Pem East Dorm President: It does.
Nina Jankowicz: It’s about the only day that I can get all of them here, because they are all students too, and their exams are the next week. I think it’s fine.

Vote for this event: In favor, 15; Against, 0; Absentions, 0. This event passes.

Old Business
Liz Ritchie, Rhoads South Dorm President: Rhoads is selling T-shirts for 15 dollars for Halloween.

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm.