SGA Meeting
Absent: Katie Dahl ’11, Jen Savage ’12, Giang Tran ’11, Duong Nguyen ’13, Priya Gupta ’13, Sarah Aubry ’13, Julie Gorham ’12, Lindsey Turr ’11, Hannah Smith ’14, Pragya Krishna ’13, Elizabeth Olecki ’12, Maya Sachdeva ’14, Daisy Sheng ’14, Olivia Xia ’14, Hope Wayman ’13, Tanvi Surti ’12, Emily Zhao ’11, Naznen Rahmen ’13, Jenny Wang ’13, Kerlyne Jean ’11.
12:40: Yong Jung Cho ‘12 calls the meeting to order.
Announcements
Tina Hu ‘12: Grievances will be held the Wednesday, March 16th, after we come back from break.
Goals
Priya Saxena ‘12: I’m the new honor board head. My first goal is to have monthly meetings. My 2nd goal is to revamp honor board presentations during customs week/lighten it up the tone of the presentations.
Rebecca Sanders ‘12: I’m the new vice president. My goals are to keep the appointments committee accountable, increase number of applications.Having an interview workshop will facilitate the accomplishment of these goals.
Tina Hu ‘12: I’m the new treasurer.My goals are to facilitate better communication between SGA and SFC, and I want to make our budgeting/interviewing process more pleasant and our SGA budget more transparent to the community members.
Mae Carlson ‘12: I’m the new secretary. My goals are to bring back Mawrk Notes/the Stall Street Journal, to harness SGA’s power to initiative conversations between students, faculty, staff and administrators, and to make SGA’s goals more transparent to everyone on campus.
YJ ‘12: I’m the new president. My personal goals are: 1.) Like President Obama, to have a weekly address video 2.) to make the student body aware of why SGA is important, and connect the dots between what SGA does and what students know. 3.) to host more large scale events. Student face to SGA.
Plenary
Cons
Blair Smith ‘12: We should serve lunch as well
Emma Rosenblum ‘14: Swimmers/people who can’t go excluded from May Pole dancing sign up.
Blair Smith ‘12: Swimmers can email in.In fact, some swimmers were selected to be May Pole dancers.
Pros
Liz Ritchie ‘11: Counting policy. Loved it.
Suggestions
Blair Smith ‘12: Would it be possible to have plenary in the gym? It is more accessible, and more fun.
Keshia Koech ‘13: Could we put a time limit on plenary? More people would come.
Jordan Cottrell ‘13: It might limit debates if there were a time limit.
Small Groups
Questions for discussion: What do you think your job is? How to you represent your constituents? Who do you think your constituents are? In what other forums/spaces do you carry out your responsibilities?
YJ ‘12: There are several things in the Constitution that are no longer relevant.Here are some major changes that we would like to propose. 1.) Eliminate all co-held positions that do not lead committees excluding class presidents.The exec board has already talked to Res-Co, since they will be the body most directly and largely affected; they were receptive to the idea. The Assembly will become a smaller, more cohesive group. This will increase responsibility and accountability.With a smaller group each individual is held more responsible for their actions. And hopefully, students will no longer say that they do not feel represented by SGA.
2.) How assembly members vote will be recorded and posted online.3) Each position would be responsible for submitting a monthly report on what they do, 1 page-ish.First one will be for the month of March.4.) Having a smaller representative council would create a more cohesive team-like dynamic in SGA.We will rely on each other more.Community members will feel more welcome because it will be a smaller, less imposing group.
A question was raised at the res-co meeting about whether this change would make SGA a more exclusive, which we feel will not necessarily be the case.Hopefully people will feel more represented by a more efficient body.
We will vote on it after spring break.It will be officially brought up at plenary in the Fall.
Blair Smith ‘12: How is it not more exclusive if less people are allowed to come?
YJ ‘12: These proposals do not mean fewer students are allowed to come. SGA is open to every member of the Association. If we are more responsible and more effective, people will care and people will run.As of now, sometimes, morale is low.Currently, there are more bodies, but this does not mean we are more productive.
Sam Salazar ‘11: I like this idea because people who really want positions will make more of an effort to report back to their constituents.Meetings will be less about representatives saying their opinions, and community members will feel encourages to come to meetings and voice their thoughts for themselves.
Emma Rosenblum ‘14: As a freshman, I think it might make SGA feel more exclusive/intimidating. In certain dorms, it may be beneficial to have more than one dorm president because of size and set up.
Emma Wisniewski-Barker 2011: What would assembly vote do vs. what will the plenary vote do and when will these changes come into effect?
YJ ‘12: The assembly may make changes to Constitution when they deem it prudent according to Constitution. However, a resolution will be presented next Plenary so that these changes can be fully adopted.
Adelyn Kishbaugh ‘12: How do we become more accountable for our votes in SGA? It’s often hard to get responses and feed back from students.How do we change how we do our jobs?
YJ ‘12: More large events will help students realize that SGA is a big part of BMC and hopefully they will be more engaged.
Jordan Cottrell ‘13: Will it be hard to fill positions if people are concerned about responsibility?
YJ ‘12: We want more responsible people to run.
Blair Smith ‘12: Will there be an exception to the rule if people want to be co-presidents together?
YJ: We can think about it.
Ali Raeber ‘13: Do you have a plan if people don’t run because there’s more responsibility?
YJ ‘12: We can discuss with the elections head and talk about it in SGA.
Elizabeth Held ‘12: Point of information: I would feel more comfortable answering questions if Sarah Kelley were here, and she is not.
YJ ‘12: We will talk about it again when there are more people here after spring break.
Old Business
Liz Ritchie ‘11: I have a question about special events. We gave $23,000 to post secret, but it’s not listed as an event on their website. Is that still happening? Do we have a plan for when someone we book an event with doesn’t come through?
Tina Hu ‘12: We’re trying to figure out the final amount of money that we have for special events, then we decide if we can do them.
New Business:
Elizabeth Held ‘12: Nominations start March 15th.Positions include: songs mistresses, class presidents, res-co heads, board of trustees reps, honor board reps, appointments, traditions mistresses.Start thinking about who you’re going to nominate! We have I voted stickers! I want to make it mandatory that candidates table for the election for one hour in a dining hall during breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
Emma W-B ‘11: Will they be given instructions that they aren’t allowed to say vote for me?
Elizabeth Held ‘12: Yes.
Blair Smith ‘12: It might make people uncomfortable to have candidate sitting there.
Irene Shin ‘13: We should make a private ballot box.
Jordan Cottrell 2013: Is it a blackboard ballot?
Emma W-B ‘11: It might discourage people from running if they have to find an hour to table.
Priya Saxena ‘12: Can we have at least two people tabling? (Not for the same position.)
YJ ‘12: We can ask members at large do it.
Elizabeth Held ‘12: YJ and I have been talking about moving candidate’s forum out of campus center? Any ideas for venues?
YJ ‘12: It’s dark in the campus center. There will be snacks in the new place.
Adelyn Kishbaugh ‘12: The campus center is good because you can catch people on their way out.
Katharine Wools ‘12: A room in Taylor would be good because it’s light and centrally located.Taylor is so pretty.
Heather Taddonio ‘12: Lusty?
Adelyn Kishbaugh ‘12: It might be too informal.
Heather Taddonio ‘12: I like that.
1:27. Meeting adjourned