SGA Meeting 12/4
YJ ’12 calls the meeting to order – 7:10pm
Absent: Sharan Mehta, Courtney Pinkerton, Eva Sharma, Lily Scott, Amani Chowdhury, Kendra Kelly, Mo Alfonso, Sophie Balis-Harris, Raella Rothman
What adjective best describes you?
Awkward, but with good intentions, crazed, thoughtful, passionate, friendly, loving, grool, responsible, sinister, awkward/friendly, weird, awkward, no idea, lol, ummm, not sure?, : ) : ) : ) : ) : ) : ), ugh, busy, awesome, sweet : ), loquacious, something, slugs, sleazy, caffeinated, blarghead, sly!, peinlich, exuberant, cracked out, same!
Announcements
Sarah Lovegren ’14: You can still apply to do community based work study. Contact Rachel Salzberg. There will be a simulcast in the campus center on December 15th of the Women in Public Service Project Colloquium in Washington, DC. Hilary Clinton will be speaking.
Elizabeth Held ’12: We’re starting nominations for the next round of elections as soon as we get back. The positions of up for election are the Exec Board, elections head, and the appointments committee.
Lindsey Crowe ‘14: Soccer is still holding its candle fundraiser. Contact lcrowe for a candle.
Sarah Theobald ‘12: Thanks to everyone who has already signed up to proctor. You can sign up this week. Go to the website.
Lee McClenon ‘14 and Blair Smith ‘12: Project dorm room has moved to voting for SGA assembly members. Please do that. Votes are due Wednesday at midnight.
Priya Saxena ’12: There will an event called Honoring Arnecliffe tomorrow. There will be music and food. If you have any questions about the honor board head position come ask me.
Rebecca Sanders ’12: November round of appointments has been completed. The Access Services rep is Cindy Columbus. The Customs Co-heads are Kersti Francis and Sarah Jordan. The customs committee is Vrinda Varia, Archana Kaku, Kelly Meyers, and Emma Rosenblum.
Mae Carlson ‘12: Emma Rosenblum created the Marwk Notes for the month of November. There is going to be an essay competition for essays addressing the question are women’s colleges still relevant. There is a $500 prize.
YJ ’12: Bryn Mawr is hosting a simulcast of TedX women. This is the last SGA meeting of the semester. We will be making gingerbread houses.
Your Two Cents
Emma Rosenblum ’14: Would anyone be interested in having more course readers?
Blair Smith ‘12: The reason why readers aren’t utilized is because they’re illegal.
Emma Rosenblum ’14: We could look into legal ways to make it possible.
Julia Fahl ’12: If the college doesn’t think it’s feasible, I’m not sure how to work around that. Would we make a committee?
Emma Rosenblum ’14: Yes, possibly, to look into ways to have more course readers.
Blair Smith ‘12: Probably the easiest way to have something like a course reader is to make it happen within own class.
Straw poll: Most people would like to have more course readers in classes.
Lee McClenon ’14 and Blair Smith ‘12: We were wondering if people would be interested in getting a select account on Survey Monkey, not a limited account could poll unlimited amount of people could export data to excel or a pdf. It’s $204 annually, which is 17 dollars a month.
YJ ’12: We have had it before. We can make it so that it’s only open to the assembly and all appointed committees. We can get it again if it’s something people want.
Kyle Aguilar ‘13: Why not google forms?
Lee McClenon ‘14: If anyone has info comparing programs, we’d be interested.
Julia Fahl ‘12: Point of information: Survey Monkey is generally accepted as part of the Bryn Mawr culture.
Elizabeth Held ‘12: We also have a culture of using moodle – it is a free option.
Blair Smith ‘12: Can you send link to everyone through moodle?
Elizabeth Held ‘12: Not an individual link.
Lee McClenon ‘14: Sending out an individual link is easier.
Kersti Francis ‘13: Monkey is in the title of Survey Monkey.
Nora Chong ‘12: Didn’t Yong Jung say we could do this if you guys want?
YJ ‘12: Yes but we can look into it more.
Lee McClenon ‘14: We could make it so that it is just for assembly members and appointed committees.
Straw poll: Generally people want a select Survey Monkey account.
BMCS spring presentation
Kate Grant ’12: A typical budget for a concert is: sound/lighting: $1,500. Opening act: $1,000. Main act: $10,000 or $10,050. The total budget for each concert is usually $12,550.
Lauren Bochicchio ’12: We’re looking at two California bands – You Won’t and The Smiles. Their prices are nonnegotiable. We want to have rap concert and a dance concert. We’re going to have three concerts so we can have three bigger shows and gage how community responds.
Blair Smith ‘12: How many people do you expect to attend? Will they be in Rhoads or Goodheart?
Kate Grant ‘12: In Rhoads. We’re anticipating having 200 -210 attendees.
Blair Smith ‘12: The BMCS budget is higher than SGA dues, and high in general. We’re spending too much for the amount of people who are coming.
Kate Grant ’12: We don’t have the same people coming to a concert and staying the whole time. People come in and out so it’s not a static number.
Blair Smith ‘12: Fucs gets 13000, and they’re doing the same thing.
Lauren Bochicchio ’12: We’re not trying to be Fucs and they’re not trying to be us. We’re looking for things our community will respond to. Fucs is getting to know different genres every weekend. We try to do bigger events to attract more people. Attendance varies throughout the night.
Blair Smith ‘12: We should lower budget so we could have a higher club budget.
Kate Grant ’12: We would consider having them in other spaces but the bands we could have to get to fill those spaces would be more expensive. We thought of just having two shows, but we talked about it with E. Board and they weren’t comfortable with only having two shows. We had to restructure our budget and we can have a discussion about what you want.
Irene Shin ‘13: Any idea of who you’re bring in?
Kate Grant ‘12: We restructured our budget this week, so we’re not sure. We’re hoping to bring Girls.
Lauren Bochicchio ‘12: Givers are interested in coming in the spring.
Kate Grant ‘12: If you guys have suggestions or questions email us or we meet in the Campus Center on Wednesdays at 9pm.
Lee McClenon ‘14: What kinds of advertising do you do within the bi-co?
Kate Grant ‘12: We’ve been stuffing mailboxes and chalking.
Lauren Bochicchio ’12: We use facebook, but it’s limited because of certain regulations. We have been using campus weekly and activities emails.
Lee McClenon ‘14: It was would be helpful to have more information on the posters about what the band is like.
Kate Grant ‘12: The easiest way to give people a sense of what a band is like is to provide music, which we do in all the emails we send out. It’s hard to convey what a band sounds like in a poster.
Lauren Bochicchio ‘12: For a band we recently brought, we put up “witch house festival.” We’re not sure how well it translated.
Blair Smith ‘12: Have you worked with other organizations?
Kate Grant ‘12: We did a concert with Challah for Hunger. We would like to come up with a more formalized way of working with clubs. We once sent an offer to band with the understanding that a club was going to pay for opener and it didn’t work out. We would like to come up with a less complicated way to work with other groups.
Lee McClenon ‘14: Do you have statistics of your average attendance?
Kate Grant ‘12: Not from show to show. Last night had over 100 people.
Sarah Lovegren ’14: Is there an organization that brings softer music to campus? Like local singer songwriter acoustic guitar?
Kate Grant ‘12: We can do that.
Sarah Lovegren ’14: Ok, I just didn’t know if you would do that because you usually don’t bring bands like that.
Kate Grant ‘12: We have fallen into this niche because these are the shows people come to. If you have ideas let us know.
Blair Smith ’12: My recommendation for the budget would be between $17,000 and $20,000.
Elizabeth Held: How would that affect you guys?
Lauren Bochicchio ‘12: It would vastly affect us. If we have to subtract $14,000 we could only have two shows or three really small ones.
Kate Grant ‘12: When sound costs more than the bands, we don’t like that. Until we have a sound system its not really worth it.
Blair Smith ‘12: Have you looked into getting a sound system?
Kate Grant ‘12: We were on committee for all of last year that talked about it. The question would be who owns it if we use our committee to buy it? If SGA buys it? Where do we store it? There would be some difficulty figuring out how to prioritize who gets to use it.
Lauren Bochicchio ‘12: We don’t have a sound crew that would run this and set it up each time.
Kate Grant ‘12: But we would really like to have a sound system.
Adelyn Kishbaugh ‘12: It sounds like lights, sound, and a stage are big concerns. We ‘re looking into putting a stage in the Campus Center. We don’t have any idea of what type. I’m head of a committee that has been talking about this with Deans and other students. If there were something like that here would you consider using this space?
Kate Grant ’12: Definitely, and we have had members at those meetings. We would love to use it.
Lauren Bochicchio ‘12: Any space where we don’t have to pay.
Adelyn Kishbaugh ’12: Once you used Goodheart music room, would you consider doing that again?
Lauren Bochicchio ‘12: We’re pretty much last on the priority list.
Kate Grant ‘12: The one time we got out se it was fluke pretty much.
Julia Fahl ‘12: This discussion is not germaine to the budget right now because won’t be a stage in here next semester.
YJ ’12: What’s your response to new budget suggestion?
Kate Grant ‘12: We would only have two concerts.
Lauren Bochicchio ‘12: We would prefer to have the budget we proposed. We try to be fair with the way we allocate our money.
Sarah Theobald ‘12: Motion to vote on budget as it stands.
Seconded.
YJ ’12: If you approve of this budget raise your hand high.
Yes: Saba Quadir, Julia Fahl, Amanda Beardall, Carolyn Jacoby, Blair Smith, Lee McClenon, Daniele Arad-Neeman, Mo Alfonso, Karina Siu, Lynne Ammar, Carmen Lai, Nkechi Ampah, Syona Arora, Emma Rosenblum, Kate Ciarlante, Sarah Jordan, Sarah Theobald, Sharan Mehta, Emma Geering, Danyelle Phillips, Lili Elsesser, Kendra Kelly, Debbie Deegan, Emma Condy, Elizabeth Held, Elizabeth Olecki, Nora Chong, Adelyn Kishbaugh, Akshyeta Suryanarayan, Kyle Aguilar
No: Devanshi Vaid, Julia Stuart
Abstain: Sarah Lovegren, Lindsey Crowe, Aya Martin Seaver, Alice Fischer, Irene Shin, Deb Matus, Kiki Anizoba, Dede Buckman, Christine Calderón
YJ’12: The budget is approved.
Appointments Position Vote
Rebecca Sanders ’12: The appointments bi-laws say that after three years of unsatisfactory performance, we can eliminate an appointed position. I would like to change this to after one year the assembly can vote to eliminate a position.
Sarah Theobald ‘12: What do you mean by “unsatisfactory” and who gets to decide?
Rebecca Sanders ‘12: Appointments would decide whether it would come to the assembly. We would talk to faculty and the previous position holders and looks exit surveys. Then we would bring it to you and you would decide. It’s the satisfactoriness of the position not the position holders.
Elizabeth Held ’12: Can you accurately assess that in one year?
Rebecca Sanders ‘12: Yes.
Emma Rosenblum ‘14: How would you take into account the varying of interests over the years?
Rebecca Sanders ‘12: The appointments committee and I have had the opportunity to talk. There are a few positions that were up for election that we let slide. We would get rid of admissions rep position and computer access coordinator position.
Daniele Arad-Neeman ’14: Would it be open to reassessment?
Rebecca Sanders ’12: Absolutely. If anyone is hankering for an admissions rep we can bring that back.
YJ: We’re going to vote to change the bi-laws
Yes: Sarah Lovegren, Saba Quadir, Amanda Beardall, Carolyn Jacoby, Julia Fahl, Lee McClenon, Blair Smith, Lindsey Crowe, Kelly Wilkinson, Amani Chowdhury, Daniele Arad-Neeman, Mo Alfonso, Karina Siu, Lynne Ammar, Aya Martin Seaver, Christine Calderón, Carmen Lai, Irene Shin, Julia Stuart, Devanshi Vaid, Kate Ciarlante, Sarah Jordan, Lili Elsesser, Kendra Kelly, Sarah Theobald, Sharan Mehta, Adelyn Kishbaugh, Emma Geering, Danyelle Phillips, Debbie Deegan, Emma Condy Elizabeth Held, Elizabeth Olecki, Kyle Aguilar, Akshyeta Suryanarayan
No: Emma Rosenblum
Abstain: Nora Chong
Rebecca Sanders ’12: The two positions we’re now looking to eliminate are the admissions rep position and computer access coordinator. We heard negative feedback from about the admissions rep position. Tour guides who work in admissions communicate a lot with admissions and office staff gets enough feedback, so it’s not a constructive use of someone’s time. The computer access coordinator was created out of Sophie Papaviza’s plenary resolution about access to computing when Guild closed and was meant to address whether people without laptops would have access to computers and printing.
Mae Carlson ’12: I was the computer access co-coordinator along with Jen Rajchel last year. Although I don’t think that this position is relevant to or use for the reasons it was established, it can be cool in that it can give students an opportunity to talk about things related to media/technology (like in the Digital Dialogue event last year). I think there should be a position that combines all concerns relating to computers and access that would address GoBoard moderation, a campus wide calendar, printing, and digital humanities stuff, etc.
Blair Smith ‘12: It would be good to have a position and a committee address printing access needs and printers in accessible locations.
Julia Fahl ‘12: Printing is the guild of last year. It would be nice if someone were working on a community wide calendar.
Rebecca Sanders ‘12: This vote is just to get rid of these positions. Next semester we can come up with ideas for a position that would encompass community needs.
YJ ’12: We’re going to move on to a vote.
Admissions rep:
Yes: Sarah Lovegren, Amanda Beardall, Carolyn Jacoby, Julia Fahl, Blair Smith, Lee McClenon, Lindsey Crowe, Kelly Wilkinson, Daniele Arad-Neeman, Mo Alfonso, Karina Siu, Lynne Ammar, Christine Calderón, Carmen Lai, Irene Shin, Deb Matus, Kiki Anizoba, Dede Buckman, Emma Rosenblum, Emma Condy, Debbie Deegan Elizabeth Olecki, Devanshi Vaid, Julia Stuart, Blair Smith, Lee McClenon, Syona Arora, Nkechi Ampah, Sarah Jordan, Nora Chong, Lili Elsesser, Kendra Kelly, Adelyn Kishbaugh, Emma Geering, Danyelle Phillips
Abstain: Kate Ciarlante, Sarah Theobald, Aya Martin Seaver, Alice Fischer, Saba Quadir
Computer access coordinator:
Yes: Sarah Lovegren, Amanda Beardall, Carolyn Jacoby, Julia Fahl, Blair Smith, Lee McClenon, Lindsey Crowe, Kelly Wilkinson, Daniele Arad-Neeman, Mo Alfonso, Karina Siu, Lynne Ammar, Christine Calderón, Carmen Lai, Deb Matus, Kiki Anizoba, Dede Buckman, Emma Condy, Debbie Deegan Elizabeth Olecki, Devanshi Vaid, Julia Stuart, Blair Smith, Lee McClenon, Syona Arora, Nkechi Ampah, Sarah Jordan, Nora Chong, Lili Elsesser, Kendra Kelly, Adelyn Kishbaugh
Abstain: Kate Ciarlante, Sarah Theobald, Aya Martin Seaver, Alice Fischer, Saba Quadir, Emma Geering, Danyelle Phillips, Emma Rosenblum, Irene Shin
YJ ’12: These two positions will no longer be appointed.
Sarah Theobald ‘12: Do these positions remain in our institutional memory.
Rebecca Sanders ‘12: They remain in the records. And they will exist in people’s memories.
YJ ’12: Yes, they will exist in memories and documents.
Review of SGA
YJ ‘12: Next, we’re going to review what we’ve done in SGA this semester. Here are some slides of what we have done as an SGA Exec Board so far. We want a document that’s a comprehensive list of what the Exec Board and SGA assembly does. Your list should include what you do on a usual basis and things we have done for the first time. Please write this information down on a piece of paper with your name on it and bring it up front at the end of the meeting and we will create a document.
Seven Sisters Proposal
YJ ’12: Vrinda and I, as Bryn Mawr’s representatives to the Seven Sisters council, met with Dean Rasmussen. We have decided that we are in favor of extending the invitation to Vassar. This decision was made for following reasons: 1.) We still engage with Vassar on an administrative level 2.) Everyone benefits from the network. Vassar’s commitment to equality of education for women is part of their history and relevant to their institutional identity. The Seven Sisters can’t grow anymore. We’re going to open this up for questions suggestions and comments.
Old business
Karina Siu ’14: What happened to the Planga discussion?
YJ ’12: Planga is a calendar website that allows all events to be in one place. A new round of schools are going to be launching system. We invited someone to come during budget workshop to get club members acclimated to the new system. Adelyn is creating a survey that she is going to send out to the student body to see whether or not this is a need on campus.
New business
Lee McClenon ’14: Blair and I would like to make a survey about BMCS and see how many people go and if the same people go to every event one huge event and what the student opinion is on it overall.
Blair Smith ’12: My sophomore year, there was a survey where the student body was asked what kind of concerts they would prefer so that BMCS would see if people want one big artist to come or many smaller concerts. This is something we should pursue again to see if the mentality has changed.
Julia Fahl ’12: Wouldn’t this be under not SGA’s terrain, but BMCS’s job?
Lee McClenon ’14: We should encourage them to make a survey because these are questions we need them to ask in order to represent their constituents.
Adelyn Kishbaugh ‘12: This would be something for BMCS would to purse. They come to SGA and present. It seems as though you want to make the process more transparent, but I’m not what we can do to improve on that.
Rebecca Sanders ‘12: I’m concerned because BMCS are representatives of what students want. We appoint them because we believe they will do a good job. Do you think they’re not doing that?
Blair Smith ’12: We would like to see actual data of what students want.
Rebecca Sanders ’12: They have open meetings.
Daniele Arad-Neeman ‘14: If people don’t come, that’s a problem. If a survey was made the people who reply would be the people who are not happy. People who are happy would not take it. It might be skewed in that way.
Lee McClenon ‘14: Open meetings have the opposite problem.
Blair Smith ‘12: We would like to open up the concert budgeting process to everyone.
Elizabeth Held ‘12: It seems like we pick on BMCS. We should have trust that they’re student leaders who are doing their job. The bi-co news has a similarly large budget, and we don’t question them in the same way.
Karina Siu ‘14: I would be in support of survey. I don’t think people know about the meetings. I would rather have one big concert that would draw a large crowd.
Blair Smith ‘12: It’s a burden on the residents of those dorms where there are concerts.
Amanda Beardall ’14: Wasn’t there a survey sent out last year?
Blair Smith ‘12 and Lee McClenon ‘14: We would like for the follow up to be shared with SGA.
Lee McClenon ’14: We’re not saying SGA needs to make a survey.
YJ ’12: You could recommend that BMCS create a survey.
Meeting adjourned – 8:19pm