SGA Meeting 9-17-17
Campus Center 7pm
Summary:
This SGA meeting was mostly spent discussing Plenary, which is next Sunday September 24th at 7pm in Goodhart. The elections heads announced that current nominations period for Elections is being extended until Wednesday at 7 to include the CPD representative. We are trying a new method of voting this year for Plenary. It is an app called Vox Vote and it is accessible from any device as long as it is connected to wifi. At the meeting we were able to test out the app and decided to proceed with using it for Plenary. The resolutions were all presented at this meeting, the full texts as well as summaries will be available online. Please look out for all emails pertaining to Plenary information in the upcoming week. 2018 won the trivia question so the dark blue and red teams are tied.
Roll call
General Announcements
Milan Fredrick ’20: Hello I am Milan one of the Co-Heads of Elections, we are going to be extending elections until Wednesday at 7 because we are adding CPD representative.
Lets Revisit
Alisha Clark ‘18: we are moving right into plenary. Last plenary was a mess. It is really important for all of you to spread the word about SGA and make it a more inclusive transparent space. I’m leaning on you guys to spread the word and encourage you to go. So you know this plenary hopefully will be better, there is a new e-board, we are going to have gifts, performances. Hopefully people will want to join us on the stage to dance and sing and stuff. I have high hopes for this year’s plenary.
Plenary Discussion
Alisha Clark ‘18: I found this really cool app over the summer I did extensive research and they use this for even bigger events so it should work smoothly. Quorum is 446 and so once we reach that we can use the app to vote for everything. We will be sending out many emails that include all of the information leading up to plenary so everyone will have the information on what will happen. The app works on all devices as long as you are on wifi.
Ellen Wright ’19: Is there a radius for the app because we want people to still show up for plenary?
Alisha Clark ‘18: This will all be on the honor code. When you come to plenary we will give the information about how to log in including the access code. I will be able to see some of the information on voting and so I will be able to tell if it is working. I hope people will keep the honor code seriously. I did a test last night and I couldn’t tell if a radius applied. It is a great app it shows graphs of the information. Takes time of how long it takes to vote so we don’t have to do that. People are also able to send some comments about grammar and things like that through the app so that it will save a lot of time. Okay we are going to test the system.
*Test of the App, everyone was able to use it and vote. We were able to see how it shows up on the admin computer as well, showing the distribution of votes*
Alisha Clark ‘18: How do you feel about it?
Abby Brewster ’18: Will the student body be able to see this graph on the main screen?
Alisha Clark ‘18: No but after Plenary we will send out the physical charts to everyone so that they can have the results.
Abby Brewster ‘18: So will we not know at plenary how the votes have been decided.
Alisha Clark ‘18: No I will announce right away and be able to say the percentages that every vote got.
Stephanie Montalvan ‘18: I think Abby was suggesting that you do show this during plenary so that everyone is able to see the graphs live.
Alisha Clark ‘18: Does everyone want to see them live?
*Everyone raises hands in agreement*
Julie Gonzales ‘19: Do each of them need to be entered before what do we do if something gets tabled or if we need to make a change to the resolution
Nanda Bhushan ‘19: tabling would happen after and so we would just disregard the voting.
Alisha Clark ‘18: I think that abstain, as an option would be enough.
Julie Gonzales ‘19: Is it possible to put another entry for tabling the resolution?
Delia Landers ‘19: Tabling has to be called and so if that was an option on the screen people might vote for it without it being suggested.
Alisha Clark ‘18: you can make comments with your vote so you can vote yes but also make a comment about grammar. We are trying to cut down as much time as possible and really have pertinent discussions.
Sasha Rogelberg ‘19: What about if a resolution is amended. Would you be able to refresh the screen so that people would be able to vote again?
Alisha Clark ‘18: Yes there is a refresh button. I hope that people will read them before plenary and read them after plenary
Hannah ’20: I think it would be a lot more confusing to have the whole resolution
Alisha Clark ‘18: Okay perfect. So how does it look on everyone’s phones and on the laptops?
*People affirm that it works well on both platforms*
Carolyn Cannizzaro ‘19: is this how we are going to be keeping track of quorum?
Alisha Clark ‘18: yes because it gives us info on how many people are voting and so everyone has to vote so that we know how many people are there. We want it to be upbeat and to keep it so we want the voting to not be a stressor. We are going to be having people tabling and be giving out leis when people first come in.
Nanda Bhushan ‘19: if you know of any clubs or organizations who would want to table please have them reach out to us so that we are able to have them table. People usually sell things.
Alisha Clark ‘19: This is just a test and so we are going to do some more research, because we want to make sure that it works and there are no glitches. I am a little concerned about the accessibility, but people should be able to rent devices from the library if they don’t have a computer or phone that would support it.
Lourdes: Alvarez ’18: You can pick multiple answers, will that be available during Plenary?
Alisha Clark ‘18: That is because it is just the preview and so that is why it doesn’t have everything. When it goes on live everyone will only get an option to vote once. Do you all like the idea?
*people agree*
Olivia Porte ‘18: How much time do people get to vote?
Alisha Clark ‘18: The app gives us a lot of options and so we can figure that out together.
Here you can see all of the comments. That is the one thing I am nervous about showing to everyone. How much time do you think that people should have to vote?
*People yell out suggestions, most people agree minute. *
Alisha Clark ‘18: Hopefully plenary wont take that much time because we are doing this faster method of voting.
Sophia Bokhari ‘20: My resolution is that Reggie has a hypoallergenic dog who she was wanting to get to come to counseling sessions. My resolution is just to see if there is support from the student body. Any questions?
Mary Cooper ‘20: If there is a lot of support would there be options to expand it to more dogs in the counseling center?
Sophia Bokhari ‘20: I think that would be maybe another plenary resolution or seeming that Is up for discussion
Ellen Wright ‘18: my only question would be what would happen if someone was afraid of dogs?
Sophia Bokhari ‘20: So I think that is something that I would discuss. I think that they would discuss before hand if people want the dog to be in the session.
Alisha Clark ‘18: I will keep the same language for the packets but when people are presenting it is up to them whether or not they want to use that language. I have been reaching out to resolution writers to figure out how they want to present them.
Our current e board also had a lot of resolutions that were tabled:
The mission of SGA including the wording of serving marginalized communities. A lot of BMC today is a very diverse campus in every aspect and so including this part is very important.
Our second is changing Roberts Rules of Order. I brought up last meeting how I thought it was inaccessible. Changing it to make sure that everyone feels like they are able to talk and access what is going on.
We want to expand our e board to include a new position that is the chair of social justice and equity. We need to continue to support students and this role would make SGA more inclusive and supportive
Have all appointments committee heads as a part of repco. Helps to define the roles of the committees and make them accountable.
Paid SGA positions for students on work-study, we worked on this with Haverford’s SGA who passed this resolution last semester. The position is a burden for people who need to think about finances. This will open it up to people who would not be able to take the positions before
Sophia Bokhari ‘20: I am wondering where the money would come from?
Anna Huang ‘19: We are still talking to Haverford. And talking to financial aid and student activities and so it will be more possible to get money just from the school. Not from the budget and if this passes we will try as best we can to get all the money from the school
Nanda Bhushan ‘19: we previous had it
Rachel Bruce ‘18: would it be federal or community based work-study because I know that some international students do not qualify.
Alisha Clark ‘18: when we really talk to financial aid we will figure that out. I will talk to them and work to make it more inclusive.
Abby Brewster ‘18: could this resolution be framed as a work-study job that you can have on campus. Making a differentiation making it just another position on campus that is part of work-study.
Sophia Bokhari ‘20: I am thinking about this one question from last year. How would we make sure that this (being paid) would not make the people on the e-board responsible to the admin instead of the students? How would you answer that?
Alisha Clark ‘18: Well, you voted for us because you thought that we would do a good job, so if you don’t like something that SGA is doing you can impeach really it is up you to change it. Make sure to keep the people accountable. When I became president I did not just stay to these rules that were set out, I do more. And so vote for someone who you want who will go above and beyond. Y’all don’t have to settle for less.
Nanda Bhushan ‘19: Also we need to show how plenary is not the only option for change on this campus, students voices should be heard regardless of a scheduled event.
Stephanie Montalvan ‘18: So the summary of the SAAC resolution is really to make it a co-held position.
Sophia Bokhari ‘20: Before I came to this meeting I was talking to a friend and we were wondering how we are going to get to plenary and keep plenary this semester?
Alisha Clark ‘18: We are doing online campaigns and we are putting up posters and starting tomorrow we will begin the online voting to make sure that people are voting on the resolutions that will be an official part of plenary.
Nanda Bhushan ’18: There will also be posters around campus with brief summaries of the resloutions.
Jada Caesar ‘20: In terms of co-held positions do both people have to come every week?
Delia Landers ’19: In terms of attendance policies no, there only needs to be one person there. However it is nice to see everyone here if they are able to come.
Alisha Clark ’18: the dining halls will close early and
Hannah Small ‘20: My resolution is that there are 6 single stall bathrooms in the dorms that have gendered signs and we can’t change the multi use bathrooms becaubut we can do it for the single use bathrooms. It is a way to make a comfortable space for gender-queer martyrs.
Sierra Bradshaw ‘20: I wonder in the past if there have been questions about customs people being paid
Nanda Bhushan ‘19: I think that this is less of an issue for SGA this would need to be presented as its own resolution and there would need to be outside research done.
Trivia Time
What is the oldest dorm on campus?
Merion
2018 won the trivia question!