Fall General Body Meeting Minutes from November 3, 2010 1 Call to Order The meeting was called to order at 7:35 pm 2 Attendance The following Board members were present: Rebecca Krentz-Wee (President), Nicole Teague (Treasurer), Rachel Meyer (Secretary), Alex Dehnert (UMAL), Judy Hsiang (UMAL), Geoffrey Thomas (GMAL), Brian Bell (SMAL) Group attendance: - present: http://mit.edu/asa/about/minutes/2010/gbm-f10-present-excused.pdf - excused and absent: http://mit.edu/asa/about/minutes/2010/gbm-f10-absent.pdf 3 Slides Please also refer to the slides from the meeting. (link: http://mit.edu/asa/about/minutes/2010/gbm-f10-slides.pdf) 4 Warning Cards - Talk to us after the meeting if next to your group name it says Suspended or (pending) Derecognized. - Mailing list: check that this is the correct list. If it's not or your card says the list does not exist email the correct address to asa-exec@mit.edu - Officers: again check that these are correct. If not or if it says one or both are not current students, then update your officers in the ASA Database - Anti-hazing form: if you haven't you need to submit this ASAP - Negative Account Balance: email funds@mit.edu if you have this warning. If it's because you got LEF/ARCADE funding and will be submitting a post-event report and getting a transfer to cover the balance, then this is acceptable. - Missing RFP training: if you haven't been to training there are trainings in the next couple of weeks. If someone from your group has attended training but you still have a warning, it may not have been recorded for all your groups so email funds@mit.edu. - If you want your website listed to from our group listing make sure you have a link to it in your Database entry. - You must put a link to the current version of your constitution in your Database entry. 5 Non-Discrimination Policy Please be reminded of the MIT Non-Discrimination Policy (link: http://web.mit.edu/referencepubs/nondiscrimination/). All groups should refer to this in their constitutions and all groups must follow this policy. If you have concerns and want to contact us confidentially about issues with groups following this policy, email asa-president@mit.edu 6 Leah Flynn New Director of SAO, formal title: Assistant Dean and Director for Student Leadership and Engagement Programs Points from Leah: - I'm very happy to be here. This is my 7th day and I'm ready to go. - Background: I used to work for SUNY ESF (Environmental Science and Forestry), next to Syracuse University, for 8 years - I'm working on the tail end of my PhD. - I look to you to fill me in on the tradition and culture. I want to listen and learn about you and the culture. - Please stop in, I have an open door policy. - Open house tomorrow 4-5:30pm in SAO. - Stop by anytime with any concerns or just to tell me about your group. - To repeat early announcement, it is very important that groups follow the Non-Discrimination Policy and ensure everyone feels welcome in their group. - I look forward to getting to know you and I'm excited to be here! 7 Deadlines 7.1 New Groups Deadlines: 11/19, 2/11, 4/4. Applications submitted leading up to each of those deadlines are reviewed all together after each of those deadlines. Question: what do you look for? Answer: Uniqueness and distinction from existing groups and activities, sustainability of the activity, at least 5 students and at least 50% students, student-led activity 7.2 LEF/ARCADE LEF/ARCADE are event funding sources: Large Event Fund, Assisting Recurring Cultural and Diversity Events. LEF events need to meet certain criteria of budget and attendance to be considered large, ARCADE events need to be cultural or diversity focused. All groups are eligible to apply to LEF/ARCADE. Deadlines: 12/3 (for events Jan-Mar), 3/18 (for events Apr-Jun) 7.3 UA Finboard For undergrad Funded Student Groups, the next deadline is 11/28 Groups are encouraged to apply and come to office hours for guidance or to get questions answered. Office hours are 11/9 at 8pm in W20-400 8 Boards Allocation Timeline Operating Guidelines call for applications by the end of October and assignments by the end of the semester. Instead the Board is proposing: release application mid-November, applications due right after finals (intentionally long application period since it's the end of the semester), allocations will be out over IAP, and assignments will take effect the first week of spring term. A main part of the reasoning behind this is that we just re-did most of the allocations because of the construction along the Infinite. Delaying the next allocations gives groups time to use their space, gives some stability, and gives the Board a break from the allocations. Question: How do you decide allocations? We look at numerous things including current and recent use of space, how frequently the space will be updated, what the space will be used for (with preference to things that target people outside the group), and then how much space and location that is requested. Amended timeline passes unanimously. 9 Walker Update Discussions continuing about the space with regards to MTA possibly using the space Martin Schmidt (Associate Provost), John Dunbar (Office of the Provost), Phil Walsh (CAC) will work with UA, GSC, ASA and also meeting with groups. There will be an open forum in Morss Hall and walkthroughs with the Associate Provost. Date will be announced once we have it, groups with space there are encouraged to be there and use this opportunity. Timeline for this part: November, may go in to December. 10 Orientation/Midway Some people had concerns with how things went this year or about the timing of the Midway before that. TNE during the moratorium, ran by SLOPE/DSL not ASA With respect to moving the Midway earlier: concerns with other events, early returns (particularly for smaller groups) 11 Operating Guidelines The Board is starting to review the Operating Guidelines and wants to involve the General Body in this process. Current plan is to vote in early Spring, which would mean two GBMs because it affects elections. Main points: - Allocation procedures for Bulletin Boards and Offices: general proposal is to split a lot of the policy/procedure from Operating Guidelines: to give the process a little more flexibility, so we don't have to vote on changing dates as we did tonight, and so the Board and General Body have more control over the plan. The Board would prepare a policy/procedure document over summer and have general body approve them at early fall GBM - Process: feedback sessions end of the semester, IAP; vote February/early March - Vacancies: formalize that the president can appoint and Board can approve an interim person and at next GBM the position re-elected (\from scratch") - Elections: have platforms posted in advance (still take nominations off the floor); clarify voting process for GMAL/UMAL (how preferential voting is implemented for positions with multiple seats) 12 Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 8:06 pm. Respectfully submitted, Rachel Meyer ASA Secretary