I. Call to Order Ben (9:05)
II. Roll Call/Prayer Sarah prayed
III. Approval of Minutes
Motion 20091202-1 to approve the minutes: Giles
Second: Will
Motion passed unanimously
IV. Announcements
a. Budget affirmation schedule: This is posted on the opinion board outside Common Grounds and on the SGA website on the discussion board.
V. Old Business
a. SLS names: Gabe shared that the names the committee can up with were Rob Bell, Donald Miller, James Kraybill, Shane Claiborne, Ted Swartz, John Bell, Basil Marin. As of right now, their top choice is Rob Bell but they are willing to ask for suggestions from students and want to get names out to the student population to get a feel for what students may want. Karissa suggested Greg Boyd; he is coming to speak at seminary at EMU so it may not be too hard to get him. Ben backed up the John Bell suggestion and thought he would be very interesting. Hans said it would be interesting to get someone with a totally different viewpoint than EMU, such as Richard Dawkins. Another option would be to get two people to come in for more of a debate-like format. Francis Collins was another name that came up. As leader of the Human Genome Project, it would be interesting to have him as a debater with an EMU professor or other speaker. Amy suggested connecting the SLS with the QEP (Quality Enhancement Program) that will be coming to EMU next year.
Motion 20091202-3 to approve the nominations of Rob Bell, Donald Miller, James Kraybill, Shane Claiborne, Ted Swartz, John Bell, Basil Marin, Greg Boyd, and Francis Collins with the possible collaboration with QEP: Larisa
Second: Drew
Motion passed unanimously
b. CAC Concert: Laurie Miller came in to talk to the senate about how the CAC found a promoter willing to take financial risks and help finance a Christian concert if EMU can provide the venue (Yoder Arena). One major question is how much to make student tickets. At this point a thought is from $20-30. Another question to consider is whether to make the concert a Christian one or a secular one. If Christian, one idea is to try to get a larger name to come here, such as Jeremy Camp who may possibly be available in the spring. There are both advantages and disadvantages to having a secular concert. One major disadvantage is that we wouldn’t have the help and expertise of the promoter. Either way, to put on this type of production, we would need about 40 workers throughout the night. These workers may be CAC, SGA, or other students willing to work a shift to get free tickets. Larisa suggested that since this concert won’t be happening until the next school year, we have time to poll students and find out what they are interested in and would like to come to. Laurie warned that with a student base of only 850 students, it is a considerable financial risk to bring a specific genre band here that doesn’t appeal to a lot of students. If we only get 15% of students, that’s not a whole lot of student participation for a large sum of money. Karissa shared that the promoter sounds like a wise route to go: great connection to the community and expertise with working with large bands, contracts, etc. We are tabling this discussion until next week because Michael Spory will be back and since he is president next semester, it would be beneficial for him to be part of the discussion.
VI. New Business
a. USO Official Memo: Ben shared a proposal for a memo for future SGA presidents in
regards to the Union of Student Organizations (USO), which the SGA president is leader of. This is primarily so each president has the same information about what the USO is about and what his or her responsibilities are. A few questions and clarifications were asked by senators.
Motion 20091202-2 to approve the memo with minor changes: Will
Second: Brendon
Motion passed unanimously
b. SGA Constitution revisions: Ben shared that the Executive committee has been working this semester to tweak the SGA constitution and is ready to present proposed changes. The revised constitution was passed around for senators to look at and ask questions or add changes. Sarah suggested a change for defining an “absence” and the senate agreed that adding an absence as being missing more than 50% of the meeting is appropriate. Another suggestion would be to add a change under duties of senators and executive officers to make sure to maintain regular office hours.
Motion 20091202-4 to approve the revisions of the constitution with the proposed changes: Janelle
Second: Will
Motion passed unanimously
VII. Open Floor
-Ken shared that there will be a student recognition chapel on December 11 and Ben, Will, Drew, Janelle, and Larisa will be honored there for their service this semester on SGA. It is also on Janelle’s birthday
VIII. Adjournment
Motion 20091202-5 to adjourn: Will
Second: Giles
Motion passed unanimously (10:19)
smb 12/02/09