September 22 Minutes

I. Call to Order Michael (9:05)

II. Roll Call/Prayer

Present: Benjamin Bergey, Michael Spory, Janelle Freed, Sarah Beck, William Morris, Heidi Bauman, James Souder, Nels Akerson, Darian Harnish, Peyton Erb, Matt Dean, Todd Hooley, Dan Sigmans, Amin Laboriel, Katie Landis, Mariah Elliott, Gabe Brunk, Hannah Wenger, Vi Dutcher, Amy Springer, Ken L. Nafziger

Absent: None

III. Approval of Minutes

Motion 220910-1 to approve the minutes: James

Second: Nels

Motion passed unanimously

IV. Announcements

a. Hospitality card- Michael shared that the hospitality committee will be circulating cards to sign for various people and departments on campus so be on the lookout for them!

V. Committee Reporting: Campus Ministries—Heidi shared that the committee talked a lot about the strategic plan and ways they are planning on meeting their goals.  They also discussed chapel and ways that they can boost attendance this year.  They are looking to students for ideas for what ideas would bring a lot of people in.  Possibilities mentioned so far are bigger name speakers or others from the community.

VI. Old Business

a. Committee switch—Katie shared that she signed up for the IRB committee, which meets at 12:30 on Wednesdays once a month and that conflicts with her schedule.  Hannah offered to switch committees from the Safety Committee to the IRB. Yay teamwork!

b. Retreat debriefing and reports–Ben asked for responses from senators as to how the retreat went from their point of view.  Many senators agreed that they liked the structure of the meeting and were impressed with the brainstorming and diversity of ideas brought forth by senators.  Overall, everyone felt it was a success.  Ben passed around a comprehensive report from all the various committees so we can all see what happened in each group. Continue to keep the rest of the senate informed with things going on with your committees!

VII. New Business

a. Idea drive- Michael shared that the Idea Drive committee is planning on having the drive from September 29-October 01.  There will be a chapel announcement and some shirts that they would like students to wear to advertise the drive.  They are also planning on placing boxes around campus (library, cafeteria, mailboxes, Commons, Science Center, and Common Grounds, chapel) for people to write down ideas and place them in the box. There will also be a board in the Campus Center for people to write ideas. They also want people to walk around wearing a white shirt on Thursday for people to write ideas on: Hannah, Todd, James, Katie, Mariah, Michael and Amin all volunteered to wear shirts for this.

b. Marketing procedure- Katie shared that the marketing committee is set up and is willing to work with anyone who will need to promote an SGA event.  Talk to someone on the marketing committee if you need help with promoting your event!

VIII. Open Floor

Ben shared that Spirit Week is the week of October 5-9.  Monday is Water Balloon Frenzy (water balloon fight on the lawn), Tuesday is Jammin’ on the Plaza (BYO Instrument to Thomas Plaza), Wednesday is Random Acts of Kindness Day (promote goodwill!), Thursday is S’more night on the hill (smores in the fire pit at 7:30) and Friday is Royal Pride Day (wear EMU colors).  They will need the marketing committee to help promote this week since it’s going to be very different from previous years.  Heidi volunteered to be the Spirit Week committee representative to the marketing committee.

-Ben shared that the Harrisonburg Student Summit happened yesterday and had the same format of our SGA retreat.  Both Ben and Michael attended and shared that it was a great way to network a little with JMUers and community members.  Ben and Michael may be coming to SGA for support for a possible summit at EMU on justice with citizens of Harrisonburg. Michael shared that he met with a Harrisonburg City PR officer who was wondering how to interact with students best and he thinks it would be a great idea to stay in contact with her to have a link to what is going on in the greater community outside of EMU.  Ben also shared that he went to a session called Citizen Relations where they talked about a section of town where violence is present and looked at how we can be more aware of our community and effective ways to help those in need.

-Sarah shared that Trinda Burkhalter in the bookstore was very enthusiastic about helping out Sports Enthusiasm committee and was willing to donate a few items and offer us a 20% discount on additional items.  If you think of something students would really like to see given away at a game, let someone on the committee know!

-Mariah passed around a snack sign-up sheet for meetings.

-Darian shared that the Dream Act has been piggybacked to a defense-spending bill and the Republicans in Congress decided to table the process for right now.  As of right now, it is not going to be voted on and it is not looking like forward motion will be made this year.

-Ben shared that he and Michael met with Loren who would love to talk to SGA senators anytime they would like to talk to him about an idea. Don’t be afraid to approach him!

-Office hours will start this week; we’ll have a lock box with a combination for the key.  An e-mail with come around with that information.

IX. Adjournment

Motion 220910-2 to adjourn: Will

Second: Sarah

Motion passed unanimously

Meeting adjourned (9:44)

smb 09/22/10