Meeting Minutes — Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Johns Hopkins University Student Government Association

• All members present. Ardi and Moses came in later (at training)

• Welcome to the SGA
• Explanation of SGA's functions and the committees that serve these functions.

1. Policy organization (Appts & Evals)

2. Programming org (Student Involvement, Campus Affairs)

3. Service org (want to work on this one a lot this year. Campus Affairs working on an off-campus housing database. Academic Affairs working to upload syllabi for classes)

4. Lobbying (SGA needs to be the voice of student body to the administration to discuss what students want to see happen)

• Run-through of parliamentary procedures
  • When there is an Item of business: say "I move that…" Someone must second the motion
• Liz and Mark have met with President Daniels twice, want a positive image of SGA this year
• SGA Barbeque at Liz’s!
  • Friday, September 3rd @ 7 p.m.
  • 3207 N. Calvert
• Year-long charity with yoga on Gilman Quad

• • Charity not yet decided; will most likely benefit the BP oil spill or Haiti relief
  • Charm City Yoga instructor has agreed to give free weekly classes on the quad, students donate $5, which goes to charity
• Committee Assignments:

• • Committees should meet every week. There will be new committee forms to fill out; Liz will send these out
  • Senior Class President Josh Ayal: How should chairmanship go?
    • Mark: Committee chair will set tone for committee, follow through on projects. Choose someone who has been on SGA/that committee before, or someone who has good knowledge of the SGA/the constitution. A) background knowledge B) commitment to follow through on everything. Let everybody know if you want to be chair.

• Budget had not been turned in at the end of last year. However, problem was solved over the summer with Jason and Waqiba working on it. Budget is done for this year. SAC’s job should be much easier this year. There will be quarterly grant hearings, not weekly meetings.
• Funding requests for student groups will go to Finance instead of to the SAC
• Try to prevent groups from asking for money the week before an event; should have legitimate reason if it comes to this.

• Meetings should start promptly at 7:30 p.m. each Tuesday. Don’t be late!
• New attendance policy: must e-mail a form that states time conflict/why meeting will be missed (Diana will send out the form)
• Everyone should be getting e-mails from the Google Group (http://groups.google.com/group/jhusga) and have access to Google Docs
  • Make sure to fill in your cell phone number and primary e-mail on roster
  • You can keep track of your attendance on attendance doc

• $500 request from MSE for Wes Moore honorarium

MSE Rep Nikki Ackerman: MSE is spending $5000 on this speaker event. Need $500 from SGA.

Mark: MSE is subsidiary group of the SGA, so this is a priority request. Unexpected but small request, and we have the money to cover this. Sr. Senator Max Dworin: MSE is spending $5000 on an alum??? Nikki: Part of it is going to charity. Our donation could be budgeted into logistics or fees.We are funding the speaker, not technically the charity. Mark: We will have an ad in MSE’s pamphlet this year.

• Soph. Senator Archibald Henry: Motion to grant $500 request. Soph. Senator Moses Song seconds. No objections. Motion approved.

• Sr. Senator Saharsh Patel brings up a bill: President’s Day of Service wants $2500 from SGA for this year. This event is affiliated with the SGA. Mark: Correction — exec members cannot cosponsor bills

Saharsh: Huge event, we will beat last year’s number this year. SGA’s name will be on t-shirts, great publicity for freshmen, which will attract them to organization. Archie: Do we know where $2500 will go specifically? Saharsh: Not specified in bill. Most going to transportation for ~900 volunteers. President Daniels didn’t want to turn anyone away this year. $15,000 budget similarly allocated this year. Additional $2500 would greatly improve transportation Mark: Largest service event the whole year, unparalleled on campus for participation. Want to make sure money is allocated to a charitable cause, not for t-shirts. Archie: Move to amend the resolution to augment the event's funding so long as money does not go to t-shirts. Followed by further discussion. Josh: Is this even enforceable? Wyatt: What are your plans as someone in charge of this with t-shirts and marketing? Saharsh: T-shirts should be $4000. Discusses merits of t-shirts (better aura for event, students, &c.) Money from SGA would simply augment our $15,000. Wyatt: What are the implications if you don’t get this money? Saharsh: Bussing is a huge chunk of money ~$5 grand. We're short on money in budget for t-shirts. It's up to committee to budget the funds. Max: SGA should be accountable for the money. It should be designated as best we can. Jr. Senator TJ Bozada: How much would the lack of t-shirts diminish amount of people? Josh: They will get the t-shirts regardless. Mark:  Best approach: give money but make language clearer; money we are giving cannot go to t-shirts. If they choose to make t-shirts nonetheless, fine, as long as it's not with our money.

• Sophomore Class President Alexandra Larsen motions to make an amendment to augment the group's funding given that the funding is spent on logistics only. Max seconds this. Moses moves to vote on amended resolution. Motion passed with unanimous consent..
• Max: Finance needs to come up with a resolution that states that SGA will not fund t-shirts.

1. Appointments and Evaluations
   1. Policy group in SGA, monthly evaluations of student groups, approve new student groups, run workshops. Help appoint people to MSE, the HOP, Springfair.
   2. Mark: we need to strengthen evaluation aspect of existing groups. Pres. Daniels acknowledged that there has been growth in student groups, but no increase in budget. Need strict evaluation of money. Wyatt: Drop in on group meetings from time to time. Follow money well; usually people don’t funnel money for groups. Advisor Jason Heiserman: Should this be Finance’s job? Mark: This will be a joint effort between A&E and Finance.
2. General Ideas for Student Body
   1. Improve escort van service. Karen: Service is terrible; people have been stranded. Sr. Senator Sean Murphy: SHIP has been trying to work on this.
   2. Bike rental program for campus (Joanna)
   3. Speed bumps on roads where cars generally go fast (Alexandra). Josh: Natalie Draisin was working on this last year. They will solicit recommendations for problematic streets, places w/poor street lighting, unclear signs, &c.
   4. More security guards around off-campus housing at night. Katy: There seems to have been a decrease in security in these areas, and officers have been spread thin. Karen: Spoke to someone about this; turns out that we don’t have funding for it. We must come up with a way to fund this.
   5. Way for students to request specific courses they’d like to see (Soph. Senator Mimi Gu)
   6. Sean: Heard that students will no longer be able to audit classes. Katy: heard that they’re getting rid of add/drop
   7. Hopkins advertising videos should get SGA’s approval (Sean)
   8. Easy access to info about off-campus parking. Mimi: parking is too expensive on campus. Should put on services page. Wyatt: This can be done in a day
   9. Link isis.jhu.edu/classes to ISIS once logged in (Alexandra/Josh)

• Great job to Rachel Navarre for First Night!!!11!

• Karen motions to adjourn. Jr. Senator Scott Barrett seconds. Meeting adjourned at 8:47 p.m.