University of Liberia Student Leaders

Call to Order

Speaker of the House Wang called the regular meeting of the Undergraduate House of Representatives of the Georgia Institute of Technology to order at 7:32pm.

Presentations

·  University of Liberia Student Leaders

Approval of the Minutes

·  Rep Gant - Change the date from last week from November 11th to November 1st - passed

·  The minutes have been approved

Officer Reports

·  Reports will be distributed online this week

Open Forum

·  N/A

Roll Call

·  Roll was called with 38 members present.

Old Business

17J075 - Joint Allocation to Alpha Phi Alpha - Author: Anju Suresh

·  Org Rep – Zachary Dawson – The event we would like registration funded for is called alpha day at the capital. This is a national event which is also required for our chapter. We will send some of our members to the capital to talk about policies and issues.

·  Rep Runnels (Q) – What happened in GSS?

·  VP Francis (A) – There are only two people going, so they felt that is would not impact GT significantly

·  VP Onken (A) – There was concern about sending social fraternity members to social fraternity events that are only open to their own members

·  Rep Runnels – I disagree with GSS. I think the funding is proportional to the number of students attending. This is a historic social fraternity, and they will bring something back to campus from this event. I think we should pass this funding.

·  Rep Liu – I don’t like the precedent. You can argue that all social fraternities have historical importance, so be careful with that argument. Be very wary of this precedent.

·  Rep Runnels – I thought we did fund social fraternities for some non-fundraiser events.

·  Rep Daigle – To clarify, one was an on campus event open to all students to promote mental health. This event is restricted to only their members.

·  Rep Scott – I feel like funding this is similar to sport teams going to competitions.

·  Rep Sieling – I agree with the previously stated.

·  30-8-1 this bill will go to conference

17J076 - Joint Allocation to Alpha Phi Alpha - Author: M

·  Org Rep – Zachary Dawson – All the chapters from the state of Georgia are meeting for a conference. It is a required event for the fraternity that is not funded by nationals. We are asking for registration fees.

·  Rep Scott (Q) – How would your members attending better the general student body of Georgia Tech?

·  Org Rep (A) – It would teach us how to be leaders on campus.

·  Rep Gant - move to amend per JFC - passed

·  Rep Daigle - It’s a conference so I move to strike line item 1- passed

·  Rep Scott - How is GSS okay with this if they weren’t for other bill?

·  VP Francis – There were a lot of new GSS senators, and they had a lot of discussion over this

·  Rep Runnels - Why don’t we fund conferences for Greeks?

·  Rep Bale - I’m in one, we typically pay out of pocket as they are for personal development

·  Rep Hendrick – As someone who is a member of a Greek organization, these conferences should not come from the student activity fee

·  Rep Runnels - What do other fraternities do?

·  Rep Metzger - Our fraternity is required to send people, but we pay for it ourselves

·  Rep Lidback – I think we should fund this because it is a very small fraternity.

·  Rep Evans - My national fraternity funds conferences, however this one is different as it is about sending people back to campus to promote values

·  Rep Runnels – We should support continued existence of historic fraternity

·  Rep Owenby - I move to reinstate line item 1 - passed

·  Rep Lidback - we voted yes for bills like robojackets to go to conference, so yes this club is a social fraternity

·  Rep Stelzel - Leadership is listed as a value in almost all sororities and fraternities, so stating that this conference is in line with the values of an organization is not sufficient for me to support this. I am not in favor of this bill because I don’t agree with this as a use for the student activity fee.

·  Rep Sieling - The size matters, but this is not the only small greek organization on campus. This would let all 12 or so small greek organizations get funding for their national conferences. Many social orgs have similar conferences and I don’t want to set that precedent. The previous bill was to represent gatech at the capital, but this bill is different. This bill is not a good use of the student activity fee

·  Rep Runnels - I see where the opposition comes from. My issue is that we don’t have any policy prohibiting this. This org is demonstrating need, and we have the ability to empower them. Larger ones can do this on their own, whereas this is a case where we are in a position to help this organization continue to exist.

·  Rep Daigle - JFC is a beginning threshold and we go from there. Even if every line meets policy, that is our starting point, not an ending point. We can have things that are fully within policy that we can say no to, and we can also choose to fund things against policy.

·  Rep Spuhler (Q) - without this funding, can you still exist?

·  Org Rep (A) - it’s not life or death, but it would help our financial situation. It would be a great help.

·  Rep Liu - every fraternity is entirely self-funded, making our dues often over $1500. Seeing as all other greek orgs must fund this themselves, I’m not for setting a precedent to change that.

·  Rep Spuhler - I will also be voting no to this. I have a friend who fundraised to go to a similar conference by going to alums. I do not think this is a good use of the student activity fee.

·  Org Rep - We are under a different umbrella than IFC, and we are much smaller and have much less money.

·  Rep Salesky - This is a leadership training conference, thus I don’t think it matters that it is a social fraternity. I don’t think we should do this. If we decide to fund this, you open the door to funding every leadership conference on campus. That’s a lot of money

·  11-26-2 fails

17J081 - Joint Allocation to Equestrian Club - Author: Jared Metzger

·  Org Rep - Morgan Quinones, Laura Mccray, Margaret Murphey - this was a line in our budget that got cut. This money will go to our team training sessions, which are horse time rental fees.

·  Rep Stelzel (Q) – how long does this cover?

·  Org Rep (A) – this is $40 per person per hour

·  Rep Metzger – move to amend per JFC – passed

·  37-1-1 passes

17J082 - Joint Allocation to Alpha Phi Omega - Author: Dana Krzyzaniak

·  Org Rep – Kari Kinser – this is a biannual conference of alpha phi omega. We are a co-ed service fraternity. We send 2 voting delegates to represent our chapter at this event. We will attend many leadership seminars, which we can bring back to campus.

·  Rep Sieling – because of the discussion earlier, I think we should additionally vote no on this bill

·  Rep Runnels – this is open to all students so I think it’s a different case. We are funding anyone to go to a convention for a service fraternity

·  Rep Zhang – I agree. We are putting all greek letter orgs into one group. Social fraternities are different than service fraternities.

·  Rep Liu – move to amend per JFC – passed

·  Rep Scott (Q) – do you have to be a member to attend this conference?

·  Org Rep (A) - It is open to anyone to attend.

·  Rep Scott – this is different because it is open to everyone on campus.

·  Rep Sieling – Even though anyone can come, we are funding the registration for these specific students to go. Even though they are a service fraternity, all greek latter orgs do philanthropy. Even though it is different, we should look at it with a critical eye

·  Rep Runnels (Q) – This bill funds 5 brothers. Is it more expensive for non-members to go?

·  Org Rep (A) – The biggest difference is that there is one specific ceremony that is for brothers only. Guest rates are about $25-50 more, the regular cost for brothers is $181

·  Rep Runnels (Q) – With this funding what is the cost?

·  Org Rep (A) – Currently we have 4 people going, but there is one extra spot available. The additional spot could be for any person that wants to go.

·  Rep Runnels – Every single week we fund events that are just for members of organizations. Like sports clubs. For this event, anyone can be that 5th person. It is part of their mission to become better service leaders, which is what this conference seems to be about.

·  VP Francis – They’re officially a community service organization on Org Sync

·  Rep Daigle – We should fund this because is it a service organization.

·  Rep Liu – my problem isn’t classification. My problem is the fact that this is a leadership conference. This is not a community service event. We should not fund leadership conferences for any organization. For sports clubs, that is their sole purpose which is why we fund traveling to compete. I do not like the precedent of leadership conference funding. I will be voting no.

·  Rep Cheyne (Q) – Are you going to advertise this extra space?

·  Org Rep (A) – we can advertise. We are very laid back on who goes to our events. I’m not quite sure that campus will receive it well. It will not go to someone in the org.

·  Rep Cheyne – We just had a long discussion about precedent. If we say no to someone, you cannot say yes to someone else. This is a service org, which is great, but this is a leadership event NOT a service event.

·  Rep Sieling – I agree. There was a point about other community service events, which we fund specific service events for. We shouldn’t fund leadership conferences.

·  Rep Runnels – leadership, friendship, and service is their mission. Leadership development is in their mission, so we should fund it. I disagree with the precedent we set, and we have passed similar bills this year. It fits with their mission.

·  Rep Owenby – We are just talking about this organization’s trip to a leadership conference. This is a good use of the student activity fee. I see no reason to vote against it.

·  Rep Daigle (Q) – is there a service aspect in this?

·  Org Rep (A) – our opening ceremony is relay for life. There are several service events throughout the conference.

·  Daigle (A) – about how many hours of service per person?

·  Org Rep (A) – about 10 hours per person. There are hundreds of hours of opportunities.

·  Rep Daigle – I’m looking at the schedule, and it matches everything that I was just said. It is directly in line with their purpose.

·  24-7-6 passes

17J083 - Joint Allocation to Climbing Club - Author: Carson Silbert

·  Org Rep – Jordan Lanser – this funding is for two competitions. We have had funding for the past couple years, but it was cut during budgets. We must compete in at least one of them to compete in regionals. We have gained 20 members in the last year.

·  36-1-0 passes

17J084 - Joint Allocation to KUSA (Korean Undergraduate Student Association) - Author: Carson Silbert

·  Org Rep – Taegon Lee – KUSA is starting a Korea Week event to introduce Korean culture to the Georgia Tech community. This has been a very successful cultural event for our other chapters.

·  Rep Juvekar – Move to amend per JFC – passed

·  36-0-0 passes

17U009 - Undergraduate Allocation for Home for the Holidays Gifts - Author: Nagela Nukuna

·  Org Rep - Ben Nickel – Every year we give a gift to the hosts for Home for the Holidays. Last year the gift was an umbrella, which got a lot of not positive feedback. We are asking for funding for one gift for each host. It’s a cute snow globe, and I got a 35% discount.

·  Rep Daigle – Should we add a few more in case we get more hosts?

·  Org Rep – if anything we may have a host cancel, so I don’t anticipate needing more

·  Rep Evans – move to amend line 1 quantity to 37 – passed

·  36-0-0 passes

17U011 - Rep Nametags Author: Anju Suresh

·  Org Rep – Anju Suresh – this is to fund nametags for you guys.

·  Rep Runnels (Q) – are these stickers or engraved?

·  Org Rep (A) – they’re recyclable but you can’t tell

·  Rep Runnels (Q) – isn’t that what we had last year?

·  Org Rep (A) – A lot of people didn’t give them back

·  Rep Daigle (Q) – Should we just do ones we all can keep if they’re not coming back?

·  Org Rep (A) – that’s for you to decide

·  VP Onken – you make orgs wait 2 weeks, so I would caution you about passing a bill 3 hours after it was created.

·  Rep Owenby – I kept my nametag from last year because I have the same position, and was never contacted about it. With that, I move to postpone this bill to next week - passed

New Business

17J085 - Joint Allocation to Alpha Phi Alpha - Author: Carson Silbert

17J086 - Joint Allocation to Runnin' Wreck - Author: Andre Evans