[ASA-Official] Feedback Sought about Proposed Removal of Recruitment Rules; LEF/ARCADE Deadline Mon 6/17/13; Database Accessibility Changes

[Rachel Keeler]

Dear Student Group Leaders,

Please take note of the following announcements:

(1) Feedback Sought about Proposed Recruitment Rules Removal
(2) LEF/ARCADE July-September Deadline Monday, June 17th, 2013
(3) Broadening Access to Some Data in the ASA DB

---------------------------------------

(1) Feedback Sought about Proposed Removal of Recruitment Rules

The ASA has traditionally set rules regarding student group
recruitment. Such rules strive to create a fair environment for all
student groups to recruit, to avoid conflicting with the Orientation
process, and to balance the demands placed on new students.

The most recent iteration of these rules can be found on our website
here: <http://web.mit.edu/asa/rules/recruitment-rules.html>. They
include a restriction on cold-contacting people in the late spring and
throughout the summer, and a complete moratorium on any recruiting for
the three weeks prior to the Activities Midway at the end of
Orientation.

We are considering entirely removing the rules this year, both the
late spring/summer rules and the moratorium. All student groups would
be free to recruit however they see fit.

Some ASA Executive Board members are uneasy about this change. If we
decide to not set recruitment rules this year, it will only be as a
carefully-observed trial.

To help our decision, we would like to know your thoughts on the
proposed change. We are curious about whether you like the idea in
general, and if so, whether you would prefer the change wait a year so
groups can begin planning recruitment with the change in mind, or you
would like to see it implemented this year.

Please fill out a one-question survey to tell us how you feel about
this possible change:
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/173ZRw8xZIwgZCUlaC2mIWCgat_vLF2IhmiBc6rXxZWE/viewform>.

As always, feel free to email us at <asa-exec at mit.edu> with any
questions or concerns.

---------------------------------------

(2) LEF/ARCADE July-September Deadline June 17th, 2013

The deadline to submit applications to the Large Event Fund (LEF) and
the Assisting Recurring Cultural And Diversity Events (ARCADE) fund is
Monday, June 17th, 2013. This deadline is for events occurring between
July 1, 2013 and September 30, 2013. The application and more
information about the funds are available online:
<http://web.mit.edu/asa/resources/large-events.html>.

You are encouraged to meet with someone from the Student Activities
Office to discuss your application, particularly if it is for a new
event or you are making substantial changes to your event.  You MUST
meet with the Student Activities Office to discuss an event if it will
involve paying a speaker or performer. You can contact Alana Hamlett
<ahamlett at mit.edu> or Joel Pettigrew <joelp at mit.edu> about scheduling
an appointment.

You are also strongly encouraged to meet with the LEF/ARCADE board
members before submitting your application by scheduling an
appointment with us (email <asa-exec at mit.edu>) or by visiting our
office hours.  Please check our online calendar,
<http://web.mit.edu/asa/about/office-hours.html>, for LEF/ARCADE
office hours, as well as general ASA office hours.

---------------------------------------

(3) Broadening Access to Some Data in the ASA DB

In the next few weeks, we are planning to make several fields in the
ASA Database more broadly viewable. If you have concerns about these
changes, please let us know. If there are sufficiently many or serious
concerns we may reconsider these decisions or supply workarounds.

Because account numbers at MIT are already effectively public (e.g.,
via https://rolesweb.mit.edu/), we will be changing the Database to
display them to any member of the MIT community. We hope that this
will be useful (e.g., to students filling out RFPs), as well as making
group leaders and MIT offices more aware that account numbers are not
secret and that knowing an account number does not mean one is
entitled to spend against it. We encourage groups to check their
account statements regularly for incorrect transactions, and offices
to use https://asa.mit.edu/groups/account_lookup/ to determine if an
individual is authorized to spend money on behalf of a group. More
information on how to locate account numbers and further details on
our decision are available at
http://web.mit.edu/asa/database/account-numbers.html.

Additionally, only group administrators (i.e., Presidents, Treasurers,
and Group Admins) are currently able to view who has office or shared
storage (locker) access for a group. We intend to change these
permissions such that anybody with a listed affiliation (financial
signatories, others with office access, etc.) for that group will be
able to see who has space access.

---------------------------------------

Please feel free to email <asa-exec at mit.edu> with any requests,
questions, or other inquiries.

Sincerely,
The ASA Executive Board
<http://web.mit.edu/asa/about/board-members.html>