[ASA-Official] Fall GBM 6:30pm today (Tuesday); Proposed Policy Changes; ASA Exec Elections; Message from SAO

[Cory Hernandez]

Dear Student Group Leaders,

Please take note of the following announcements:

1. General Body Meeting, 10/1 6:30pm, *attendance required*
2. Proposed Policy Change -- 5/50 rule
3. Proposed Policy Change -- Group Resource Eligibility and
Recognition Re-categorization
4. Description of Open Exec Board Positions
5. Important Announcement from SAO About SAPweb

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1. General Body Meeting, 10/1/13 6:30pm, *attendance required*

The Fall ASA General Body Meeting (GBM) will be on Tuesday, October 1,
2013, in 54-100. Check-in and dinner will start at 6pm; the meeting
will begin promptly at 6:30pm, so please make sure to arrive well
before 6:30pm to allow enough time to check in and get food.

All student groups must have at least one representative in
attendance. If a student group does not attend and check-in with the
ASAExec Board at the meeting, that group will incur a $50 fine, and
may be suspended or de-recognized if this is the second consecutive
GBM missed by the group or more than two consecutive GBMs have been
missed in the past.

Any member may check in for a group, and a member may check in for
more than one group. However, only students listed as president,
treasurer, group admin, or GBM proxy in the group's ASA Database entry
may exercise the group's vote. Furthermore, nobody may exercise the
vote of more than one group, and each group has only one vote even if
they send multiple representatives.

If you had designated a GBM proxy for a previous GBM, it *has been
cleared*. If you would like someone other than your president,
treasurer, or group admin to vote at the GBM, you must designate them
as a GBM proxy in the ASA database *by 11:59pm, 9/30/13*.

Note: club sports and FSILGs are excused from this meeting as they may
be represented by their respective governing organizations; however,
these groups are eligible to receive a vote if they send a
representative.

The agenda for the GBM is:

1. Updates from the Board, including dates regarding the anti-hazing
and space re-allocation processes
2. Treasurer election
3. UMAL election
4. Proposed 5/50 policy changes -- discussion (see below)
5. Proposed group resource eligibility changes -- discussion (see below)

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2. Proposed Policy Change -- 5/50 rule

The following is a proposed policy change that we will be discussing
at the General Body Meeting next Tuesday, October 1. Following that
discussion, an online survey will be sent out to all student groups’
officer lists for additional comments. We are *not* taking comments or
answering question or concerns via email until *after the GBM*. If you
email us, and your question or concern is genuinely both major and
urgent, we will answer it; otherwise, we will likely tell you to wait
until the GBM or survey.

Rationale:
The goals of the rules established for groups are to provide
activities for students that are rewarding, to provide leadership
opportunities for students, and guarantee that students are a
fundamental part of the decision making process, and that students are
not prejudiced against in favor of non-students.

Current language:
Student groups are student activities with an active membership of at
least 5 MIT students and at least 50% MIT students, including standing
and ad hoc committees of the MIT student governments.  The activity’s
president and treasurer, or corresponding officers, must be registered
MIT students.

Funded student groups are student activities with an active membership
of at least 5 MIT students and at least 50% MIT students. The
activity’s president and treasurer, or corresponding officers, must be
registered MIT students. These activities can be directly linked to an
MIT program, existing student group, or an academic department. The
sponsoring party of such a group is able to provide the basic support
necessary to ensure success of the group.  Non-sponsor-linked
activities can be funded by student governments.

New language:
Student groups are student activities with an active membership of at
least 5 MIT students. The activity’s president and treasurer, or
corresponding officers, must be registered MIT students. The group’s
quorum requirement must include a stipulation that at least half the
members voting on any given issue must be students. This rule may be
appealed and an exception granted if it is felt to be particularly
deleterious (e.g., for cross-campus groups). In addition, provisions
must be in place to assure that students are not prejudiced against.

Funded student groups are student activities fulfilling all the
requirements listed for basic student groups above. These activities
can be directly linked to an MIT program, existing student group, or
an academic department. The sponsoring party of such a group is able
to provide the basic support necessary to ensure success of the group.
Non-sponsor-linked activities can be funded by student governments.

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3. Proposed Policy Change -- Group Resource Eligibility Re-categorization

The following is a proposed policy change that we will be discussing
at the General Body Meeting next Tuesday, October 1. Following that
discussion, an online survey will be sent out to all student groups’
officer lists for additional comments. We are *not* taking comments or
answering questions or concerns via email until *after the GBM*. If
you email us, and your question or concern is genuinely both major and
urgent, we will answer it; otherwise, we will likely tell you to wait
until the GBM or survey.

Rationale:
The ASA requires that all student groups be open to all MIT students.
This is not a new rule; it has been the case for several years.
However, it had been unevenly and irregularly enforced until this
spring (early 2013), when we underwent our comprehensive review of
student groups. We did not fully realize the number of groups that
find the policy a hardship or impediment to appropriate functioning of
their group.

It is part of the job of the Executive Board to support the
self-described interests of student groups, so we are considering a
change to this policy to permit closed or exclusionary groups.
However, it is also our responsibility to consider the interests of
the student body as a whole. Student groups resources are funded and
supported by all students, so all students have the right to enjoy
their usage.

The following proposal is our attempt to balance those two concerns.
Our goal is to permit those groups that feel strongly to be closed,
while ensuring they aren’t using limited resources in an exclusionary
fashion. We are also hoping to incentivize full openness without
strictly requiring it.

Proposed Policy:
The privileges and resources available to student groups (eligibility
for: space, private bulletin boards, the First Year Summer Mailing,
the Midway, funding) will be fully available only to those groups that
are open to all MIT students. If a group chooses to restrict its
membership, it will lose eligibility for some or all of those
resources as described in the table below.

Some of these resources are already only available to MIT-Funded
student groups, which will not change.

We understand that there will be some exceptions to this. For example,
if you are a group that restricts membership based on gender, but you
have a space that you make open to the entire student group community
-- like a dance studio that all dance groups are allowed to use,
regardless of gender -- then you are eligible to keep that space as
long as it remains open.

Note that some restrictions -- for example, those based on nationality
-- remain disallowed for all groups; we feel they violate MIT’s
non-discrimination policy.

A chart describing the proposed resource eligibility scheme can be
found at <http://web.mit.edu/asa/about/GBM/proposed-resource-eligibility.png>.

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4. Description of Open Exec Board Positions

There are currently two open positions on the ASA Executive Board
which will be filled by election at the General Body Meeting on
Tuesday. They are, in order, Treasurer and Undergraduate
Member-at-Large. The term of office for both positions lasts until
March 2014.

Together, Board members are responsible for:

- advocacy on behalf of student groups
- allocation of resources among student groups
- oversight of student group activity (including recognition and derecognition)
- student group arbitration and support
- organization of events such as the Activities Midways
- writing code for the ASA DB, which helps us better keep track of
student groups
- establishing and enforcing policies for student groups

The main duties of the ASA treasurer include chairing the LEF/ARCADE
funding board, processing RFPs, and managing the ASAbudget. The
treasurer also sits on the UA Finboard and the GSC Funding Board. The
time commitment is, on average, between five and fifteen hours per
week, but is highly variable depending on the point in the LEF/ARCADE
funding cycle.

The undergraduate member-at-large will be expected to take a larger
role in the general duties of the ASA as described above, in
particular with resource allocation. We are also particularly looking
for someone able to help write code for and maintain the ASADatabase.

If you are interested in running for any of these positions, we
encourage you to contact us at <asa-elect at mit.edu> with any questions
you might have, or to learn more information about the Board’s
activities. If you would like to submit a slide for your candidacy to
be shown at the GBM, you may email it to the same address.

The current Exec Board will be holding open office hours, and we
welcome anyone interested in getting more involved with the ASA to
drop by our office, W20-401. They can be found on our calendar here:
<http://web.mit.edu/asa/about/office-hours.html>.

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5. Important Announcement from SAO About SAPweb

You may have been on SAPweb recently and noticed that there is a
change coming up very soon!

IS&T is anticipating to go live with a new system called "Atlas". It's
the new Administrative Systems with tailored views for online needs,
from creating RFPs to setting up personal Direct Deposit. The site is
active, fully operating and you are free to use it.

Be sure to bookmark the following link: <https://atlas.mit.edu/>.

The Atlas system will eventually replace SAPweb and SAPweb Employee
Self Service (ESS), which will no longer be operating by the end of
this year.

The site is MIT certificate dependent, therefore it knows who you are
and helps to provide information specific to you.

If you have any questions, there is a link at the bottom of the Atlas
home page (labeled HelpDesk) and any questions relating to system use
can be answered here.

You may also stop by the Student Activities Office (W20-549) and speak
with Katrina Hill, whom would be more than happy to answer any
questions/concerns you have on navigating the system.

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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>