[ASA-Official] Fall GBM 6:30pm 10/1/13; Proposed Policy Changes; ASA Exec Elections

[Rachel Keeler]

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

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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 ASA Exec 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 ASA budget. 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 ASA Database.

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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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>
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