GPSA COR Notes March 10, 2003 Big Red Barn

I. Call to Order G. Hurley called the meeting to order at 5:30pm.

II. Open Forum There was nobody to speak for open forum.

III. Announcements and Reports GPSA Update J. Moriarty said that at the first GPSA meeting they approved the Iraq resolution and it will be on the web shortly. At the Board of Trustees meeting, the resolution was circulated. At the 2nd GPSA meeting, she thought quorum was 2/3 but it turned out to be a majority so they decided to have the 2nd meeting but weren’t aware that quorum was present. They talked about the GPSA election of officers and straw pulled issues so at the next GPSA meeting it will go quickly. They discussed charter changes, such as adding 2 committees (which are on the agenda later on) and to extend meeting times that will be determined later. They also talked about how many weeks to fund TGIF in the summer in the BRB if it’s done.

Pay and Benefits Committee L. Mangiola acknowledged committee members who’ve been working hard and thanked everybody for their continued support. She said there were a lot of comments in regards to the coupling of the survey and petition together so they decided to uncouple them. The survey will be on the web later in March and they will take data and form a petition based on the survey hopefully by April.

C. Taylor said that the survey is ready to go online, they are waiting for Humans Subjects approval. They are thinking of calling an extra COR meeting to hand out the petitions ASAP. They want to get 1–2 weeks worth of data to get a better sense of the students’ sentiments.

L. Mangiola said they are looking for a lot of support.

B. Holmes asked when is the earliest that the survey gill to up?

C. Taylor said probably March 24.

Trevor asked is there anything to prevent someone from double voting?

L. Mangiola said the survey is very long, about 15–20 min worth.

S. Adam said that he can write a computer script to fill out the survey multiple times.

C. Taylor said please don’t do that.

A student suggested using randomly generated passwords to vote, similar to how elections were.

C. Taylor said to send them our way if somebody knows someone who knows how to do that.

G. Hurley said that an independent company does the random generated password and the office of assemblies paid thousands of dollars for that service.

B. Preston said that people aren’t going to really try to sabotage a survey where they are just trying to garner information and separating the petition from the survey lessens the likelihood of doing so.

GPSAFC R. Willer said they will be meeting after the COR meeting. An update on the maturation of the endowments is that it is going well. It was set at a given interest rate of 2.8% so that equals to about $5,600 this year but he will check that information again. He will try to propose resolutions to refine the process for GPSAFC funding, including registration periods instead of rolling registration to make things more orderly. He considered professional schools to be by-line funded or allotted lump sums but it might be tabled because it might be hard to pull off because the law school deson’t have the administrative staff to pull off the paperwork.

N. Sharif said that student budget packets are available in WSH and are due Monday the 31st.

A. Schpak said that professional schools get a disproportionate amount of money, so they should look at other ways of funding besides per capita.

R. Willer said that there are lots of difficult issues to balance, for example the business school gets four times as much money as they give in via student activity fees so it is hard to come up with a resolution to please everybody.

IV. Business of the Day Charter change for pay and benefits committee J. Moriarty said that in November, they created the ad hoc committee and now want to make it a standing committee. It amends article 9 of the charter and is noncontroversial. She is asking that it be co-chaired because it is a lot of work and it is important for leadership positions to be spread throughout COR because right now it is highly concentrated in GPSA and the Exec board. They need to be notified a month in advance for the charter change so that it is why it is being introduced now.

H. Wynder asked if it is a standing committee, does the chair have to be on GPSA?

J. Moriarty said that some committees need a member in GPSA, others don’t.

L. Mangiola said that this committee is a lot of work so it is a good idea to have 2 co-chairs.

S. Flaxman said it seems like the ad hoc committee was successful because it had a specific goal. If it becomes standing, it should always have a concrete pay and benefits goal decided by as many people as possible instead of just by the committee.

J. Moriarty said to send any additional comments to her and she will voice them at the next GPSA meeting.

Charter change for events planning committee G. Hurley said creating this committee doesn’t seem to be controversial. The funding method is worth discussing. Funding it with the endowment is a proposal. The SAFC is oversubscribed because the trustees required that 35% of the student activities fee go to both SAFC and GPSAFC and the money is too much for GPSAFC so there is now a huge surplus. They decided to transfer $100,000 to GPSA because it is more flexible there and they decided to invest the money in an endowment. He is not sure how much the short term and long term funds are paying. He feels a payout from the endowment should go to the committee because it’s appropriate since the money is from the students activity fee.

A student asked where did last year’s endowment interest go?

G. Hurley said they didn’t have an endowment last year.

A student asked what is the budget for GPS?

G. Hurley said it was cut to $2500 a year.

Trevor asked what are the figures for this year?

L. Mangiola said probably $2000.

J. Moriarty said she thinks its more than $2000.

B. Preston said he thinks it is fortunate that they had a good person chairing the committee this year and he is worried about an unmotivated person working with $5000. He suggested a checks and balance system, like having people come up with ideas for events and then running them to the committee.

B. Holmes said that the actions need to be approved by GPSA so that could act as a check.

Meeting times J. Moriarty said the GPSA recognize that they need more than 1 hour per month to meet. She suggested 5:00–7:00pm and then last week they proposed 5:30–7:00pm for both GPSA and COR meetings and doesn’t think this is very time consuming.

H. Wynder said that this helps us because the in the past the minute taker had to leave because they were only scheduled for that hour of time and extending meeting time helps improve the quality of minutes.

A student asked why is there a need for this change now? What has changed this year?

J. Moriarty said meetings have always run over, but we are doing a lot more now.

N. Sharif said that GPSA and COR have become more active. They also discussed that if anybody has a resolution, please submit it ASAP. It will improve the quality of the time spent at meetings if everybody has seen the resolution beforehand.

J. Moriarty said that they should informally get resolutions in before Wednesday.

B. Holmes said that we should advertise that clearly when elections are being held.

B. Preston asked do we explicitly say GPSA and COR?

J. Moriarty said yes.

Elections of Executives in GPSA G. Hurley said that right now 2/3 approval is needed and it doesn’t really work in the last 2 years. They are discussing various systems of voting. He hasn’t made up his own mind as to which system is the best and feels they should discuss it at the next GPSA meeting.

A student said they should have 2/3 or a simple majority scheme.

S. Adam said an option would be for the President to have 2/3, and VP and Secretary have simple majority.

B. Holmes said that no officer should be elected via plurality because he questions an attrition effect.

J. Moriarty said that if more than 2 candidates are present, then the candidate with the least amount of votes after the 1st or 2nd round will be removed to avoid a plurality. This is on the table as an amendment.

L. Mangiola said that a lot of candidates seem to just be thrown into the elections and they should campaign a little beforehand so people know what you stand for.

Trevor asked if the April meeting is for the new COR representatives?

G. Hurley said that the 5:30 meeting is for current members, 6:30 is for new members.

V. Adjournment

G. Hurley adjourned the meeting at 6:20.

Respectfully submitted,

Tyng Tsuei Office of the Assemblies