Lawrence Committee – October 15 Meeting Minutes

The minutes from the October 15, 2008 committee have been posted. The next meeting is scheduled for November 5, 2008 at 8:30pm.

Minutes for October 15, 2008 Meeting:

1. Attendance:
   
   • Keren Leiby
   • Kim Tu
   • Ye Chen
   • Charles Lu
   • Olivia Martel
   • Maja Kolinskia
   • Kathryn Stoltzfus-Dueck
   • Yaron
   • VeeJay
   • Ben Schmidt
2. Maja brought up the issue of bike rack overcrowding at Lawrence Apartments. Olivia mentioned that the University has constructed a bike storage area with roof. So it is unlikely any additional construction will take place soon. There will be a bike cleanout on 11/3. The issue will be reexamined after that date if overcrowding persists.
3. The main issue at the meeting was hammering out a version of the constitution that can be voted on at the next meeting. Ben Schmidt, who is a member of the constitution committee, wrote a preliminary draft. He left meeting early due to other commitments and the committee spent rest of the meeting going over each section and making changes as necessary.
4. A copy of the constitution will be available on the website once it is approved. One of the concern was the requirement to run/vote for the next election. Here is a very brief summary of the changes proposed.
   

   Section II

   A requirement to attend two meetings in order to run was added. If students are intending to commit a year of their time, it is not unreasonable to require them to attend two meetings prior to running so they have an idea of what is done. The committee is then required to announce elections with enough time so that any interested party can run. Because we would like to hold elections in December, we will be adding a meeting in November, and informing the community soon so anyone can meet these requirements.

   The president. This role requires a one year term served on the committee

   Section 8: Vacancies. We removed "If the vacancy was created by a contested election, no members of the previous election committee may be on the new election committee."

   Historically, interest in the committee has been low. We fear this could be a logistical issue, if a majority of the committee would run for re-election, and therefore couldn’t be on the election committee. That being said, for these coming elections, I believe there would be enough interest to get three people. If there is a contested election this year, I will personally strongly encourage the committee to elect a second election committee. I am concerned about binding future committees.

   Article IV

   Section 4.

   Elections will be held at the December meeting (which will not be held at the regularly scheduled time of the 3rd Wednesday, but rather earlier, so students can attend). For student who have an evening conflict, there will be a morning window where students can vote.

   We added a section on how to handle ties: a run-off election.

5. Since the election will be held at the December meeting and there is a 2-meeting attendance requirement, the committee decided to have an extra meeting in November. The next 2 meetings in November will be held on 11/05 and 11/19. The December meeting when the election will take place is on 12/10.
6. Below is an excerpt of the email sent to the community informing them of the upcoming elections and the necessary requirements.

   The Lawrence committee would like to inform you that elections for the Lawrence committee will be held on December 10th this year. If you are interested in running for the committee, you are required to attend two committee meetings. In order to accommodate all those who are interested in running, the committee will hold an additional meeting on Wednesday, November 5th, as well as our regularly scheduled meeting on November 19th.

   The positions and additional requirements to run are as follows (all positions require attendance at two meetings):

   • President: requires 1 year of service on the committee
   • Vice-President
   • Secretary
   • Social chair
   • Webmaster
   • Garden Coordinator
   • Graduate Student Government Delegate: must meet the GSG’s requirements for a housing delegate

   Elections will be held at our December meeting, which will be moved from it’s regularly scheduled time to December 10th at 8:30. All adult residents of the Lawrence community can vote. To accommodate those who have a Wednesday evening conflict, voting can also take place Wednesday morning, December 10th from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.