GSA Executive Committee
Special Meeting
1-1:45 PM, September 15, 2003
Texas Union, UNB 4.222

Agenda

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1. Verification of Email Votes Between Meetings. (Marian for Don).

a. Discussion. Because of the urgency of some issues which arise between meetings, the Excom discusses issues and takes votes via email. Because there is no public record available of email conversations, it is important that such votes be documented for members to review. This agenda item lists those votes.

b. Action.

(1) Additions to General Meeting Agenda. Approved nomination of Dr. Rodriguez as Faculty Advisor for GSA.

(2) SOP 6, GSA Technology Maintenance. Approved.

 

2. Processing of new members and requests for new information new members. (Erik, Ginger, Joyce).

a. Discussion. Two years ago, Don, as Webmaster, processed posted and tracked all membership. Last year, Don and Marian, as Secretary, responded to requests for membership information for GSA. Messages on new members went to Don and Marian. Don posted the new members immediately to the Webpage and email list and responded to the message. Marian did the formal work to assess standing and certify membership. (She did this by email as a group of new members.) The membership was certified as a group in February-March 2003. With the election of a new executive committee this process needs to be reviewed. Since the resolution of this process determines how we share information with the GSA membership, it ties directly into the GSA Website, SOP 2 and the following action items.

b. Action: Approve a new process.

 

3. Retreat. (Ginger).

a. Discussion: Essentially, GSA is experiencing growing pains. We are forging an assembly that truly is representative of the graduate student body as well as truly engaged in student governance at UT. As a result, GSA's "prime directive" has changed/solidified over the last two years or so. This presents us with a great opportunity that warrants in-depth discussion and planning. The responsibilities for all of the Excom members are growing. We need to ensure this growth is fair and equitable. In addition, we need to address broad issues such as:

(1) Our trajectory as an assembly
(2) Our roles as officers, and our association with OGS.
(3) The results of this discussion need to be incorporated as principles for the remaining action items.

It it might be appropriate that the Excom members have a retreat to discuss these new directions and what strategy we should use to address them.

b. Action: Approve an Excom retreat, what form it would take, and where it would be held.

 

4. GSA cooperation and collaboration with Senate of College Councils (SCC), Student Government (SG), and attendance at their and other meetings. (Marian)

a. Discussion: There might be some confusion on our relationship with the other student governance organizations and the role of SGCC in that activity. SG and SCC have invited our leadership to become nonvoting members of their organizations and participate in their meetings. It might be appropriate for us to invite them to join our organization.

b. Action: Approve:

(1) SCC and SG leadership attendance at GSA meetings
(2) Addition of SCC and SG as nonvoting members when the Constitution and Bylaws are amended.

 

5. Frequency of Meetings. (Marian).

a. Discussion. With all the important things happening at UT it seems that once a month meetings of the Excom might be insufficient. We should explore more frequent regular meetings. A similar issue relates to frequency of General Meetings of the Assembly. A suggestion was made last year to increase General Meetings to two hours or twice a month. It was soundly defeated.

b. Action: Approve increasing the frequency of regular Executive Committee meetings to _______.

 

6. Agendas and Minutes. (Don).

a. Discussion. Preparation of agendas and minutes takes lots of time. The more detailed they are the more time they take to prepare. In conferences and formal legislative bodies approving laws, agenda's are reduced to lists and minutes become proceedings and transcription. In businesses and other action organizations, agenda's become more detailed, so that members can prepare more thoroughly, meetings are brief, and minutes become records of decisions made rather than narratives of discussion. Minutes in this case follow the agendas closely and ideally become extensions of the agenda documenting the action on each action item. SG has adopted the first model where agenda's are simple lists and meetings carry on for several hours. Much time is spent in transcription of events. This in probably not the model we should use for GSA where meeting time is limited and detailed minutes not particularly useful. Members seem willing to spend an hour a month and no more. Thus a model of more detailed agendas and minutes that document action seem more appropriate for GSA meetings. Don agrees to prepare a detailed agenda to speed up the meeting if minutes become an extension of that agenda, documenting the decisions made and perhaps a few issues raised if they are important. The same issues apply to the Excom.

b. Action. Approve a model for agendas and minutes for GSA General and Executive Committee Meetings.