Call to Order: 7:53

Attendance: Blewitt, Evers, Gall, Howard, Kohl, McWeeney, Morabito, Nelson, Straube, Taylor, Wilding (Committee); Senators Bagley, Blanchflower, Houtz, Feeney, Lachance (Non-committee)

Absent: Sardinha (Excused)

Elections discussion:

Taylor: We’re about to brainstorm on how to achieve 50% voter turnout, followed by delegating ideas to people to research.

Brainstorming session takes place. Taylor, McWeeney, Blanchflower, Nelson, Bagley, Blewitt, Howard, Lachance, Wilding, Gall, and Lachance speak. The ideas submitted are as follows:

• Alternative methods of voting
• School email list
• Online Elections
• Extended Polling Hours
• Director of Marketing and Recruitment
• Raising awareness of the Senate’s existence
• Start of year email
• Flyering the dorms
• Delegating tasks within Elections Committee
• Approaching student organizations
• Rush event/Meet us
• Show power on the Senate’s website
• Display more candidate information
• Longer Platforms
• Flyering everywhere
• Recruitment Committee
• Recruitment requirements of Senate membership
• Additional polling stations
• Make website more navigable, approachable
• Petitions for candidacy
• Minimum turnout for election
• Public events
• Public Events
• Improve Morale within Senate
• Advertise meetings
• Advertise the membership of the Elections Committee
• Make the Senate more oppositional
• Advertise more, at more times, in more places
• URI 101
• Creating a Marketing Committee

McWeeney: I support all of the ideas except requiring petitions for candidacy, which may deter candidates, and having a minimum number of votes to succeed.

Bagley: Director of Marketing and Recruitment (DoMR) is a good idea; orgs with them usually do better than ones without.

Nelson: Responding to minimum votes, it’d be a low bar. But more than one or two please?

Morabito: Is the Vice President in charge of recruitment right now? Also, I like the idea of having an event on the Quad.

Taylor: If you want one of these things, claim it.

Evers: We could have a year-round elections committee/officer so that it’s not constantly rebuilding.

Bagley: (responding to Morabito) Yes, Vice President is in charge of recruitment. They shouldn’t be. I have the DoMR Bylaws if anybody has questions about it.

Nelson agrees that Vice President shouldn’t have Recruitment.

McWeeney: We have until Spring, so take all of your time.

Taylor: And yet time remains of the essence.

Evers: A lot of us are no longer fresh after Exec. Some meetings are better than others, but could we have a special meeting once we are talking about commitment. Was DoMR a previous exec position?

Wilding: (responding to Evers) Yes, but it was split between marketing to DOC and recruitment to Vice President. Zack Yip was the DoMR once.

Howard moves that each member expand upon one of the ideas by the next meeting, reporting their conclusions then. Seconded by Taylor

Nelson moves that Taylor send the list of ideas to the membership. The motion is seconded and adopted by general consent. Discussion returns to Howard’s motion.

Everyone starts shouting for some dumb reason. Order is finally restored.

The motion passes with minimal discussion (8-0-2).

Taylor: I strongly suggest that we begin striking ideas as soon as possible. A lot of these are longer term, a lot of these are asking for us to let go of responsibility. We have the resources necessary to accomplish things ourselves.

Bagley: I still believe that not having a position for this is counterproductive.

Howard: I think that we shouldn’t strike ideas at all. This is a list of brainstormed possibilities, not of what we are going to do. We can’t hide ideas.

Nelson moves to combine all of the marketing position and committee suggestions into one category called “create a marketing committee”. Seconded by Howard.

Taylor: I would prefer a committee to an individual position. If we do an individual position, they should never be eligible for a stipend.

Wilding: if we’re making a marketing committee, it should have a chair.

Howard raises a point of order regarding the topic of conversation.

Evers: I don’t think we should specify marketing committee. What if it’s actually better to only have one person?

Taylor moves the previous questioned, seconded by Wilding. It passes (8-1-0). Debate ends.

The motion passes (3-1-5), and the points are condensed.

Taylor: I think that everybody should be picking two points if they can, especially voting members.

Bagley: Non-members shouldn’t be doing this because we don’t have privileges should have rights.

Taylor speaks.

Nelson: Please stop discriminating against the non-voting members of this committee. Just because we can’t vote doesn’t mean we don’t want to do work.

Gall moves that voting members of the committee are given preference in choosing topics. As it is not seconded, the motion dies.

Taylor moves that the committee spend three minutes delegating ideas. As it is not seconded, the motion dies.

The committee devolves into anarchy, again, and then reassembles.

Evers moves that a spreadsheet be created and that members be required to think about and develop at least one idea, reporting back next week, seconded by Nelson.

Howard: This introduces literally nothing new. Taylor is already required to distribute the list of ideas, and members are already required to think and report back at the beginning of the next meeting.

Nelson moves to change it to be just a spreadsheet and to end discussion on Elections. Seconded by Evers. It passes (8-1-0).

Presidential Agenda (Topic):

Wilding: I sent out the draft of my presidential agenda over the weekend. I have since developed those ideas a bit but haven’t sent that draft out yet. I’ve been talking to VP Collins about women in leadership. I should have that sent out as soon in a couple of days. Please talk to me if you have ideas.

Howard: Please send out the draft soon; we can’t give advice on a document we can’t read.

New Constitution (Topic):

Howard reintroduces an unofficial proposal for a new constitution and hopes that people have read it in the last two weeks.

Wilding: A name change will be difficult because we’d have to go through the State Department.

Bagley: We should be careful with a name change. It may cause confusion.

Wilding: Why do Justices serve for two years?

Howard: Partially to ensure that they aren’t busy campaigning, partially because it’s novel and I wanted to see what people thought. It’s an idea.

Morabito: I oppose term limits on representatives. We’re only here for four years.

Nelson: The two-year term might prevent seniors from becoming justices.

Evers: The Judicial article doesn’t sit well with me. It seems aggressive; I wouldn’t call the members justices.

McWeeney: I also oppose term limits on representatives.

Taylor moves to close debate and return to the matter next week. Seconded by Evers.

Nelson speaks.

[9:01] Gall moves to amend the motion to close debate at 9:10. Seconded by Nelson. The amendment fails (2-5-2).

The motion passes (7-2-0).

Topics Not Listed in Agenda:

Kohl: Bystander awareness training is a Tuesday or Thursday in November. Which works better.

Howard: Please check your emails. We all literally pay you to.

9:06 Gall moves to adjourn, seconded by Morabito. It is passed (9-0-0)