Clubs attend representative meeting with SGA

GATEPOST ARCHIVES

By: Francisco Omar Fernandez Rodriguez

Editorial Staff

The Student Government Association held a club representative meeting on Sept. 9, led by President César Matos.

Representatives from each club go to these meetings with SGA at which they can share their concerns, according to the SGA website.

There were 24 clubs present at the meeting, Matos said.

He said SGA wants to make sure the clubs can get everything they need for the start of the year.

Club representatives can be anyone from a club, not just an eBoard member, he said.

Several forms were available for the club representatives to fill out online. One of them asks about the club’s president, meeting times, social media, and other relevant information, Matos said.

New clubs will need to be aware of the Student Affairs Committee, he said.

They will “facilitate the installment of that club’s constitution,” Matos said.

Associate Director for Orientation and Student Experience Meghan Larkin, who also serves as one of the advisors for SGA, said any clubs that missed the leadership training on Sunday will not be able to get any events approved until Oct. 1 or later.

Every club needs to have the president and treasurer positions filled in order to be an active organization, she said.

Larkin said she understands that not every club needs those specific positions, but those spots must be listed and filled.

She listed the clubs missing one or both positions and said they needed to fill out the organization officer form. If that’s not done by Sept. 23, they will become inactive, she said.

“Your org will go back down to zero. You will zero out your budget,” Larkin said.

Clubs without a president or treasurer will be denied any event requests, because inactive organizations cannot host events, she said. But officially, everyone on a club’s eBoard has to be listed in their positions on the form.

SGA only tracks the officer positions on the form, so simply filling those spots on Ramlink won’t fulfill this requirement, she said.

Matos said the SGA website provides resources in terms of requesting money and provides the committee meeting times, he added.

Many of the questions people have about anything under SGA’s oversight are answered on their website, especially on the club resources page, he said.

One of the forms available is for requesting funding, he said. Whenever a funding request form is submitted, it needs to include an itemized list of all of the purchases.

Matos said the senators’ office hours will be changing. One in-office hour is required now, and if they’re in a committee, that also counts as the requirement.

One out-of-office hour is also required, which can be fulfilled by attending any event outside of SGA hosted by a club, department, or events committee, or by tabling, he added.

Officers will do one to two hours a week of in-office hours outside of their committees, Matos said. The officers will schedule when they will be in the SGA office and available to take any questions from students outside of SGA.

The out-of-office hour works the same for officers as it does for senators, he said.

If someone does not email and does not show up, it counts as a strike, and everyone gets two strikes, he said.

“If you email about your absence a day in advance, I would be really lenient because I respect the fact that you let me know ahead of time,” Matos said.

Rachel Spezia, the associate dean of Campus Engagement, introduced herself as the other co-advisor to SGA.

She said to encourage people to nominate themselves or others as candidates to run for SGA positions. Nominations were open until Sept. 16.

Three of the four senators elected in the last election have since resigned, Alix Ayoub, outreach and events coordinator, said. AJ Vasquez is the only current senator in SGA.

SGA is currently working with a low number of members and it’s limiting how much SGA can do to help the student body, Matos said. This is impacting the Financial Committee (FinCom).

“We require at least three members to be part of FinCom and right now, we only have two,” Matos said.

SGA currently has seven official members, according to their website. César Matos, president; Luke Yubeta, student trustee; Alix Ayoub, outreach and events coordinator; Khoa Bùi, SATF treasurer; Ana Julia Ribeiro, diversity officer; Grant Alleyne, parliamentarian; and AJ Vasquez, senator.

Yubeta said he’s looking forward to bringing any concerns the student body has to the Board of Trustees.

No formal nomination announcements or speeches were given, as that’s planned for the Sept. 16 SGA meeting. However, several attendees said they were running.

Cierra Rosado, Merlin Clive, and Xiera Montes said they’re running for senator. Kennedy Thompson said she’s running for publicist. Ling Zhang said she’s running for secretary.

The next club representative meeting is on Oct. 14 as an Administrators Forum, which is with both SGA and the University’s executive staff, Matos said. The location will be determined closer to the date, he said.

The last club representative meeting is on Nov. 18 in the same room and format as the Sept. 9. meeting, he added.