[1759] in APO News
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daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (ajw@MIT.EDU)
Fri Apr 5 23:52:33 1996
From: ajw@MIT.EDU
To: apo-minutes@MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 05 Apr 1996 23:52:02 EST
Chapter Meeting Minutes 3/19/96
<AVP Note: As always, check the board in the office or the online
WUAPO for up to date information>
------
Present: Kate, Cathy, Harry, Susan, Lizzie, Richard, Hannah, Rachel,
Glenn, Yale, Ingrid, Lan, Marcus, Oscar, Jill, Jeffrey, Michael,
Emily, Junko, Charley. Jade. Meeting began promptly at 7:30
Officer Reports:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SVP: There was a project yesterday. It happened, but we ran out of
blood drive things. Thanks for those who helped. Chapter Skills
Weekend happened. This weekend is a project at the Food Bank. PC is
Lan. National Braille Press coming up. Still working on the pledge
project.
MVP: Nothing to report.
AVP: (written)Hi. I'm at a test. Jeff is my mouth. The minutes up to today are
posted over my desk. The WUAPO is up to date. Nothing interesting
happened at the ASA meeting. Many interesting things didn't happen at
the ASA meeting. Aliens have eaten my brain, or so exec told me. Bring
cookies. You'll need them. Snap. Snap.
Treasurer: fincomm met. We discussed which items need to be decided
upon soonish. They are on the sheet is in the office. The budget will
be cut. Resistance is futile. Talk about fund raising if you want to.
Fellowship Chair: sff happened. Thanks to the pc's. I am taking
sign ups for the tempest.
Apoced: At some point the apoced has been hosed. I will unhose myself.
ASC:
PubDir. Poster for the Blood Drive
Historian: Pictures were taken at SFF. I haven't gotten pictures back
yet.
Chairman of Advisory Committee: Ntr
President: This was the last day to sign up for conclave. Still $40
They are not providing lunch on Saturday. We might be able to get
space on campus. To make up for this, some alumni are getting
a hotel room and there should be plenty of space. We need to send
the checks real soon now. I will be going after people real soon now.
There are currently no drivers. They cite the dinner, workshops and
fun, fun, fun. Minus the banquet is $20. If you have problems with the
cost, talk to me. 75th anniversary is coming up. (National) Jerry
Schroder is committee chair. He is looking for ideas. Most meetings
will be conducted via phone or email. There will only be a couple of
real people meetings. If you are interested in becoming involved, let
me know. Nationals shall be choosing a fall pledge class namesake,
and Joe has been nominated before. If you can think of anyone, talk to
me. Congratulations to the five new pledges from Nationals. We got a letter
from the International Relations Chairman for APO. It says "We are
currently working on APO Canada. You can work on APO Trinidad, you
will get minimal support". Discussion of this was tabled to the
meeting before the 60th.
Servcom: ntr
Nomcom: Nomcom is in the process of finding people. One caveat: Just
because we don't come find you doesn't mean you shouldn't run. You
should talk to the people who have held the office. You have 2 weeks
to 1) get a clue 2) make a decision to run for the office 3) Think
about things you want to say in your spiel. 4) ask the president if
you have any questions. 5) Write candidate articles.
60th: We got slightly derailed. We are getting ready to send
information packets. If enough people are around next week, we will
ave a meeting.
screwcomm:
Greetings! I am back amongst the living the Intercollegiate Fencing
Association Championships that MIT hosted took a firm grasp of me, but
has relinquished me from its grip. Here is the updated candidate form
and official rules. There have been no rule changes, as they seem to
still work. :) I ask that the rules are passed so that Big-Screw Comm
which will be meeting by next Chapter Meeting (members, check your
inbox) can start approaching potential candidates.
screwcomm is:
Henning
ingrid
Marcus
Kate
Carnival:
We had a meeting and now we have policies for carnival.
Book Exchange: The cruft in the office. There is about 600 dollars
in checks in the office. We want to end those people email and let
them know what the office hours will be. We will also make phone
calls. The deadline for picking up books is April 3. I have the phone
# of someone for giving books to south africa. So what do we do with
extra money. It can go to National Braille Press. I would like to see
it go to some National literacy association. So then my plan is take
off what needed for publicity and then donate the rest to charity.
Checks go into the mail. Books go somewhere.
Old business:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
None
New Business
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Consideration of finncomm recommendations
<AVP note: Fincomm report posted in the office>
Discussion:
Richard: The information here is not in a useful form.
Kate: these are not recommendations. These are just numbers to found
discussion.
Richard: So what would be useful is the actual numbers and the change
in expeditures over the last several terms. Find out what is changing.
Also would be useful is our income and how that is changing. The
information here does not tell me that.
Kate: The information is in the office:
(information is fetched)
Charley: Although these sheets give data for the last seven terms,
this may not be what we want. Lack of complete information is less
useful.
Ingrid: I have looked at this sheet and there is no consistent
information on any one item. A lot of things depend on who was holding
that office that term. The other thing I would like to see on this is
the current budget for all these items.
Glenn: We do have a budget, and we do have RFP's, and it is the job of
the officers to keep track of what is spent in their office.
Charley: because you are the pc of an event does not mean you are the
authorized officer who can sign the rfp. Fellowship chair signs rfp
for all fellowship events.
Kate: I would like to discuss the three bullet items at the top of
this list:
Junko: I don't want to see the financial issue to get in the way of
the CPR training.
Charley: At present we aren't spending much on CPR.
Kate: If its true that we don't pay for CPR, then it shouldn't be the
focus of the conversation.
Emily: What is the National Layaway Fund
Kate: NLF pays people who go to Nationals, including voting Delegates.
Its at the discretion of the president.
Marcus: How much is in the fund
Charley: It looks like about $300 a term so maybe $2000-$3000.
Part of the reason I brought this up was to get input.
Richard: It takes up 15% of our budget, so it seems useful to reduce
it.
Junko: I think we need to see how much it costs before we do anything
about it.
Kate: When I was President, Rachel got some gas money. We had about 5
or 6 brothers. We stayed in a hotel. It will probably cost $500 a
person or so. The Chapter spent about $1000 so the voting delegates
got about $200, the not so lucky people $100
Glenn: More people go if Nationals is closer. A lot of people went to
Boston, not so many to Texas.
Ingrid: It sounds like keeping at least a chunk of it would probably
be good.
Marcus: What the non-voting delegates do?
Glenn: They usually talk to the other brothers, go to workshops, and
other activities at Nationals.
Kevin: There is not a safe level where any cutting isn't going to hurt
it.
Kate: the chapter is probably going t have to cut it by something. We
may need to decide how the money is given out.
Ingrid: SO lets go getting rid of the second phone line.
Phones are damn expensive. If we get rid of the other phone line we
should also get rid of the terminal.
Charley: How are we charged for phone calls?
Kate: One line is 25 a month but on campus only. The other is 27 but
includes long distance.
Ingrid: We should make sure we are not being charged for international
call powers.
Charley: There are benefits to having the second phone line. One is
the day of the project you are trying to reach the project person, but
you are calling them at the same time as they are calling you.
Rachel: It is also convenient during a phone calling to use both
lines.
Kate: Please if you are arguing for keeping something, argue where the
money is going to come from...
Junko: In this new budget, are we taking into account the money we get
from drop posters and things?
Kate: Yes.
Jill: How about 4% from book exchange?
Marcus: I know that when we brought this up at finncomm it was argued
that book exchange is a service. And shouldn't be charged for.
Michael: Reg day is also a service and yet we still get money.
Emily: You would be amazed at how many people think its incredible
that we don't charge anything for this service.
Jill: We are using this money for ourselves, for service.
Rachel: It seems reasonable to change the book exchange policy so
that if they don't pick up books we get to keep the books so we don't
have to pay for books we give away.
Richard: making money off book exchange creates a conflict of
interest. Selling the leftover books from book exchange might be bad.
Also not giving people thier money if they don't come and pick it up
would be bad.
Charley: Everything that we do, there is an inherent conflict of
interest.
Glenn: Strange as it may seems, making money off of chapter projects
is not a new idea.
Kevin: The Book Exchange PC has discretion over when the books go and
if they do. I know that about $200-$300 of books can be lost, and its
not our responsibility to replace them. I have a problem if we make a
profit but people whose books are lost do not get them replaced.
Rachel: We can find space for the books. For conflicts of interest, we
always have them, and we discuss this every term. I think you have to
trust the Chapter not to decide on bad policies.
Kate: Someone suggested that we could just open up a permanent book
exchange. Also I was in favor of getting rid of the phone and such was
that they were getting us the least service per dollar.
Ingrid: My list of pints: 1) I believe TCA takes some percentage of
their book exchange 2) We do have money that goes to things that are
not directly service such as fellowship 3) If we tell people that we
will reimburse them for books that disappear, they may try to make
such books disappear.
Cathy: The term I ran book ex the only person that didn't get fully
reimbersed was Ellen Cranser. Hopefully we have improved security
since then. Usually we can do it from the leftover money. I am not
sure we have the space needed for a full time book exchange. We also
don't have the solid office hours.
Marcus: I would like to look at other possible trimmings before
service.
Richard: My impression is that a year round book exchange wouldn't be
an improvement, since people want books at the beginning of the term.
Jill: The chapter is Leadership Friendship and Service, so we should
take these all into account.
Glenn: Two points: 1) I was book ex treasurer pc when we made a
profit, and I didn't feel bad about not reimbursing people. 2) the
chapter used to charge for all of its fellowship events. It is quite
possible to have fellowship events where brothers pay for it. Dinner
trips, steak fry, etc.
Yale: much of this discussion depends on us being able to implement a
control system on all categories. If we cannot control our spending,
we will go over. On the book exchange issue, beyond taking over TCA's
book exchange, there is not a whole lot we can do.
Ingrid: Another option is rasing dues. Also, the computer is a
brotherly convenience, but it draws people away from other things they
might be doing in the office.
Rachel: The terminal is a nice convenience and it keeps brothers
around instead of them vanishing off to athena. Trying to turn us into
just service defeats the purpose. Soda was losing money before I took
over, but now it is happier. We could sell food in the office, but it
would make the treasures life hell. We are making a marginal profit
from soda.
Kate: If we had a choice, we wouldn't cut anything. But it may have to
be done temporarily. Trade offs should be considered.
Junko: Different Topic. I would like to see cuts in project
transportation costs, especially for Saturday projects, but not for
Chapter Weekends.
Emily: I would like to mention the fact that sff is expensive, I put a
limit on it, and it was under budget. Also, the movie study break was
very cheap and food was paid for by the brothers. It can work.
Yale: It is beginning to sound like this is doable.
Charley: There is no way we can do it by purely cutting things. If we
cut things, we will do less because we use money we get to do things.
If we want to keep doing the same things, we will also need to raise
money.
Oscar: T tokens are usually not a problem, and the president's
descresionary fund exists for people who do have problems.
Rachel: If we try to get money from finnboard we won't get much and we
will stir up trouble.
Kate: I think we should we come up with fund raising ideas.
Ingrid: Although it is somewhat far at this point, carnival may be a
big source of money for us. But there is no way to predict at this
point.
Yale: What we need to make sure is that our revenues exceed our
expenses.
Jill: What about asking for donations from local organizations?
Ingrid: I would like to see a compilation of what is actually
budgeted so that people can discuss it outside of chapter meetings.
--------
Big Screw stuff: Administrative changes made to last years rules and
candidates forms. Approval was white balloted.
-----
Other Discussion Topics:
Rachel: I never got a response about junk food in the office.
Glenn: Storage issue, but if you can make a profit, make a profit.
Harry: what about selling things to other people
Ingrid: As far as I know we can sell whatever we want to anyone
Glenn: There are probably a lot of hidden issues so you may need
research such things.
Charley: who is interested in this idea?
<vote taken>
Yes: 12 No: Abstain: 3
motion passes
Now who is interested in buying food from the office?
Staw pole:
Yes: 11 No: 2 Maybe: 7
-------
Oscar: I want to know whether we should send brothers to meet with
people have been newly admitted to MIT.
Ingrid: Who is running this?
Oscar: the educational council. It is a mixer and the council asks
local people to go so that students can get a feel for MIT before they
arrive. Its free. Just getting there is the only cost.
Junko: I believe this is an individual issue and interested brothers
should talk to Oscar.
Announcements:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ingrid: I guess I will be your local screw candidates PC. If you have
any ideas for candidates please let me know.
Jill: Thanks to all who came to sff and thanks to my sub pcc's
Oscar: If you want numbers for drop poster stuff, talk to me.
Lan: I plan on bringing a handout for discussion of carnival stuff to
a meeting soon
Junko: There is a project at Food Bank this weekend. BU will be coming
also.
Lan: There is supposed to be a 10 person limit but I will overlook
that cause BU is not going to be bringing as many people.
Emily: I have a sign up sheet for people going to dinner and then going
to he tempest
Charley: I need to hear from people going to conclave soon.
Susan: There is a drop poster painting soon and I would really like it
if people could help.
PFGOTO:
~~~~~~
Emily: Being sick mid terms week really really really sucks
Richard: I have been nominated for a splufty service committee
If you have ideas for service projects, let me know.
Charley: Two days equals two years
Richard: I get to go to Colorado for spring break. Also, if you are
going away from a city, you should look for a comet in the sky.
We are going to a tea factory. If you want tea, talk to Ingrid.
