[15634] in APO News
[nationals report, part 2 of 2] legislation, elections, and other business
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Joshua Oreman)
Mon Dec 31 21:27:29 2012
From: Joshua Oreman <oremanj@MIT.EDU>
Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2012 18:27:02 -0800
To: apo-news@mit.edu
Hi Alpha Chi!
Long time no see! :-) We=92re looking forward to IAP being soon because
we miss you, and we miss you even more since we were just in the
company of 2,000 of our other brothers. As your voting delegates, we
want to give you an update on the happenings at Nationals. And yes,
you should read it; this email is relatively short compared to the
four-day convention, and we=92re only reporting on what we think is
genuinely important for you to know. (Want more detail? Ask us!
Believe us, we have it.)
If you missed the previous email, Ellen was awarded the National
Distinguished Service Key, and we congratulate and love her and are
proud and honored to have her as our advisor.
First: important legislation:
--There were a few pieces of legislation regarding disentangling
ourselves from the Boy Scouts of America (due to their intolerance of
the LGBTQ* community and atheism, among other things, being generally
out of line with APO=92s principles). One of these, changing the wording
in our Membership Policies to remove mention of =93the principles of the
Boys Scouts of America=94, passed after much discussion. Neither piece
of legislation regarding removing the voting BSA representative from
the National Board of Directors made it out of committee onto the
legislative floor, but Delta Sigma chapter at UConn (go Section 96!)
organized a petition, signed by seven chapters including us, to bring
it before the body anyway. Unfortunately, the motion to adopt that
legislation was postponed indefinitely.
--A few pieces regarding support for alumni outreach came up, and
generally passed, so the national fraternity will continue increasing
its emphasis on outreach to alumni. As part of this, alumni
involvement might become part of the Chapter of Excellence criteria,
so we should consider talking about it at CAPS.
--Section and regional dues are now officially established as Real
Things in the national bylaws that sections/regions can charge if the
chapters in the section/region vote to do so. We already pay section
dues (to the tune of $1/brother/year) and have no region dues. To
remain in good standing, we=92re also now required to maintain our
501(c)3 status -- which we get automatically through MIT/ASA
recognition -- and send in a copy of our chapter bylaws/policies/etc
every year -- which we already maintain in an easy-to-send form, so
again no big deal.
--The service week themes for the next two years are related to "APO
Shows Respect For All".
--Every chapter is now required to give the pledges a list of the
requirements for their pledge period at the beginning of their pledge
term. We already do this, so we just need to keep doing it.
--The National Student Advisory Committee (a group of active brothers
that works with the APO national Board of Directors) is now a
permanent thing.
--At the end of the legislative session there was a marriage proposal.
It was adorable. It got multiple standing ovations. She said yes. Did
we mention it was adorable? [1]
Second: time & place updates.
--The next Regionals will be held in Springfield, Mass, from Jan 3-5,
2014. It=92s being hosted by all of Section 96, so if you want to be
involved in making it happen, you can be! Email Kim, our lovely
section chair (section.96.chair@apo.org).
--The next Nationals will be held in Chicago, from December 27-30, 2014.
Third: elections updates.
--Our new region director is also our old region director, the
fabulous Christine Topacio. (Additionally, Ping Huang, an Alpha Chi
alum, was re-elected Region 11 Director, in case you're curious.)
--The national president and vice-president also remain the same
people they were before: Mark Stratton and John Ottenad respectively.
--The names of the six new program directors, some of which will be
familiar, are: Marilyn Mims (whoo!), Robert Coop, Mike Haber, Carla
Moran, Melody Martin, and Dawn Gurganious.
That=92s all we have. We want to thank you so much for the opportunity
to be your voting delegates -- we tried to represent you well, and we
had a lot of fun and learned a lot doing it. Being your delegates also
allowed us each to serve on a Reference Committee (Rachel on
Chapter/Finance/Operations, Josh as chair of Rules & Credentials),
which was an incredibly valuable and meaningful experience for each of
us.
Yours in Legislation and Floor Services,
Josh and Rachel
on behalf of the Alpha Chi delegation
[1] Approximately:
Since he's not a voting delegate or other representative, we needed to
vote to allow him to address the floor, which we all did without any
idea of *why* we were doing it.
him: [long explanation of how they met by sitting next to each other
in their reference committee at the 2010 National Convention in
Atlanta, and started dating long-distance]
him: So. I have a proposal to make.
[she runs up to the stage, they step away from the mic, he gets down
on one knee, there is a ring, hugs and kisses, etc.]
her: [goes back to the microphone and holds up a green card, the
standard for "I want to speak in favor of the thing we're talking
about"]
chair: Green card at microphone 5.
her: [name] from [chapter] at [school]. I rise to speak in favor of this mo=
tion.
chair: Brother [name], you may proceed.
her: Yes.
everyone in the room: D'awwwwwwwwwww.
We're pretty sure the moral of this is "Come to Nationals in 2014, you
might just meet your future spouse!"
