[1288] in UA Senate
RE: Laptops
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Geoffrey Thomas)
Sun Apr 24 13:18:30 2011
Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2011 13:18:25 -0400 (EDT)
From: Geoffrey Thomas <geofft@MIT.EDU>
To: Michael E Plasmeier <theplaz@mit.edu>
cc: Timothy E Robertson <tim_r@mit.edu>, Jonte Craighead <jontec@mit.edu>,
"ua-senate@mit.edu" <ua-senate@mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <60826A506BCDE447B39C85C1496EAB7403E2ADFAE0@EXPO7.exchange.mit.edu>
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Sure, quite possible. But you should ask this explicitly. If they mean=20
that the information is public to the MIT community, I would like senators=
=20
to be taking notes.
--=20
Geoffrey Thomas
geofft@mit.edu
On Sun, 24 Apr 2011, Michael E Plasmeier wrote:
>=20
> It seems to me that =E2=80=9Coff the record=E2=80=9D means that they do n=
ot want this to
> appear in the Boston Globe, NYT, etc before they are ready to announce
> something.=C2=A0 Going before a body as large as Senate means that this i=
s not
> highly classified. It seems that they are trying to get MIT community
> feedback without having this leak to the outside world.
>=20
> =C2=A0
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> I could be incorrect, so I agree with Tim=E2=80=99s suggestion to ask the=
study
> group to explain what they are trying to protect.
>=20
> =C2=A0
>=20
> -Michael
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> =C2=A0
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> From: timorob@gmail.com [mailto:timorob@gmail.com] On Behalf Of Timothy
> Robertson
> Sent: Sunday, April 24, 2011 1:13 PM
> To: Geoffrey G Thomas
> Cc: Jonte Craighead; ua-senate@mit.edu
> Subject: Re: Laptops
>=20
> =C2=A0
>=20
> I do not believe it is reasonable for us to remain off the record. I am n=
ot
> opposed to closed discussions, but I believe the Study Group should be
> accountable to what they bring to the UA body. Additionally, if we stay o=
ff
> the record, I would like the Study Group to provide, at the minimum, a
> public explanation of this request.
>=20
> On Sun, Apr 24, 2011 at 12:27 PM, Geoffrey Thomas <geofft@mit.edu> wrote:
>=20
> What does "off the record" mean? As a constituennt, can I ask my senator
> what happened and expect them to be able to reply in good conscience?
>=20
> I have bad memories of Blue Ribbon insisting its meetings were off the
> record, and preventng me as a Dormcon member from having any idea of what
> was going on (until the leaks and 40 UAS 6.4 and all that fun stuff).
> MIT-Online is certainly more preliminary than BRDC was at that stage, but
> also way more important. Is there some summary of the discussion they're
> willing to approve? Can senators take persnal notes not on laptops?
>=20
> This is what affects a body's ability to be representative. Whether you p=
unt
> on your computers past the Speaker's bedtime is just a question of time
> management competence and respect, not representation.
>=20
> --
> Geoffrey Thomas
> geofft@mit.edu
>=20
>=20
>=20
> On Sun, 24 Apr 2011, William Steadman wrote:
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> If every representative were to make motions to: close discussion,
> postpone, etc whenever they felt it was appropriate then you don't have
> a meeting, you have 30 arguing about procedure.
>=20
> I don't walk into Senate trying to gauge the progress of a discussion
> because that is not my job. My job as Chairman of Space Planning is to
> provide appropriate info in that area. Gauging the progress of a
> discussion is in fact the Speaker's job.
>=20
> I recommend the Speaker move to end discussion or even better call for a
> motion from the assembly whenever he thinks discussion is not useful.
> There is a reason he controls the length of debate time. Yet despite the
> length of all of our meetings it has only been invoked once this year.
>=20
> On Sun, 2011-04-24 at 04:16 -0400, Jont=C3=A9 Craighead (UA Speaker) wrot=
e:
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> Hi, guys:
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> This is meant to be a notice for Monday's meeting.
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> tl;dr: No laptops during the guest speaker and no laptops after
> 11:00pm.
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> The MIT-Online Faculty Study Group has asked that the entire session
> at Monday's meeting take place off the record. Because of this, and
> the fact that this group will be our guest, laptops must not be open.
>=20
> Furthermore, I am going to request that laptops also be closed during
> any business that takes place after 11:00pm. If you have noticed
> anything this year, it's that, usually, fewer than half of you are
> paying attention to the discussion at once past about this time. If
> the discussion on the floor is not interesting or useful, you should
> do something about it (i.e. move to close discussion, postpone, etc.).
> This is your Senate, you should own it. Otherwise, we run into
> situations where a small number of participants are the only ones
> driving the discussions (and effectively acting as the only student
> representatives).
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> Instituting this rule is not fun, but I feel it's necessary to keep
> people engaged, or at the very least, ensure that our last three
> meetings aren't also our longest.
>=20
> I would be happy to answer any questions here, but if you have
> comments or want to start a discussion, please move this e-mail to
> ua-senate@.
>=20
> Thanks,
> Jont=C3=A9 Craighead
>=20
> Speaker of the Senate
> MIT Undergraduate Association
> Course 1C: Class of 2013
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> =C2=A0
>=20
>=20
>=20
>=20
> --
> Tim Robertson II
> MIT 2011
> Mechanical Engineering
> UA Senate Office Hours:
> EC-B515 Sunday 5-8pm
>=20
>=20
>
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