[1290] in UA Senate
Re: Laptops
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Geoffrey Thomas)
Sun Apr 24 13:28:08 2011
Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2011 13:28:04 -0400 (EDT)
From: Geoffrey Thomas <geofft@MIT.EDU>
To: Karan Takhar <kstakhar4691@gmail.com>
cc: Michael E Plasmeier <theplaz@mit.edu>, Timothy E Robertson <tim_r@mit.edu>,
Jonte Craighead <jontec@mit.edu>,
"ua-senate@mit.edu" <ua-senate@mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <BANLkTikg25DHxW69eqmgy7zGz7CSzacuWg@mail.gmail.com>
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It's not. That way you can say "We asked them to come to Senate and=20
present and they didn't / lied to us / concealed information", instead of=
=20
"We asked them to come to Senate and present and they did, and we didn't=20
do anything with the information because we thought we weren't supposed=20
to". The latter puts the responsibility of failure of communication with=20
students on Senate instead of the body presenting to Senate.
While BRDC still failed in many miserable ways, things started changing=20
for the better after 40 UAS 6.4, which said that student reps to BRDC must=
=20
be able to report back to the government they represent. It's not so much=
=20
about the immediate effect of the meeting as the environment and attitude=
=20
around it.
Again, I'm not saying MIT-Online will do this, it's just a thing that I've=
=20
run into in the past that has caused problems, and it's worth Senate not=20
blindly accepting this.
--=20
Geoffrey Thomas
geofft@mit.edu
On Sun, 24 Apr 2011, Karan Takhar wrote:
> =A0=A0 There is also the possibility that we keep this on the record and
> subsequently get none or very little relevant information pertaining to t=
he
> activities of the study group. I am not advocating for off the record by =
any
> means, just pointing out that on the record with no information shared is=
a
> similar outcome to off the record without being able to act on any
> information.
>=20
> On Sun, Apr 24, 2011 at 1:18 PM, Geoffrey Thomas <geofft@mit.edu> wrote:
> Sure, quite possible. But you should ask this explicitly. If
> they mean that the information is public to the MIT community, I
> would like senators to be taking notes.
>
> --
> Geoffrey Thomas
> geofft@mit.edu
>=20
> On Sun, 24 Apr 2011, Michael E Plasmeier wrote:
>=20
>
> It seems to me that =93off the record=94 means that they do
> not want this to
> appear in the Boston Globe, NYT, etc before they are ready
> to announce
> something.=A0 Going before a body as large as Senate means
> that this is not
> highly classified. It seems that they are trying to get
> MIT community
> feedback without having this leak to the outside world.
>
> =A0
>
> I could be incorrect, so I agree with Tim=92s suggestion to
> ask the study
> group to explain what they are trying to protect.
>
> =A0
>
> -Michael
>
> =A0
>
> 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
>
> =A0
>
> I do not believe it is reasonable for us to remain off the
> record. I am not
> 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 off
> the record, I would like the Study Group to provide, at
> the minimum, a
> public explanation of this request.
>
> On Sun, Apr 24, 2011 at 12:27 PM, Geoffrey Thomas
> <geofft@mit.edu> wrote:
>
> 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?
>
> 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?
>
> This is what affects a body's ability to be
> representative. Whether you punt
> on your computers past the Speaker's bedtime is just a
> question of time
> management competence and respect, not representation.
>
> --
> Geoffrey Thomas
> geofft@mit.edu
>=20
>=20
>
> On Sun, 24 Apr 2011, William Steadman wrote:
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> On Sun, 2011-04-24 at 04:16 -0400, Jont=E9 Craighead (UA
> Speaker) wrote:
>
> Hi, guys:
>
> This is meant to be a notice for Monday's meeting.
>
> tl;dr: No laptops during the guest speaker and no laptops
> after
> 11:00pm.
>
> 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.
>
> 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).
>
> 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.
>
> 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@.
>
> Thanks,
> Jont=E9 Craighead
>
> Speaker of the Senate
> MIT Undergraduate Association
> Course 1C: Class of 2013
>
> =A0
>=20
>=20
>=20
>
> --
> Tim Robertson II
> MIT 2011
> Mechanical Engineering
> UA Senate Office Hours:
> EC-B515 Sunday 5-8pm
>=20
>=20
>=20
>=20
>
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