[243] in UA Senate
41UAS4.1 "Final Authority"
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Alex Dehnert)
Mon Nov 2 21:11:02 2009
Date: Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:10:24 -0500
From: Alex Dehnert <adehnert@MIT.EDU>
To: UA Senate <ua-senate@mit.edu>
Sorry about how late this is getting out... As I mentioned in my FPRC
email, I've been distracted by various things (including by the FPRC, at
least from cleaning up 4.1...).
Fundamentally, I believe that Senate should be able to delegate
authority in general, not just because of the reallocation bill. The
reallocation bill is itself a fairly minor thing --- it'd sway a couple
thousand dollars (out of about a hundred thousand dollars) to student
groups. If the bill doesn't pass, I won't actually be very sad (among
other reasons, I'm not actually in many student groups that get money
from Finboard, so I'm only barely personally affected by this...).
Anyway... I've expanded on some of my reasoning in new whereas clauses,
at
http://web.mit.edu/ua/officers/treasurer/Public/FY10/2009-10-moving-money/constitution.pdf.
New clauses:
\whereas{it may be more productive for Senate to delegate its financial
authority in certain matters}
\whereas{it is not a productive use of the Senate's time to micromanage
and debate certain matters}
\whereas{Senate may have better things to do than carefully examine
small allocations and reallocations}
\whereas{such better things may include examining reports such as the
DPC report and
the UA ``Response to the Institute-wide Planning Task Force Preliminary
Report'',
which may impact long-term Institute policy}
\whereas{such better things may include examining reports such as the
Financial Policy Review Committee's report and the Constitution
Committee's report
which are likely to impact long-term UA policy}
\whereas{such better things may also include proactively setting the
UA's policy,
including setting broad financial policy or advocacy goals}
That clause (slightly modified):
``The Senate shall have final authority over the allocation
or reallocation of the financial resources of
this Association and its subsidiary organizations.
\textbf{Senate shall have the power to delegate, or revoke
the delegation of, its financial authority, but it may,
in a timely fashion, overrule any decision of its delegate.
Senate may emplace such limitations, including notification
or waiting requirements, on the exercise of such delegated
power as it sees fit.}
In addition, it shall require a two- thirds vote of the
Senate to authorize the release of funds for expenditure
from the Undergraduate Dues Reserve and
Contingent (invested reserve).''
~~Alex
