MINUTES – EA 10-08STANDING COMMITTEE ON EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

Thursday October 7th, 2010 @ 1:30 pmMUSC 204

Call to Order at 1:35 p.m.

CALL OF THE ROLLPresent: Justin Neves(MSU Health Sciences), Andra Popescu(SRA Science), Tanya Cagna(SRA Humanities)Late: Alicia Ali (MSU Social Sciences)Absent(excused): Alex Ramirez (SRA Social Sciences)Observers: Joe Finkle (Vice President Education)Chair: Huzaifa Saeed

BUSINESS

1. Municipal Election QuestionsDiscussed possible questions for Municipal Debate from MacGreen, SCSN and finalized EA question list

2. LobbyCon CASA- Vice President Education Joe Finkle discussed the possibility of sending Huzaifa to the

November CASA lobbycon. To contextualize the committee was in consensus in the previous week that sending the commissioner to LobbyCon would be beneficial.

- He Reckoned the Focus is on lobbying at this meeting, which is better suited to Joe and Mary

- In the Budget it is also not feasible to take 3 members without increasing deficit; the cost would be approximately $1000

- Committee discussed overall opinion and option of bringing funding issue to SRA- Consensus by committee was to not to bring the issue to the SRA

- EA committee went into closed session @ 2:05pm

Committee comes out of closed session at 2:18pm 3. Think Tank

- Saeed introduces the project: Think tank will be a group focused on learning research and policy skills

- Skills will used to promote MSU, OUSA and CASA- Productive discussion about methods of running the think tank- Training for think tank will be based on Policy process of OUSA and examples- Training should include step by step process on policy development- Committee members should Work through projects with Think Tank members to help

with guidance

TIME OF NEXT MEETING

Saeed– The next meeting will be next week, at the same time and place.

ADJOURNMENT

Adjourned at 2:32 p.m.