thelomathesian societyit.stlawu.edu/~thelmo/minutes/fall08/09-24-08.doc · web viewsenator quinn....

Thelomathesian SocietySeptember 24, 2008

Called to Order at 7:04 PM

Unanimous vote for the approval of the September 17, 2008 minutes

I. Roll Call

SENATORS Present Issue 1

Mohammad Abid Amiri Y YFaye Andrews Y YPhoenix Bell excused N/ALaura Berger Y YNicolas Blum Y YBenjamin Burds Y YSteffi Chappell Y YNicole Carnevale Y YAlessandra Carreiro Y YMartha Civitillo Y YMeg Crabtree Y NIgor Dabik Y YHannah Dean Y YSarah DeFruscio absent N/AKate Farrington excused N/AEmily Fisher Y YBrendan Fitzpatrick Y YBrittany Fredette Y YZachary Graham excused N/ACaitlin Hamilton Y YElizabeth Hamilton Y YKendall Harty Y N/AVeronika Horvathava Y YShannon Hughes Y YElizabeth Kessenich Y YSimon Lynch Y YElizabeth Monahan Y YLalita Priyamvada Y YHallee Quinn Y NSam Ramus Y NShawntel Randi absent N/AElle Rathbun Y YJohn A. Reinman Y YNina Rhim Y YKallene Ryan Y YAndrew Sammis Y NLucy Sammis Y Y

Padma Seemangal Y YTim Senter Y YDan Shanley Y YPatrick Sheridan-Rossi absent N/APaul Tranby Y YGeorgi Vellkav Y YQuinn Wacenske absent N/AJulia Warn Y N

Assistant Chairs Present Issue 1

Harry Neely (Student Life) Y NAlina Miska (Budget and Finance) Y NSvetoslav Stoytchev (Senate Affairs) Y N

Chairs Present

Kenneth Brian Brownell (Public Relations) excusedSonya Bryant (Academic Affairs) YRyan Duff (Greek) YBridget Lennon (Sexual Violence Education) YCameron Bruns (Environmental Conservation) YHassan Raza (Student Life) Y

Senior Executive Board Present

President John Pontius YVP of University Relations Colin Vickery YVP of Senate Affairs Michael Crankshaw-Bierce YSecretary Stella Han YSLUSAF Central Treasurer Julian Blakney-Carlson YStudent Delegate Adam Kyamatare Y

II. Officer Report

VP of Senate Affairs Michael Crankshaw-Bierce

Our new business for today is that we have a contingency request. And I’d like my committee to meet with me afterwards.

Secretary Stella Han

Please speak clearly and state your name.VP of University Relations Colin Vickery

I have the sign up sheets for the tri-partied committees. I’d really like people to sign up for them because they are pretty interesting. I highly suggest you do this. Come and see me after the meeting if you are interested.

Student Delegate to the Board of Trustees Adam Kyamatare

One issue is about the hunting students do on campus. Another goal is that the school wants to be carbon neutral within a year. They want a lot of input from the student body, as well as Thelmo and other organizations

SLUSAF Central Treasurer Julian Blakney-Carlson

There is a contingency request tonight. My committee, please meet on Sunday at 5pm.

President John Pontius

About the tri-partied committees, I recommend you sign up for them. It’s a good way to see how the school works. And they actually let you have a fairly large say in the meetings. As Julian says, it does look good for you. The presidential search is going really well. Things should be wrapping up in a matter of time. As Adam said, we want to try and store guns and other weapons on campus. Hunters on campus want to get them locked away so they’ll be safe. Tonight’s meeting will be very brief.

III. Committee Reports

Environmental Conservation Chair Cameron Bruns

We’re working on getting email addresses for other environmental organizations on campus to get more in contact with them. And there is a committee meeting afterwards.

Student Life Chair Hassan Raza

We’re going to be looking at remapping the email system. Also a potential date for Club Win is in October or November.

Academic Affairs Chair Sonya Bryant

I’m still waiting to hear back from Bel-Air. I’m waiting for Eve Stoddard to email me back. Committee meeting afterwards.

Sexual Violence Education Chair Bridget Lennon

One of the first things we’ll be working on is helping the Advocates with “Go Beyond”

Greek Life Chair Ryan Duff

There is a committee meeting afterwards. We’re also going to try and revamp ATO so we’ll be brainstorming for that. We want the campus to get them interested in them again. We’re going to contact the sororities to help out and get them more noticed on campus.

IV. Old Business

The Chess Society Club Status (Second Approval)


Is there anything you wanted to ask?

Senator Fitzpatrick

Did you have more interest in your club since last week?

Representative 1

Yes, we just sent out a listserv and we spread word to other dorms as well.

Debate For

Debate Against

Speak To

Motion to Vote

Unanimous approval

V. New Business

The Chess Society Contingency Request (ISSUE #1)

Representative 1

We’re here to ask you all to help us fund our club.Representative 3

Tonight we’re going to get right into business.

Representative 1

We want to buy a chess club starter combo. This combo is the most efficient and the cheapest one we could buy.

Representative 2

There are 10 boards, 10 chess pieces, 5 timers, and 1 rule book

Representative 1

Doing the math, they cost 1.70 each.

Representative 3

With the timers, we’ll be able to time each game so that we will be like an official chess club. Like we are

Representative 1

When I was playing a girl last week, \she tried to cancel out of a checkmate. With the rule book, it’ll be easier to find out if we can do certain moves or not. With the timers, we can also have experienced timers to practice for tournaments

Representative 2

Without timers, players won’t be able to get ready for a tournament.

Representative 1

We also want to purchase a champion marble chess board. We want this because SLU is a nice university and I believe that the school should have a nice board for tournaments.

Representative 2

Also, no one wants a roll up board for a tournament. If you’re going to play chess, regulation boards are the way to go.

Representative 3

For the championship board, people can compete with each other, whether outside school or not, a marble chess board is a nice thing to look forward to when moving up in a competition.

Representative 1

If students brought their own chess board, it wouldn’t be consistent enough for the entire club. With our own chess boards, we can have easy access to the chess boards we need. And why should Thelmo help us? Well, we need Thelmo’s help to get our foot in the door for making our club successful.

Senator Warn

Are you currently entered in chess tournaments?

Representative 3

We’re going to email Clarkson soon. We wanted to make sure that we have chess boards and club status before we agreed to a tournament

Senator Warn

Are there set dates?

Representative 1

No because there is no reason to set a date when we don’t even have the materials for a tournament.

Guest Mike Tudoreanu

I’m sure you all know about the previous chess club. How are you going to prevent what happened then now?

Representative 1

We had an idea to sign a contract with the school that the boards are school properties and they can store it for us.

Dean Tolliver

We can store the boards just like we can store the guns/weapons.

Representative 3

Also, if you’re wondering, we will have our meetings at 1pm on Sunday in room 336.

Senator E. Hamilton

Do you have any fundraising plans?

Representative 2

Yes, but right now, we’re trying to get things in motion.

Representative 1

If we did want to raise money, then it wouldn’t be a lot of money we need

Senator Quinn

Maybe you should have your meeting before presenting this before so that you know there are a set number of people who are interested.


Should you purchase the starter kit first before you get the marble just in case you don’t have a tournament?

Representative 1

In getting the chess board now, it’ll be a little ways of time to come back and request for it. And for players getting to play, it might not motivated players. And we plan on emailing other schools for tournaments

Senator Neely

Did the last president want a marble chess board?


Yeah, but we don’t know if he still has it and there’s really nothing we can do right now.

Representative 3

By signing the contract with the school, we will prevent having the chess boards taken. What we’re asking for right now is the chunk of money we will need for the future.

Senator Ramus

Do you know what the contract will be like?

Representative 1

I talked to some people we haven’t had any ideas yet.


I thought that we already own what SLUSAF buys for students.


Technically the inventory sheets for the organizations. The sheets we get back are the zero range

Senator Burds

Would you consider having prizes for the tournaments?

Representative 2

It’s something that we can consider.

Senator Tranby

Wouldn’t it make sense to buy the starter kit and just fundraise for the marble set yourself?

Representative 2

It’s something we would have to come to when we start. We don’t have anything in movement. We don’t have materials.

Representative 3

It also goes back to the image of the club. With the marble set, it’ll be more like a real club. It would really tell people that we are serious about the club.

Representative 2

We really want to go into all out and not half way through.


Would you settle for a few mediocre boards and no marble set?

Representative 2

We don’t want to be walking to our meetings with full boards.

Debate For

Senator Andrew Sammis

I think that if we pass this, we need to make a contract tonight to know that you will make one and state that you will in fact keep it at the school. Maybe we could make a statement to say you’re going to sign a contract.

Debate Against

Senator Warn

We need to critically think about how we’re spending our money. I don’t think we should buy a marble chess set for a club that hasn’t even had it’s first meeting

Speak To


You want to create a set image. To have board like that, it show

Debate For

Debate Against

Senator Amiri

I don’t see a reason to buy a marble chess board right now.

Speak To

Debate For

Debate Against

Senator E. Hamilton

I agree with Ryan, but do you think you can come back later in the semester after you had a few meetings because we don’t know how many people are interested in the group.

Speak To

Debate For

Representative 1

If people come to our meetings, but the mats won’t look as serious. If we come back to present it, it won’t make us look like an actual chess club.

Debate Against


I think the starter kit is a necessity. But the marble isn’t. if you have tournament, you can always come back and say that you need it then. I think you should hold off it for a while

Speak To

Senator Lucy Sammis

Are you planning to fundraise for the real size chess boards?

Representative 2

The main thing is that we want an actual regulation chess board – which is the marble one. It’s good to have a regulation chess board from the start so people can know how the full game is played

Debate For

Senator Reinman

I think you are passionate about it and I think that 129 isn’t a big price to pay and it does make sense that you want it. I think it’s worth it.

Debate Against

Senator Warn

I think 129 is a lot without knowing that there is lasting interest.

Speak To

Senator Shanley

What’s the difference between the marble and the one at the bookstore?

Representative 2

The one online is approved worldwide and it’s credible.

Debate For

Representative 1

The question is whether you have faith in us. I know coming back will only take 20 minutes but getting it now, it’ll take longer. Then we can be serious about it.

Representative 2

And if you wanted to know interest, we can give you a list of who is interested. We’ve seen people getting better and the interest is growing.

Debate Against

Senator Vellkav

I think that if we get the one championship chess board, there will be more in demand during actual tournaments hosted by our school.

Speak To

Senator Rhim

Did you think about getting a less expensive set that is approved world wide?

Representative 2

We could do that. But we will fundraise later about the chess board. It is about the image.

Debate For

Senator Lynch

This isn’t the most expensive chess board you can buy.

Debate Against

Speak To


I agree, but as you know, clubs come and go and we just want to make sure you guys are in good standing.

Representative 1

The boards will be the properties of the school and sooner or later another student will come along and will start it up again. If our club fades, students in the future will want to play chess and maybe they can put it in the library or in the student center.

Motion to Vote Backwards

Motion fails.

Motion to Vote

Yes – 32No – 8Abstain – 0

Discussion on Student Opinion for the Email System


I’d like to start by crediting Senator Neely for helping me. Last semester, the student body was getting frustrated with the number emails we get everyday. I want to you know your opinion about getting less emails a day for keeping it the way it is. There are already a few ideas on the table and we’ll be talking about. So are you comfortable with the number of emails you get everyday and do you have any solutions?


We’re looking at you to see if you have any strong opinions on it. I have heard people complain about different things.

Senator Warn

I recognize they are a huge nuisance, but I also have an issue restricting that. It’s a way that students communicate. It’s really easy to set up the email filter.


It’s really thinking about alternate solutions. It’s how you receive them.

Senator Lynch

Email filters can easily handle those emails. Hassan, you can work with IT to get sessions going on to inform students on how to use it.

Senator Burds

You can email the listserv director to say which listserv you don’t want to receive. Also maybe a gender filter as well.


I don’t see a problem with this.

Senator Horvathava

I think it’s not such a good idea to delete the emails. One thing is that the emails are a source information.

Senator Andrews

For sustainability, I don’t know if you want people to put up fliers instead of emails.

Senator Shanley

Maybe a student can sign up to do the listserv

SLUSAF Assistant Treasurer Alina Miska

The ones who work at the info desk approve the listservs

Senator Reinman

I agree with everyone but some emails are from the administration and those are important. The only thing that bothers me is that the same person sends three emails at the same time.


You’re just not supposed send more than one at a time.

Senator Quinn

And sometimes the internet won’t work so it’s not deleted.


The idea isn’t to limit the students from the rest of the student body. An idea on the table was that we can compile something.

Senator Neely

Colby compiles their emails and it makes it more organized. It’ll also be a good way to get our name out there.


Another idea is that we can have announcements on a certain page. We’re not trying to change rules or restrictions but we’re trying to get them stored and more organized.

VP of University Relations Colin Vickery

The problem that I have, all the emails I get, I don’t know what’s going on. You can have a set of listserv put in groups.

Student Delegate to the Board of Trustees Adam Kyamatare

I seen the inconvenience but some people will send me the same thing but different words. You can also put your mouse over the email and it’ll show you a preview of it. It’s not a big deal. The school is going out of its way to accommodate us and keep it sustainable.

Senator Lynch

I think we’re looking towards a way to get away from the filter.


Hassan I think that you should talk to IT about it and open up communications with them. I hope this helped a little bit for you.

VI. Member’s Time

Senator Neely

Could you clarify the dress code?


You’re looking good. We want to keep that up. Ties and collared shirts.


Tri-Delta is hosting a CK Bradley trunkshow and the funds raised are going to the St. Judes Hosptial

VP of University Relations Colin Vickery

Tri-partied sign up. Now.


Committee meeting.


Committee meeting.


Committee meeting.


Committee meeting

Academic Affairs Chair Sonya Bryant

Committee meeting.

Meeting adjourned at 8:15PM

Respectfully Submitted By:

Secretary Stella Han

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