October 31, 2005

November 2005 Platform

1) GET MSA's HOUSE IN ORDER
Following the Rules to Save Students' Money

Students for PIRGIM's resolution uncovered that the Assembly (not the front office staff; they're great!) has been doing a bad job fulfilling its general administrative duties. For example, for the past five or six years the MSA treasurers have been filing our taxes incorrectly, leading the Assembly exposed to potential IRS penalties or even a loss of our tax-exempt status: huge blows to the amount of money MSA can give to student groups and put towards student events. MSA must get its house in order so that it can become a more professional organization that is respected within the University community. With this respect in hand, students will have a more powerful, meaningful voice when we wish to talk to the Regents about decisions that affect students such as the budget for student groups or tuition increases.

WHAT I HAVE DONE ABOUT THIS ISSUE SO FAR:

Last semester I realized that I had gained thorough knowledge on tax laws and Supreme Court cases that govern MSA, so it would be best for me to switch from External Relations Committee to Rules & Elections (R&E) Committee so that I would be working with a branch of the Assembly that deals with legislative recommendations.

WHAT I PLAN TO DO:

R&E is creating PowerPoints and fact sheets on 501(c)(3) tax law and Southworth so that students and the Assembly can understand what rules and guidelines must be in place for MSA to be in compliance with court rulings and IRS tax code.

2) VEHEMENTLY DEFEND STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS' RIGHTS TO LOBBY

There has been talk that some UM administrators and MSA executives have suggested that MSA should stop funding student organizations that want to lobby. Yet, MSA is able to fund student lobbying legally and fairly. We must make sure students have the right to political speech at the University of Michigan. Lobbying, or attempting to influence legislation via demonstrations or visiting legislators, is perfectly legal for MSA fund. Furthermore, MSA can and LEGALLY MUST fund student organization lobbying without taking into account the particular viewpoint of the lobbying, so ALL student groups have the ability to lobby, regardless of what they want to say. We must make sure that MSA is not overly-cautious and unduely limits students' ability to lobby.

3) FAIR AND LEGAL FUNDING GUIDELINES

MSA needs to make sure that certain funding arms have the correct precautions and rules in place so that we can fund student organizations fairly. Currently, MSA does not have funding guidelines for the Discretionary account, so MSA cannot use this money to fund projects and student organizations' ideas. I proposed funding guidelines for the discretionary account last semester, but the Central Student Judiciary (CSJ) prevented the Assembly from voting on these guidelines in a timely manner last semester. I plan to reintroduce and update these funding guidelines this semester.

4) INCREASED PROFESSIONALISM AND EFFECTIVENESS
Student Government Training Conferences

Student governments are a megaphone for student opinion, but often times student representatives lack the training to understand how they can be most effective and professional. Student government training conferences are an excellent way to improve the quality of student government.

STUDENT GOVERNMENT CONFERENCES I ATTENDED:

Association of Big Ten Students, February 2005
DC Summit, March 2005

STUDENT GOVERNMENT CONFERENCES I HELPED TO PLAN:

Midwest Student Leadership Conference, October 2005

STUDENT GOVERNMENT CONFERENCES TO WHICH I HELPED TO SEND MICHIGAN STUDENTS:

Association of Big Ten Students, February 2005
Midwest Student Leadership Conference, October 2005

5) CONTINUED COMMUNICATION WITH THE REGENTS

I attended many Regents meetings last semester and reported to them some of the projects on which MSA had been working. If the Regents know the successes of MSA, they will be more likely to respect our organization and students' wishes. Furthermore, Regents meetings are excellent times to learn about other happenings around campus and potential decisions the Regents will make. Therefore, I believe communicating with the Regents is an important component of service on MSA, and I will continue to go to Regents meetings.

Other Important Viewpoints:

Stop City Council from Creating Anti-Student Policies and Support Pro-Student Policies
-Anti-Student: permit parking in student districts
-Pro-Student: Mayor Heiftje's proposal to push back lease signing
-Anti-Student: voting on student-related issues over the summer (permit parking and porch couch ban)

-Stop the Raid on Student Aid

-Support Affirmative Action
Posted by britfox at 12:36:03 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

October 27, 2005

Rese is Running for a Rackham Slot in MSA



Hi, all,

Because I'm a student in the Ford School of Public Policy, I'm going run as a Rackham representative candidate in MSA this fall! Elections are much earlier this year (T, November 7th and W, 8th) so that MSA candidates can also remind students to vote in Ann Arbor's elections on November 7th, as well. I'm running with Students 4 Michigan, again. More information (including a detailed platform) to follow.

Thanks,

Rese
Posted by britfox at 16:53:35 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Rules & Elections on the Move!!!



Hi, all,

First, I want to point out something extremely incredible: MSA's front staff have been doing a phenomenal job of updating the MSA website!!!!

MSA Resolutions: http://www.msa.umich.edu/government/resolutions.php
MSA Minutes: http://www.msa.umich.edu/government/minutes.php

Our minutes and resolutions are being posted quickly and consistently. This means that you don't have to go through my blog for updates on mere Assembly happenings, which is good because a lot of things happen in a meeting and I can't possibly remember them all, and if you totally disagree (or agree) with my viewpoint on an issue in MSA, you don't have to wade through my personal biases for an accurate testimony of what happened at the meetings.

Next, this week's R & E meeting focused on getting the Assembly and students informed on 501(c)(3) tax law and MSA's being a 501(h) electing charity, meaning that MSA can appropriate up to 20% of its budget towards lobbying efforts. There is a lot of confusion on this issue, so we want to create some FAQs and PowerPoints to explain this complex issue. The bottom line: if you are an MSA-funded student group, you CAN lobby, and if someone tells you that you can't, they're wrong. Send that person my way and I'll have a whole bunch of information ready to support that claim. Zack Yost is taking the first crack at the FAQ's and PowerPoint so that he can get up to speed on the info, and our new R&E member Andrew Thomson is going to help us to edit the documents to make sure they are clear to the average student (if anyone reads this blog, you'll know that sometimes I have problems with that). Daniel Taylor-Cohart is working on setting up a Ctools site for R&E so that treasurers and students can get lobbying regulations info when they need it. PLUS: I created a potential R&E logo for our committee's work. What do you think of it?

Yours,

Rese
Posted by britfox at 16:12:16 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

October 06, 2005

I'm Back!!!


Me (left) and my friend Shari at the first football game

Hi, all,

I sincerely apologize for not updating in months!!! There have been so many things that have happened, but I think I'll start with the present and fill in gaps with last semester's follow-up as I have time.

First of all, right now I am serving as the Rules & Elections (R & E) Vice-Chair. Cliff Davidson had to resign his R & E Chair and law school rep positions due to a new job that may have created a conflict of interest, so the new Chair is Zack Yost. (Just to clear up any confusion, despite what was said in the MSA meetings, I didn't accept a nomination to run as Chair because I've entered a new academic program and have just accepted a new job). We had a productive meeting this evening in which we provided a rough outline for our committee's goals this semester:

High Priority Items:

Provide reccommendations to the Budget Priorities Committee (BPC) and Community Service Commission (CSC)'s funding applications questions that concern lobbying expenditures. Also, work with Student Activities and Leadership (SAL)'s Susan Wilson about incorporating a lobbying tutorial into the student organization treasurer training so that groups are not confused why we are asking about lobbying and what exactly lobbying entails.

Propose a code change that improves the Assembly debate rules so that people espousing a certain position cannot prevent the opposing view from speaking.

Meet with Russ Garber, the former R & E Chair and current Student General Counsel, to outline what responsibilities the R & E position has retained and what duties the MSA executives have adopted.

Appoint and provide orientation for a new Election Director and Election Board.

Medium Priority Items

Examine whether MSA Committees and Commissions need funding guidelines according to Southworth.

Create a color-coded lighted panel that would allow speakers to track how much time they have left to talk. Think of a traffic light: the green light means that the speaker has more than 1 minute left to speak, the yellow light means less than one minute and the red light means less than 30 seconds. As a constituent or as an Assemblymember, have you ever been abruptly cut off by the president because you've exhausted your time but you still had points you wanted to make? Have you ever spent too little or too much time on a point instead of allocating your time more efficiently over the 5 minutes you are allowed to speak? This lighting device should help solve these problems and help people feel more comfortable speaking in front of the Assembly.

Low Priority Items

 Write a Code Amendment to create rules for the set-up and execution of the Constitutional Convention that is coming up next semester.

Thanks!

Rese

Posted by britfox at 00:38:32 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |