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ASGA Washington D.C. Conference Recap

The weekend of September 28, 2011 to October 2, 2011 the AS&F Executive Board and the Program Assistant attended the annual Nation Student Government Summit in Washington D.C.  This conference had hundreds of schools in attendance and nearly as many ideas, opinions, and fresh insight to our very own Associated Students & Faculty Government.  Here are some of the conference recap summaries written by the Executive Board who attended. (More pictures will be added soon!) 

Matthew Martinez, AS&F/Student Body President 2011-2012 says:

              Hello all, I just wanted to write you and fill you in on what I learned from the ASGA Conference in Washington D.C.!  First of all, ASGA stands for the American Student Government Association, and they hold various conferences throughout the year to help improve student governments across the nation.  There were a lot of student government members there that ranged from community colleges all the way up to larger universities.   In total there were about 650 members there and this was their largest conference to date!  So it was very exciting to be a part of that.

            As for the conference itself I went to some workshops that pertained to my job and that I thought would be beneficial to AS&F.  For starters, I went to the workshop entitled
“The Gift and The Curse.”  During this session we brought up different ideas on how to improve our student government, how to market better and how to get more people involved.  The ideas that I got from this were possibly having student meetings with as much of the student body as possible, working more closely with GAB and other organizations on campus to get our name out, talking to the different department heads to request more involvement as far as senators go, empowering our current body, implement AS&F interns, AS&F member of the month and outreach more toward the freshmen class.  All these are great ideas and I fully plan on investing time and effort into these and seeing how they will affect AS&F.  In addition, I also met up with the Syracuse University Student Government and got new ideas on how to increase our membership.  They were able to go from a group of ten to a group of seventy, without including clubs, in a matter of a year, and they will have their first contested elections in almost ten years!  I find that very impressive and I hope the same things that worked for them will work for us!  Hopefully soon enough we will be able to see AS&F grow like this and be able to have a full senate for the first time ever!

            Also, I attended a few other workshops entitled “Choosing Realistic Goals” and “Building a successful Executive Board.”  I took a lot out of both of these workshops including a few workshops I can host on my own and a few ideas that AS&F can promote in the future.  All in all the conference was well put together and I got a lot out of it.  I hope that I can bring these ideas back to AS&F and we can see them flourish.  If you have any questions for me on anything about ASGA or anything in general please feel free to e-mail me or come in during my office hours!

Kat Wilson, VP of Internal Affairs says…

The D.C. trip was awesome! I feel that the conference was more beneficial then we initially thought.  I attended sessions on marketing our student government and a few on how to run our trainings or retreats. As far as the marketing sessions went I learned that we need to put our logo or “brand” on everything we fund from club trips to the AEDs we have on campus. It’s a great way for our student body to see that we do more than just sit around and talk club money.  I was also given a name to this site called survey monkey that could help us better understand what our student body needs. We have to provide a service for them on campus that no one else will be willing to provide. As far as our retreats go while short sweet and to the point seems to be what everyone on the body wants it may not be the best. In the session I went to on training your student government I learned this method that we start out by doing something silly like playing rock paper scissors and then move to a serious topic and repeat as necessary. This allows us to get to know one another instead of just sitting through lectures about how to write bills and other things. I think this would benefit us by allowing the senators and club reps to get to know one another so when clubs need someone to sponsor their bill they know a person for more than just their email address. Besides the conference the sightseeing was amazing! I couldn’t have asked for a better place to host a conference!!!

Travid Blancett, Executive Secretary says…

The ASGA conference was a very enlightening experience for myself and I’m sure everyone who attended. The beneficial part of attending an ASGA is that the conference doesn’t generalize student governments. They realize that the amount of money available to a college and the number of people who participate in senate, differs from school to school. They used these facts to formulate the workshops in a way that is beneficial to every school there.

                As for my position and the workshops that I attended, I learned a substantial amount on the duties of my position and how they coincide with Roberts Rules of Order. I attended a workshop that was specifically for secretaries. In this workshop, the speaker went over the duties of a secretary in the office and in meetings. After the workshop, I got to talk to several other secretaries about how they fulfill their positions, a few of whom I was able to collaborate with and exchange ideas with, based on how they perform their job and I perform mine. I do hope to put this information to good use as I fulfill my position.  I attended a few other workshops, all of which were beneficial to myself and will help me broaden my knowledge of working in a senate executive board.

                All in all, the D.C. trip was a great experience. Not only did we get to work with other students who are in the same positions as we are, we were able to bond as an executive board.

 

Some notes from the 1st quarterly…

Many of you approached myself or another executive board member with concerns about last night’s quarterly meeting. I would like discuss some of those concerns now, in hopes that they are not a factor in the next quarterly. Please know upfront that no one is pointing any fingers at anyone, these are simply generalized concerns. Also, if any of you have concerns that you have not discussed with us yet, please do not hessitate to contact me by email or during office hours.

That being said, I would like to discuss something that was pointed out to me by faculty and students last night. Many noticed that the 3 bills that did not receive funding were for cultural avenues, while those who requested funds for academic avenues received their funds. I do not in any way think this was done intentionally, but would like to cover it just in case. Please always remember in voting that here at Adams State we value culture at the same level that we value academics, the two are heavily influential on eachother. If a club is requesting money for some form of culturally enriching excursion, that is the same as a club requesting funds for an academically enriching excursion, both are doing so to better themselves as a club and to better represent Adams State.

Please also remember to be respectful of everyone at the meeting. These bills are important to every club and no one club deserves money more than another, therefore when we open the floor for discussion on a bill, please ask your questions in a respectful manner. Also, whether your bill is passed or denied please maintain a professional composure throughout the process.

My only advice for the next quarterly is you can never be too detailed in your presentations for your bill. The more information you present to the senate justifying why you deserve the funds you are asking for, the more apt they will be to consider your requests. If any club needs help with this please come into the senate office, we are more than willing to help you put together a power point and point out key aspects of your clubs involvement and goals, that would help make your case when presenting.

I hope all of you have a great week and please let me know if I can help in any other way!


Travis Blancett
AS&F Secretary

Fall Commencement Speaker Apps Deadline is Monday 9/19!

Congratulations on your impending graduation this Fall from Adams State College!

If you have been an active member of the ASC community throughout your years on campus and feel that you are the right person to speak on behalf of your graduating class, this is the opportunity for you!

Here is the Student Commencement Speaker Application that will offer more information on the minimum qualifications and also has all the application materials/information for you.

All application materials are due to AS&F Program Assistant Carter by Monday September 19th at 5pm for FALL 2011 Graduation.  If you have any questions beforehand, please feel free to stop by the AS&F Office or contact us at ascasf@grizzlies.adams.edu or carterjm@grizzlies.adams.edu

Retreat Follow-up

Wow!  What a GREAT retreat and

kick-off for AS&F Government 11-12 year! 

In case you missed out, we wanted to share some of the information that we went over and also let you know of some updated information on our page.

Below are some of the powerpoints and documents that were gone over at the retreat on August 24th.  If you have any comments, questions, or concerns please let us know!  In addition, the executive board, senator, club rep, and advisor contact info are all updated now on the site.  Lists of these contacts will also be posted on the AS&F office door;  If you are a Senator or Club Represenative and have not yet sent me your contact information, please do so as soon as possible.  Program Assistant Carter- carterjm@grizzlies.adams.edu or ascasf@grizzlies.adams.edu

BUDGET BREAKDOWN

CLUB POINTS

Robert’s Rules of Order Presentation

Senate Retreat Agenda

AS&F Updates for 2011-2012 Year

Summer is almost ending, and we are getting very excited to kick this year off to a great start!

This website is in the process of being updated, and this should be all ready to go within the next week or so.  However, we do have meeting, quarterly, and other important dates posted for the entire year: Fall 2011  and  Spring 2012.  Below is also a calendar; here is also a link to the Word version if you would like to PRINT the AS&F 11-12 Calendar

In addition to the calendar below, make note that Quarterly bill due dates are always about 3 weeks prior to the Quarterly meeting in order to ensure correct vetting takes place.  Quarterly bill due dates are as follows:  1st Quarterly bills due Wednesday September 7th; 2nd Quarterly bills due Wednesday November 2nd; 3rd Quarterly bills January 25th; 4th Quarterly bills April 4th.  For further information on how you can be more prepared for quarterlies, check out the blog From Daunting to Prepared, or feel free to stop by the office. 

In addition to the calendar, please take extra note that the first retreat is Wednesday, August 24th at 6pm in the Business Building.  All AS&F Government is expected to attend, please contact us with any conflicts or questions that arise.

The club fair will also take place on August 24th from 10-2pm in the SUB if we get enough response from clubs.  If you would like to be a part of this, please contact Program Assistant Jeni Carter at carterjm@grizzlies.adams.edu by August 18th at 5pm.

We’ll see you all soon, hope you enjoy the last couple weeks of summer!