[HSU-CoordBoardInternal] Town Meeting

[committee10 at hampshire.edu]

Hello Mitch:

Thank you for your reply. We'd like to first say that we apologize if  
we have been appearing in any way disrespectful or condescending  
towards you or any member of HSU. The work that Accountability Board  
was given is not an easy one, and it's difficult for us, or anyone for  
that matter, to demand changes without seemingly being antagonistic or  
aggressive. It must be remembered that nothing we do is meant to be  
personal or hurtful.

The guide that we referred to was indeed in the red binder, just like  
every part of HSU's structure and 'purview.' Thus, if we deny the  
validity of this document, so would we have to do so with HSU itself.  
This is linked to the continued struggle the system has been having  
with its lack of official "bible" or "constitution." Like you say, we  
are all trying to do our best to pilot this structure, and we, as  
probably everyone else in the system, are working without any guidance  
but our own judgment. And we believe that if Town Meeting is being run  
like this, it should be our responsibility to stop it; who else, if  
not us?

Accountability Board will meet to seriously discuss the HSU Revisiting  
Group referred to by you and brought up by one of our members in a  
previous meeting. It is clear that the idea must be pushed forward,  
but there isn't any indication of who is to do so.

All this being said, we insist and reiterate the problems we have  
outlined about the next Town Meeting. Please attend to them as soon as  
you can.

Thank you,
Accountability Board

Quoting Mitchell Krieger <miak11 at hampshire.edu>:

> As someone who helped write the document you attached, I want to  
> explain to you that this was a guide not rules. We wrote that  
> document the week after the first ever town meeting, and therefore  
> did not know the realities of how the HSU works in relation to  
> planning future town meetings. In addition, I would go as far as to  
> say that at least 80% of the work outlined in that document was done  
> by a staff member, Nelson Hernandez, whose sole job was to do work  
> for the SGA. Since then it was understood that this was an ideal  
> timeline but not mandatory, because even when we had Nelson to help  
> with the next two Town Meetings, they still did not meet these  
> expectations. As a result, Coordinating Board has attempted to live  
> up to these guidelines, but frankly between all the other things  
> coordboard has on its plate, like communication between scope  
> groups, issues of purview and purpose, and a consistent stream of  
> inbox proposals and concerns, I believe that it is unrealistic to  
> ask us to be bound to this guide.
>
> Also, I assume you got that document out of the red binder and I  
> would also like to point out that the binder is not our bible nor  
> our constitution. The intent for that binder was to document the  
> history of the HSU creation process from its inception till the  
> present, and was meant for Josiah Litant's records. It only was  
> decided to make them for HSU members once we realized that it was  
> important for people to know the work that was put into the creation  
> process. If you look at the first three or so sections, you will  
> notice an immense amount of contradictions, paradoxes, and much of  
> what is in that binder consists of brainstorming, research and  
> suggestions rather than actual HSU foundation.
>
> In addition, Coordboard has had a variety of other issues it has  
> been grappling with, and in order to plan a quality town meeting,  
> these issues needed to be addressed first. I apologize that  
> advertisement has not begun yet, but we as a body are struggling  
> with a lot of things, and I ask that accountability board be  
> understanding in regards to the fact that this is a new student  
> government structure, that we are still in the process of figuring  
> out. CoordBoard was understanding when a request was submitted to  
> Accountability Board (what was called at the time Committee of 10)  
> from a community member about an issue of accountability and ethics   
> in regards to a specific scope group and Accountability Board was  
> unable to resolve it because the board did not have structures in  
> place how accountability operates in the HSU. I request that you do  
> the same for us when we are not successful in our endeavors.
>
> We, just as you are too, are in the process of piloting the  
> Coordinating Board and the larger HSU structure. This semester there  
> have been many revelations as to how what we had envisioned last  
> year, did not function in the way we wanted and we needed to adjust,  
> therefore creating contradictions with the red binder. Town Meeting  
> is just one example of that. Another example might be the changing  
> the status of FundCom to a scope group rather than being some weird  
> combination of sub-committee and money distributor.
>
> The last thing I want to mention is that I do not appreciate the way  
> accountability board has been conducting itself. Every time I have  
> an interaction with the board I feel frustrated and disrespected.  
> Your emails sound condescending, and ill informed as to what is  
> actually happening in the Hampshire Student Union, and your visits  
> to various bodies are similar. I respect the work that you do and  
> recognize how important it is. I know that I have not been the  
> perfect scope group coordinator or coordinating board member but, it  
> seems to me that the board does not take into account the work that  
> we are doing in what is a long process of governance. I have had  
> experiences with the board where they seem to be of the mindset that  
> they are above, better than, and superior to the rest of the  
> Hampshire Student Union. In addition, accountability board was one  
> of the very last structures created for the HSU, and it was never  
> clear what kinds of powers were invested in it. However, I do know  
> that the power to put a hold town meeting is NOT anywhere in the  
> purview of Accountability Board. There needs to be a discussion had  
> about how the accountability board keeps people accountable, because  
> as of right now, whatever process you are using is unclear, hurtful  
> and unproductive. This kind of discussion was never had with anyone,  
> just like discussions surrounding purview and the workings of  
> Coordboard was never discussed. I hope we can have a discussion  
> about this soon.
>
> I hope that we can all come together soon to discuss these issues as  
> one large group. At this point the HSU is standing on its last legs  
> because of inner conflict, unclear purview, and a lack of  
> understanding among its members. There needs to be something done to  
> address this. There have been a few attempts to create an HSU  
> revisiting group, which have been met with skepticism and  
> bureaucracy. I suggest that we need to move forward with some  
> incarnation of this idea soon regardless of the current debates  
> surrounding it.
>
> --Mitch Krieger
>
> On Nov 17, 2013, at 2:06 PM, committee10 at hampshire.edu wrote:
>
>>
>> Coordinating Board -
>>
>> It has come to our attention that you are planning a Town Meeting  
>> for this coming Tuesday, November 19, 2013. According to the  
>> Coordinating Board internal list serve, you were not planning on  
>> advertising for Town Meeting until Monday afternoon.  This is in  
>> violation of the guide for how to organize a Town Meeting (see  
>> attached).
>>
>> A date, time and location should be announced three weeks prior to  
>> the meeting, the agenda should be made public by implementing  
>> advertising two weeks prior to the meeting, and there should at  
>> least be some type of advertising on social media at least one week  
>> prior to the proposed Meeting date.
>>
>> We have not seen any of the above.  Please make sure that in  
>> addition to flyering for this week's Town Meeting that you also  
>> make it a public event on Facebook that is inclusive to the  
>> Hampshire Community.  In the same way, make sure that you have a  
>> clear agenda announced in your advertisements. For instance, "food,  
>> Diana Fernandez, Tavern Proposal by Wesley Evans, Jlash Mystery  
>> Time" is not a clear agenda. Please elaborate and provide more  
>> details about what will be discussed during each of these times.
>>
>> Please also send us a copy of this.
>>
>> If this lack of significant planning happens again in the future,  
>> we will put a hold on Town Meeting until these guidelines are  
>> followed.
>>
>> Thank you,
>> <o> Accountability Board
>> <Town Meeting .pdf>------
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