[HSU-CoordBoardInternal] Town Meeting

Sun Nov 17 17:57:58 EST 2013

Hello, 

The Accountability Board meets Sundays at 1:00pm, we had just had a meeting when we collectively wrote the emails you all received. We also maintain internal communications through a facebook group we’re all in, where we discuss things that come up during the week in preparation for our weekly meeting. 

The structure and purpose of the Accountability Board is different from that of Coordinating Board. Accountability Board, for instance, has two co-chairs, rather than coordinators. 

The most recent email sent, in response to Mitch, does not have anything in it which is not a reiteration of what we had already discussed in our meetings prior, and there is a thread in our facebook group discussing these responses. It was written by several members and approved by a co-chair, with consensus from the facebook group. 

In the various meeting minutes in the red binder, there is record of discussions of how Committee of 10 would be held accountable. It says that if one was concerned that the Committee of 10 itself was not behaving ethically that one could raise those concerns with Josiah Litant. Since we don’t have any official documents yet, using records of what had been discussed is the best thing we have for now. This is what we had agreed on in prior meetings and how we’ve been doing things. 

The warnings we’ve sent are just warnings. We’re sorry that it comes off as scary or rude but it’s the purview and job of the Accountability Board to try and make sure the various governance groups of the HSU are acting transparently and ethically, and that sufficient advertising happens is a part of being open and transparent. Issuing warnings, we figured, is one of the better ways to try and do that. 

There’s discussion on our group of possibly having a meeting specifically for addressing these grivevances (since right now, all we’re doing is reiterating things from previous discussions we’ve had). We would love to work with you in figuring out how this could happen.

-Erin Corbett, Jesse Ide, Mike Merzel, Sal Migliaccio, & Xavier Torres de Janon from the Accountability Board.

From: cjp12 at hampshire.edu
Sent: ‎Sunday‎, ‎November‎ ‎17‎, ‎2013 ‎5‎:‎55‎ ‎PM
To: committee10 at hampshire.edu, hsu-coordboardinfo at lists.hampshire.edu
Cc: Josiah S. Litant, Dina Spanbock

I would like to address the response that coordination board was given  
by the accountability board just a few hours ago. I only claim to  
represent my own views.

As a new member of coordination board (I have only been at the last 4  
meetings) I have noticed that the members of coordination board seem  
intensely afraid of overstepping their purview at every meeting.  
Whether or not that is enough to keep them from doing so is not a  
debate I plan on going into. I have, however, noticed accountability  
board sending members to coordination board meetings that have acted  
arrogantly and in a condescending manner.

But that?s just a matter of interpersonal politics I suppose. But what  
I want to focus on is the possible failure of professionalism in  
accountability board. I have to ask a simple question:

Did all the members of accountability board meet and collectively  
decide to send their response to Mitchell in the way they did? Because  
that?s what the email currently states.

Maybe they did, and if that is actually the case then I withdraw my concerns.

I would assume that accountability board is deeply concerned with its  
own accountability. So I would like to know if all the members  
actually signed off on the email sent as a response to Mitch before it  
was sent, as that is what the email claims in its signature.

If that is not actually the case -and it seems unlikely given the  
impressive response time of the ?accountability board?s? message- then  
a few members or one member of the accountability board misrepresented  
themselves as the entire board.

Once again, If you all actually met I withdraw my complaint. But if  
you didn?t, how can I expect accountability board to regulate anything  
if it cannot regulate itself?

I understand that you think your job is hard, and you feel that if you  
don?t regulate coordination board who will? But I fail to see how you  
can even pretend to be concerned about accountability when one or more  
of your own members is representing themselves in a distinctly  
unaccountable way as the accountability board.

I only claim to represent my own views, not those of the coordination  
board at large.

-Christopher Porzenheim
(a single member of coordination board)

Quoting 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>------
>>> This is the INTERNAL mailing list for Coordboard. For the sake of  
>>> transparency, all internal communications via email must go  
>>> through this listserv, where they are publicly archived. If there  
>>> are any changes to meeting times or locations, then those emails  
>>> must still be sent out to the Coordboard MAIN listserv  
>>> (HSU-CoordinatingBoard at lists.hampshire.edu) so that the meetings  
>>> can be open to all members of the Hampshire community. Listservs  
>>> are not a secure method of communication and any sensitive info  
>>> such as passwords or classified infomation should not be sent via  
>>> listserv.
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> HSU-CoordBoardInfo mailing list
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>>> https://lists.hampshire.edu/mailman/listinfo/hsu-coordboardinfo
>
>
>
> ------
> This is the INTERNAL mailing list for Coordboard. For the sake of  
> transparency, all internal communications via email must go through  
> this listserv, where they are publicly archived. If there are any  
> changes to meeting times or locations, then those emails must still  
> be sent out to the Coordboard MAIN listserv  
> (HSU-CoordinatingBoard at lists.hampshire.edu) so that the meetings can  
> be open to all members of the Hampshire community. Listservs are not  
> a secure method of communication and any sensitive info such as  
> passwords or classified infomation should not be sent via listserv.
> _______________________________________________
> HSU-CoordBoardInfo mailing list
> HSU-CoordBoardInfo at lists.hampshire.edu
> https://lists.hampshire.edu/mailman/listinfo/hsu-coordboardinfo

------
This is the INTERNAL mailing list for Coordboard. For the sake of transparency, all internal communications via email must go through this listserv, where they are publicly archived. If there are any changes to meeting times or locations, then those emails must still be sent out to the Coordboard MAIN listserv (HSU-CoordinatingBoard at lists.hampshire.edu) so that the meetings can be open to all members of the Hampshire community. Listservs are not a secure method of communication and any sensitive info such as passwords or classified infomation should not be sent via listserv.
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