American University
Residence Hall Association
c/o Housing & Dining Programs | 4400 Massachusetts Ave, NW | Washington, DC 20016-8142
Phone: (202) 885-1878 | FAX: (202) 885-1154 | E-mail: info@aurha.org | www.aurha.org
General Assembly Minutes
January 29, 2015
Megan O’Toole
President
202-885-3606
megan@aurha.org
~McDowell Formal Lounge- 9:00pm~
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Joanne Frangias
Vice President of
Administration & Finance
202-885-3676
joanne@aurha.org
Nate Warszawski
Vice President of
Advocacy &
Community Coordination
202-885-1878
nate@aurha.org
Sarah Nylen
Vice President of
Programming
202-885-2774
sarah@aurha.org
Jody Gregory
National Communications
Coordinator
202-885-2179
jody@aurha.org
Devin Moore
Chief of Staff
202-885-1742
devin@aurha.org
Daniel DeHollander
Advisor
202-885-3138
deholla@american.edu
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Call to Order
o Meeting called to order at 9:05 pm
Attendance
o Anderson
 6/7,
 Proxies: 1
o Cassell
 6/7
 Proxies: 0
o Centennial
 3/7
 Proxies: 0
o Hughes
 6/7, 2 late
 Proxies: 0
o Leonard
 5/7
 Proxies: 0
o Letts Clark and Roper
 5/7, 2 late
 Proxies: 1
o McDowell
 4/7
 Proxies: 0
o Nebraska
 1/7
 Proxies: 0
Minutes Approval
o Motion- made Matt B.- to approve last GA’s minutes by unanimous consent
 Seconded by Joe
Agenda Approval
o Motion- made by Matt B- to approve last GA’s agenda by unanimous consent
 Seconded by Joe
Hall Reports
o Anderson
 First Meeting
 Super Bowl party with Centennial
 Plus Scott Talon
 Transgender Society
o Cassell
 Roommate matching
 Super Bowl event
 March madness event
Centennial
 New VP of Programming
 Roommate matching event
 Sex politics and pizza
o Hughes
 First meeting of the semester
 Hughes newsletter
 Mandatory OTMs
o Leonard
 Super Bowl Sunday event
 Cookie Grams
 Massage night in the Hatch
 New VP of Finance
o Letts Clark and Roper
 Super Bowl Sunday
 Planned out all events for the semester
 Cookie decorating
o McDowell
 Super bowl party with SPEC and Berks
 Few Advocacy initiatives
o Nebraska
 Had a first meeting
 Talked about events
 New ARD
Executive Board Reports
o President
 What I did:
 Dining services project team meeting
 University Council meeting, budget
 What I didn’t do:
 Send Devin Updates
 What I am planning on doing:
 Solidifying presidents roundtable
 No Frills
o Vice President of Administration and Finance
 What I did:
 4 different care package companies
 Budget presentation
 Finance roundtable
o $75 H.D. to Centennial Hall for event
o $225 HDP Staff to Anderson Hall
 Financial policies
o Vice President of Advocacy and Community Coordination
 What I did:
 Met with roundtable
o Restructured Advocates
o HOTY restructured
o Orientation
o Hall Wars planning
 What I didn’t do:
 Nothing
 What I am planning on doing:
 Sayings and Sigils
o Vice President of Programming
o
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What I did:
 Founders day update
 Plan year and budget
 Got s'mores for founders week event
 Broke up hall councils for events with big RHA
 Planned all of hall wars
 Met with office of sustainability for Eco Olympics
 Worked on polar plunge
 What I didn't do:
 Nothing
 What I’m going to do:
 Finalize transition catering and location
 Possible alumni brunch
 Founders Day Tickets
 Online is better than 6-10 hours of waiting
 If you have a job, internship, etc. you couldn’t get tickets
o Online, now everyone can access
 You have an equal chance of getting a ticket than last year
 Easier on everyone’s schedule
 There is a waitlist if you couldn’t get a ticket
 Founders Day Dress Code
 You can dress nice, but it does not have to be a tux
National Communications Coordinator
 What I did:
 Met with Daniel
 Met with Arthur
 Started reviewing bids for No Frills
 Scheduled Roundtable
 Booked car for No Frills
 What I didn't do:
 Attend Hughes hall council meeting
 What I'm going to do:
 Meet with VPs of Rec
 Finish bid feedback forms
 Attend No Frills
Chief of Staff
 What I did:
 Met with Daniel
 Met with A-board
 What I didn’t do:
 Set up a delegate meeting
 Update the website
 What I’m going to do:
 Set up a delegate meeting
 Update the website
 Admin Board Updates
 HOTY program updated
 Hall Wars is being planned
 A philanthropic cause for Hall Wars is going to be looked into,
it is most likely going to be sandwich making
 Disciplinary review committee’s vacancies have been filled
 Arthur is helping Jody a lot with School of the Year bids for
next year and other NCC things
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o
o
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NRHH
 First chapter meeting of the semester
 Rapid changes to structure
 Relay for Life team created
 Join the 4400 Society
 No Frills
o Advisor
 Thank you for participating in my training session on Saturday! Please
let me know if you ever want to discuss the topic of access and
inclusion in more detail.
 Please take care of yourself and seek out resources during this Flu
Season (CDC.gov/flu)
 Upcoming H&DP Events:
 The Major Games (Wednesday, February 4, 2015, 11am-2pm,
MGC 2-3)
 Spring 2015 Open Room Change is live through February 6th
 http://www.american.edu/ocl/housing/room-change.cfm
 2015-2016 Housing Selection Process
 http://www.american.edu/ocl/housing/roomselection/?utm_so
urce=web&utm_medium=CMS&utm_campaign=OCL%20HDPr
oomselect
 STEP 1: Online Housing Application, due Friday, January 30th
at 5:00pm (ET)
 STEP 2: Group Declaration, due February 20th at 5:00pm (ET)
 STEP 3: Room Selection, February 25th – March 5th
o Information Sessions
 Tuesday, January 20th at 6:30pm in Nebraska
Hall Lounge
 Thursday, January 22nd at 6:30pm in The
Hatch (Transfer Students only)
 Wednesday, January 28th at 6:30pm in Letts
Hall Formal Lounge
Old Business
o None
New Business
o Student Rights Presentation – Sasha, Director of Student Rights, Student
Government
 Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities
 http://www.rights.ausg.org/
 Compilation of student rights in one central location
 Not official university document
 Wants to increase the amount of students reading these rights
 Wants to have RAs hand out the Student Rights during one of the first
floor meetings of the semester
 Talks about university policies in a simplistic, yet powerful way
 Allows you to be a responsible citizen
 Needs RHA to support the effort of the Students Rights Campaign
 Questions
 Terry- do they have resources to students rights
organizations?
o If you are involved in a conduct violation, you can go
to Student Advocacy Center
o
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Natalie is going to create a competition for our Facebook page
so we can reach past 1000 likes!
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o
o
o
o
Joe- What do you want RHA to do?
o We want a vote of confidence today, but a co-active
resolution might be necessary
Budget Presentation – Joanne
 Spring Semester Budget
 Budget attached to minutes email
 Questions
 Will that extra money be subtracted to the deficit
o Yes
 T-shirts for Hall Wars
o Yes
 Discussion on Budget
 Pro- Matt- Good RHA budget, well put together
 Pro- Joe- Joanne is a really good
 Move to vote on budget- Saagar
o Seconded by Martin
o Vote: 38/0/0 – passed
 Budget Vote
o 37/0/0- passed
HOTY Presentation – Nate
 HOTY details are in the minutes email
 HOTY has expanded categories
Change Wars – Audrey
 Collection from February 2-15
 In coordination with Students Helping Honduras
 Floor vs. Floor competition
 Pizza party wining prize for winning floor across campus
Resolution #14-15-005 – Martin and Josh
 Resolution for Safe Sex Promotion in Residence Halls
 66.5% of students engage in sexual behavior
 Promoting free condoms at the front desk of each hall 24/7
 Friendly Amendment: “;” ending each proper clause and other
grammatical changes
 Discussion
 What does this do?
o Start in the Fall; however the logistics will be solved
later. This is going to be a support resolution
 Who pays for this?
o Working out the details
o Free male condoms from government, but female
condoms and dental dams will need to be paid for
 Sophia Wirth will sign a statement of support if RHA passes
the resolution
 Pro/Con
 Pro- Saagar, safe sex is better than unsafe sex
 Con- Kenna, you should be smart enough to grab it from the
health center
 Pro- Justin- could be in the middle of the night
 Con- Michaela- parents might be deterred from sending their
children to school if they see it
 Pro- could put them in the bathroom
 Pro- Christina- some people are not prepared enough to think
ahead, will not create an unsafe environment
 Vote on Resolution 14-15-005
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34/0/4-- passes
Open Forum
o Dining
 Extending the meal swipe access
 Cannot take a mango instead of a banana or apple
 Cannot take a water instead of soda
 Meal swipes valued at $9.50
 Why is that?
o $400 of meal plan is dining dollars and eaglebucks
o Discounted prices
o Go to the dining services committee meetings
 Reach out to Dining
o Founders Ticketing
 Possibly charged a small fee
 Megan- not going to happen, we like to keep this as open as
possible
 Fundraising for the ball?
 Cannot keep the things the way they are
 There is an Alumni event to get as much money as possible
 Pool of tickets for RHA General Assembly only
 We should make tickets more accessible, adding more slots
 Put everyone’s name in a system where you prioritize the upper-class
students
 RHA and SG working the event
 We already do this to the extent in which we can
 A hybrid system of line ticketing and online ticketing
 Electronic system should be applauded, line system extremely flawed,
have priority registration for seniors and juniors and RHA GA. Hybrid
system will still cram the halls
 Guaranteeing a certain percent of residents
 Majority of attendees are residents
General Announcements
o Martin- Education Not Debt group
 Forum/Town Hall meeting within the next 2-3 weeks about the
budget
 2/16 budget town hall
Recognition
Adjournment
o Meeting adjourned at 10:49pm
Respectfully Submitted,
Devin Moore
RHA Chief of Staff
These minutes were approved by unanimous consent by the 2/12/15 General Assembly