American University
Residence Hall Association
c/o Housing & Dining Programs | 4400 Massachusetts Ave, NW | Washington, DC 20016-8142
Phone: 202-885-1RHA | FAX: 202-885-1154 | E-mail: info@aurha.org | www.aurha.org
General Assembly 22 March 2012
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Call to Order
o At 10:00pm President Cindy Zhang called the 18th General Assembly
meeting of 2011-2012 to order
Attendance
o Quorum is established
Agenda Approval
o Motion to approve the agenda
 Seconded, passed
Approval of Minutes
o Motion to approve last meeting’s minutes
 Seconded, passed
NRHH
o OTM’s
 Advisor: Rebekah Pepper
 DR: Trevor Godley
 E-Board: Will Whitaker
 RA: Justin Saffar
 Student: Carson Lewis
 Educational Program: What’s You’re True Color, Lauren Montanaro
 Diversity Program: Combating Human Trafficking and Modern-Day
Slavery, First-Year Multicultural Competence & Inclusion Committee
o Nominate people for NRHH!
o OTM’s for March are due on April 5th by 11:59pm
Green Dot
o Sarah Glassman and Daniel Rappaport present
Open Forum
o Fiona has an extra ticket for the Hunger Games
o Fiona and Sam have a great idea for “Shoutouts” each week where you
recognize someone from your hall for something great
Green Dot
o Sarah Glassman and Daniel Rappaport present
 What is power-based personal violence?
 Partner violence, sexual violence, or stalking
 What is a green dot?
 It's any behavior‚ choice‚ word‚ or attitude that promotes
safety and communicates intolerance for violence.
The 3 D’s: How to Intervene
 Direct- you feel comfortable handling the situation directly
 Delegate- getting someone else to handle the situation
 Distract- distract them!
 Like the Green Dot Facebook page!
 http://www.facebook.com/pages/AU-GreenDot/211064355632198
 Training on April 7th in McDowell Formal Lounge
 Register here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dH
RuVFI5NHNqNkJjSURwNmdzRzYtWWc6MQ#gid=0
Fund Request: South Asian Student Association Holi/Basant
o Lawrence Kubli presents
 Holi/Basant is the Indian festival of colors
 Requesting $500 to go towards food and drinks
 Total cost of the event is $1200
o Questions:
 How many people attended last year?
 I’m not sure, but 195 people are registered on the Facebook
event.
 When is the event?
 This Sunday from 11:30am-4pm.
 Are you requesting funds from any other organizations?
 Student Activities is contributing $150
 What is SASA’s budget for the year?
 Around $1400
o Discussion:
 How much do we currently have in the Grant Request Fund?
 $175
 Motion to reallocate $500 from the Committee Request Fund and
$600 from the RA Request Fund to the Grant Request Fund.
 Seconded, passed
 JV: I think SASA could use some serious awareness.
 Motion to grant $500 to SASA
 Seconded, objection
o Debate
 Pro: Because the event is so close, they don’t
have anywhere else to get money.
 Con: I feel like I didn’t get a full description of
the event.
 Pro: While it’s valid to want more information,
they did provide a full description. Also, a lot
of people have enjoyed SASA’s programs in the
past.
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Pro: Since we have some discretionary funds,
we should grant them the money.
o Vote: 29-0-2, granting $500 to SASA
Election Panel: SG Presidential Candidates
o Motion to extend the presentation time to 15 minutes
 Seconded, passed
o Emily Yu, Presidential candidate, presents
o Abby Finn, Presidential candidate, presents
o Ty Lane, Vice Presidential candidate, presents
o Deon Jones, Presidential candidate, presents
o Motion to hold a Q&A session for 5 minutes
 Seconded, passed
o Motion to extend the Q&A period by 7 minutes
 Seconded, passed
Motion to have the Hall Council presidents and the Executive Board members to
email their reports to brian@aurha.org
o Seconded, passed
Hall Reports
o Anderson
 Working with LeCloper on joint events
 Revamping our floor reps
o Centennial
 Held first meeting on Tuesday
 Planning events for Hall Wars
o Hughes
 Working on Open Mic Night
 Working on Hall Wars programming
o Leonard
 Coffee and Cookies this Tuesday at 6:30pm
 Tabling for Tastes of Leonard on March 28th
 Tastes of Leonard on April 1st at 2pm
 Performing groups at 3pm
o Letts, Clark, and Roper
 March Madness championship game event on 4/2
 Beach on the Beach will be on 4/15
 Spring Formal will be on 4/22
 Sam is planning a hall safety event
 Mr./Mrs. LeCloper event on 4/11
 Let Fiona know if you have a more creative name!
o Like McDowell’s “McDweller”
o McDowell
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o Nebraska
 Not present
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o Tenley Campus
 Will have voting booths next Tuesday and Wednesday
 Make your own Hall Wars t-shirt next Wednesday
Executive Board Reports
o President
 Sorry for such a chaotic meeting
 Next week, meeting structure will return to normal
 Hall Wars is being finalized
 A final breakdown of events and scoring criteria will be
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sent out on Tuesday night after review by the
President's Roundtable
The Transition and Awards Banquet invitations will be sent out
this coming week
 Please RSVP as I need a final headcount a week in
advance of the event.
Has begun working on a transition document for next year's
executive board
RHA allocated $500 to APO's Stand Event
 Here is a link
(http://www.facebook.com/events/356477037719971/)
to their facebook event. Please sign up for their cause!
Please apply for NRHH, a sister organization and important
component of keeping the residence halls an enjoyable place
to live. You may apply if you are a freshman. You just have to
have lived in the residence halls for two semesters and you
will have by the time you are inducted. Here is a
link: http://form.jotform.com/form/12720160024
Due to the quick reply that was needed, the E-Board has
agreed that RHA will be in support of Take Back the Night, an
event by Women's Initiative to help promote stopping rape and
sexual violence. We believe that the issues that the group is
trying to promote for this event affect many men and women in
the residence halls and thought it would be pertinent to
support their cause. Please let us know if you have any
questions!
o Vice President of Advocacy and Community Coordination
 Getting feedback on different aspects of RHA this week by
asking people about what is going well and what can be
improved.
 One of the things that caught my attention was that at
our last GA meeting before spring break, the E-board
asking for a recess so abruptly came off as very strange
and secretive. Since I was in charge during that time, I
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would like to apologize. What happened was new
information came to light about the correct procedure for
addressing the procedural error in appointing the VP of
Finance. Hussein realized that the announcement I was
about to make was incorrect, and stopped me. We
asked to confer with the rest of the E-board to make the
decision to proceed in the new direction, which was
sending the matter to the disciplinary review council. I
realize in hindsight that I should have explained better
to you why we were stepping out, and I'm sorry for
making the GA feel uncomfortable or confused in any
way. If you have any questions about it or lingering
concerns, I or any of the E-Board is happy to listen and
answer.
In other news, AIR CONDITIONING WILL BE ON
WEDNESDAY. Tell your neighbors to tell their neighbors, give
the people hope!
The Advocacy Roundtable is on a roll and hopefully we'll have
some brand spankin' new resolutions for you next week! I
have been working with the VPs as to what the main issue in
your hall is and how to best approach it and I'm really excited
for what they've come up with!
HOTY point values are almost finalized for Hall Wars!
If you have any ides for something fun to do as a group of
people who enjoy having fun together, please feel free to
suggest it during open forum. Paige or I can help you plan if
you get people interested!
o Vice President of Finance and Administration
 In the process of balancing all of the budget line items
 VPAF Roundtable heard and discussed two grant requests
from Queers and Allies: (1) Day of Silence and (2) Pride Prom
 They voted and granted a total of $500 to the two
events total
 Good luck to the candidates in their campaigning!
 Ordered literally 1000 envelopes
o Vice President of Programming
 Hall Wars "Jump" Off
 WEDNESDAY at 12pm-4pm
o There will be bouncy castles, carnival food, and
other snacks
 Next Tuesday 4/3 at 7pm, Former NFL Player Don
McPherson will be speaking about sexual assault and how to
be proactive against it
 We helped fund this event and it will be really good to
go and learn about this.
 Next Wednesday 4/4 at 8pm, Jess Pettit will be speaking
about how language can be hurtful and how we should stop
this behavior
 We also helped fund this speaker so please come out to
it
 Event in a Bag Supplies: Hopefully these supplies will be
passed out at next Thursday's general assembly meeting.
 Relay for Life: RHA and NRHH have a joint team! Yay! A
sign-up sheet will be in the office for the week as well as at the
general meeting. We are going to be subsidizing the
registration fee, so please sign up. It'll be a lot of fun!!!
o National Communications Coordinator
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o Chief
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Constitutional Forum email will be sent out
Had a meeting with Tonei about NRHH Building Block - we
are putting together a development plan for NRHH
Curtis Clark (Regional Director) and Laura Imbirowicz
(National Chair) have confirmed that we can move forward
with forming the DC Coodinated Council
DC Leads space requests have been entered, and we are
now developing a budget
NACURH Letter drops are continuing - we currently have over
1300 NACURH Spirit points because of the committee's
phone and ink cartridge collection efforts. If anyone has
access to used phones or ink cartridges, bring them to
General Assembly
We are preparing a proposal for the Program of the Year
Regional Matching Grant that was part of the Long-Term
Action Plan
We are continuing to plan programs for our bids for next year
There’s a vacancy on the Regional Board of Directors and Rory is
looking into if he’s eligible for the position
of Staff
Window letters will be printed by next GA
Breakfast Club updates
 Smoking policy on campus
 Outdoor sound policy is being revised
Will is now the only person who receives the emails from
info@aurha.org
RHA Master Calendar
 Staying as a Google Doc, since Google Calendars don’t
“share” well
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o Advisor
 Will be out of town from Friday to Wednesday
 Semi-regular access to email
 Elections
 Get the vote out!
 Invite your friends to our reminder event on Facebook
(http://www.facebook.com/events/413046338712908/)
Hall Wars Breakdown
o Cindy presents
Adjournment
o At 11:38pm the 18th General Assembly meeting of 2011-2012 is adjourned