MEMBERSHIP

AGENDA MINUTES ROBERTS RULES GOVERNING DOCS

Minutes of the 55th Session

April 2006

1. Call to order by Chair Shy Brickler, Fresno City College at 1:05 p.m.

2. Call of the Roll of Member Schools; quorum present

3. Approval of the Minutes of  April 2005
Approved on a motion by Mesa Community College, seconded by American River College.

4.  Adoption of the Agenda 
Adopted without objection.

5. Appointment of the General (9-15)and Rules Committees (5-9)
a. Report of the General Committee
b. Report of the Rules Committee
No issues presented at this time; committees will be appointed if the need arises.

6.   Election of Student Representatives to MUNFW, Inc.
a. Paulo Amaral of Cerritos College
b. Joshua Colusa –San Francisco State University
c. Pamela McCardy – Chandler-Gilbert Community College
d.  Olga Bukash - MUNRFE
Western Oregon University moved and Mesa seconded a motion to elect three representatives with one alternate.  All four are to attend the Board meeting tomorrow.  The Motion passed.

7. Report of the 55th Session
No report was presented.

8.  Report of the 56th Session

Erin Clancy reported that things are going well.  Security Council should be getting interesting in a few minutes.  She was open to questions.  Asked about the World Press, she reported that everyone had assignments last night.  The editor worked on the issue until 6 a.m. this morning.  Copies have been sent to the committees late this morning.

She thanked Cerritos for coming and noted that their delegates are doing well.

The meeting suspended until Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m.

Reconvening on Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m., a roll call of member schools verified the presence of a quorum. 

9.  Report of the 57th Session:

Slanczka gave the dates of April 13 to 17, 2007, noted that we would be back in the Hyatt and the room rates were $115/night.

Matt Williams introduced himself as Secretary General for 57th Session.  Dille distributed agendas.  Williams reported that the theme would be “Reasserting UN Relevance: Defining its Role in a Changing World.”

He noted that most issues were security oriented.  International Court of Justice & Conference on the Family are new to the conference.   They are considering another small Committee but would need another school to staff it.  GA, First, Fourth are the large committees.

Questions on ICJ arose.  Williams reported there would be 15 student judges.  There would be three cases and each case would have two advocates on each side of the case; 19-20 persons total. Advocates would rotate as judges.  Judges would review briefs and hear advocates from each side.  Advocates would write issue briefs.  They are looking for law students to participate in the court; MUNRFE who will run the ICJ are confident that any student could participate.  People would apply as individuals to be on ICJ.  They will be required to prepare legal briefs and submit them in advance.  MUNRFE will select the cases.   It was chosen to give an interesting perspective to the conference.  They are looking for senior students. 

10. Bid to Host the 58th Session

Noting that there was not a bid to host the 58th Session, Whittier and Mesa were asked to talk about the hosting experience.  

Bifurcation triggered Whittier’s participation.  They did not have to take care of the hotel, etc.  McBride noted it is a wonderful experience for the students.  He suggested having 8-12 students who will be back in two years to be a core group. These are students who are pretty dedicated and willing to spend time and develop cohesion.  Depending on the size of your group, you may need to recruit consortium schools.  The lead school should chair one or two committees.  Your core should include the Secretary General and some support people to assist the SG; DPI and World Press (2 good people for each).  With more committees, you need more people.  He had a core of 18 and only lost one.  It is a wonderful experience as it develops leadership skills.

Dille of Mesa reported that a consortium Secretariat is not expensive as the consortium schools pay their own housing and travel expenses.  He likes the system as the Secretariat students can focus on the issues.  

No formal bids were presented, but several schools have expressed interest.

11.   Report of MUNFW, Inc.

Ross Barrons, President of MUNFW, Inc. stated that Membership constituted the Shareholders of MUNFW, Inc.  Membership selects 14 of 19 seats on the Board of Directors.  The Board met this morning.

Financially, we are in the black and will be in the black for this conference.  We are not wealthy, but we are doing OK.  We are looking to increase the Endowment Fund.

There was a long discussion on recruiting schools and materials and approaches to helping schools.  We want to identify schools and faculty members to be mentors to potential new schools.

We also looked at pre-conference documents and scoring system.  We are seeking to refine the process and some of the problems we saw in those documents.  Under particular scrutiny were the policy statements.  Several options were discussed, but we still want a one-page document with no footnotes, etc.

Of particular concern was plagiarism.  If the student is copying something from the web site, is it being distilled; is it plagiarism or laziness.  A possible change would be a summary paragraph.  The second paragraph would be widened to include other activities as well as the UN.

Barrons shared some plagiarism items such as copying from the issues book or other sources or using UN language in resolutions.  Policy statements are to ensure students know the issue and know their country’s views.  Students need to process the information rather than copy it.  And it should be an accurate reflection of what the country would do.

Barrons reported that they would be redoing web site –with a new definition of Policy Statements, Resolutions, and Country Profiles.  The scoring system will also be on the web site. 

A faculty member offered that there not be a prescribed summary paragraph.  Another asked about the requirements for position papers as he has problems with changing students or dropping students and this means that the delegation has to create these position papers.

SFSU is reluctant to have only one delegate per committee due to the dropping problem.  If a delegation is not staffing a committee, why do they need to submit a policy statement or resolution?  Suggest policy statements and resolutions from four committees or only for the committees the delegation is staffing.  Plagiarism is a problem; students should not plagiarize from any document; consider allowing citations.

The Board has decided to post the policies of MUNFW on the web site.

SFSU expressed interest in other MUNs in the West to look to merges or cooperation?  Barrons said they would look into contacts with other organizations for more cooperation.

Barrons expressed the hope to grow attendance.  We are at 432 delegates, would like to reach 500; at 600 we can add a committee.  We are looking for diversity and more countries.

12.  Election of Officers for MUNFW, Inc.

Barrons presented the following slate for election:

a. President                      Ross Barrons
c. Vice President  Michelle Cervantes
d. Secretary                     Shy Brickler
e. Treasurer                      Julie French.

Mesa moved, SFSU seconded, and the slate was adopted.

13. Election of Chair for Membership:

Brickler reported that she was taking on new role in the organization.  Membership needs a new chair. Whittier moved that the Board appoint a chair.  Western Oregon University seconded, and the motion passed.

14. Selection of the Host for the 58th Session

No bids have been submitted.  Interested schools are to contact Barrons.

15. Old Business

No old business was called for.

16. New Business

Jennifer Broaddus Edwards, the new Executive Director was introduced.  She was thanked for her immediate response to correspondence.  She reiterated that she will revise the web site.  She also expressed hope to expand the conference.  She noted that the conference was going well; Erin and her group were doing well.

There were complaints about internet access at the hotel; Edwards and Barrons said they would check with the hotel to see what can be done. When asked about another hotel, Barrons reported there were only four hotel options for meeting space and rooms in the area.  It is too expensive in San Francisco.  Besides we want to keep the delegates in committees which would be difficult to do if we were in the city. 

Dominican praised the conference.

Several noted the food prices at the hotel were too high for most students.  They asked if there could be inexpensive rates for breakfast or lunch.  Barrons and Edwards will check into this.  One suggestion was to take one expensive cab trip to the grocery store and purchase food items there. 

It was also noted that there were costs to the use of ATM machines at the hotel.

Clancy again welcomed Dominican and Cerritos as new schools and noted their delegates are great.  She noted that World Press has been an issue and we are working on that. She reported issues with credentials challenges.  These challenges have been worked out between the parties by calling them out of the meeting room and reviewing the policy statements.

Cerritos appreciated working with Whittier in preparation for the conference. 

Asked about the room bloc for the conference, Membership was advised that we are meeting the bloc, but it is very close.  Membership was advised that it would cost us an additional $7,000 if we did not meet the room bloc.  It is extremely important that schools book at the Hyatt for the conference so as not incur this additional cost.  At the present time, we do have the funds to cover this, but would not have such a reserve for the future.  It was suggested that there be a statement to advisors on the web site on the importance of booking at this hotel.

17. Adjournment

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned upon a motion by

Whittier, seconded by Mesa.