Butler Committee Meeting Nov. 3, 2008

Submitted by Jane Phillips, Recording Secretary

Committee Members present: David Jorgensen (Chair), Jeffrey Dwoskin (Housing Rep), Bronwyn Smith (Community Room Coordinator), Dante Ricci (GSG Rep), Anna Frost (Dolly Coordinator), Patrick Ross (Treasurer), Andrew Owen (Webmaster), Nicole Jui (Garden Co-Coordinator), Chin Jou (Social Chair), Tao Long (Garden Co-Coordinator), Jane Phillips (Recording Secretary).

Community Members present: Olivia Martel, Nancy Jones, William Bridges, Tyson Aflalo, Theresa and Tony Mastracchio, Rachel Galvin, Lauren Neilson, Aryeh Amihay, Forrest Bradbury, Shannon Hughes.

Meeting called to order at 9:05 pm.

David (Chair): Asked to do introductions first, pointed out that tonight's meeting might run long, said he wanted to keep the meeting at two hours. Everyone introduced themselves.

Today's agenda: Officer reports, housing priority statement issues, Chair election, discussion of Community Room use and purchases.

Bronwyn (Community Room): Bronwyn's responsibilities do not include cleaning the Community Room; she coordinates cleaning with Housing or Facilities. Residents can contact Bronwyn about cleanliness issues and she can contact the correct people. People who reserve the Community Room and do not clean up after themselves can be fined ~$100. This information is contained in the emails that go to residents who reserve the Community Room. Olivia suggested that signs be put up around the room asking people to clean up after themselves and pointing them to cleaning supplies. Bronwyn will ask Dwight whether cleaning supplies in the closet can be used.

Bronwyn asked Jeff about whether the rule about bumping people from the Community Room is published (specifically, that people who reserve the room very often can be bumped if someone else wants the room on a particular day), and Jeff said he would look up the rules and get them to Bronwyn. Bronwyn says that this is not a frequent issue, but that it needs to be made clear to residents. It was suggested that this information be put on the website.

Jane (Recording Secretary): Will be leaving the Committee, so the Secretary position will be open for next month's election.

Dante (GSG Rep): Dante talked about the shuttle system overhaul, but Jeff will talk more about that later. There may be a survey about the Academic Calendar coming around from the GSG. Lisa Schreyer approved the Wine and Cheese, and we got $300 from the GSG for the event.

Patrick (Treasurer): We are ~$250 under budget. The Committee has not yet received any money from Housing. Olivia says that the Committee will be getting money from Housing soon. The Princeton account has $1023.10 and the Garden account has $282.42.

Chin (Social Chair): The Wine and Cheese event will be this Thursday. Chin went over the volunteers for the event to remind Committee members present. Chin got a 15% discount on wine - she has bought two cases so far. Last year, there were five cases and there were several bottles left over. Chin will buy 1.5-2 more cases (for a total of 3.5-4 cases at 12 bottles/case). She is planning on spending $700 total for the event, including wine, cheese and crackers. The event will be from 8-10 pm on Thursday.

Nicole and Tao (Garden): Jim Consolloy and Facilities have paved around the garden area and weeded. The gardening season is pretty much over for the year. In the future, Nicole and Tao will organize guidelines for what is acceptable in an "organic" garden. Resident Forrest says that the buckets that have been provided in the garden are very helpful, and requested that more be obtained, along with lids. The composting area has been reorganized, and a flier about composting will hopefully be delivered to residents within a week.

Andrew (Webmaster): Has put both the old and new versions of the bylaws online. David suggested that Andrew make some minor changes to the layout of the website (for aesthetic reasons). He also requested that the budget be put in a more obvious place on the website.

Anna (Dolly Coordinator): Has some updates for Andrew, and will communicate those to him. The trick-or-treat fliers were put out, and the day turned out well. Wanted to know whether a January note should go out to residents this year, and whether people had anything they wanted to put into it. Anna suggested gathering information from all emails that have gone out to residents recently and putting it in a flier.

David (Chair): Rebecca got back to David about the robbery in Butler from the beginning of the summer, and it turned out that the robbery was never reported to the police and that the couple has since moved out of the country. This seems to be a closed issue.

David mentioned that the butler-apt listserv is not reaching all residents, even though it contains critical information. He received emails from ~20 people who are not on that listserv (he contacted them through the butler-res listserv). He tried following up with Lisa Schreyer and Olivia. He reposted all relevant information to butler-res (winterization, new key pickup, etc.). Theresa mentioned that she is not on the listserv, even though she used to be on it. Olivia pointed out that she, David, and Lisa Schreyer are working on this issue. Chin suggested that it could be a problem for people who had moved or been wait listed in the past.

Jeff (Housing); Wants to talk about the proposed shuttle routes which would go into effect in January if adopted. The shuttle will have three routes, one main campus, one shopping, one Forrestal campus. The proposed route can be found in the GSG minutes online. They are hiring a new shuttle provider who should be more reliable. There will be an express route to connect GC, Lawrence and Hibben-Magie, and they will be put onto the circulator route later at night. Butler lines should be running to campus every 10 minutes during peak hours and every 20 minutes off-peak. But there will be no direct route from Butler to the other grad housing complexes (people will need to transfer between lines). The GSG put out a survey earlier in the year, and some minor changes have been implemented, and the GSG continues to work with Kim Jackson. After 9 pm, the shuttle system will be on-demand (need to call and will be picked up within 10 minutes, supposedly). Jeff thinks that the benefits of the changes to the shuttle system (implemented in part because of the survey) outweigh the negatives of the new system as a whole. Aryeh pointed out that commuters in Butler will have a much more difficult time getting to the Dinky. This concern has also been raised at the GSG. Tao pointed out that signage would need to be supplied to all residents because of the more complicated system.

Jeff handed out a statement for Housing regarding housing priority. Housing has asked all residential committees and the GSG to provide reasons for housing priority spots, responsibilities of committee members, etc. Olivia pointed out that Housing is doing this to be more sensitive to all residents because of the impending housing crunch. Jeff asked for comments regarding the document which will be sent to Housing. People can also contact him after the meeting. Committee members present agreed that Jeff's writeup was good. A majority of those present approved the document by show of hands.

Election for Chair: David asked whether any present Committee members would like to run for Chair, and no one volunteered. Jeff was nominated as presiding officer for the elections, and this was passed by show of hands. Patrick volunteered to help count votes, and was this was approved by show of hands. Jeff noted that those who want to run for Chair could state their intention to do so. Only David Jorgensen declared his candidacy for Chair. Patrick handed out a piece of paper to all eligible voters (those who had been to at least one previous Committee meeting in the past 12 months). Jeff went over procedures for the election (see by-laws on website). Whoever is elected tonight will begin a term at the end of December with the other Committee members. David made a statement, which unfortunately occurred after all the ballots had been submitted. Election results: 13 votes for David, 1 vote for none. David has been re-elected to the Chair position.

Community room use discussion

Tyson suggested that a ping pong table be bought for the Community Room. William suggested that a play area be set up for infants and toddlers, since there is nowhere for smaller children during playtimes for all children. He specifically suggested that a plastic gate be set up. Bronwyn suggested that a pack and play could be bought for the room instead of a crib, but noted that the pack and play would need to be transportable and collapsible. Anna pointed out that ping pong tables often break while being folded, even when correct directions are used. Andrew suggested that William and a few other residents come up with some more concrete options for baby options. William pointed out that floor pads could be bought - Jeff mentioned that Sams Club sells them and they are not too expensive. Jeff noted that a ping pong table in the Community Room in the past broke extremely often and ended up being too much trouble to maintain. He said, though, that there could be new models now that are more durable, and Dante agreed. David pointed out that it would be difficult to maintain balls for the table. Dante suggested that one lot of balls be bought for a year supply, and beyond those balls, residents would need to supply their own. Patrick pointed out that a ping pong table would need to be safe and childproof. Bronwyn pointed out that usable space in the Community Room is decreasing as more things are bought for the Room. William noted that there are plenty of things in the room that are not used. Nicole suggested that collapsible gates be put into the room that could be attached to the walls. Nancy, Bronwyn and William volunteered to help out with coming up with something for a child's playspace. Dante and Tyson volunteered to go over ping pong table options.

Forrest raised an issue with the bylaws. He asked how many people live in Butler (Jeff says ~600 people). He thinks that the Committee is not representative of the community as a whole, and has an issue with the Committee members having housing priority spots even though they have only been elected by a very small minority of the community. Theresa pointed out that she and her husband need to skip work to come to meetings, so there are some people who cannot be physically present at meetings, and that therefore the requirement for needing to attend a previous meeting in order to vote is unfair. Andrew pointed out that residents have always been informed of all the bylaw changes and all election procedures via email, and that requiring residents to come to one previous meeting could be equated to voter registration.

Shannon pointed out that multiple possibilities for elections were considered in the rewriting of the bylaws, but that if a better system arose, the Committee would be open to amending the bylaws. David pointed out that the old bylaws are now also online for residents to view along with the newly ratified bylaws. Patrick asked whether there would be a better way to allow people to vote who cannot come to meetings. Olivia noted that the Lawrence Committee is adopting Butler's bylaws (or some or most of them). William asked why there is a requirement for residents to attend a meeting before voting. Shannon noted that the bylaws subcommittee decided for various reasons that in-person voting was best, and that it would be better for residents to have a requirement for having been present at a previous meeting because of the problem of someone bringing in many friends to vote for him or herself in order to simply get a housing priority spot. Forrest pointed out that if people brought friends to a meeting to vote, that it might not be a bad thing because that person might be genuinely qualified. He also noted that those running for office could get their platforms out to residents via email, etc.

Forrest also has a problem with the tier system in that it sets up an incumbency bias. Andrew pointed out that there are several residents who attend meetings without actually being on the Committee. Jeff pointed out that the tiers are set up as a fallback system just to make sure that all positions are filled. William pointed out that everything involving the elections is centered around coming to meetings, and pointed out that this is too difficult for some residents to fulfill. He pointed out that maybe absentee voting should be allowed. David pointed out that residents need only attend each election plus one additional meeting (over the course of time one lives in Butler) in order to be eligible to vote each year. At 11:10 pm, David made a motion to table the discussion for the next meeting. Motion to table the discussion was passed by show of hands. Shannon suggested that Forrest come back to the next meeting with a proposal for changes to bylaws (specifically election procedures). David pointed out that, according to the current bylaws, bylaws can be changed by majority opinion whether the Committee members agree or not.

Meeting adjourned at 11: 20 pm.