Minutes 10.5.16/Agenda 10.12.16

Post date: Oct 11, 2016 6:18:30 PM

Agenda 10.12.16

• 1. Approval of Minutes

  2. Reports

  3. March Intensive Service Integration Motion

  4. Gender Motion Missing Piece

  5. Plastic Water Bottle Discussion

  6. Notes and New Business

Council Minutes 10.5.16

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” -Mahatma Gandhi

• 1. Approval of Minutes

  2. Reports

     • Moderator: Sign up to show parents around at Open House tomorrow. Council may be moved because of PSATs in two weeks

     • Treasurer: Co-Curricular Fund: $4,600, Council Fund: $5,866.04. Met with INDE over the money necessary last year to bail them out which will be a gift. They have changed publishers to lower costs and extra books will be donated to students.

     • Student Life: Discussed parking, March Intensive Service Motion, homework communication, and what happened to Athletics over Break

     • Curric: Reviewed the Homework Communication Motion and March Intensive Service

     • Admin: Will be bringing a bylaw change on staff of the month

     • OEC: Worked on Gender Missing Pieces Motion

     • SAC: Quidditch on Tuesday

     • Gender Ad-Hoc: Please email me if you are interested in being on the committee

     • Exec: won’t be meeting on Monday, an email will be sent out with the new date

  3. March Intensive Service Integration Motion

     • There used to be a 16 hour service graduation requirement for students but there were reporting problems so it fell apart

     • The spirit isn’t to change every March Intensive but to make students more aware of ways to integrate service into all types of activities

     • Community service is not the only thing that makes a march intensive valuable, there are also educational ones

     • Maybe consider an evaluation and discussion about the interconnectedness that is not necessarily acted on if there is a desire to

     • This motion does not say that service is the only valuable thing in March Intensives but allows for a more gradual integration of service into programs where it makes sense

     • A graduation requirement for a service based March Intensive is not a good idea because it would make the signup process difficult and would create a culture where service is a chore and not valuable

     • March Intensive was created to be learning for learning’s sake to expose students to unconventional focuses and service was one possibility within that

     • This would add another burden for teachers who do a lot of work for it already

     • March Intensives could be required to either have a required reading/research component or a service component that would fit with the committee

     • The wording is weak and sending it to a committee might benefit with stronger wording such as proportion requirement on the number of courses that have service components

     • Service should be legitimate service rather than forced and busywork service

     • This could benefit from going to committee-not to strengthen the force of the motion as that is against the spirit of motion, which is intended to be a gentle push towards more service-but to look more closely at the wording

     • There has been a decline in involvement in YIA since the requirement was removed

     • People are surprised that we as a school don’t say service is something we value

     • We need to be careful about trip programs because there are many cases where travel service is harmful rather than beneficial if it doesn’t focus on empowerment

     • “I move to refer the motion to Student Life”

       • Student Life doesn’t have anything

       • A smaller group could look at the wording while protecting the spirit

       • It would be good to raise awareness of this motion in the rest of the school

       • This is a recommendation to get people talking about the importance of service to try and create firm language is against that spirit

       • It might be good to create an Ad-Hoc after this motion is passed for the conversation but it shouldn’t go to a committee now

       • This may be a bigger picture discussion not to be tacked on to March Intensive  

       • Motion Fails

     • A community service is not a big deal and starts involvement in service that is continued

     • A requirement would mean it was year round rather than just for one week

     • A requirement makes it a chore and undermines its benefits

     • Will be a positive introduction to  service at a time when students are not busy

     • There could be a requirement for 2 March Intensives to be service based

     • Getting students to do service once can get them involved in far more projects

     • Shows that service can be associated with anything you are interested in

     • There should be a celebration of service just as there is for athletics

     • We are getting bogged down in trying to plan this whole thing out

  4. Meeting Adjourns