Minutes 4.12.17/Agenda 4.26.17

Post date: Apr 26, 2017 2:33:56 PM

Agenda 4.26.17

• 1. Approval of Minutes

  2. Reports

  3. Community Service Graduation Requirement Motion

  4. Notes and New Business

Council Minutes 4.12.17

“Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.” - Randy Pausch

• 1. Approval of Minutes

  2. Reports

     • Mod: Council elections are coming up so encourage people to run because it is great to have new members

     • Treasurer: Working on getting next year's budget. Co-curricular: $5,013.03, Council Fund: $5,753.29 but the Co-Curricular should decrease by up to $800 in the next week because of the recent money allocations.

     • Secretary: Senior, Sophomore, Freshman, and Staff alternates can votes

     • Admin: Continued discussing cellphone use

     • SAC: Remind clubs to turn in the budget request forms so we can complete that soon. Also discussed a possible soon event.

     • OEC: Election forms are being put in the library tomorrow for elections on May 12th

     • SL: Went to Souhegan High School as part of the PR duties motion passed last year because it has many similar programs and characteristics to Hanover and unique programs. They were very welcoming and we got to see a Council meeting and discuss with students. We are going to try and bring a lengthy report or action in the future.

     • Service: Went to the staff meeting and a Guidance meeting to clarify their responsibilities and the current wording as well as with Mrs. Stevenson about dealing with non-compliance from an Administration standpoint. There was also a clarifying meeting sent to staff discussing the interactions of all the bodies.

     • Inclusivity: Due to trouble with the committee meeting, there has been discussions with the Rainbow Alliance on taking on the role of the committee for next year.

     • Observances: Working on slides for staff presentation

  3. Exec J-Com Duties Part 2 Bylaw Change

“I move to add the following wording to the Article 4, Section A of the Council Bylaws, ‘To serve

on the Judiciary Committee as a non-voting member and a resource for the chair.”’

• • • This takes wording from the JComm section of the bylaws and adds it to the Exec position duties as well because it wasn’t clear in the listed Exec duties that they were part of the responsibility

    • Motion Passes

• • Tom Hanlon Vote

  • Part 2: OEC Handbook Revisions

“I move to make the following changes to the HHS Handbook”

• • • These changes were suggested from the office and were reviewed by OEC and the vast majority of these changes have no effect on policy but just clarify wording and grammar and the small changes are updating it to current policy

    • This is nitty-gritty details that we are already practicing

    • Motion Passes

• • Community Service Graduation Requirement Motion

    • The student body is not completely supportive and one of the concerns is the ten hours every year and it might be better to ease into it by having it be forty cumulative hours rather than ten each year because it would make it a little less daunting for students and we could ramp it up later

    • Having a cumulative requirement could make it challenging because people might wait until their senior year and then it will be a lot

    • It’s a long process to get something like helping a neighbor shovel counted

    • “I move to insert a point after point 4 reading ‘If a student wants to have hours counted for service not sanctioned under an official nonprofit organization, they must fill out a Youth In Action Pre-Approval Form. Then, they must do the approved service and afterwards, have their work approved by the Youth In Action Director who is available at youth-in-action@hanovernorwichschools.org.’ And to add ‘, others, or the common good.’ after ‘a nonprofit organization’ in the HHS definition of service.”

      • This explains the process we have been discussing of having some service sanctioned by YIA and expands the definition of service

      • The form has been created

      • This does not allow time for something to be approved in an emergency situation

      • In an emergency situation we expect YIA to be understanding but this encourages discussion before to increase education about service

      • The plan is to have YIA office hours where people can stop by to chat about approval and the form will be online so people could contact through email

      • This clarifies the system and makes the process easier

      • It would be better to have a system that allows for all types of service

      • It would be good to outline a post-event approval process

      • We are a school that promotes conversation and so if a student did impromptu service the student would be able to have a conversation to work through the process but to include a post-approval process would encourage that rather than the discussion in advance to give education about service

      • Amendment Passes

    • What service means to a freshmen is not the same as for Seniors and so it is good for students to have some of that experience for each year

    • Council members are in favor of this motion but the school is not as in favor and reactions in CGs have not been as positive

    • Reactions in one common ground improved as students learned more about how easy the process is

  • Meeting Adjourns