Actions of the RA 15 June 2006

[Claude Desmoulins]

At its June 15 meeting, the RA:

1. Approved the rebuilding funding act (NL 4-28)

2. Approved the Finance Advisory Committee Act (NL 4-29)

3. Approved a change in procedure clarifying seven day voting

4. Approved a change in procedure clrifying who may or may not be included in closed session.

Present: Chung, Desmoulins, Eldrich

[Claude Desmoulins]

The transcript of this meeting has now been posted to the wiki.

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

I'm raising the SC flag here on NL 4-29, "Finance Advisory Committee Act".

All matters related to finance are, constitutionally, the sole purpose of the Guild — all the RA can do is vote on a budget (thus, 4-28 has, in my opinion, no problem to be approved); as a matter of fact, a similar issue was raised some 15 months ago, with similar wording, where the RA at that time tried to implement a committee for dealing with finance, and it was vetoed on constitutional grounds.

Law 4-29 will have to be discussed internally at the SC for its constitutionality. Since it's supposed to be an [i:1kzeog9x]advisory[/i:1kzeog9x] board and not a [i:1kzeog9x]deliberative[/i:1kzeog9x] one, it might still pass, but only if the intent of 4-29 is totally clear (ie. if there is an opportunity to interpret it so that the RA can effectively manage the finances, this law cannot pass; if it's absolutely clear that the Guild can disregard any comments by the Finance Advisory Board at any time, without any sanctions or public pressure, well then, perhaps it might pass).

To be discussed soon at the SC! (I hope)