Two contracted independent organizations were unable to receive decisions about their appeals for appropriations because of Student Council's failure to meet quorum at its meeting Tuesday.
Student Council leaders attributed the lack of attendance to confusion related to Tuesday's officer transitions.
"It was unprofessional and I was kind of annoyed," said Scott Geiser, vice president of Student Game Developers. "They [the representatives] work to get elected and then they don't actually show up to do anything."
According to Vice President for Appropriations Catherine Tobin, the representatives did not vote on the appeals because the meeting lacked the two-thirds of the voting body needed to vote on an appropriations appeal.
Tobin added that what qualified as quorum was "up in the air" because of recent changes to the Student Council constitution made during spring elections.
Tobin said the old constitution required two-thirds of the 31 voting members to be present to hold a vote. The new constitution, however, states that executive members are not allowed to vote, leaving 27 voting members. Two-thirds of the voting members, 18, were not in attendance Tuesday, which meant Council was unable to vote on the appeals.
Executive Vice President Melissa Warnke approximated that there were 12 Council members at the meeting, 10 of whom could vote. She said she counted the two members of the executive board present as voting members.
According to Warnke, the definition of quorum being used was that of the old constitution, which allowed executive members to be voting members.
Tobin said it was unclear under which definition of quorum the meeting was being held. She added that she considered the executive board to be non-voting members.
Warnke said the lack of attendance at the appeals hearing had to do with confusion about who was supposed to attend the hearings.
"Because this was the transitional meeting, there was some ambiguity among the reps about who was supposed to attend," Warnke said.
Warnke said she sent an e-mail to outgoing representatives notifying them that they were supposed to attend the hearing. She added that outgoing representatives will be held responsible for not attending the meeting and will be allowed one fewer absence at remaining meetings this year.
"We will work to improve this," Warnke said. "I agree that this was unprofessional and unfair to those groups."
Warnke noted that the extended length of the meeting also affected the attendance.
Tobin said she announced at the end of the general body meeting that all representatives were required to stay for the hearing; however, the unusual length of the meeting and a premature adjournment resulted in many representatives leaving.
Student Game Developers and the Virginia Rifle and Pistol Club presented their appropriation appeals to the Council members at the hearing.
Each appeal was followed by a statement by Appropriations Co-Chair Tyler Boles explaining the Appropriation Committee's decisions, according to Tobin.
She said the appeals would be presented at the next Council meeting. If quorum is met, then a "yea or nay" vote will be held, though only those representatives who were present at the hearing will vote in the appeals ruling.
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