Over spring break, I received an email from a student in New York asking me if I knew of any student groups or organizations that have shown support for Senate Bill 1405 for a paper he was writing.
While researching his request, I found the February 22, 2011 minutes from the ASU College Republicans executive meeting.
As I was looking over the topics discussed during the meeting, I came across the last part of item J, which struck me as troubling. It reads: “the goal is to make the feminists on campus as mad as possible.”
To put that comment into context, the ASU College Republicans were considering protesting the performance of “The Vagina Monologues” at ASU at the beginning of March.
The goal, according to ASU College Republicans Vice President Ashley Allen, was to set up a table near the one used by the group publicizing “The Vagina Monologues” and hand out literature that offered a different, more conservative form of feminism in response to the radical “second wave” feminism perceived to be espoused in the play.
While that may explain the intent of the ASU College Republicans to protest the performance, the explanation behind why the minutes reflect a different attitude, to this writer, is lazy at best from students who are political science and business majors.
ASU College Republicans President Tyler Bowyer, when asked about the language expressed in item J, said, “A large portion of what is in the meeting minutes was not actually said in the meeting and reflects the mood and opinion of how the secretary felt when taking the minutes.”
I understand that when people are writing minutes for meetings that there is an element of the author’s personality, mood, voice and other human aspects that find their way into the writing, which is why it would make common sense for at least one member of leadership to review the minutes before posting them on the group’s Internet homepage.
However, when it comes to approving meeting minutes, Bowyer said, “Our constitution does not require anyone to approve the minutes because we are not forced to do so. We provide the meeting minutes for purposes of clarity and to provide our members with transparency with the business before the executive board.”
So, instead of taking initiative and ensuring the highest level of accuracy possible, qualities of effective leadership, the response is simply “we don’t have to do it, so we don’t.”
If I were a member of the ASU College Republicans, I would like to know that my leadership, the face of my club, took every preemptive step possible to make sure there was no ambiguity about what occurred during a meeting.
Meeting minutes are perceived to be the actual account of events, or at the very least an accurate recounting of what was discussed. Meeting minutes are not an opportunity to editorialize or make value judgments on an issue.
To the ASU College Republicans’ credit, Allen said, “In the future, we do have to make sure that what is written in the minutes is what happened during the meeting.”
Even though there are more pressing topics of student concern, with the political and business climate at all levels putting a premium on transparency and honest dealing, it is imperative that the future leaders of our country do things right from the beginning. Otherwise, we will never see an improvement at any level of government or business.
Comments, concerns, complaints, and nasty-grams can be sent to Tyler at tjones16@asu.edu
