Keeping Up with The King's Council: Finally a Shorter Meeting

The meeting began with a prayer from Lewis President Stuart Clay and a funny video clip from Student Body President Kat Thompson about parking at church.

Truth President Dorea Slagle talked about Restore, an anti-human trafficking organization based in the city. The House of Truth is having a fundraiser for Restore and dubbing the week of Feb. 13-17 as “#LoveWeek.” Truth will be selling Valentine’s cards in the Fishbowl, one for $2 or three for $5. Their goal is to raise a minimum of $300.

The meeting turned to Director of Finance Megan Starnes. Starnes reminded the House Presidents that she sent them all the spending report for Jan.

Next up were three motions.

The first motion, briefly discussed in last week’s meeting, concerns the Council voting via email. The motion states, “No virtual votes will be taken by the King’s Council if the vote in question involves allocating funds to Council, Student Organizations, Events, or external entities.” However, if a virtual vote is needed, the Director of Communications must send the vote in question in a private forum to Council members and keep voting open for 48 hours. Ten out of 10 House Presidents voted “yes” with little discussion on this motion.

The second motion asked for the Director of Communication to include a debrief of Statesmanship initiatives, Council-sponsored student events, and House competitions in the agenda under “New Business.” The format of the debriefs would be up to the new Student Body President.  Current SBP Thompson uses the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) format and finds it to be useful. She believes that debriefs are one of the best things the Council can to for the student body since they are using the student's feedback. Reagan President Patrick Thomas liked the motion since he has experienced a Council with no debriefing, and a Council that debriefs everything in a structured format. The Council will vote on the motion next week.

The third and final motion would change the  protocol on the participation of staff and faculty and members of Student Life in committee initiatives. The motion asks that staff and faculty  must be invited to attend or participate in committee meetings and voting. Ten Boom President Emma Brown believed it is good to have members of Student Life present when the Council is trying to change something that concerns them, but sometimes it is hard to be fully vocal when they are present. Director of Communications Healey agreed with Brown and said that it is hard not to see Student Life members as an authority and makes it difficult to rebut against them. This motion will also be voted on in the next meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:23 p.m., a significantly earlier time than the past few weeks.

Meeting Highlights:

• Student Body President
• SBP Candidates and platforms were announced via email to all King’s students
• Stuart Clay
• Michael Martinez

Motions

• Virtual voting on Council-related issues, if necessary, will happen via a closed forum for Council members and remain open for 48 hours
• Motion concerning the SBP debrief procedure will be voted on in the next meeting
• Motion asking for non-members to require an invitation to attend and participate in Committee meetings will be voted on in the next meeting