The King's Council: Notes by Ray
Tonight was long and intense. It was also one of the most valuable meetings of the Council this year. Though there was not a major executable motion, we saw serious engagement with the issues. If that casts a heavy tone through the whole meeting, there is yet light at the end. Before the meeting, the Interregnum committee wandered in as did Greg Pittman for City Engagement. I decided that it was more appropriate to play Josh Garrels off of YouTube rather than the song which has been stuck in my head all week, that is to say “Electric Avenue.”
Colossians 1:18 may have been the invocation. Y Jonathan oraron para todos. According to Madison, tonight will be “the most action-packed Council meeting ever.”
Greg Pittman made his report, consisting of an account of the Buddy Walk this past Saturday and the Bowery Mission night that the Student Life Project accomplished. The Cool Roofs day will be happening finally. Mandy Patterson and Jordan Best will be coordinating as representatives of Thatcher and Churchill. The impetus is that this will be House-sponsorship, not House-exclusivity. Jordan Caruso intends to conduct an evangelism walk through Central Park.
As requested, the Interregnum committee is here. Invitation coincided with desire to come. Rachelle laid it down, demonstrating a strong presence and clear programmatic unity. The Film Competition is designed to help coordinate expectations for Long Term Art. There will be a live performance aspect in with the regular competitions and a video competition this November. Interregnum is already bursting the bounds of the three day competition, yet we still felt that this should happen. This style will help introduce Interregnum to the freshmen and generate excitement.
Interregnum will be Wednesday to Friday, not Tuesday to Thursday, ergo no more Awkward Monday or Awkward Friday. Alexandra expressed concern about House stresses, and echoed David’s concerns about attendance requirements given the closeness of this to other aspects of the problem. Rachelle held the line nobly, though there was some obvious face flushing. Madison’s promise of Action was certainly not false. Alec Nixon defused the tension by announcing December 2nd was an Inviso weekend. Oh … that was clarified already. Charlotte did wonder if there might have been greater value in restructuring the judging criteria as opposed to adding a new event or if it would be possible to drop an event. Christina had another concern which I missed, expressed with much of the same rhetoric of stress. I was too busy getting buzzed by the value of this discussion. Grammar! Dialectic! Rhetoric! Weeeeeee! Bonhoeffer did ask what may have happened to a Business competition, since there is so much weight to the MCA people.
There will be no Council meeting next week. Please do attend the book release.
No details on Council Retreat yet. We will try to check on dates for the Cabin. Bonhoeffer has a House Retreat that weekend. Silly Greg; Madison’s been talking about that date for weeks. Why haven’t you mentioned your House Retreat until just tonight?
Sam Tran presented on the Student Satisfaction Survey as a coordinator for Student Development There are 12 primary areas of concern (Transfer Credits, Finances, Admissions, Third [Hang out] Spaces, The King’s English, Enviroment [primarily the beauty or lack thereof in Ludlow and the City Room], the Appeals Process, Academic Rigor, Communication, Academic Success, Advisement, and the King’s Vision and Values), and as per Madison’s request, Sam fleshed out the Academic Rigor concern (whether we have too much busy work, or review work) and some other particular of those concerns that he had discussed previously with the Cabinet. Living out the Vision becomes natural to the upperclassmen: the freshmen want to see it.
David Linamen presented on the Student Services Survey. He has a tremendous ability to speak quickly. The trends are generally upward moving. The committee decided that a greater than one point spread between Importance and Satisfaction indicates a problem. Freshman were most satisfied in terms of the Economics classes. David did practice discretion by not presenting the male/female breakdown there. MCA is the most unsatisfied major grouping especially in regard to major specific classes. I personally would appreciate a general explanation given to the MCA students of artes liberales. A surprising number of students seem to have not known that King’s was Christian until they’ve arrived. Spiritual Life was evaluated as culled from all questions. The spiritual climate is generally seen to be improving. People are additionally very concerned about the growth and direction of the House System and living arrangements in general. The Residence Life system is seen as too complex and not helpful enough in roommate conflicts. Men gave Res Life a 3.22 (negatives were Ludlow) Women gave Res Life a 2.99 (negatives were roommate issues), and as David said this is nothing surprising. David will presenting this to the Executive Team of the College next week. At the end of David’s presentation, Madison highlighted a comment from Sam’s report to the Council made on his survey, “If you forget the Vision Statement of the College on a regular basis, you have no business being here.”
As far as that secret thing from last week, don’t bother setting out extra time.
AND FINALLY! The Director of Finance: The budget was cut by two thousand dollars in the last week due to fewer students. On the revenue side, we got our deposit back from Fall Retreat and the uncollected refunds from the Back-to-School picnic.
Clara’s prepping for the Sock Hop, in the City Room.
Tomorrow there will be 250 free Chick-Fil-Sandwiches. We have 500 odd students. There will be blood.
Communications: Some mumbling about the Provost Thing.
LOCKERS: There is an update, namely that Duane Moeller and David Leedy think that lockers would be great. We stop debating, because it is now out of our hands. Alexandra’s motion is to table indefinitely, to kill it. The lockers will be in the mysterious “New Lounge” space, beginning Fall ’12. They are curious as to size preferences.
New Business: Giving $300 to Tent for Josh Garrells. The motion comes from Charlotte. Sara Ruth and Josh Encinias presented. Garrells volunteered to come because he is excited for the King’s community. Community through worship is the goal of Tent, so this is headed through them Zach Chambers and Carol Ann Ausband will be doing the coordination. The breakdown would be a $200 honorarium, $30 or so to buy him dinner on the day of the show. Tent may not actually use the whole allotment, so any leftover will of course be returned. Tim made a point regarding precedent, therefore asking for a descriptor of Garrells’ career and biography and was well satisfied by the nine albums produced by this fellow. Michelle asked if he was affiliated with anyone, and Sara does not believe that he is. Charlotte made further recommendation regarding Sara’s coordinative abilities. Michelle verified that this money would be coming through which hunk of the Budget (‘twill be Orgs). There is money there, but next semester is an unknown. There was also a discussion of the possibility of a donation box for a organization near and dear to Garrell’s heart.
The motion itself was straight passed.
Tim moved to enter Exec session. Charlotte presumed that there would be no business following and I had a sock hop to attend.