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Lost at meetings? Fear not, here's a crash course to how we conduct our meetings!

When are Senate Meetings?

Wednesdays 4PM at Student Council Chambers in the Lower Level of the Campus Center.
All voting members and prospective senators are required to attend in-person, with choices for members of the public to attend online via Zoom.

How long does a Senate Meeting last?

Senate Meetings usually happens every Wednesday on Week 2 to Week 10 of the Quarter from 4 PM to 6 PM. However, they can go past 6 PM if the Senators may find it necessary to.
The only time of the year where those meetings will last until 8 PM or later is when the senate has budget deliberations, which can last between 2-3 weeks, or more if necessary.
Committee Meetings will last roughly between 1-2 hours depending on the committee.

What are Senate meetings like?

All meeting structure follows Robert’s Rules of Order.
Not familiar with Parliamentary Procedure? Here's a crash course:

Meeting Records

Agenda - contains all the discussion topics that will take place in a particular meeting. This ensures that the meeting attendees know what to expect when coming to a meeting. The DASG President and Secretary writes the general senate agenda. Respective chairs of each committee writes committee agendas.
- ❗️According to the Brown Act, all agendas must be sent out three (3) business days in advance.
Minutes - Minutes are the notes taken on the agenda for that specific meeting.
- Sent out after a meeting as a recap for what was discussed.
- In committee meetings, typically an internal officer writes meeting minutes. In Senate Meetings, the secretary takes minutes.
- Minutes have to be approved at each subsequent meeting. If there are any corrections, senators may object and state the corrections needed. If there are no objections, minutes will be approved using the following format:
  - “I move to approve the minutes from X/X/XXXX.”
  - A second senator would then say: “I second.”
- Example of agenda and minutes

Meeting Structure Vocabulary

This is dense, but you will be familiar with these terms in no time!

Public comment

Designated time during an open meeting for the public attendees who are not a member of a senate to voice out opinions, concerns, information, etc.

Announcements

For the designated person(s) to share announcements important to the senate. The announcements are usually done in three sections:

Advisor Announcements
Senate Announcements
Student Trustee Announcements

Reports

Used by Senators to report important findings to the general senate. Usually split into two parts:

Shared Governance Reports -
Internal Committee Reports -

Consent Calendar

Groups routine meeting discussion points into a single agenda item. In so doing, the grouped items can be approved in one action, rather than through the filing of multiple motions. Usually used to add or remove senators or interns to committees or shared governances.

Business Items

A topic or discussion to be taken up during a formal meeting.
There are generally three types of business items:

Information - Information relayed to the senate regarding the business item
Discussion - the members of a senate discuss or debate any matter related to the business items
Action: when measures are being taken to implement the items that were discussed in the discussion. Usually this results in a motion/vote that needs to get passed by the senators through a vote or motion.

❗️If the item type is not listed on the agenda, you may not take the action types not listed.
Ie. If an item is listed only as an information/discussion item, action may not be taken

Making a Motion

A motion is a formal proposal by a voting member of the senate to take a certain action or decision.
You may be most familiar with motions "I move" and "I second"!

Extend an item

If the allocated official time for that item has been exhausted, one may move to extend time. To move to extend time, say
“I move to extend x by [2 minutes, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, etc.]”

Seconding a motion

After a motion has been made, a voting member of the senate must state “I second” to agree to the motion.

The purpose of a second is to prevent wasting time on that particular motion. When the motion is seconded, further deliberation will take place; If it is not seconded, the chairperson is allowed to dispose of a motion.

Objecting a motion

Disagreement with the motion would be voiced with an objection.

After another member has seconded, a third senator would then say they object to the motion
Afterwards, all the senators will vote on the decision (yes, no, or abstain).

A little lost?

Don’t worry too much if everything looks like gibberish, you will catch on fast. Ask any senators or executives and we will happily explain everything!