First Council Meeting under SBP Reese - 4/22/15

Each year, the Annual Meeting serves as the official Council meeting where the old Council leaves and the new Council steps in. This year, the new Student Body President, Reese Evans, formally motioned to appoint his new Cabinet, which included the new position, the Director of Spiritual Life.

Here's the new Cabinet:
SBP: Reese Evans

Director of Student Events: Mary Losiak
Dir. of Student Organizations: Annalise Bourgeois
Dir. of Finance: Tim Stratton
Dir. of Communications: Taylor Thompson
Dir. of Spiritual Life: Spencer Kashmanian

After the formal election of the Cabinet, each of the old House presidents and Cabinet members prayed over their successors. Many of them prayed that their successors gain "wisdom and clarity" for their new roles. Former-Barton president, Cooper Crouch, prayed that the new Barton president, Audrey Walczak, maintain the "sass that Bartons have" as she leads her House. After these prayers finished, members of the old and new Council prayed over Kashmanian and his new role as the first ever Dir. of Spiritual Life. Then, Maxine Fileta prayed over Reese Evans. After that, all members of the new Council were sworn in by the Council Oath, and the old Council departed to let the new Council begin their meeting. 

Evans began the meeting by giving his Inaugural Address, where he stated his two major goals for next year: get Houses more in tune with their alumni, and set the Houses on track to become financially self-sufficient. He pointed that the specifics for those goals will be organized in the summer. Evans also initiated the motion to vote on the two House presidents who would comprise the Budget Committee. Four Houses (Lewis, Barton, tenBoom, Truth) volunteered, and initially Lewis moved to have himself and tenBoom as the two presidents. Churchill amended the motion to have Lewis and Barton as the two, and eventually the motion passed. The 4-person Budget Committee now consists of the SBP, the Dir. of Finance, and the presidents of Barton & Lewis.

Spencer Kashmanian gave his first report as Dir. of Spiritual Life, where he explained his vision for the role. He hopes that the role will serve as a working liaison between the Council and the Spiritual Life Committee. He hopes to help Houses create and train associates concerned with the planning and structure of respective House Bible Studies, and he would like to see the organizing of more Theological Roundtables at King's. Evans stated that the Dir. of Spiritual Life reminds the Council that "(they) are here to serve."

The meeting then adjourned. The next Council meeting will occur on Thursday, May 7th at 12pm in the Founder's Room.


Notice: For the purpose of this blog, I will refer to House presidents and Cabinet members (excluding the SBP) by their House or position name. Above I listed the Cabinet members, so here I list the House presidents:
Anthony: Chelsea Owens
Barton: Audrey Walczak
Bonhoeffer: Jacob Wilson
Churchill: Scott Bryan
Elizabeth: Leah Contreras
Lewis: Fisher Derdarian
Reagan: Patrick Thomas
Thatcher: Helen Healey
tenBoom: Jessie Schnoebelen
Truth: Alex Nykamp

Introduction

Hello fellow TKC students,

My name is Fermin Villalpando and I am here to report on the actions and sayings of the 2015-16 TKC Council. 

Tonight, at 5:30pm in the Founder's Room, is the Annual Meeting where the current Council (headed by SBP Maxine Fileta) steps down and inaugurates the newly elected Council (led by SBP-elect Reese Evans). Tonight begins a new year of debate and decision-making by the highest form of student government here at The King's College. 

I am here to make sure that you as a student hear not just who is voting Yay and Nay on certain key issues, but what each of the House presidents and Cabinet members have to say concerning the issues. Whether you voted your House president in or voted for his/her opponent, you have the right to know how he or she is representing your House to rest of the Council. 

My main objective is not to criticize those on the Council, but rather it is to ensure that students know how their student government is working for them. What I hope this blog will do is encourage people to become more actively involved with their Houses and with the school to ensure that they have an active voice on campus. Ideally, I'd like to see higher attendance from students at the Council meetings (which is every student's right as stated in Article 7, Section 3 of the Council Constitution), but that change will come slowly but surely. 

I hope that you can see why caring for your student government matters as much as I think it matters. 

Thank you, and I hope to see some of you at tonight's meeting.