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Speakers Trust Meeting — Wednesday, March 24, 2008
Minutes
- Call meeting to order:
- President calls meeting to order.
- Attendance:
- Present:
Jeffry Johnson — P
Justina Uram — VP
Tara Walsh — Secretary and Treasurer
Jennifer Winston
Tabitha Chedekel
Taisha Chambers
Matthew Muckler — co-chair
Terrence Burke (UP)
Mai Nguyen
Bianca Oden (Washington)
- Absent:
Joy Han (UP) — absent with apology
Jose Fanjul — chair — absent with apology
Crystal West (Washington)
Rob Kleiner
- Quorum established
- Welcome by President:
- President introduces guests.
- Assistant Dean Keith Elkin was an invitee at the meeting; he articulated his proposal for faculty and student collaboration in organizing speaker events. This collaboration Dean Elkin envisages will not supplant the Speakers' Trust, but it will promote an effective mechanism to facilitate speaker events at the law school. Dean Elkin commended the Speakers' Trust of the SBA for the committee's excellent work over the past two semesters, and he agreed to share the next draft of his speaker proposal with the Speakers' Trust.
- The Speakers' Trust thanked Dean Elkin for sharing his constructive proposal and he was excused.
- Consideration of Speakers' Proposal(s) and Grant Application(s):
- New: Panel of Speakers, 4/12/08 — Black Law Students Society
- Proposal presented by Victor Davidson
- Speakers will speak about racial issues, sentencing guidelines between crack cocaine, politics etc.
- There will also be Criminal Procedure and Criminal Law professors present to discuss these issues at the end of the event. Specifically, they will discuss how both lawyers and lay people can change these issues, and how these issues will be pertinent to us when we leave law school.
- The delivery of the message is unique; students will be more open to hearing poetry as a change to hearing professors lecture as they do each day in class.
- This unique message will draw a lot of student interest.
- SBA has not had a chance to review this again yet.
- This event amplifies important legal and social matters; it is crucial to spreading the diversity message within the law school.
- One of the poets has dropped his price to $1,500; the other poet has dropped his price to $2,100.
- The SBA's decision will be contingent upon our deliberations; if we agree to fund part of the event, SBA will fund the other part.
- The group is asking for a total of $1,950; this is with the expensive hotel rooms at the Holiday Express.
- Breakdown of the two speakers:
- Tommy Bottoms
- Speaker honorarium — $1,500
- Travel costs — $300
- Hotel — $181/night (but they have found cheaper than this, which they may use)
- Mo Beasly
- Speaker honorarium — $2,100
- Travel — $1,500
- Hotel — $181/night; $720 for the band to stay at the hotel
- The SBA has contributed $865 thus far.
- Advertising will begin tomorrow if funded.
- The event is scheduled for April 12, and there will be mini vans running for Carlisle students.
- $3 per undergrad student that attends.
- Deliberations for BLSA Proposal
- We have roughly $4,500 left. We could allocate up to $3,000 to this event and still be acting prudently.
- $1,950 is requested from us by the group; what should we round this up to? $2,500
- majority approval of the event for $2,500
- “Tara 's Crossing” — OUTlaw
- Proposal presented by Kendrick Donnelly
- This event consists of a play, a Q and A session, and a keynote speech during the day.
- The speaker is both director and writer
- The speaker does not have a J.D., but has done research in the area
- This event is co-sponsored with the LGBT Center.
- The group is asking for $1,100 total.
- $600 for two rooms for two nights at the Nittany Lion In.
- Also asking for $500 for advertising in the Collegian (college newspaper at Penn State):
- $500 figure seems very round; this is an estimation by the Collegian.
- Other advertising will include fliers at the hub, the newswire, etc.
- This is going to take place next Wednesday and everything is ready to go.
- It was noted that this most recent application is much more tailored to a legal issue.
- Deliberations for OUTlaw
- As far as marketing goes, OUTlaw does not need an expensive color copy of the advertisement in the Collegian. A black-and-white ad should suffice.
- Moreover, the group has not sufficiently explained to us why they need this extra advertising.
- As noted above, this is much more tailored to legal issues than the first proposal.
- We support the event and will allocate $600 for this event; if OUTlaw needs more for advertising they must come back to us with further details.
- Unanimous approval for $600 for this event.
- Amended: Mr. Jay Smith, 4/3/08 — Books to Prisoners Project
- Amended proposal by Mai Nguyen
- This event is scheduled to take place on April 10; it has been moved back a week because of a conflict.
- The group is asking for an additional $140: $100 for appetizers and drinks up at UP and the remainder will be for a dinner for the guests.
- Deliberation for Books to Prisoners Event
- Unanimous approval for the additional $140.
- Update on Signature Rwanda Genocide Speaker Event:
- Professor Tiya Maluwa, Director of the Penn State School of International Affairs will give some introductory remarks for this event on March 26
- Fliers and e-mails have been circulated for the event.
- Student leaders have also been contacted to support event.
- Total $3,600; this will be the signature Speakers Trust Event.
- Any other business:
- Thank you to all Speakers Trust members and especially to Tara for diligent preparation of the minutes, and Justina for updating the Speakers' Trust Web site.
- Thank you from Matt and the SBA to the Speakers Trust.
- Thank you to Jeff for all of his hard work over the past year!
- Jeff will get back to us about having a social event to celebrate the end of the year.
- Schedule next meeting:
- April 23, 2008 (tentative)
- If nothing urgent arises, we will proceed with e-meetings.
- Adjournment:
- President adjourns meeting.
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