EBM NOTES; GBM ON THURSDAY, 02/03

Fellow Milvets:

Here are the main points discussed at yesterday's E-Board Meeting. I will try to break them down systematically because we covered a lot of important ground:


First and foremost, we have two elections coming up.

The first will take place at a General Body Meeting this upcoming Thursday, February 3rd at 8:15 PM in IAB 1512. As most of you know, the organization entered this semester in the midst of political turnover. At Thursday's meeting we will be electing a pro-tempore vice-president and treasurer by show of hands. Those elected will serve in that capacity until the end of this academic year. Anyone who wishes to be considered will be given an opportunity to address the general body at Thursday's meeting.

The second election will be the general election for next year's (2011-2012) Executive Board. The timeline for this election is as follows:

Thursday, February 10th - candidate biographical statements are due. These will be send out to the general body via the listserv
Monday, February 14th - General Body Meeting - all candidates address the organization; polls open directly after meeting
Thursday, February 17th - polls close
The February 14th-17th general election will determine next year's president, vice-president, secretary general, and treasurer. Current secretary general Tom Cox will be sending out an email this coming Monday, January 31st, to explain the particulars of both upcoming elections. I will note here, however, that all those elected to next year's E-Board will be asked to attend the rest of this year's EBMs. Think of it as OJT.

J-CLEAVE
The Joint Committee Lobbying for Equal Access to Veterans Education (try remembering that after knocking back a few. Took me a few minutes, ain't gonna lie) will be comprised of five members. This will be the nuclear committee that works alongside Columbia's administration on our Post 9/11 Bill 2.0 lobbying push. The university has advised that Milvets keep this core committee small. Currently we have assigned four members: Brendan Rooney, John McLelland, Azar Boehm and Stephen Snowder. We need one more (any takers? Please be committed). The committee will then solicit assistance from the Milvets general body as needed.

Brendan Rooney and John McLelland met Dean Awn and Dean Rodgers last week to discuss the new GI Bill. More concrete information should be forthcoming this next week, but we expect there to be an information session with GS administration during the 2nd week of February.

NEW YORK VETERANS TUITION AWARDS
Erica Gallegos pointed out at Friday's EBM that veterans who are New York residents (residency can be established after one year in-state) are eligible for tuition awards of up to $4287.50 per academic year. Here is the website.

EMAIL GUY
That's what I call it, anyway, because I hate bureaucratic titles. Milvets receives many emails each week from external individuals, corporate entities, nonprofits, media, etc. That means we need someone who is responsible, articulate and professional on radio watch. If you're a grammar waiver or use Comic Sans in your email signature, we respectfully ask you to consider finding another way to contribute to Milvets. Email correspondence will often be the sole medium by which external organizations judge Milvets, so it's important that we put our best foot forward here. If you're willing to be our email guy, let us know. You can come up with a better title for yourself, too.

MILVETS WEBSITE
After further investigation, our resident gumshoe and short, angry Italian (Dan Lagana) has identified a CUIT employee who did in fact agree to build the Milvets website. Because this is a rather large undertaking, we will be sending a team of SMEs to assist.

We offer our sincere thanks to fellow Milvets Jose Rodriguez, Christian Zamora and Shandan Lussenden for volunteering to help with this important task. Much obliged, gents.

Posted by: Matthew Bishop (jmb2275)