It seems SGA is ready to hold more programming activities on its already short budget.
SGA will be organizing and hosting “MR. FRESHMAN – a ‘pageant’ for the Class of 2010 gentlemen” on Saturday, December 9th at 6PM (although there is some mix up between Chief of Staff Laura Bailey’s email and the event plan on the date). They are circulating around this document (.pdf) which has the specifics. A humorous sidenote is that they included Soule Hall on the list of residence halls they will get contestants, which is an all girls dorm.
SGA is already in a budget crunch, how do they intend to pay for a pageant? And more specifically, why isn’t this listed on SGA’s budget? While their plan seems to indicate they are doing this to make money, a good deal of money would have to be put down to hold such an event – money that SGA might or might not have.In their plan, SGA indicates that “last year almost $5,000 was made on t-shirts.” Its funny they compare, since last year the t-shirt sales went to Hurricane Katrina and Rita relief. I wonder where they intend to deposit any money they make this year, besides back in their operating account. Why should students have to pay again for SGA’s budget problems???
Maybe someone from SGA can let me know, but how does a Mr. Freshman Pageant help SGA fulfill its purpose (as stated in Article II of the SGA Constitution):
The SGA shall act as an organized voice for all the students of the University of Georgia, to relate views and suggestions to administrators and organized governing bodies of the University, to improve the students’ academic, social and cultural welfare; to promote students’ rights and responsibilities, to assist the University of Georgia in Operating more effectively and efficiently in the interest of students. Furthermore, to allow students, endowed by their creator with talents and ambitions, the opportunity to exercise their civic responsibilities.
Why can’t SGA stick to its purpose, and let University Union handle the programming that is done on campus?
*UPDATE*
To clarify for everyone else, the gentleman posting as “Will” below is Will Spence, Vice President of Freshman Forum.
{ 28 } Comments
Upon checking the flyer more closely, I’m curious to know where “Hayes” is located, since it doesn’t appear on any map or on the UGA housing website. Although since it comes after “Rutherford” on the list, perhaps someone is simply enjoying a joke at our 19th President’s expense.
I honestly don’t understand how anyone can take SGA seriously if it wastes its time on frivolous, self-benefiting “pageants” like this; I’m more than willing for them to do absolutely nothing rather than continue to embarrass the University.
Thanks for keeping my day humorous, Scipio.
This is one of the most unimformed posts made yet. This is strictly a Freshman Forum project not put on by the entire SGA. It is a fundraiser for Freshman Forum and proceeds are going to Clarke County education systems. Why you have a problem with something that will benefit one of the poorest counties in the state I do not know. Also, if you would check the file attachment it says “tentative” plan. Last time I checked “tentative” things were not set in stone… Also perhaps upon closer examination one would realize the girls halls are being used as judges and escorts, thus they are included in the plan. It seems as though your posts are made on hasty conclusions and little evidence. There is a reason the document has no been finalized, this is because we realize it is not completely done. Also, Freshman Forum does not use money from SGA’s budget, we must raise it ourselves. As a result the fact that SGA has a tight budget has no impact on this project. You are sorely misinformed and choose to represent things that you do not obviously have a clear understanding. Once again, this is Freshman Forums fundraiser to benefit Clarke County School System…of course you choose to leave that out. Congratulations on representing accurately.
Will,
I think you need to get a few things straight before you post. How is this event a fundraiser for Freshman Forum AND a charitable event? The plan might say tentative, but in a email to the SGA listservs, Chief of Staff Laura Bailey told everyone “to mark the date .” That to me implies that it is not tentative and will happen. Freshman Forum is going to have to pay for lots of items for this event, namely GA Hall reservations, audio/video equipment rental, food, t-shirts, all of which have to be paid for UP FRONT, and not after the fundraiser. Where is this money going to come from? Explain to me why Freshman Forum and SGA (we know that FF’s objectives are also those of SGA) choose to work on a project that benefits ACC schools, and not the students they are supposed to work for and represent. I don’t have a problem if you want to do ‘philanthropy,’ but do it after you philanthropize UGA STUDENTS!
Hey Will, chill out. I think you are the uninformed one. The file that has been circulated on all the SGA listservs mentions absolutely nothign about benefiting the schools — that may be the case, and that’s great and all, and I know it’s only tentative, but you can’t blame people for misunderstanding. Perhaps Hatin’ SGA should have wondered aloud rather than speculate as to where the funds would go… but still, the FF should learn to be more specific in the future to head off these criticisms.
Also, Will, the doc lists Brumby and Church girls as judges… it does, as the post says, list Soule as one of the halls competing. Again, unless this is some kind of rude editorial comment on Soule residents, this should be fixed in a finalized version, but don’t circulate half-assed work until you’ve proofread it. Also, good luck with recruiting candidates from Hayes Hall. I must say, in four years here, I’ve never met a Hayes resident I didn’t like…
Once again, I must thank the readers for making my day comical. Thanks!
Dude…that picture is scarring…
Actually, the scary part was when I first found the body builder picture. The resolution was gigantic, and, well, so were other things. I thought steroids worked the opposite way.
Although I commend your photoshopping skills and your constant bashing of mark meredith, you are pretty misinformed about what freshman forum is all about. I have only been on campus for a couple months and have been on freshman forum for less, so I am completely unaware of what beef you have with SGA. Again, I applaud you on the website. However, the 100 of so of us on freshman forum are working our asses off to get donations from the community around us to help pay for this event and donate money to a worthy cause. Its pretty sad you are giving us so much shit for trying to help out the community. We could be doing other things (getting drunk, facebook stalking, updating a sight whose soul purpose it mock another student orginization), but we are trying to make the community and our school a better place. give us a break. I know SGA isn’t perfect, its kind of lame at times, but there are people trying to make it better. So I challenge you this.
1. keep on attacking our personal character and finding really cool pictures of us on facebook
2. provide some constructive criticism
Just to respond to Miguel… how is this post not constructive criticism? I think there are some good points in this post, especially the bit about SGAs purpose. How does a Mr. Freshman pageant “relate views and suggestions to administrators and organized governing bodies of the University” or ‘promote students’ rights and responsibilities’? I think that SGA needs to focus more on improving student life and representing students needs to the university rather than doing programming (which is essentially the responsibility of the university union).
Miguel,
Buddy… read the post before you challenge me. I did provide constructive criticism. SGA should do less programming and more advocacy. Or does that not count because I didn’t ask nicely and say “Pretty, pretty please”??? Maybe you think what I have to say isn’t constructive because I have told Pres Peper and VP Suber the same thing and provided them with all my complaints, before airing them to the public. They’ve apparently already hooked you into the groupthink known as SGA.
The reason you don’t offer constructive criticism here is that the entire tone of the website is attacking. It’s fairly impossible to attack and attack and attack and then say that something is constructive criticism. I’m not debating the merits of anyone’s argument about FF, but before you claim to have constructive criticism, you must set a more constructive tone overall. You know that you can either appeal to the boors or you could set a more positive tone and attempt to get SGA to recognize your suggestions. It’s your project, so the choice is yours, but you can’t expect SGA to respond to you rationally and coolly with some of the things you’ve posted in the past.
Just my .02$ worth.
I actually share the belief about programming vs. advocacy, btw.
I’d like to know something: just how public is the listserv on which this .pdf was published, and, more importantly, are all Freshman Board/SGA proposals this unprofessional? This thing looks like a brainstorming sheet rather than a real plan, and if it is such and someone just typed it up, why on earth was it given “save the date” status?
I guess I should have stated that Freshman Forum would not be gaining financially from this event because ALL profit goes to Clarke County Schools. Also, the reasoning behind where the money goes is that this is our required charity event. The fact that the attachment was marked as tentative and sent only on the SGA list.serv was because the details had not been finalized. Soule Hall has been changed. Also, the document was merely meant to inform SGA of the basis of our ideas and for them to be able to e-mail us back with ideas and suggestions. The document was perfectly alright to circulate because we were looking for constructive feedback. Obviously it was not meant to go public just yet and was/is subject to change. We are not allowed to use SGA’s money for this project and must get our T-shirt money from sponsorship that we aquire ourselves from various places in the community. If you honestly have real issues/concerns/comments/questions about the project I would be more than happy to answer them; however, if the point of this article was to complain and raise issues where there are none, I think your time could be spent more wisely.
Thanks for your advice, Will, but I think your time could be spent more wisely by planning an advocacy event that benefits UGA students.
Reffering to the 8th post, I’m pretty sure the scary thing was the picture Mark Meredith before you pasted his face.
So… walking about my dorm I ran across an undated but more recent version of the plan. I didn’t swipe it because it was on somebody’s stuff (though it had reportedly been there for a few days), but there were still major style issues, as well as the whole Soule/Hayes bit intact. I honestly don’t see how an event as poorly planned as this seems to be can raise any amount of money at all for “charity”.
There is a reason we haven’t released it to everybody yet and there is a reason that we haven’t advertised yet. We have not finalized anything and we are still going through the planning phase. If you would give up your stalker-like tendencies and stop harping on a project that has not been finalized yet it would be great. Tell you what, you can look at the one we use to advertise (like everyone else not habitually obsessed with trying to find issues where none exist).. aka the finalized one and raise whatever comments/concerns you have. Also, how could you tell it was a more recent version of the plan due to the fact that these plans are undated. You even mentioned these plans are undated…How do you know that was not an original and the new version is a version in which we took off a lot of things? How do you know that was not merely a version someone made changes on for themself? How do you know that was a version that was sent on the list.serv? You assume too much….also, why do you care so much about the form of a mere plan? And how did you run across a version of the plan anyways? That was perhaps one of the sketchiest posts I have ever read.
If you are so majorly conerned with style issues, a great place to start would be your own post… the sentence containing “,…but there were still major style issues, as well…” is a walking style issue. Fix your own items before you attack ours.
Will,
If there is a new version of the plan, why don’t you just send it to me and let me post it? Not only would myself and the readers appreciate, I think the student body would as well.
Will, this is not a proposal, nor is it an official proposal or plan for a program; it is a weblog, and a weblog comment, at that. The style requirements for a blog are far less than those of anything in an official capacity.
The post was not sketchy, at least not intentionally so. I was sitting at a table in the lobby of my dorm when what to my wondering eyes did appear, but a small pile of papers, atop which read “Mr. Freshman Dorm(s)”. Having seen this post, I was excited to see if FF had, in fact fixed the plethora of issues. Sadly, they had not, though they had obviously made progress. If you removed things from what I saw to make the document posted on this site, then you did more harm than good. I returned the paper to its rightful place after briefly chuckling at the Forum’s ineptitude at planning.
To the ends that someone may have done this “for themself”, I have no proof of that, but “them” should have done a bit more research and “they” might have fixed some glaring errors. A suggestion, if I may make one here, would be to take off the bit about Georgia Hall being the “large room on the bottom floor of the Tate Center where Orientation Live! was held”. I would wager that the intersection of people who would actually attend this program with people who don’t know what Georgia Hall is but do know where Orientation Live! was held is fairly small. Not to mention it significantly devalues your legitimacy if you still refer to places by how you knew them before you attended the University.
I second the call for an official copy of the plan/proposal when y’all are good and ready. That’s right, I used long sentences and the word “y’all” for stylistic emphasis, in case you missed it.
The only reason I referred to Georgia Hall in this manner was to emphasize the location due to the fact that I was showing this document to a group of freshman who had all been through orientation over the summer and would know immediately the area I was talking about when I referred to the program. The group of people who knew where Orientation Live! was held would actually encompass most of the freshman who went through orientation, which is all of the freshman. Anyways, I do not have anything to prove to this website, although my arguing my prove contradictory on this point. I just did not want a project we had worked hard on to be misrepresented, as I felt it was by the blog….which of course was the point of the blog but that is a moot point. I do not plan on letting anyone outside of Forum see our progress at this point because everything is still a collection of ideas and not a document meant to be viewed by everyone and displayed on a website… The true test of Freshman Forum’s aptitude can be seen by the pending success or failure of the actual event. Obviously if the event is a success, our plans were a success…and if the event failes, obviously the “huge holes” you have pointed out in our rough drafts were so gaping that they caused our event to fall through. I appreciate your criticism, even if it is not sincere in the least bit, and invite you all to come to the event yourselves to see whether or not we can pull it off. I know you will most likely scoff at this idea but hey…the offer is on the table. Anyone can argue further on these matters; however, it makes no difference in the long run for the success of the event.
Appreciate it,
Will
So, Will, do you really think that freshman who have not been to a program at or around the Tate Center since orientation are going to magically decide to attend you little soirée simply because it has “Freshman” in the title? If the event is a whopping success, then good for Clark County schools, but I don’t plan to attend right now. Also, if the event is to be held in early December, that only gives you 20 days of publicity from today. Where’s the dorm publicity? How will dorm representatives be chosen? This seems very short notice if you are still guarding your “rough draft” so closely. Just wondering, when were you planning to advertise?
Will,
As far as this “not [planning] on letting anyone outside of Forum see our progress at this point” buisness goes, that’s not your decision. Because this is an SGA project it is an Open Record, and anyone who wants to see any documents related to the project can do so.
Also, the “tentative” date for the event places it right before FINALS begins. I don’t think I need to elaborate on this point any further…
Hey, Will, did you know that you and everyone at FF can be fined $500 for not providing documents this site requests? Yes, indeed. As FF is a part of SGA, and SGA is a committee of the university System of Georgia, under the law you have to give us all your documents. Check out the sunshine laws link elsewhere on this site.
This is non related to the post at hand but I felt since budgetary claims were addressed I should put it here. I noticed in yesterdays randb that SGA took out an ad for Tailgate with the Team. I know that ads in the randb cost at least 500 bucks a pop. Where in the budget is that coming from?
Wherever the money for all the elections seminar and Barq 4 Beer ads came from, probably. At least they had the decency to get free adspace too in the “opinions” page.
But don’t worry, freshman forum’s legendary fundraising abilities will certainly cover the costs. SGA won’t end up in the red ever again after Mr. Freshman rocks the house.
Tailgate with the team is an SGA event, however, funds for the event do not come from the SGA budget, but rather a separate account in Student Activities. SGA has money set aside for such logistics as Advertising events. The SGA budget is available on the SGA website under downloads section.
{ 1 } Trackback
[...] After all the talk earlier (with Mr. Will Spence) about the SGA Mr. Freshman Pageant, it will be happening. See the Facebook Event, which was just recently posted. [...]
Post a Comment