Union Board members chatting about the new name plates were brought to silence when Josh Thomas, Union Board president, called the meeting to order.
At 6 p.m. every Thursday Union Board has meetings in the Distinguished Alumni Room in the Indiana Memorial Union. Thursday night’s meeting was the board’s first meeting since Dec. 8.
During the meeting everything from the IMU hotel renovations to community service was discussed. Most of the renovated first floor rooms will reopen for use this week, though IMU Director Hank Walter said some minor details with the new rooms will still need to be finalized. For now temporary versions are in place.
Everything is on budget except for renovation costs, Walter said. However, that was to be expected because it was such a great undertaking. Snow Yin, vice president of finance, read the budget numbers for review. She said all the numbers were subject to change when the finals costs of programs from the fall semester were calculated and the numbers were just estimates.
Board members were able to establish ideas for how to program and to prepare for the new semester during the group’s retreat during winter break.
“I thought it went really well, those of us that were there the whole time, we got to know each other on a different level,” said Yasmine Raouf, a member of the Lecture Committee. “We all came to value each other on another level, looking forward to getting that close with everyone else.”
The retreat was a chance for members to gain insight on how other universities’ programming boards are run. They talked with board members from Ball State University and Purdue University.
Emily Carr, a member of the Fun and Adventure Committee, said it was a great learning experience. She said she enjoyed the diversity of thought. Though Ball State students said they had more participants, IU board members determined Union Board does more programming to reach minority groups — veterans, the LGBT community, Latinos and others — on campus.
Before discussing their instructional winter retreat, board members worked on streamlining meetings by reducing the number of members that need to attend. The group also deliberated on creating a committee that will select a service project within the community.
In the past, members had discussed alternating full board meetings and smaller programming ones. On Thursday night the option was discussed more in depth. Concerns were raised by various members about the potential difficulty this would cause when planning an event.
A tentative plan for a new meeting style was made: Meetings would alternate on a weekly basis between full meetings and programming meetings.
Such meetings would be opportunities to discuss the community service project and campus programming.
Among the ideas pitched for community service project were working with other organizations to plan benefit concerts on campus, getting board members to help build a house with Habitat for Humanity, and donating food to Hoosier Hills Food Bank or the Crimson Cupboard to raise awareness for food insecurity on campus.
Though no decision was reached during the meeting, a list of names was made to form a committee to select and plan the community service project. Union Board meetings are open to the public, and students are encouraged to sit in 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday nights in the Distinguished Alumni Room in the IMU.
