GT Airsoft Veto
Both legislative bodies decided to uphold the veto of a bill by Graduate Student Body President James Black and Undergraduate Student Body President Elle Creel. During their Oct. 4 meetings, GSS and UHR considered a bill requesting funding for the Airsoft Club in order to purchase guns and other equipment for practice and tournament play. While some members brought up concerns regarding the danger associated with airsoft activities, both bodies passed the bill for a total amount of $1320.46.
After further consideration, both Black and Creel decided to veto the bill.
“I started asking some questions to make sure the organization had their bases covered since we would be funding some high-risk items,” Black said. “It was found that the club did not have an advisor, and was using a liability waiver that had not been vetted by GT Legal.”
“I would love to see them come back for funding and for SGA to be able to support them, but we need the administrative issues sorted out,” said Undergraduate Student Body President Elle Creel.
JFC Policy
The changes to the JFC Policy were approved last week following two weeks of discussion in conference committee. The version of the bill originally passed by GSS included a cut to the stipend of the WREK chief engineer, while the UHR version did not.
Because WREK radio was not contacted before or during the bill process, the committee was urged to reconsider by both Student Body Presidents. Upon reconsideration, the UHR version of the bill was chosen by the conference committee and passed in both houses. The discussion of the conference committee members, conducted over email, raised several procedural issues that were debated during the meeting on Oct. 11. According to member-at-large Greg Jones, holding conference committee meetings over email is in violation of the Georgia Open Meetings Act.
Speaker of the House Brooke McDaniel called an “issues meeting” to discuss the concerns raised. UHR members said that it would be impractical to hold conference committee meetings during the week. It was decided to continue holding conference committee meetings over email unless two members requested to meet in person.
“I feel like that this is fair, because the chairs have agreed to be more sensitive when issues are raised about conference committee,” Jones said.