Students try on new SOCC

Growing pains and learning curves marked the Oct. 28 meeting of the Student Organizations and Clubs Council (SOCC), as newly elected officers received a crash course in parliamentary procedure and handled major items of business.

SOCC is the newly formed governing body for all student clubs and organizations on campus, and its first item

of business was elections. Sabrina Holland of the Deaf Studies Association (DSA) and Nathaniel Vasquez of Circle K International (CKI) leadership organization were elected as co-chairs. Cathy Gould of the Social and Human Services club (SHS) and Jason Hershey of the Center for Student Political Studies (CSPS) were elected as co-secretaries.

Immediately following elections, the new officers dealt with the business of entertaining motions and voting, proved to be challenging at times.

"Bear with us, we're learning," co-chair Holland said as she and her fellow officers became better acquainted with parliamentary procedure.

Despite slow going in order to ensure adherence to procedure, members of the council appeared optimistic about the group's mission and future.

ACC Incubator president and founder Wendy Lopez said, "Everyone has to go through a learning curve and once they do, they'll be strong."

Ryan May, former secretary of the Student Government Association who was also in attendance, echoed Lopez's optimism and support. He said the council had a lot of potential and that difficulties were understandable considering that the newly elected officers were thrown into a situation they may not have been familiar with.

As the officers became more comfortable with parliamentary procedure, they settled into the rhythm of handling the issues at hand. One such

issue involved the attendance

requirements placed on clubs and organizations for certain events. For recruitment events such as Involvement Fair, clubs were required to have five officers in attendance while organizations were required to have 10. Falling short of those requirements would result in the club or organization's loss of good standing.

In an overwhelming majority, SOCC members voted to reduce the attendance requirements to one officer for clubs and three for organizations.

In a similar vote, attendance requirements for the annual Nuts and Bolts workshop were reduced to two officers for clubs and four officers for organizations. Nuts and Bolts is a Student Life program which teaches the officers of clubs and organizations how to successfully organize and run their groups.

Phi Theta Kappa honor society representative Garrett Staas voted in favor of the attendance reductions and explained why he voted to

make requirements for Nuts and Bolts higher than those of other events. "For Nuts and Bolts you have to have that extra person because there is so much information," Staas said. "It's also best to have another representative in case one is not able to fulfill their duties. The other representative can then share the information with their group."

During the discussion on attendance, Jason Hershey, the newly elected council co-chair, said that an academic exception to the attendance requirements was needed because any policy that required students to attend meetings instead of classes because of a scheduling conflict, was setting them up to fail.

As council members grappled with attendance requirements and the disciplinary actions that could result, Quevarra Moten, Student Life ccoordinator at Northridge Campus, said that the council should set the rules however they saw fit.

"This is your tool," Moten said.