SAV meeting notes - 10/14

First Proposal
Changes to Voting Privileges. First change, SAV should vote in members not originally voted during the elections. Second change, if there is someone who was in SAV last year for at least 10 times, they should get an automatic pass for voting this year.

This proposal was passed.

Second Proposal
Honors Society. Mr. Fanning is interested in implementing an Honors Society. Today, SAV discussed this matter. Those that agree with it say that it will help students stand out in the college applicate pool, but those that disagree feel that it will only create competition within the school.

9 for it.
7 against it.

Yet, it is still not passed. SAV seems to be fairly split on the idea.

Third Proposal
School Store. Two members have expressed interested in opening a school store, in which money raised will go into the school's sport teams funding.

It passed.

Welcome To SAV - Year 2!

And so, last week was the start of the second year of SAV. This time around, now that we understand how SAV worked last year, we're ready to move forward with making this school a better place for every student and teacher.

Stay tune for more updates!

Changes in SAV

As the year winds down a few of us have decided to take what we've seen happen in SAV and try to come up with a better way of organizing ourselves so that we get more done. As of right now, there is about four of us working out the details and our first meeting was on Friday. If anyone is interested in coming and expressing your ideas we're meeting up again during tomorrow's lunch period in the conference room. While everyone is invited, please only come if you're willing do get some work done. We are aiming to maintain our small number of participants. Check back here frequently since we'll be posting our progress here in the upcoming days.

SAV Notes for 4/30

This meeting was used more so for planning and catching up rather than voting. No votes were cast on this day. Here is the recap:

Community day for middle schoolers:
Some middle schoolers feel that on days this event takes place, they should have a chance to go without coming to SAV. On those days, the high schoolers can have the day to themselves or the week can just be called as a break from SAV as a whole. Further discussion is pending to see just how we wish to go about giving the middle schoolers that time.


High School Attendance Issue:
One of the most pressing issue we have now is making the high schoolers come to the meetings. Many people are upset that they can't vote due to the absences. We are now trying to come up with ways to remedy this problem, however, it may just come to the point of which we'll just have to start dropping names off of our forum list in order to get our voting down.

A possible Solution:
Because SAV takes place during high school lunch, we want to start making lunch available to them. It could be possible that people have stopped coming due to wanting to get food. Hopefully we can get more high schoolers to come if we eliminate the need to find food prior to coming to SAV.

SAV Meeting 3/12/08

So we were finally able to get some voting done today. Thanks in part to people showing up and remaining focus for most of the meeting. We voted to pass Kiya's Amnesty International Radio Show proposal and to add the Tutor Center idea to the middle schoolers. As for the implementation of the English Honors society, we merely votes to at least carry on with the idea. That is a discussion that will receive further discussion once a proper proposal is written.

Thanks to all of those who came out and gave their opinions.

Until next week everyone...

Important News: Communtiy Service Help

As high school students know, 60 hours of community service are required in the 4 years in order to graduate. For those who are missing those crucial hours, the SAV Forum now has a Community Sservice area which will hold important information about possible volunteer opportunities.

The link to the forum is on your right, so check it out and get those hours before its too late!

IMPORTANT NOTE!! Attendance

In order to vote on important school proposals, ALL members need to attend the meetings.

Although members who miss a meeting can catch up through the blog, it is very important that elected officials appear at all meetings so that their grade can be heard.

Remember, meetings are held on Wednesdays at 12:30 pm!

SAV Meeting Update 2/6/08

Because we didn't have a qourum, the SAV was not able to vote on any proposal. The Athletic Funding Proposal and the Tutor Center Proposal will be voted on next week.

We broke up into our committees and discussed the current issues.

News: After attending five meetings, 11th grader Justine Taylor-Raymond and 12th grader Chandra Rojas are now official voting members, bringing our total to 33 members!

Although Completely Off-Topic...

We would like to congratulate the New York Giants for winning Super Bowl XLII!

Forum News: A New Look

The forum has changed again!

To make it easier to see, the whole color format of the Forum has changed!

To check it out, visit the forum through the right link!

Recap of Today's Meeting: 1/23/08

Today's meeting saw the presenting and passing of many important proposals.

The first proposal presented was the Community Service Reform. Sam Guss, who wrote the proposal, explained all of the important points. After it was discussed, the proposal easily with a large majority of voters.

The second proposal was presented by Ryan Mason, the Exhibition Database proposal, which was also passed.

The final proposal presented was by Brandon Lewis, which was the Athletic Funding Proposal. Because it wasn't finished, a discussion was held, with large support being in favor of the proposal. The final, official proposal will be presented at the next meeting.

To view or comment on any of these proposals, please visit the SAV Forum's "Proposal Center".

Forum News: New Proposals!

In the SAV Forum, two new proposals have been put forward: The Athletic Funding Proposal and the Two-Round Exhibition Proposal!

To view and comment on them, log in to the Forum and click on New Proposals.

Remember, forum link is on the right side of the blog.

The Forum's New Look

In its first full functioning day, the SAV Forum has a brand new look, inspired by the PS3!

Thanks go to 11th grader Tyler Scrima for the awesome SAV logo, posted on both the blog and the forum.

To see the new look, visit and signup at the Forum, through the link to the right!

Notes about the forums...

As previously stated, the SAV has created a forum, the link of which is on the right side of the blog. The forum was created to provide the students, teachers, and even parents a voice in what is happening in our school.

The forum is register-required, so those who would like to view the forum and discuss things will need to register. It will take less than a minute.

We hope the forum becomes another avenue for students to use in reaching the SAV, along with the email, and simply talking to your grade's representative.

We Have A Forum!

The SAV is advancing further in providing students more ways to find about what's going on, and discuss the issues they want.

Visit our blog here:

http://z15.invisionfree.com/Official_SAV_Forum/index.php

Signing up takes seconds, and you will be able to easily discuss all the goings-on at SAV!

Live from SAV Meeting 1/16/08

Agenda for today:

1) Follow up for Security Camera discussion

2) SAV Blog Issue

3) Proposals to vote on
Exhibition Database Proposal
Community Service Proposal

4) Open Discussion

Evan Wood in the 8th grade discussed his appearance at the School Leadership Team Meeting, with Josh Marks and Middle School Director Stacy Goldstein. According to him, the same discussion was held as the SAV meeting last week.

Sam Guss is discussing the importance of student output in regards as the Security Camera issue. He also mentions that rules regarding vandalism were never truly spoken, with prosecution held first.

Ryan Mason , a newly appointed member, talked about the need of alternatives for those who are against the camera issue.

Brandon Lewis suggested a poll of the entire school, to be administered by the elected officials of SAV.

The next issue made was about the SAV blog itself. Comments made in "Live From..." blog post. Many members believe that the SAV blog should not be censored and that the administration and the parents should not be involved. Phil Ensler, however, pointed out that placing a password on the blog would be beneficial in the long-term.

Mr. Fanning arrived at the meeting to discuss the issue. He talked about the parents' point of view about the blog. The parents think that the comments made could possible damage the school's reputation. He enjoys the idea of the blog, but feels the comments should be password-protected to keep from the public. One alternative brought up was the creation of a forum for the students to make comments.

Time ran up, so the proposals and the continuation of the discussion will continue at next week's meeting.

Some New Stuff...

Just some new updates...

For appearing at 5 SAV meetings, 12th grader Calvin and 11th grader Ryan have recieved voting privileges in all SAV meetings, basically making them members. Congrats guys!

The hot topic right now is the 4th Floor Camera Issue, and SAV is making their case to Mr. Fanning this Wednesday. If YOU have something to say, leave it in the "Live From..." post, and it will be taken into account.

Live from SAV Meeting 1/9/08

Mr. Fanning arrived at today's SAV meeting to discuss the issue of the 4th floor camera. According to his speech, 10th grade girls approached him about sexual harassment occurring in their grade. In order to protect the rights of the students, he placed a camera on the 4th floor above Ms. Godshall's room. The camera was active from November to Christmas time. Another issue that required the need for a camera was graffiti and other property discussion. Mr. Fanning expressed the need for solutions, instead of just opposition. He said that he would be very open about changing decisions he made if a better solution was provided. By the end, he suggested that SAV gain a consensus by spending a few weeks discussing the camera before he re-addresses the issue at a later time.

One issue that SAV members had with the camera is the lack of notice and the lack of say the SAV had in the decision. He replied by saying that the students' protection required immediate reaction, and that he needed to make a quick decision.

After he explained the reasons for the camera, SAV members had the opportunity to discuss their feelings on the matter. Members including Ali Jo Harris and Sam Guss explained that SAV should have received notice in regards to the putting up the camera, whether it was before and after. The idea of cameras received a mixed reaction, with some completely opposed, while others expressed no problem without it.

Coming Soon...

The first SAV survey will be coming to email boxes very soon!

Evry once in awhile, we'll send out a survey to find out what the students feel about the current issues being discussed in SAV. That way, you'll be apart of the action, even if you're not at the meeting!

Expect one very soon. If you want one, leave your email address on this post!

We have a Website!!

Thanks to the amazing Carrie Staples, we now have a space on the official SOF website.

You can either go to the website and on the left you will see SAV, or you can follow the link: http://www.sofechalk.org/group_profile_view.aspx?id=ecb96499-e53b-490c-8861-2d4adcc83ce1

Thanks again to Carrie and the SOF Tech Chairs Maddy and Brandon!