MSA calls special meeting to update bylaws
Published April 6, 2004
The Missouri Students Association Senate will hold a special meeting tonight to update its bylaws to allow the organization to change the dates of a special election.
The special election will be pushed back a week to April 26-28, Senate Clerk Greg Chase said.
The election, originally scheduled for April 19, is being held to vote on the revisions of MSA's Constitution, which the Senate approved at last week's meeting.
The date of the election has to be changed because of a scheduling conflict with Information and Access Technology Services, Senate Speaker Damon Ferlazzo said.
IATS can run only one election at a time with its program and the software will be used at that time by Greek Week activities, he said.
A special meeting of the full Senate will be held at 7:30 p.m., following brief committee meetings to discuss a bill to clarify the bylaws so such a date change can be made, Chase said.
"We want to clarify the bylaws to be more accurate between the two elections we have," he said. "They currently say we can change the November general election dates up to 14 days before the election, but there is nothing about changing the date of any special election."
Board of Elections Commissioners vice chairwoman Tiffany Julian, who helped draft the bill, said the bill would allow the Senate to change the date up to 13 days before a special election because the Senate meets on Wednesdays but elections traditionally begin on Tuesdays.
"We did our best to stay true to the other rules in the bylaws," she said. "We can apply the general idea of how to change the dates of the general election to the special election because the bylaws don't specifically say the dates can't be changed."
Operations Committee chairwoman Amy Engelkenjohn said she doesn't anticipate any problems passing the bill through Senate because the revisions to the bylaws are within the "bounds of the rules."
"We have the authority and grounds to change the bylaws for special elections because of the fall election rules," she said.
Ferlazzo said he isn't worried about a low turnout for the special meeting because it follows the regularly planned committee meetings.
"If you look at attendance records, it's stronger at committee meetings," he said. "We're just encouraging everybody to go to committee meetings as normal, and we'll all meet following the committee meetings to vote on the bill."
The first reading of the ballot also will be brought up at the special meeting, Engelkenjohn said. The Senate has to approve the ballot by April 14, she said. It will be submitted to committees today.
"This will allow senators to get a look at what it says," Engelkenjohn said.
Julian said the Senate needs to let IATS know what the ballot will say so they can get it into the computer program.
"The sooner we can let IATS have it, the better," she said.
If the bill passes tonight, the election will begin Monday, April 26 at 6 p.m., Chase said.