All-Campus Memo on Sound System Upgrade

ASWU would like to inform you about the possibility of purchasing new sound equipment for the Events Department on campus. The vote for this proposal will take place on Tuesday, April 5^th 8:00AM – 10:00PM.

Because of the unexpectedly large student body this year, ASWU currently has an excess of unbudgeted funds totaling approximately $50,000. This is an abnormally large surplus and will likely not occur again. This surplus is available for student programming requisitions. This particular proposal for an upgrade to the Events department sound system would cost $9,991.70. If accepted, ASWU would be left with about $40,000 which would be accessible for additional requisitions this year (per ASWU Financial Standard Operating Procedures https://www.whitworth.edu/Students/ASWU/GeneralInformation/PDF/FinancialInformation/FSOPS.pdf ). If this proposal is not accepted, the $50,000 would remain available for student programming requisitions this year.

If the proposal is passed, potential benefits could include:

• · Improved sound quality at all ASWU sponsored concerts and events (Dances, Luau, International Banquet, etc.)
• · The system improvements would allow for Whitworth to accommodate entertainers’ sound needs and allow Whitworth to bring higher quality entertainment
• · Student labor costs charged to ASWU would decrease, freeing money for other events
• · Student sound staff would receive Technical training with current industry standard equipment that would be applicable to similar jobs after Whitworth

Cost Breakdown (high-end estimates):

• · New Subwoofers $5196
• · New main speakers $3996
• · Total before taxes: $9,192
• · Total with sales tax: $9,991.70

The current sound system was purchased in 1982 and is antique by contemporary sound standards. It is in constant need of repair and makes it impossible for the Events department to provide quality sound at campus events. While the Events department would like to invest in an updated sound system, it is not currently in its budget to do so. Thus, the Events department has requested money from ASWU in an effort to begin the sound system upgrade. It is the understanding of ASWU that if this requisition passes, the Events Department will invest funds to further upgrade the sound system. However their budget is not yet set on this matter. Please see “The Big Picture” at the bottom of this email for further details.

The new sound equipment will be up to current industry standards and with proper maintenance will provide high quality sound at Whitworth events for the next 20 years.

The new items would be maintained and cared for by the Events department and will be available for student programming all over campus, including concerts, comedians, etc.

The Big Picture

The speakers being requisitioned for are part of a larger comprehensive upgrade of Whitworth University’s Events Sound System. The comprehensive upgrade includes the following components along with their cost estimates:

• · 4 Mains Speakers - $3996
• · 4 Subwoofers - $5196
• · 6 Monitors (speakers directed at performers so they can hear what they are playing) -$4000
• · 24 Channel Digital Mixer - $5000
• · 24 Channel Cable Snake (Connects the performer’s microphones and instruments to the mixer) - $2500
• · Total Cost is about $22,000

ASWU has already committed funds to purchasing the cable snake because the current snake is inadequate and is only semi-operational. This requisition would cover the cost of the 4 Mains Speakers and 4 Subwoofers and would bring ASWU’s total investment to $11,692.

Although this amount will not be enough to fund the entire sound system upgrade, ASWU’s investment will still provide a dramatic improvement in sound quality for concert and event attendees. Further, it has been suggested by the Events department that this initial investment by ASWU might be met with departmental funds in order to complete the sound system upgrade. Thus, it is ASWU’s belief that the use of student funds in this way is an effective and worthy investment.

Further information and updates will be available on the ASWU blog: www.whitworthaswu.blogspot.com.

Questions and concerns can be addressed to Andrew McArdle (amcardle@whitworth.edu) or Pierre Biscaye (pbiscaye11@my.whitworth.edu).

Notes from Presentation to ASWU

These are notes from a presentation to ASWU requesting new sound equipment. Please note that this presentation focused heavily on the positives of such a requisition and didn't delve into the downsides. Remember to objectively consider both sides of the issue. Thanks.

Our Current Equipment

- Records indicate it was originally purchased in the mid-late 80’s

- Most recent update was in 1997 (mains & amps)

- It has provided the sound support for the campus for 20 years and is in need of extensive repair work or replacement.

Current State of Equipment

- The equipment is outdated and is breaking down from intense use

- Currently just adding peripherals will not noticeably improve the sound quality

- Each time it is set up the sound crew must troubleshoot and fix existing issues and work around the limitations of the hardware itself

- We cannot support the minimum requests of artists ASWU brings to campus

- The system cannot create the type of live sound environment that students and artists anticipate when at a concert.

- Events cannot provide the quality of service level that ASWU and visiting artists need

Proposed Upgrade

- Updating (modernizing) the equipment.

- The equipment cited has the equivalent to thousands of dollars worth of physical processing gear included within the operating software.

- The setup and troubleshooting time will be reduced and streamlined.

- We’d be expanding the capabilities of the hardware to accommodate bigger bands and larger shows.

- The equipment would accommodate all the required and the desired needs of visiting bands and their tech staff.

- We could create a better live entertainment environment for Whitworth students and our guests.

- The service level would go up and costs to ASWU for student tech labor would decrease because of shorter setup/tear down times, and fewer techs would be needed to staff concerts/events.

- By upgrading the “large system” we’d have multi-use equipment for up to 3 smaller systems that could be used across campus.

- The updated equipment is more efficient.

- The storage footprint for all the sound gear would be reduced.

- The cost of maintaining newer equipment is typically less than maintaining older gear as the parts are more accessible.

- Student technicians would have the opportunity to work with equipment that is relevant to the industry now. It would provide a job skill for them to use should they have the need in the future.

Event Stats

- 2010-2011 academic year has had 30 events so far that have required the use of this sound system.

- In a typical year, different components of this upgrade would provide support for upwards of 400 events

- There has been an 18% increase in events per year consistently since the 06-07 school year.

ASWU Minutes 3/9/2011

Call to Order 5.00pm.

II. Mission Statement-Lindsay

III. Fun activity: Would you rather?

IV. Motion to approve minutes of 3.2.11, Brian; Andrea 2nd. Passed.

V. Introduce Guests: Bryce McCandless, proxy for Sam; Morgan Feddes; Sara, Andy, Andrew G,

Jonny, Michael, Andy, Courtney Hutchins.

VI. Club Presentations- Lindy Tep

a. Club LIFE: Courtney H-Putting on a triathlon in April.

b. Westminster Round: Sara-taking t-shirt orders; Bad poetry night; Planning board games

and Applebys night; book sale in Lied square today.

VII.EVP- Shannon Eshoff

a. Announcements: Interviewing for coordinator positions, media is next week; Election

applications at due the 18th.

FVP- Lindy Tep

VIII.

a. Financial matters: Unallocated $29,000 remaining; will be updated soon; Capital at

$5,000.

IX. President- Josh Boyden

a. Email: What is the best policy that go out apart from the daily digest; Its confusing

because emails are still going out; Jeff-coordinators and clubs are still putting out

emails, announcement box in the daily digest?, things to sign up for because they are

ongoing and not just one day; Lindsay- someone said it was difficult to read, but if it

were in a calendar form, it might be easier to read in general, include days into the

email, not just dates; Mary- there is a lot of information, can we make it visually

marketable? it takes more work to read it; make the headlines more noticeable; Trista-

connecting the links of the titles to the master calendar where more details would be,

alternating colors so you can separate the names of the events; Bryce- showcase what is

most important to notice for that day?; Becca- it gets messy when we try to decide what

event is most important for the day, everyone thinks theirs is the most important; Kyle-

we spend a lot of time and effort in modifying the daily digest, when using subject lines

is what works; Josh- how do you think the people want? Kyle- can there be an email that

asks whether or not people are reading the digest?; Mandy- if people are just deleting

emails, then they won’t know when sign-ups are coming; Patrick Y- the marketing

person can pick what is in the showcase section; Brittany- there are so many other

departments are doing the mass email thing and we are taking the hit for it; Morgan-

damned if you do, damned if you don’t issue again, the benefits of the subject lines

versus a daily digest outweigh the costs; Mary- the survey is good, but there is an

inherent bias in the survey, the temperature survey was less biased and people were in

favor of the old email system; Becca- we’re competing with other departments to

condense; Trista- can we do an evaluation on who has the power to send out all-campus

emails and see who we are competing against and see if we can reduce all of it into a

manageable way?; Kyle- how do you know what students want? Students might not see

the cool ideas and events that are coming out if they don’t see something that appeals

to them; Donovan- what were the numbers and attendance in those events that

occurred during the trial run of the digest?; Pierre- slightly below; Brittany- pretty

consistent, but people who passed by had no idea that it was going on; Peter- more

people came, but we had other factors that contributed to that; Morgan- putting

everything into the email forces people to be more creative on their advertising; Becca-

a lot of people said that email was the best way to relay information to them; Kyle- why

get creative when emails are the best way to advertise; Trista- wanted to have a link put

out in the email but that didn’t work with the digest; Josh- “we need to do what the

students want, so take a straw vote and think about what the constituents need the

most in order to find out about events.”

b. Move back to the old system? Yes, majority passed. Send all emails to Dayna now. We

can give it another try with the formatting changes; should be implemented next year

instead of in the middle of the semester. Patrick Y- If we did the digest and did subject

line reminders on the day of specific events as needed?

c. Eric – FSOP changes

1. Proposition 1: Should we cap the spending limit at $5,000+tax before we have

to go to an all-campus vote? Becca- Should we add in the “plus tax” because

people forget to factor in tax?; Eric- can we have a written vote when we vote

on this? Should we raise this to be over $5,000?; Patrick S- raising it is ridiculous;

Becca- if we ask students if ASWU should be allowed to spend more money,

they might say no; Morgan- in the past few years we’ve be privileged to have a

lot of unallocated money to spend;

i. Christine- Motion to vote on proposition 1 to add “plus tax” with $5,000

being the buying power (pre-tax) of ASWU; Brian, 2nd. Passed.

• Peter D.- off campus: No

• Eric- Mac: Yes

• Mandy- Boppell: Yes

• Becca- Duvall: Yes

• Sarah- East: Yes

• Patrick S- Warren: No

• Gabby- Warren: Yes

• Patrick Y- Off-campus: Yes

• Meghan- Ballard: Yes

• Bryce McCandless- proxy for Sam C. Stewville: Yes

• Brian W.- Arend: Yes

• Christine D.- Theme House Rep: Yes

• Lindsay- BJ/Arend/Cornerstone: Yes

• Mary- Duvall Rep: Yes

• Andrea- BJ: Yes

2. Proposition 2: Simple Majority vs. Set Majority- Change FSOP from a simple

majority vote to a set majority after expenditure reaches above $10,000; Andy:

we should stick to a simple majority for amounts over $5,000; Donovan: we

need to decide what is fair in what a majority is, a big portion of this body was

elected to make these decisions; Mary: we need to set a value so that this

discussion doesn’t go on forever because it’s an ideological difference in how

our jobs are to be done; Eric: this is when students are voting on an

expenditure, not on how the Assembly will conduct itself; Kyle: loopholes are

taken and people will break up requisitions in order to get them passed because

going to an all campus vote is too difficult to get an agreement on; Patrick Y:

requisitions between $5,000 and $10,000 going to a simple majority vote makes

sense, once we get over the $10,000 limit, having a lot of students agreeing to

use the majority of the ASWU budget for the year makes a lot more sense to

have a set majority because it is a big-ticket item and will wipe out the majority

of the budget; Morgan: breaking up requisitions-if you have to break it up just

to get it passed, then you should re-think the requisition; Andrew G: $5,000 is a

lot of money, but students don’t know that some of the major events on

campus cost more than that, students would want a set-majority; Donovan: has

a hard time picturing students taking interest in the actual numbers of how

much events cost and they don’t care, people will vote based on what directly

affects them and not if they don’t see it affecting them directly; Kyle- students

don’t know our budget size, it’s our job to inform them; Becca: it’s important to

let students know if it will take up a large part of our budget, make the

information available to them to see all requisitions in comparison to the total

budget; Eric: this doesn’t deal with program and coordinator budgets, its’ for

expenditures that come through the assembly; Meghan: responsibility of the

students and whether we trust them enough to vote on the larger items, they

might work harder to find the information they need if the expectations are set

higher, but they trust us, so we should trust and support them to help them

make the best decision; Lindy- It will be easier to budget our money because

enrollment will be capped and allocation of money will be more towards

programs, I would say go for the set majority because we won’t have huge

fluctuations in money amounts;

i. Eric-Motion to vote on putting a set majority on expenditures over

10,000 and the set majority will be 60%; Brian, 2nd. Passed.

• Patrick S-Warren: Abstain

• Christine- Theme house: No

• Brian- Arend: Yes

• Mary-Duvall Rep: Yes

• Sarah W-East: Yes

• Andrea-BJ: yes

• Lindsay- Arend/BJ/Cornerstone: Yes

• Bryce McCandless- Stewville: Yes

• Patrick Y-Off-campus: Yes

• Mandy-Boppell: Yes

• Peter D.- Off Campus: Yes

• Gabby Perez- Warren: Yes

• Eric-Mac: Yes

• Becca-Duvall: Yes

•

Meghan-Ballard: Yes

X. Coordinator reports

• Brian: Green with Envy dance is coming up, is saga express gone now?

• Elizabeth: Class of 2011 is to contribute to the Dan Burtness Memorial fund; fundraising

is starting; order cap and gowns online.

• Pierre: Comedian tonight at 8; vibe: the Whitworthian has taken a negative approach to

how ASWU handles money and we don’t appreciate the manner in which it’s handled.

• Bryce: Basketball 2.30 in RTT, snacks on Friday, if we win, we’ll play Saturday at 4.00;

vibe: the intramurals and athletics are competing so that athletics doesn’t have the

power to kick students and intramurals off Omache.

• Patrick S: Warren got their new TV, pool table is being re-done today.

• Kyle: Weather sucks for intramurals; students who live on campus wonder why they

can’t get cable?

• Landon: Vibe: everyone is excited about the new pool and ping pong tables in Boppell.

• Mandy: Boppell has mixed feelings: good for the new stuff, bad for the themed 2nd

hall next year, meeting tonight to discuss; coffeehouse is coming up and they will be

collecting money for the Guild school.

• Eric: vibe: Getting on the current students page to see accounts in Saga and potentially

add more money to your account, use our flex money off campus?

• Trista: 74 people came to the Wii bowling tournament.

• Gabby: Tomorrow is the Bachelor/Bachelorette auction, 40 people signed up.

• Meghan: Ballard might screen print on clothing they already own.

• Brittany: Next Wednesday is the last unplugged; response to the Whitworthian:

bothersome, but we need to be more transparent, don’t like Whittileaks because it

makes us sound like we’re hiding something, it’s not all on Jerod, but we need to talk

about our media image during a GE 330.

• Donovan: Nothing on retreat front, Women of Wisdom is coming up.

• Sarah: People miss saga express and people want stickers on their cards so they get

discounts at area businesses.

• Jeff: Spring break will be great.

• Mary: There are a lot of cigarette butts around campus.

• Andrea: BJ is excited about the ping pong table.

• Lindsay: Transportation questions to students, is it possible to see if we can make it

easier for people on campus to get off campus and it will help break the pine cone

curtain.

• Michaela: Picked the winners of the senior photo contest.

• Jerod: The Whitworthtian has a large space that is dedicated to letters to the editor.

• Meredith: I think the snowman on the window is to blame for the bad weather.

• Morgan: vibe: Michaela has some news on awards they won for last year’s yearbook, 17

various awards.

XI. For the good of the order

• Patrick Y: Information on the Dan Burtness Scholarship: the return on the investment is

what is the scholarship to students.

XII.Motion to adjourn, Christine; Lindsay, 2nd. Passed.

Adjourn at 6.20pm.

XIII.

Submitted by,

Melinda Leavitt, Assembly Secretary

ASWU Meeting Minutes 2/23

ASWU

Minutes 2.23.11

I. Call to order at 5.00pm.

II. Mission Statement-Bryce Giffiths.

III. Minutes: Brian to approve, Pierre 2^nd.

IV. Introduce Guests: Ashley, Ira Macintosh, Laura Cardle, Jonny W, Andy, Michael, Andy T .

V. FVP-Lindy Tep

1. Clubs:

a. En Cristo-Malia: Make lunches at Saga, worship time, George’s Place for prepping for Downtown; possibly bring in speakers; Go downtown to Park Tower for soup and games; Street teams pass out lunches to the homeless downtown; Discipleship team that will go down midweek to meet with the residents of Park Tower to build relationships; Learn how to better meet the needs of the residents and teach them to help serve others as well.

b. SNATS- Ira: Caroling parties, trips to see the Metro Opera; Midnight April Fools concert recital plans; Creating more opportunities for students to get involved in their club.

c. Catholic Fellowship-Katie M: Carpools for students to get to Mass; Working on using Whitworth Vehicles to carpool so that students don’t have to drive other students all the time on their own gas; May 6^th trip to go to Cathedral to meet the Bishop and go look through the archives with some professors of WU; Event to make wooden crosses for a large campus event; Confession booth at Spring Fest; Relay for Life team; Hang out time to talk about their faith.

d. I-club-Ariella: International Banquet was successful; International students for Spring Semester; 30 in attendance at last meeting; Bowling night; Volunteer event at Garfield Elementary for Cultural event; Skyhigh event; Rafting trip in April; Spring Trip to Canada for snowshoeing and hot springs; End of the year picnic; Laser Tag event planned.

e. ACM-AndyT: Programming competition last semester for WU and Eastern students; Host another competition?; Laser tag event and end of the year picnic planned.

VI. Cranberry Award: Christine, Sam, Melinda for getting 25 constituent answers from the temperature survey.

VII. President-Josh

1. New Email Policy: Feedback- Should we do the Daily digest for a week and reassess next week? Patrick Y: Test it, but add subject lines to it; Elizabeth: We need to announce that we’re testing this; Kyle: link at the bottom for a survey to test success?; Christine: Color coat events?; Jonny: Is this only ASWU emails or departmental emails as well?; Starting the test tomorrow?; Mary: We need to still send out the emails because people won’t come if we don’t; Donovan: Students in the temp survey said that email is the best way to get their attention based on the subject headlines, even if a lot of emails is annoying; Many students saying that we shouldn’t change the email policy so fast if we do, we have to announce it and then begin it next Monday?; 27 for 12 against, starting next Monday; Trista: We need to test it over a longer time than one week.

2. Eric – FSOP changes: Patrick Y motion to table; Christine; 2^nd.

3. Peter - bike racks-Where bike racks can go; we need more information and the weather needs to cooperate; Keep your eyes open and see where bike racks are overflowing and where there is a need for them.

4. Beck Town Hall Meeting March 8^th.

5. Patrick Y: Propose looking into a making an ASWU marketing position; Coordinate the marketing strategies of all the ASWU leaders and help to make sure that we are advertising our events well; Is there a general interest? Can we incorporate design into that job? Can we vote on the hours of the position? Yes.

VIII. Alan Jacob-Housing lottery changes for next year.

IX. Requisitions- Lindy Tep

1. Mandy Runkel-Improve Boppel’s community: TV, blue-ray, etc. Motion to approve, Patrick S.; Eric, 2^nd.

2. Mandy Runkel- On behalf of all dorms and RDs requisitioning for new pool tables and ping pong tables. Motion to approve, Brian; Sarah, 2^nd.

X. EVP- Shannon Eshoff

1. Announcements.

2. Coordinator reports

A. Jerod- Whitworthian controls ad space on their new website for student leaders at a discounted price for events; Is $35 a reasonable rate for student leaders.

B. Bryce- If you have a Facebook, post the link that Bryce is sending to everyone; Paint up in Mac at 5.45; Playoffs. Wear Red; No cost to students.

XI. Motion to adjourn: Jeff P.; Sam 2^nd.

XII. Meeting adjourned at 6.36 pm.

Submitted by,

Melinda Leavitt, Assembly Secretary