At their December 5th meeting, the Activities Board (ABC) resolved to commit their efforts during Spring semester to a comprehensive reform of the structure and policies of the Board. The most significant immediate impact of this process is that, in order to redirect their efforts toward reform, the Appeal and New Group Recognition processes will be suspended for the Spring semester, tentatively resuming in the Fall. Their resolution is below, and the full proposal can be found here.

A Resolution for Comprehensive ABC Reform
Unanimously passed on December 5, 2012 by the Activities Board at Columbia

  • WHEREAS, since its founding in 1998, the Activities Board at Columbia has expanded to represent 160 groups, becoming the largest governing board at Columbia, based on member groups, board size, and net funds controlled; and
  • WHEREAS, the policy agenda of the ABC has been deemphasized as the full attention of all twenty members are needed to fulfill their obligations to existing and new groups; and
  • WHEREAS, applications for New Group Recognition have consistently increased year after year, showing no signs of slowing down, requiring the redirection of valuable time and manpower; and
  • WHEREAS, the ABC recognizes several fundamental structural and procedural problems with the organization of its board, and recognizes the need to refocus efforts and attention on large reforms; and
  • WHEREAS, ABC member groups have urged us to reconsider our allocation process, citing that it relies too much on historical precedent, to reconsider the use of the Electronic Approval Form, citing its redundancy, and to reconsider our representative election process, citing that representatives may not always be experienced in the groups they oversee; and
  • WHEREAS, many policy initiatives have been proposed over the years, but have fallen to the wayside due to lack of manpower and loss of institutional memory as new boards are elected:

  • THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the ABC will spend the Spring 2013 semester focused exclusively on comprehensive reform in the following core areas: A Group Evaluation Process, The Electronic Approval Form (EAF), and A Direct Representative Democracy; and
  • RESOLVED, that the ABC board will pursue additional reforms in areas including but not limited to: ABC Programming, ABC Awards, Re-Categorization of Groups, Appeal and New Group Recognition Process Reform, Dual Recognition Reform, and Paperless Publications; and
  • RESOLVED, that in order to have the proper resources and manpower to pursue these initiatives, the ABC will be placing a moratorium on our Appeal and New Group Recognition functions for the Spring 2013 semester; and
  • RESOLVED, that these various initiatives will be combined into one comprehensive reform package to be presented to student group representatives, Columbia administrators, and student council members for feedback prior to implementation; and
  • RESOLVED, that unless this reform package explicitly changes the procedures for Appeals and New Group Recognition, the ABC will resume normal functions at the beginning of the Fall 2013 semester