Recap/discussion *disclaimer its quite long but please read through it all*

[Sean Willard]

Hey everyone, 

I want to start off by saying I am so happy with how well our two GBmer Retreats have gone this year! As Haley and I were walking back to my car today we were talking about how the retreats started and how much they have grown into what was originally intended; a fun, friendly, and open environment to just hangout and have a day to bond with the members and officers while embodying the values of headstrong. Especially this year, my vision and expectations were exceeded with two of best events in general that HeadSTRONG has ever had in my opinion. 

Besides praising all of you for being a part in either planning or attending the retreat, I wanted to highlight that this was not by chance. What I mean by this, is that each key component in putting this event on was taken care of and executed smoothly. This brings me to my main reason for emailing you all, which is to basically make sure we are all on the same page with finishing off this semester and preparing for the transition to next years officer board. 

One of the main things that I wanted to emphasize is efficient communication. I understand there is a lot to think about and keep track of in regards to emails but as officers its our responsibility to keep up to date with everything and anything that HeadSTRONG is involved with. I myself am not perfect and fall behind on emails as well, but as a result of not having all of us together at the officer meetings it is even more important for us all to stay aware of specific details in regards to meetings and events. I bring this up because I have noticed that during the last few officer meetings, more questions that could have been discussed over google groups or were already discussed were brought up and lead to tangent/mini conversations. We have been getting through the necessary info on our agenda each meeting, but in theory I would like to have more time for input from each officer concerning any suggestions, reservations, or opinions about what we are doing presently and in the near/long term future. Basically between Melanie and I we have gotten a lot of suggestions/opinions about various things throughout the year, and in some cases it works for us to be middle men, but most of the time these are things that should/need to be shared throughout the board. I say that because in the end that is typically what happens as well as I have personally witnessed the combined power of the officer board when we all work together cohesively and it is unlike any previous HeadSTRONG board. I am not just saying that, but truthfully this have been the most enthusiastic and supportive boards I have been on since being a part of HeadSTRONG. That is why I cannot stress it enough for us all to be on the same page with things. As a result I would appreciate if as a board we could all commit to at least reading the threads in order to get familiar with what going on as well make sure you are responding if it involves you(please don’t hesitate to text one another if instant communication is needed). This is even more important for those of you who are unable to attend the meetings. I appreciate the independent nature and ability of you all to adhere to your specific officer responsibilities along with going above and beyond in many cases which makes my job much easier. Since we are all so busy, I feel as if this might help expedite the planning process of many events as well as make our meetings more efficient. I am open to suggestions any of you might have regarding this. 

There are a couple of events/meetings I wanted to discuss as well…

*** 3/26 is our next meeting in which Sean Shepard will be our guest speaker. Since I am sure he is going to promote Ex for Vets(4/26), I wanted to make sure we get all of that info that I sent out in a previous thread on the google doc and into our next weekly email.  Let me know if any of you have questions about the event. Also correct me if I am wrong Alecks, but if you all didn’t know that any donations we accrue beyond our registration fees, 50% comes back to our org. 

***4/6 is the last day to turn in bios for elections, and in order to give everyone time to ask questions and write it out I want to get it included in our weekly email along with announcing it in our next meeting. Let me know if any of you think something should be added, but I figure the main points we want are: Introduction of yourself (year, major, your involvement in headstrong), what position you want to run for(can be multiple, 2 max?), why you are suited for the position, and finally what other commitments you will have next year and how you plan to address all your responsibilities. How does that sound to you all? My plan is to have all of the candidates introduced at the 4/9 meeting and then have the president and VP candidates make speeches. Depending on how many people run for those two positions we may have time for other candidates to say a few words if that position had multiple members running for it. We decided to go with online voting, which will be open from the time the meeting ends to lets say 11:59pm on Friday? That way we can evaluate the votes over the weekend and announce the winners in our email that week. Not mention advertise open positions or run offs if necessary. I unfortunately have never set up a survey monkey so if anyone is familiar please let me know as I would appreciate help in getting that ready for elections. 

***5/2 or 5/3 is our potential dates for the banquet, and I hope you all saw Alecks email about starting a committee. Thank you Haley for offering to help, and there is not a magic number but if another person would be willing to assist them that would be greatly appreciated, since both Alecks and Haley will be graduating and it would be a great experience for any of you who are continuing on as officers to learn about and thus carry on into next year. Once a committee is formed, I would be more that willing to set up a meeting in which we could begin to hash out what needs to be considered with this event. 

***Embrace feed the homeless is this wednesday 3/19, and I just want to make sure those of you who signed up on the google doc also remembered to sign up online. Another thing I forgot to bring back was the open opportunity for members to attend any feed the homeless date outside of headstrong to achieve points by taking a picture. Andres, do you have any worries about giving out unlimited points or would you like to set a max on it?

That is the end of my rant. I apologize for it having to be so long but I needed to get some of that off my chest as I have felt I wasn’t doing my due diligence as President lately. I hope to be more involved with helping facilitate things from here on out, and as I have said before I am always open to constructive criticism as this is my first time as president and in the end we are doing this because we love headstrong and want to make it the best experience for the members, such as what we as officers came to appreciate starting off as members. 

I hope you all had a great weekend :)

Sean 

[Melanie Marquez]

Thanks Sean, Im also really happy about how well explore and our retreat turned out!

I am also guilty of this and will do my very best to stay on top of things as they are happening and act on them, so we can take advantage of the opportunities that may come our way, and in the end, everything will go smoothly.

Best,

Melanie M

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[Andres Schemel]

Sorry for the late response guys! Sean, I do not mind having members take a picture at feeding the homeless events for a point. I do need to still figure out who exactly went to the 1) Explore SDSU and 2) GBM retreat so I can give those members their points! Hopefully I'll know by the end of today's meeting! info about our meeting today has been posted on Facebook, Intagram and Twitter. I'll see you all soon.