Meetings during the Summer

Depending on when your election cycle is and when your new senate gets appointed this may shift. But typically its at the end of a semester and the new senate has at least one meeting before summer. So after your first initial meeting at the end of the spring semester, it won’t be till late august till you meet again. That is, unless you schedule some times during the summer for the Senate to hold non-mandatory meetings. This is entirely your choice, for both the 2011 and the 2012 summer Cabrillo’s Student Senate met 5 times. This depended greatly on if there was business that needed to be discussed, and if there was none, we didn’t meet.

To set meeting times, send a doodle poll out (doodle.com), first with possible dates, then another with a time. Even if it turns out to be 3pm on a Thursday (Cabrillo’s Student Senate normal meeting time), giving your Senators the power to choose makes them feel a part of the process. What is discussed during these meetings does not need to be entirely money-related expenditures, you can also begin some planning for the upcoming semester such as create a calendar, brainstorm ideas, etc. The summer meetings can be a place for more internal business to be discussed as the public is less likely to attend.

Student Senate Retreat
Important: It is strongly recommended to keep your goal setting till the Student Senate retreat.

If you don't have a retreat I would highly suggest  it.

It is very useful if every Senator is present during the goal setting process, and the retreat is the best place for this to happen. Lastly, the  summer meetings also play an important role in your Senators getting to know each other and you. Through meeting during the summer, you are able to begin seeing how the group will work together and not leave this all up to the retreat and the first meeting.