Survey

Between June 1 and June 15, the Refresh committee opened up an anonymous survey asking the public to identify certain needs and to clarify their understand of UVSA. There were 15 unique submitted comments in this time frame. The following questions were included in the survey:

• What is your vision of UVSA? What should it be and what should it do?
• What three values should direct UVSA, its staff, and its activities? Why?
• What do you believe should be the role of the Intercollegiate Council (ICC)?
• What do you believe should be the role of the Executive Board (E-Board)?

Summary Notes of Survey Responses

Produced June 20, 2011.

1. Survey Results
1. ICC should have more authority than E-Board, but E-Board advises and mentors the ICC.
2. Two consistently mentioned values
1. Leadership, though the definition of leadership seems to vary
2. Community within VSAs
2. Committee considerations
1. Making clear that ICC is the final decision-maker
2. Administrative decisions should be made by E-Board
3. Job descriptions need to be updated
4. ICC needs to staff and execute its own programs, with E-Board support
5. ICC needs to understand its financial responsibilities
6. Clarifying the relationship between UVSA and the VSAs
7. Clarifying the relationship between UVSA and uNAVSA - formalize or do not formalize the relationship?
8. Make amendment process stricter
9. E-Board terms - 1 vs 2 years
10. E-Board as a committee?
1. Leaner E-Board? No VPs, formalize ICC Chair
2. E-Board veto power and whether it can be overridden
11. Ratification profess - 80% of all cabinets of all member VSAs
3. Next steps - Ask Andrew Dinh to join the Summit Retreat on July 9 and do the Constitution Retreat for ICC on July 10

Responses

One Stakeholder's Assessment

The following letter comes from the perspective of one of the VSA's officer. The name and school has been anonymized.

VSA-to-VSA Relations

Perception of low involvement from other schools during UVSA events

[Our] VSA felt that they're trying much harder than the other schools to come out and support UVSA events. [Our] VSA expects least 5 to 10 people per school per event while they bring out 20 to 30 people. For example, they brought 30 to 35 people to UVSA Gala because they wanted to unite with the other schools. Their members and officers were very disappointed and is very skeptical about UVSA right now.

Perception of low involvement from other schools during VSA culture show events

[Our] VSA felt that they've been very supportive in supporting the other schools in their culture shows. They would message asking [our] VSA to come and that they will support [our] VSA back. [Our] VSA would bring 3 to 5 cars up. However, [omitted] other schools [omitted] seem to have little interest for [our] VSA's culture show. [Our] VSA will not make supporting other school's shows a priority in the future unless they see progress from the other schools.

Perception of privilege among schools

Other VSAs say they live far and have "tough assignments", and that [our] VSA feels as though every other VSA thinks [our] VSA has it easy. Members of [our] VSA contend that [omitted] they have duties to their families. Even on top of this, we try our hardest to prioritize our "going out" schedule for VSA.

UVSA-VSA Relations

Lack of UVSA Presence at VSA events

A lot of [our] VSA members still don't understand who/what/where is UVSA. They suggest UVSA doing 2 presentations per semester and to interact with members. The new members will definitely have no support for UVSA because they don't know what UVSA is.

[Our] VSA was also disappointed that E-Board and ICC did not show up to [one of major social events]. After [participating in a major UVSA project] and working to death, [our VSA members] really wanted to see support from UVSA during [their VSA social event]. As of right now, [our] VSA feels they are giving more effort to support UVSA than vice versa.

Slow Money Process

Another problem cabinet brought up was the money process. [Our] VSA does not want to work with UVSA if it includes any finance because their policies are different than UVSA. They don't like how [UVSA's financial processes are not timely].

Representation at Public Events

[Our] VSA sees a dilemma during Tet Parade. They want to represent UVSA but they also want to prioritize [the VSA]. They know UVSA needs man power and help but at the same time they have lots of events that they need to fundraise and advertise for.

A lot of groups would contact [our] VSA for an event, and then UVSA contacts [our] VSA on the same event. [Our] VSA feels working through UVSA might be less efficient than simply going through the event coordinator directly. But [our] VSA feels by separating, it shows no unity.

Damaged Relations Among VSA Officers due to Failed Expectations of UVSA

[Omitted] I feel that sometimes I ask my members / officers to help out with UVSA events but they continously get disappointed one time after another. They don't directly tell me how they feel because they didn't want to "hurt my feelings." I am at the point where I don't want to use my [influence] to make them support UVSA anymore. There are many times they would bring up things that bug them about UVSA or UVSA events but I would always speak up to ensure there's no drama/problem between the two organizations. [As I will be moving on,] the future relationship between UVSA and [our VSA] definately will fall.

UVSA Matters

Not Having 501(c)(3) Status

Makes it hard to secure large funding sources.