By
Emily Severson
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Senators will attend weekend retreat to learn tradition
Next year's ASUA administration has already gotten a taste for the responsibility it will face.
Ray Quintero, ASUA president-elect, and Sam Chang, newly-elected executive vice president, are planning to advertise open positions for clubs and organizations this week.
"It was exciting talking to clubs and Greek life members during the campaign," Quintero said. "Now we want to make sure those people get involved in ASUA."
He added that ASUA did not fill all of its club-related positions this year and he wanted to make sure they were full in the fall.
"The more students who get involved with ASUA, the more foundation we will have to reach out to students," Quintero said.
Part of Chang's transition period will include planning a weekend retreat for the new senators on April 21-22.
"The purpose of the retreat is to give the senators a chance to know each other because these are the people they are going to be working with during the next few years," Chang said.
Executive Vice President Erick Negri, who led the retreat last year, said it is not only important for the senators to get to know one another, but Chang as well.
As executive vice president, Chang will be the person the senators will go to with questions or concerns, and they should feel comfortable doing so, Negri added.
Some of the current senators are working hard to prepare the new ASUA administration to ensure them a successful term.
Sen. Matt Bailey will be organizing a transition binder for the new senators and planning a barbecue at his parents' house for the retiring Senate. He said the transition binder will include "words of wisdom" from the current senators to be passed on to the new Senate.
He said the binder would add to the consistency between the new and old Senates because it would include a summary of the work completed and work pending by each senator and committee information.
Sen. Tricia Williams said she wants to make sure to put information in the binder on her work with the Blake Foundation, where she got various campus organizations to adopt families for the Thanksgiving holiday. She said she hopes this will inspire one of the senators-elect to continue her work.
Sen. Roby Schapira urges all new senators to attend current Senate meetings to get prepared for what they will be working on.
Senator-elect Allison Jones took Schapira's advice to heart, and she said she plans on attending as many Senate meetings as she can.
She said she wanted to focus on learning to work with the new Senate to eliminate some of the bickering she said she has seen at this year's Senate meetings.
Senator-elect Jennifer Reece said she wants to meet with everyone she will be working with next year.
"I think it is really important to know the people I will be working with," Reece said. "I will take less offense to what they say if I understand why they say it."
Although most of the transition work will be done before school ends, all four executive officers and three of the senators will meet bi-weekly during the summer to construct next year's budget, Quintero said.
