My Intentions for Jan 31st Board Meeting

Also Looking for Some Free Advice

Lead Up to the Meeting

I am looking for some free Robert’s Rules of Order advice.  By the way, if anybody in the Sarasota/Manatee area has a copy of RONR they can lend me, please DM my twitter account.  Here’s the situation and my initial plan walking into the Board of Trustees meeting on Tuesday.

I sent an email to Christie FitzPatrick who is the Government Liason to the Board of Trustees.  By the way, she performing flawlessly in my opinion in a difficult position between all of the different Trustees and legal counsel. This was my e-mail:

1.5 Thank Chair Ruiz and elect new Chair

                Thank Vice Chair and elect new Vice Chair

                Thank General Counsel for service and dismiss General Counsel from the Board NOT the school.

4.5 Discuss need for new president and possible motion to give Pat Okker title of Interim President

8.5 Discuss our understanding of transition required and provide initial framework

9.5 Review Committee assignments

9.75 Discuss need for more collaboration in committees and propose use of social media platforms to solicit more input from public and iterative communications between board members.

I then verbally requested that my substack article “’Florida, Where Woke Goes to Die’ What Does It Mean?” be provided to the other Trustees as supporting material.

In the meantime, I was told that my request to pray before the meeting was reviewed again and indeed it was allowed.  I was asked if I would like to have the campus pastor pray.  I said thank you but no I would like to pray.

Then the agenda was sent out and I was told that it was decided that the campus pastor would pray.  Fair enough, I suppose that is the Chair’s prerogative.  I disagree and find it to be less constitutional since the campus pastor is more established in his religion than the trustee who requested prayer in the first place, but so be it. 

The agenda was missing requested items, so I sent this to Christie:

I do not see a section for new business.  We need to be open for new business items at this meeting and in all meetings.  Also I didn’t see some of my requested business items on here:

7.5 Discuss our understanding of transition required and provide initial framework

10.5 Discuss need for more collaboration in committees and propose use of social media platforms to solicit more input from public and iterative communications between board members.

I would also like to add media and security to the discussion at 10.6

And of course NEW BUSINESS after that and before adjournment.

My questions are does what has happened so far violate any Florida statues and/or Robert’s Rules of Order? I am not experienced (yet) in RONR.

My concern is that Chair Ruiz will not resign and/or delay resignation.  Thereby halting and/or delaying the necessary clarity that NCF needs as soon as possible.

If this happens what is my recourse via RONR?  Please cite page and line number.

My goal is to provide clarity and encourage us to confront the brutal facts while holding two apparent contradicting ideas in our heads and seek a deeper truth.  And to never lose hope that we will all make it through this.  In fact, I believe in the Resiliency Challenge was appropriately selected as a theme for this year and this process should be viewed as an opportunity to develop resiliency.

My Initial Intentions for the Meeting

For reference sake I have numbered each of my intended motions.

1. Point of Order this agenda does not have a section for new business.

2. I move that the agenda be modified to include a category of New Business directly before Adjournment.

3. I move that all hiring, and salaries changes be frozen until a full accounting of all current and planned expenditures and all current and planned revenues including private philanthropy be reviewed and brought before this board.

4. I move that we as a board approve a letter to the new counsel of this board to ask for a legal opinion regarding our ability to declare a financial emergency and employ a zero-based budgeting policy of terminating all contracts for faculty, staff and administration and immediately rehiring those faculty, staff and administration who fit in the new financial and business model.

5. I move that we as a board we create a committee to review our mission and goals in order to make a recommendation to the Board of Governors of any changes that may need to be made.

6. I move that we as a board approve a letter to the new counsel of this board to ask for a legal opinion regarding our ability to remove tenure from New College of Florida to become more flexible and nimbler in our hiring process like Florida Gulf Cost and Florida Polytechnic.

7. I move that we as a board create a curriculum review committee.

8. I move that we as a board provide the following framework to be further developed and then brought back before this board and then used as a guide to the curriculum review committee:

   Wokeness is a set of beliefs concerning the nature of the universe containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs, ergo religion.

   A.    Aspects of wokeness that are shared values. These aspects should be incorporated and included in our curriculum. They should also be supported in extra-curricular programs and activities. Diversity and inclusion, for example, we should not and clearly would not throw out of any curriculum that describes the beautiful aspects of America’s diversity. In fact, this should be celebrated. And America’s triumphs in creating this melting pot should be recognized. And the shared values that unite us should be highlighted.

   B.    Aspects of wokeness that are dogmatic. These aspects should not be incorporated into a curriculum, nor supported through school sponsored programs or activities. One example of a dogmatic expression of wokeness is the assertion that America and its institutions are systemically racist and must be torn down.

   C.    Aspects of wokeness that are in essence pledges of fealty. These aspects should be actively fought against; furthermore, curriculum, programs and activities should be made that expresses the dangers of these aspects and equips students to fight against them in defense of Florida’s constitution. Through either coercion or intimidation these pledges of fealty are antithetical to Floridian’s shared values. One such example of a pledge of fealty is the demand that woke pronouns are used.

9. I move that the campus police be tasked with a coming up with their own threat assessment recommendations which may include new officers and/or equipment to be heard before this board at our next meeting.

10. I move that we as a board approve a letter to the new counsel of this board to ask for a legal opinion regarding Florida’s Sunshine Laws and our ability to conduct meetings in an on-going manner in an open room on the internet to exchange documents in real time between committee members to become more iterative as a board and its various committees in as public and transparent manner possible.

11. I move that we remove USA Today and its affiliates from the list of approved media outlets until an apology is received with a commitment from USA Today to adhere to its own policies.

12. I move that we recite the pledge of allegiance to the United States of America right after prayer in every meeting moving forward as another reminder of the oath that we as trustees have all made.

    For what it is worth, I am still considering a motion/strategy to deal with my concerns regarding student’s mental health.  Serious suggestions here would be appreciated.