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Allen Hall Council

By the name, you might guess that Allen Hall Council would have to do with Allen Hall. While this is true, its location had remarkably little to do with it - or perhaps everything to do with it, depending on how you want to view it. After all, while I didn't do these things because I was in Allen, my actions were influenced by it...

I started on AHC my sophomore year, when I was voted "SAVE DIRT" chair by my floor. This consisted of showing up for one group meeting once, where I made things out of aluminum cans. It did not include learning what SAVE DIRT stood for ("Students Against Violating the Environment, Doing It Right Together"; I didn't learn that for several years), nor did it have anything to do with anything. But it was enough for my RA of the time, Len, to figure out that I cared a little bit about politics - and so I was dragged to a meeting.

It was one of the most annoying things I'd ever been to. It almost beat out my trip to the Champaign City Council meeting where they discussed how to remodel the downtown down the building to external groups - it was boring, it was long, and everybody there cared far, far too much. I was disgusted. I was angry. I did my best to break the system with every ounce of power that I had, which turned out to be fairly little (but it was satisfying being the only 'no' vote on several funding issues). And then I vowed to change it.

I ran for President at the end of the year, against Susan Landau, a regular of Hall Council considered by many (most?) to be a real bitch. I didn't know her, so I didn't have much to campaign on - but on the other hand, I didn't particularly care. I did lose the election, but, considering I didn't bother to advertise, it was by a fairly small margin - I got more than 1/3 of the vote (and incidentally technically won the position of CBSU Representative [Central Black Student Union], though they never actually offered it to me, and it sat vacant the next year). My work had also convinced my friend Sean Willis to run for Internal Vice President, which he had won. But still I felt obligated to at least come to meetings the next year...

When the fall semester of my junior year started, I was elected to be the President of Ground South unanimously. I was also elected into the VP and Treasurer positions - illegally, of course, though also unanimously. I passed those positions on, and began attending Hall Council on a regular basis... and again making a major pain out of myself.

Oddly, people liked me for it.

I spent most of my junior year pushing for funding and voting reform and generally taking devil's advocate positions. During this, I learned several things: people are easily ordered around. SAVE DIRT (which I just now found out what it meant) and most of the other committees did nothing. did nothing. Nobody actually cares except for the Exec Board. The assembly will vote in favor of anything. And the easiest way to get things done is to just change the rules yourself, since they probably won't notice that way.

It was an interesting year, too. Ground South offered full attendance at every meeting except one - the one on my birthday, where I missed it to be taken out by my brother causing the rest of the floor to forget to attend. I was dragged along to the IRHA conference, and impressed a lot of people (and scared others). I brought Like Disco to re-prominence, at the expense of associating it with me. I brought the concept of voting blocs to the floor. And as part of the Constitution and Rules Committee, I got to rewrite the Constitution as I saw fit...

And, of course, I fought with Susan Landau, who just respected me for it.

The next year, after consolidating the Unit One Rep into the IVP position, I decided to run for the position, after deciding against running against Britta for president (she was a a friend, I didn't want to argue with her; besides, her mother is in local politics, it would have caused family strife). I talked Tyler into running for External Vice President, tried to get Rene to win as Secretary (she didn't make it), and let Treasurer go as it would - and so I had a decently well set up Exec Board to play with and enjoy.

And so I proceeded to wreak outright havoc.

It was, in fact, intentional - or at least, most of it was. I did my job, certainly, but most of my time was spent figuring out strange things to do that would generally be positive but not thought of that way by the rest of the exec board. With Tyler by my side, I only needed one vote to have the majority of any exec board vote. Also, I was still positively in charge of my floor, which meant that I had more power on the actual assembly than the rest of the exec board members. And so, my list of major hall council-related actions for that year:

By the time it was over, nobody was sure what to think of me. I eventually replaced Britta in attending all RHA meetings, and generally wreaked havoc there all the time (I attempted to give all of their money away in one meeting; it was a good shot), and was generally considered In Charge by anyone that mattered (including Andrea, the Resident Director and my chief enemy of the time). Those in RHA still tell stories...

And that was the end of my direct involvement.

I still keep tabs on things every now and then. Some things I've learned since:

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