The Associated Students of Diablo Valley College are dealing with internal conflict and are struggling to gain participation from DVC students.

On Tuesday, March 1, the ASDVC members met in the Student Conference room to discuss their upcoming team building outing, potential revisions to their mandatory board meeting clause, upcoming elections, and how to gain more involvement from DVC students.

In hopes of getting members more comfortable with one another and more willing to speak up during weekly meetings, director of Activities, Jonathan Otis, has planned a trip to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.

According to Otis, ASDVC funds are not really being spent, so he figures, why not put some of the money toward funding a team building activity.

The only other time members have been able to bond, other than at meetings, is at the four to six hour mandatory board retreat given at the beginning of the semester.

When only a few members wanted to revise an already existing rule of the ASDVC committee, conflict arose. Returning members felt it was necessary to add that the mandatory board retreat be optional for returning members. The consequence of attending only half the retreat would either count as one unexcused absence or members may be subject to being removed from the committee.

It was unclear to many members of the committee how consequences would be put into effect, which was a major cause of dispute. Another major concern was that all returning members would choose to not attend the full length of board retreat and fail to bond with new ASDVC members.

With a result of 11 members against the revision and only four for the revision, the clause will not be added, but may be discussed again in future meetings.

The remainder of the meeting was left to discuss the upcoming elections and how to get DVC students involved in the election process. Members of the ASDVC committee who plan to run for positions are responsible for their own campaign, and it’s their job to inform DVC students about the upcoming elections. Candidates will start campaigning on March 8 and the final election will run March 15 through March 16 from 4 p.m. until 5 p.m. in the DVC cafeteria. Free burgers will be distributed to DVC students who participate in the voting process.