Student Body President Ryan Berger has changed the format of meetings for the Student Senate executive board, and members say it has helped generate productivity this year.

In accordance with the Student Senate constitution and public law, the executive board must hold meetings which are open to the public at least twice a month. But rather than having a weekly meeting with the entire executive board as in the past, Berger decided last year to meet every other week. During the weeks the whole board does not meet, Berger has a one-on-one meeting with each of the other executives.

This method, Berger said, helps eliminate the repetitiveness of having weekly meetings with the whole group.

“You really can’t get serious work done with one person when everyone else is sitting there waiting,” Berger said of the drawbacks of weekly group meetings.

Berger said the approximately half-hour meetings with individual board members help develop their ideas in more depth. Chelsea Frederick, student vice president for academic affairs, agrees.

The alternating group and individual meetings are better than weekly group meetings, Frederick said, because the individual time with Berger allows for personal discussion and expansion before an idea is presented to the larger group.

“I feel like this year we’re getting more done with (the new meeting format),” Frederick said. “We get a little more communication, a little more feedback.”

Although ideas are discussed one on one, the new set up does not set back the productivity of the members as a whole, Berger said. For example, both Frederick and Keila Lacy, student vice president for student affairs, have started working on research to seek funding for Eastern’s registered student organizations. Berger said even though their ideas overlap, the two women set up their own meetings to work together on the project.

Although all executive board meetings are open to public, Berger extended a special invitation to senate members in last week’s Student Senate meeting.

“I thought there was a pretty good turnout,” said Mark Bates, tuition and fee review committee chair and one of five senate members who attended Tuesday night’s executive board meeting in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union Bridgeway.

The board meeting provided a more detailed look at issues discussed in weekly senate meetings, Bates said.

Brian Andries, another senate member who attended, also described the meeting as similar to weekly senate meetings. The board members just seemed to go over each other’s ideas so they would be on the same page at the senate meeting, he said.

Bates said he thinks many senate members don’t attend executive board meetings because of time conflicts. Andries agreed and said it’s hard for many to remember another meeting without writing it down.

“I just forget stuff,” he said.