By Cassandra Larson
BYUSA officers line-danced their way to Rockin R” Ranch June 13-15 for the annual kick-off retreat.
“We had a western cowboy theme and spent the time getting to know the people we would be working with for the next year,” said Natalie Cook, 20, a senior from Ogden, majoring in business.
The annual retreat is just one of four retreats BYUSA officers attend each year, Cook said. But the budget, she said, is a mystery.
“There is no way to find out how much is spent on retreats,” Cook said. “They don”t even tell us.”
One of the goals of this year”s officers is to use the budget more effectively. They want to spread out the funds to affect as many students as possible.
“I think it is important every year to communicate the importance of using a budget effectively,” Cook said. “We talk about the widow”s mite and the tithing funds being sacred.”
Some officers said they feel that they deserve the retreats for all the work that they put in.
“Each of these people put in 20 to 30 hours a week without pay and all of their work is on a volunteer basis,” Cook said. “They deserve a retreat like this.”
Angie Gatten, 21, a senior from Helena, Mont., majoring in business said she had no idea BYUSA officers went on retreats such as the one to Rockin” R Ranch.
“I don”t think that they should spend very much money,” Gatten said. “They can do things that do not cost as much money, and still accomplish the same goals.”
In addition to the goal of spending the budget with care, participants at this year”s retreat also made other goals. Some of those goals were to meet a new person every day, tell students that BYUSA is more of a service organization rather than a name and live the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Although Cook proclaims service as one of their goals, the community service committee was not invited to attend this year”s retreat. Their offices were recently moved to the Jacobsen Center for Service and Learning. From now on they will be responsible for their own retreats, said Steve De Francis, 23, a senior from Chandler, Ariz., majoring in secondary education.
De Francis, a BYUSA program director two years ago, now works at the Jacobson Center.
“Community service is not affiliated at all with BYUSA student leadership,” De Francis said. “Basically everything BYUSA does is service, but the community service aspect is now separate.”
Jonathan Kau, director of the Jacobson Center, said he feels that this has been a very positive move for both organizations.
“We are in the process of totally revising the way we run student service on campus,” said Kau. “We are even changing the furniture.”
Regardless of the changes made and the money spent, BYUSA officers were smiling when they returned from their retreat.
“We had a lot of fun, and got a lot of things done,” Cook said.
