(no subject)

[summercomfort]

- CUSA (Chinese Undergraduate Student Association) sells buns as their exclusive method of fundraising
- They believe that buns should be exclusive to them.
- They have gone to great lengths to dissuade other clubs from selling buns.

- "Legal": First telling us that it's patented with ORCSA, then claiming that it is registered in the ORCSA guidelines as CUSA's fundraiser (which does not prevent other clubs from selling, but seems to put them in a higher legal position). This has been refuted by ORCSA. (Maybe it's part of their constitution?)

- "Cultural": Chinese buns is the only fundraiser to adequately represent Chinese Culture the CUSA way. (Just as SASA sells samosas, etc). I'm sorry, but buns are not the only way to represent Chinese Culture, and it's a bit pan-Asian (just like beef noodles and potstickers. JAS can cite anime where buns are a plot point)

- "Tradition": CUSA has been selling buns for the past 10 years, and have not co-opted other clubs' fundraisers. They feel that Bun Sales represent CUSA, like the CUSA Show. It is only in the recent year that other clubs have started doing bun sales. There is a gentleman's agreement between the RSOs. Other clubs, though never with the frequency and consistency, have also sold buns in the past 5 years, so this has never been really exclusive. CUSA does try hard to maintain an image of exclusivity.

On our part....
- There is a loss of faith and good will from being lied to about the legality issue and general protectionist behavior. If the request was conducted nicely, we would be much more predisposed to doing so. (There is the incident of the soft-spoken and nice treasurer that caused tensions to ease for about half an hour, but subsequent email of partial truths erased that.) It's understandable that they may be short-tempered and short on sleep from the CUSA show, but *civil* does not equal *nice*.
- We are not financially hurting CUSA. The market is not saturated at 1 bun sale per quarter.
- There is a general objection to the exclusivity. It prevents clubs from branching out, (including CUSA), and brings on the dangers of monopoly. We would not mind if others did our traditional bubble tea sale.
I personally think that CUSA has a right to feel attached to bun sales, but that they should recognize other clubs doing bun sales does not detriment in one bit their link to bun sales. When people think CUSA, they will continue to think CUSA Show and bun sales. Their exclusive commitment to those events are not in vain. On the other hand, bun sales have never been a "CUSA only" thing. It's kind of hard to cover up a tradition of other people doing occasional bun sales.

So now the question is:
- should we continue to sell buns to prove the principle that no RSO fundraiser should be exclusive?
- should we be nice and simply stop, now that we have proved our point?

Comments

[conejita.livejournal.com]

I wish they sold buns at UCSD. Every organization at ucsd sells Korean BBQ. Even the serbian and israeli clubs sell korean BBQ. I think it's cause the school rents out BBQ's and there are grocery stores that sell pre-marinated korean BBQ..

actually the vegitarian club doesn't sell korean BBQ..

[summercomfort]

You can sell buns. We just go to a bakery, buy their buns at .75 each, and sell them for $1 each.

[mitsuchan.livejournal.com]

fight the monopoly! keep selling! o____o

(I still think this is one of the *weirdest* things I've heard in a while)

[vaeran.livejournal.com]

No, I think it would be very rude to continue selling them when you have been asked to stop.

Instead, set up a booth at their next bun-selling fundraiser and give them away for free. :D

keep it going

[absolutsauron.livejournal.com]

for what reason may they sell and you may not? fight in a civil way--it will sway the rest of the students to your cause.

I may not be right though. go with your concience

Re: keep it going

[summercomfort]

They claim to have "tradition" and exclusivity. They are silly. We stand on the side of the just.