Members of the Student Association’s executive and legislative branches spent their annual retreat discussing their plans for the upcoming year and volunteering with the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation last week.

Student Association President Julie Bindelglass said that the SA has had a productive summer meeting with administrators, launching their trio of Web sites, and securing new locations that accept GWorld.

“The purpose of the retreat is for the executive and legislative branches to build together on the progress that was made this summer,” said Bindelglass, a junior. “[It is] a great way to get everyone around the same table to discuss our overall and personal goals and initiatives this year.”

The first day included presenting information about the finance process and Senate bill procedures, as well as group discussions about what Bindelglass called “our mission of being the best resource possible.” They focused on how to best advertise the SA’s resources to students, she said.

“These were the things that we felt were most important for our team to be aware of going into the year,” Executive Vice President Jason Lifton said.

Lifton added that this year’s goal was to keep the retreat as simple as possible. Last year’s SA retreat became entrenched in controversy when questions about extravagant spending arose.

“We didn’t want to waste anyone’s time coming in days early to do tours of the White House and all that stuff. We wanted to get everything out of the way in one day,” said Lifton.

Bindelglass and Lifton also chose to take the retreat off campus for a small community service project, doing park maintenance in Capitol Heights.

“We figured that it would be a nice way for people to get to know one another as well as a nice way to help the community of that area,” Lifton said.