Inauguration is just another random excuse for SWIL to have a party, but it's the one with the filksinging. Inauguration should take place the first Friday of the spring semester, since the new presidents can't run meeting until they've been inaugurated, and the old presidents probably don't want to do it.
Someone should coordinate inauguration. This person should first reserve a suitable location for the party. We usually use Bond. Note: Ruach often has bond reserved every Friday night for services and dinner, so the party should be scheduled to start as soon as we can get the room, probably 10:00. You could try to reserve some other space for inauguration, but it's pretty important to have a room with a lot of chairs.
The coordinator should then get food. People will not be as willing to prepare food for inauguration as for other swil parties, since they've just gotten back to campus, so the coordinator should get a lot of food, of the snack and dessert food variety. Drinks are very important. As usual, everyone who comes to inauguration should give the coordinator $2-$3.
The new presidents should be crowned at midnight exactly. (Yeah, right.) The official procedure (we think) is: first, the outgoing presidents crown the incoming presidents with silly hats. (Note that former presidents who are not being reinaugurated are needed for this task. I dunno what you do if there aren't any around -- invent something.) Then, the new presidents announce their titles. It has become traditional for the new presidents to first recite a list of rejected titles. After the presidents are named, general happiness ensues. It must be quashed instantly. To this end, the outgoing presidents perform their final duty as SWIL presidents: the reading of ``The Unreality Warp.'' ``The Unreality Warp'' should be preceded by a demonstration of the tune to ``Moon Shadows'' for the benefit of frosh and upperclassmen who have repressed it.
After the official stuff, filksinging happens. There should be several copies of the filkbook in george. If there aren't, blood should be shed, then we should get emergency funding from budget committee to xerox new filkbooks; we've done it before. Anyone who has a copy of the filkbook should bring it, but people can share.
We should have Bond reserved as late as possible (probably 2, since public safety isn't as lenient with Bond as with Sharples III). Filksinging should continue until either people get sick of it or they kick us out. Remember to give money to the coordinator.
By: Chaos Golubitsky '00 -- Last revised: 18 January 2000