Student government does not fail from a lack of opinions. It fails from votes that never close because the only room was a meeting nobody could reach. A motion that matters can travel as writing: the text, the options, the deadline, and a place to answer from a phone.
This is not a substitute for your constitution. If your bylaws require a live session, hold one. If they allow a written vote, stop pretending a chaotic chat is that vote.
Write the motion as a closed list
One sentence that is the motion. Then the options, named and finite: yes, no, abstain — or Option A (fund the travel) and Option B (cut the speaker gift). Ask for a decision, not "thoughts before we meet." Thoughts are how a vote becomes another meeting.
Add the two or three facts a member needs to vote without opening a folder: the amount, the date of the event, who already approved the smaller piece. If a number is still a guess, label it. A confident-looking total that you invented in a chat with your assistant is how you pass a motion you cannot execute.
Leave the hour of debate out. The people who missed the meeting should get the motion, not a screenplay.
A deadline with a consequence
Set an honest deadline. Name why that time exists — the deposit, the printer, the date the dean's office stops taking forms. Then say what you will do when it passes: count the replies you have, treat silence as abstain if your rules say so, or table the motion. A date with no rule is an invitation to reply after the money is gone.
One vote per briefing. Bundle a constitutional tweak with a pizza budget and you will get pizza.
They can answer from email
Most members will not be on RelayLink. A send to someone who is not is email plus a link to the briefing. They read the motion and reply. They do not create an account to say yes. If a member already has an account, you need an accepted contact; the refusal looks the same either way on purpose.
You draft the package. You read it. You confirm the send. A motion that goes out under the secretary's name is not something the model gets to mail because it finished a paragraph.
No attachments. The shared budget stays in the drive you already use. The briefing is the vote.
Nicknames you use for officers stay private unless you share them. The motion should use the names on the roster.
If someone blocks the sender, the block is silent. Do not chase a missing vote through a second app when your rules already say what silence means.
When the motion fits in a briefing a member can answer on the bus, connect your assistant and close the vote in writing.