BE Board:Meeting minutes/4/02/2007

Meeting Minutes - 04/02/07
Attendance
 * Justin Buck, Sean Clarke, Hyung-Do Kim, Ranjani Krishnan, Brandon Kwong, Rachel Miller, Amy Nichols, Robin Prince, Mike Schmidt, Nidhi Shrivastav, Sonia Timberlake.

Coordinators
 * Q&A with Doug Lauffenburger
 * Since the retreat ran over, we didn't have time for a Q&A session. We would like to have a Q&A session with Doug to discuss BE matters from the prospective of students.  A wiki page will be set up for pertinent questions by students.  One of the questions raised by the board is the applicability of BE electives - students feel that the BE elective offers are inadequate.
 * Mailing list conversion
 * is in progress to minimize spam
 * TA Awards
 * Proposed by the faculty to recognize students for TA efforts. List with concerns assembled by BE Board was submitted to Doug Lauffenburger addressing issues such as feasibility of objective judgement.  Also students feel that balancing unequal workload across courses shoud be priority.
 * Postdoc Alternative Talk
 * Proposed by Jason Kelly to invite Doug Lauffenburger and Pam Silver to discuss alternatives to postdoc, such as startup and industry, as post-graduation career possibly towards academia. Generally received positively by the BE Board.

Academic representatives
 * Retreat Recap
 * Electronic survey will be issued soon.
 * Industrial Seminar Series to be held tomorrow, April 3rd. No change in format.

Social chairs
 * TGIF
 * set for Friday April 20th at King's Bowling Alley. Davis Square candle pin bowling as an alternative.

Community service chair
 * Charles River Cleanup
 * is planned for this month...

Diversity representative
 * Potluck Lunch
 * Planned for April 13th. Everyone is encouraged to attend.  There will be catering for support.

Athletic chairs
 * Ultimate Frisbee, Volleyball, and Softball are on for spring.
 * Locker is now set up for usage.

Secretary
 * Integration of undergraduate student population to BE Board
 * Undergraduates are interested in guidance by the graduate students to plan events. Also, the size of interested undergraduates are limited at this point compelling an integration into the existing graduate organization.
 * We will plan on temporary integration of undergraduates with the plan to establish an independent organization in 1 1/2 years.
 * We will talk to Doug Lauffenburger first before proceeding.