BE Board:Meeting minutes/9/08/2005

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Date: 09/08/2005 Time: 11:30am Place: 56-302

Attendees
Dave A, Maxine, Diana, Barry, Lisa, Jason, Nick, Jordan, Danielle, Kristen, Ben C, Jon, Shan, Megan P, Nancy, Ricardo, Amy

Welcome to a new year

 * BE board from last year had great success, but everyone should feel free to propose additions and alterations to improve upon the existing structure.
 * Meeting will be open to all students for the whole hour.
 * Pros: increase involvement, town hall format
 * Cons: Do we need a bigger room?
 * Increasing communication by starting a wiki for the BE Board
 * Hosting is available on [OpenWetWare.org]
 * Jason will set up the initial site and get people logins
 * Test the site out over the next month before making any decisions about what role, if any, we want the wiki to have.

Short-term events

 * Graduate program feedback/Annual survey (Ben C, Nick)
 * Faculty retreat this year will focus on the graduate curriculum, want student feedback via a survey by the end of September
 * Yearly survey has been done on paper previously, but an electronic approach will be attempted this year
 * Will attempt to integrate the two surveys to increase the amount of participation, but no decision has been made
 * Annual survey needs to be updated and there is a short time frame of the next four to five days to get that accomplished
 * The survey will be emailed to present and past board members for feedback
 * BE First-year dinners (Sept 27?) CHANGED TO WED 28 SEP
 * setting it for Tuesday Sept 27th
 * alternative options – suggesting a place to convene after dinner?
 * If you know of conflicts except sox tickets inform a board member
 * First-year Rep
 * representative – how to acquire one?
 * Shan:
 * want elections in the near future, integrate as soon as possible
 * would prefer to have the role of the first-year rep to be more defined
 * help out the academic chairs
 * help the social chairs to incorporate the first-years into the social activities more
 * General concerns:
 * want the first-years to get to know each other
 * maybe look at two positions – or would that make the board too big?
 * Feedback from first-years present
 * all are worried about work load and balancing such a commitment
 * Conclusion
 * Initial objective to just let them see the ropes and help to out with
 * Encourage the first-years to attend the next meeting and then let them vote once they have a better idea
 * Monthly meeting schedule
 * Diana will email the board members to work out an appropriate time
 * ASA room reservations
 * Diana will talk to Jordan, Maxine and academic chairs will be added to the list.

Undergraduate Committee (Jason)

 * Diana and Barry can step in if Jason cannot make it
 * There will be three meetings during the fall semester
 * The position – to have a graduate student on the academic undergrad committee for curriculum development, representing TAing, curriculum development, mentoring etc… graduate student voice on the board

Treasurer (Jordan)

 * If you are making purchases, keep your receipts and turn them into Mariann Murray in the academic office
 * You cannot be reimbursed for sales tax, instead you need to use the tax exempt form.  If you need a copy of the tax exempt form, email Jordan.
 * When you buy something, please email Jordan to ensure expenses are kept up to date
 * Budget numbers on agenda only covers 90% because of the 10% overhead
 * Numbers have been altered due to the use of funds over the summer… for updated number talk to Jordan, he will email out individual groups.
 * Receipts much be itemized

Academics (Danielle, Nancy)

 * Industrial Seminar Series
 * Currently, the have three people for industrial seminars
 * first opening is for the first or second week of October
 * if you know anyone who you think would be interesting to invite, contact the industrial reps
 * Maxine – bimonthly, seemed like too much and now belief that cutting back to once a month might be better
 * Even though we only seem to need one more if we go to once a month, any contacts you have would be greatly appreciated
 * Previous seminar speakers from a class Steve and Pete taught
 * Ben C: meeting with Dan Darling – correlation between undergrad internships and industrial contacts, just passing information along at this point
 * First Year Advisee - Graduate Student Advisor Events
 * previous lack of interaction,
 * last year did two pizza dinner events to get advisee/advisor events
 * suggest an event in IAP to help with advisor selection process
 * make sure to coordinate with the TAs for events:

Social Committee (Megan M, Ricard, Shan)

 * September TGIF – flat top Jonnies: Sept 23rd, Friday
 * Future endeavors – possible bowling TGIF
 * BE.526 – quick information email needs to be sent for how to run the TGIF events, contact Mariann Murray, Megan McBee or Ricardo Brau for information
 * Ben C: new TGIF question – can we have new faculty members informally host the 526 events so that students can get to know them?

Diversity Committee (Maxine)

 * Four main topics we would like to cover – series of lunches and movies to represent specific cultures
 * Group will meet this month to discuss the whether to continue attempting to show movies or if there is a better alternative options
 * Additional options under investigation:
 * Also like to start inter-lab lunches, to allow labs to meet one another through some sort of presentation format
 * Invite faculty members or academic representative to show how diversity has impacted their careers or path etc…
 * Overall goal, to allow for small focused discussions on diversity issues, integration of minorities, fears, international student integration issues, objectives to find additional discusses at other BE events, aim for a discussion with moderation

IM Sports (Dave and Kristen)

 * Waiting for the email about the new sports
 * Potential expansion to informing the BE community about general sporting events and the resources available through the instititute.
 * Communication of a broader set of information should be tried out on the wiki to minimize emails

Volunteering (Lisa)

 * Want to have fun events, suggestions or recommendations are appreciated
 * Suggestions:
 * Danielle: bicycling advocacy event on the weekend of the 24th
 * Jason: Water station on the marathon – must sign up early
 * Hurricane Katrina Relief Effort
 * is there interest in clothing or food drive in the division?
 * It might be best if our approach has a local slant
 * Can we become involved with helping visiting students adjusting?
 * General email to students to let them know what is going on and how people can help

GSC Representative (Megan P)

 * GSC is attempting to coordinate all of the graduate groups to allow a concerted effort
 * First meeting last night, it was “interesting”
 * Need signatures in order to become the official representative…
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