BE Board:Meeting minutes/9/08/2005

For current website see begradboard.mit.edu

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…