GSC BoD Meeting
Thursday, June 1 , 2000
Directors present:
Alex Backer, Magali Billen, Catherine Cornu, Bob Gingrich, Ying Huang, Tobias Kippenberg, Tim Lesko, Fok-Yan Leung, Jose Mumbru, Nick Pornsinsirirak, Steve Pracko, Claude Seywert
Directors absent:
Jeff Bergthorson , Tanja Bosak, Marco Casari, Will Dunbar, Mike Fleming, Will Green, Serena Guarnaschelli, James Harrington, Anil Hirani, Michael Johnson, Athanasios Nenes, Hui Wu
Guests:
Diego Dugatkin (CHCC), Rob Rossi (CHCC), Peter Mao (Activist Speaker Series), Tom (Prufrock), Kevin (Prufrock), Miria (Afghani Women Speak Out)
Chair Alex Backer presiding.
a.
Introduction of guests
The various guests introduce themselves (see below for the issues they wanted to raise).
b.
Additions to the agenda
Added the Prufrock funding request and the funding request for the Activist Speaker Series at the top of the agenda. Furthermore points about NSO, GSC sports, and the Alcohol and Drug Survey were added.
The May minutes are unanimously accepted.
The Luau is tentatively fixed for Saturday, August 11. The funding request is for the same amount as last year ($500), maybe more. Kevin and Tom also want to know whether the GSC has any suggestions for the Luau. If so they will be happy to take them.
The GSC has already $500 set aside in its budget for this event and thus the BoD confirms that commitment.
Peter wants to keep this speaker series (which was new this year) going for another year. Last year the GSC contributed $750. The total cost of the event is $25000 (other sponsors were the Presidents office ($7000), the Y ($3000), the Womens Center ($1300), Student Affairs ($1000),…). The attendance to the 3 talks was about 75, 75 and 150 persons respectively. The speakers did interact with some classes, had a roundtable discussion followed by dinner with students (the graduate students had 2 spots for these dinners) before delivering the main talk. The organizing committee already has a short list of speakers they are considering to invite.
The GSC votes (unanimously) to support this speaker series at the same level as last year ($750). Note that this comes from next years budget (and thus needs to be included in that one before it’s approved in September/October)!
A talk about the situation of Women in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime is scheduled for June 22 in Dabney lounge. The total cost of the event is $700 and so far there is no funding.
The BoD decides (unanimously) to fund $250 and suggests to contact other funding sources as well (Women’s Center, ISP,…)
The beach trip on 5/13 was quite successful and attracted over 100 people. The whole event was somewhat cheaper then anticipated and cost $1000, $400 of which was picked up by the Y. Last time the GSC agreed to give $200 towards the event, with a possible increase depending on the graduate student turnout. It seems that about 50% of those present were graduate students.
The BoD agrees (1 abstention) to split costs with ASCIT and give an extra $100 (raising our total to $300).
The money set aside in the budget for Quickfunding has been used up. However there’s $2000 left in the Clubfunding category. Considering that there’s only a short time left in the year and we don’t expect too many new clubs to form, the BoD decides to transfer $1000 to boost the Quickfunding budget.
The Goodbye party for Dean Albee is on June 7 at 6pm at Avery. Alex will deliver a speech on behalf of the GSC. If anyone knows of a nice anecdote involving the Dean please let Alex know. The GSC will also present a little gift to the dean: a Kachina Doll (Dean Albee collects them). Please show up 10 minutes early to the party to sign the card that will accompany the doll.
Alex has drafted a survey he wants to send to every graduate student. He wants comments from the directors. As some people got the proposed text rather late, Alex will take feedback until Monday (June 5).
Alex wanted to do a similar thing as the undergrads to determine the commencement speaker. He doesn’t have details yet so this point is postponed until next meeting.
According to Alex, Serena agreed to be in charge of gradiators (turns out that’s not quite true). So far Bob, Tobias, Fok and Claude have agreed to help out. We need some more volunteers!! Quickly!
The BoD wants to follow up with 4 options to see how they have changed the procedure for advisor-student conflict resolution in the catalogue. They are: Aph (Steve), CS (Anil), Ph (Bob) and Ma (?)
Alex wants to have a list of home phone numbers (will be distributed to everyone) so the directors can call for help when they need someone fast.
It seems that most of the directors are interested in having a retreat (some said they would prefer a 1 day thing). The steering committee will try to organize it; any suggestions for location etc are welcome.
Nick has already started working on NSO. The NSO committee met with Parandeh and came up with a tentative schedule.
Tobias got complaints about rough play in the GSC leagues (basketball). The leagues (and playing rules) are actually set up by the athletic department and thus Tobias will refer people to the actual people in charge. However the GSC wants to emphasize that these leagues are supposed to be fun and people should enjoy the games (and not fight each other).
There haven’t been enough responses by graduate students yet. Deborah wants our help in promoting the survey.
a.
TA awards
Catherine will look with Thanos over the nominations to determine the awards.
b.
Announcements
Since the meeting is running late and there’s no important announcement this point is skipped.
c.
Past month events
There was a bunch of events last month, all of which were quite successful. The GSC wants to especially thank ASCIT for organizing the formal at the Ritz-Carlton, which was a great event.
d.
Quickfunding past month
We funded a couple of events; reports will come next month
e.
Catalina Housing update
· The housing lottery takes place on June 1. The rules have been made by Linda and the CHCC. Catherine and Claude have talked to them about the rules and think they are OK. Some (minor) concerns remain but it is too late to change now. Now that we had a lottery once, maybe next year it can be planned a bit longer ahead and we can bring up our ideas then.
· Past activities: autoclinic on 5/6 (10 participants), trip to `Champions on Ice’ on 5/14 (20 people), table tennis tournament on 5/20 (5 players), movie night on 5/29 (15 persons).
· There is one open position on the CHCC. Applications are due June 2. Catherine is going to sit in on the interviews as a GSC representative.