July 20, 2011 Meeting Minutes

SOIS Masters Student Organization Meeting

July 20, 2011, 4:30pm

Members Present:

                Amanda Burns

                Jim Schultz

                Amanda Liske

                Joel DesArmo

                Edward Benoit (remote)

                Allison Payne (remote)

Discussion Notes:

                Committee Assignments

                                Jim= Academic Planning; Graduate Program and Curriculum

                                Allison = Diversity (need to check to see if remote voting is allowable)

                                                Rob is volunteered to take her place and/or serve with her

It is recognized that most of SOIS’s students are distance learners and that the use of such technology as remote voting could lead to greater student involvement both in the Org and SOIS.

For now cover all the positions necessary and if applicable committee representatives can be switched out later.

Joel suggests e-mail or D2L contact be made with distance students to measure interest in involvement of this type.

Amanda Burns = Awards and Admissions Committee; Research (this latter committee can be represented by a PhD student as well, Edward may take it)

                Amanda already covers faculty council

Amanda Liske= MLIS Proficiency Committee

Amanda B will e-mail assignments to appropriate authority

Suggestion to incorporate such assignments in the Constitution and By Laws in the future.

                BBQ

                                Scheduled for August 19, 2011 from 3-6pm

                                Advertisements have already been made by Gabby J

Location: Hopefully the Gazebo at Gordon Park, but may also be relegated to a nearby location in said park pending approval of gazebo contract

Amanda B and Rob will not be attending; Joel potential attendance; Amanda L., Jim, and some members of the Undergrad Org will be attending.

Supplies:

                Food and Drink

                                Suggested that people be encouraged to bring their own side dishes

Principle members of the Student Org will provide Staple dishes to be determined

Noted that last year the alumni Association was able to provide funds for the endeavor, but this year that is not possible

Suggestion to talk to SOIS about donating paper products

Amanda L. instructed to check with Sharon about the SOIS Org bank account including balance and access soon . – email will be sent to exec committee regarding this matter as well as the status of potential funds from the undergraduate org (Jim reporting the latter).

                Constitution and By-Laws Review Committee

Jim, as organizer of this endeavor, will get an official copy of documents from the Student Organization office

Joel notes that at one time a revision may already have been completed and suggests attempting to track down a copy for comparison before any substantial edits are done

                Possible contacts= Rob; Sharon; Dan Rude

Jim volunteers to be initial editor with future drafts to be e-mailed to other committee members for review and suggestions for further edits

                Faculty Award

Proposal on the table for teaching award for SOIS instructors put together by Rob; Jim; and Edward

Assistance in development provided by faculty members Steve Miller and Jacques de Plessis

                                Needs to be ready by fall semester

                                Structure:

                                                Two separate annual awards

                                                                Online instructors

                                                                Onsite Instructors

                                                Based on Student input and nominations

                                                Open to all types of instructors

Amanda Burns suggests defining instructor…for example does it include guest lecturers?

                                                Voting and nomination procedures (and/or how can it be made fair?)

Suggestion one: straight nomination and a vote upon all nominees by student population

                Issue: Does not reflect student/teacher ratio accurately

Suggestion Two: Students list all instructors they have had class with and nominate/ vote for one from that list – highest percentage wins

                Issue: Everyone needs to participate in order to make it work

                                Can cause bias

Suggestion Three: Some mixture of the two above suggestions

Suggestion Four: Committee selection

Amanda B. suggests looking at procedures for similar awards that can be found at other schools

Also suggests perhaps nominations and/or voting can be handled through the semesterly student evaluations.

                Campus Expo booth?

                                Wednesday, September 7 10am-2pm

                                Geared towards undergraduates more so than graduate students

                                Jim and/or Amanda B. will talk to the Undergrad organization to measure interest

                                Graduate Students may be asked to assist in manning the booth

Amanda B. Announces that members should be on the lookout for e-mail regarding fall semester meetings at some point in the near future

Notes Taken and Complied by: Amanda L. Liske (Treasurer)