REPS General Meeting 10/11/23

Fall Fest

• Faith + Dan looking to get funding for “Fall Fest” at Hansons Farm.
• Cost to corn maze and hay ride - $20/person + extra for transportation and pumpkins.
• Aim for Saturday, October 21? Keep an eye for events near Gillette that might cause traffic.
• Faith and Dan to draft budget, send to Will + funding request channel.

Overview of Applying for Funds

• Every year, a memo gets sent to OGE as a summary and justification of the funds used.
• When putting in for reimbursements or RfP into Atlas, definitely put in a title or name of the expense so that we can go back and know what it was for.
• If there is a department-specific purpose, it is helpful for Tricia to submit that RfP.

MIT Fall General Body Meeting

• Monday, October 30th, 5-7 in 34-101. Caroline to attend.

Buffins Fairy Incentives

• Usually there are 2-3 buffins fairies. 
• Concerns that funding an incentive for the buffins fairy would detract from departmental funds.
• Spent $2000/year on buffins. 
• Put relatively more buffins in Clark, fewer in Redfield. 
• $100/person Coffee O (?) gift card for each fairy this semester to pilot incentive program. 

Winter Retreat

• We should start thinking about how we’re going to spend money for the winter retreat.
• Last year, because MIT was unable to pay for the house, they were able to pay for gas and food, but it might be hard to justify that again this year.

APO Loose Ends

• Housing survey + policy changes
  • Caroline, Serena, Anthony to look over the survey and Caroline to set up a meeting time to address all these loose ends with APO. See Loose Ends doc.
• Stipend discrepancies
  • The 10% raise has not been applied to MIT-joint program students and MIT will not apply it because they are now part of the union bargaining unit. The open question is whether there is a way to make up differences in the stipends, not whether MIT will give the 10% to JP students.
  • The main goal of the previous reps in this was to “request clarity regarding stipend amounts for the different ways JP students can be paid during their time in the JP”
• Benefits for WHOI students are now the same as they were before (different than in the MIT GSU contract).

ENGAGE To-Dos

• ENGAGE is a meeting to get club leaders up-to-speed on MIT ASA requirements.
• Anthony signed a (anti-)hazing agreement 
• Anthony looked over the constitution, mission statement, etc. to review. 

Hybrid General Meetings?

• To better engage the student body – idea coming from ENGAGE.
• Having an in-person space w/ pizza could entice people to come to our general meetings.
• Caroline willing to hang around Buffins to talk to people about what’s going on in the reps. 
• Another thought for increasing engagement: have an “open house” the month before nominations so people can see what’s involved. 

Web PhotoBoard

• Jonas and Scott to update the IRL and web photoboard.

Action Items:

• Faith and Dan to draft Fall Fest budget, send to Will + funding request channel.
• Caroline to attend MIT General Meeting
• Considering $100/person Coffee O (?) gift card for each fairy this semester to pilot incentive program– Will to throw together budget for the year with estimates from last year to inform these decisions.
• Caroline, Serena, Anthony to look over the housing survey and Caroline to set up a meeting time to address all these loose ends with APO. See Loose Ends doc.
• Jonas and Scott to update the IRL and web photoboard.
• Anthony and Scott to start considering how to fund Winter Retreat things.