jpreps

August 27, 2021

Thu 09/02/2021

Agenda

Introductions with Tricia 

Updates

    DEI Session with Natalie – Logan and Rachel 

    Steinbach Scholar – Cynthia 

Social Events 

    Any pending requests? – JP ASK mentoring tip sharing

    Jelly Talks – a success!

    In person trivia? 

Photoboard update – Stewart

Rep Elections 

    Request nominations 

    Hold elections

    Verify election results next reps meeting 

OGE Letter

Housing Update, Issues, Etc – Kevin and Kris 

Minutes/Notes

  • DEI session with Natalie update. LT: Natalie will likely have a listening session with the students. Second thing discuss would be to create liaison position within the reps to connect with DEI officer Natalie. Something to mention/talk to the next reps. This would involve quarterly meetings. KK: would reps for DEI be already part of reps? LT: Yes
  • Steinbach: Virtual format had good turnout (~85 people), with minor tech issues. It would be okay to do Steinbach in the future if necessary, even if that is not the goal. (Thank you Cynthia!)
    • Copied from Lea’s DM: ”Dr. Moore can’t accept the honorarium and wishes to put towards students. I’ll regroup with Meg and Christine. I suggest putting towards peer mentoring program.”
    • Seems to be an agreement on this idea. 
  • Pending Social Requests
    • JP ASK Mentor Tip Sharing: asking for money for pre-packaged snacks for the event. ($100) Max has shown great aptitude for putting funds to good use, so this is a yes.
    • Funding for stickers? Veevee would like to re-supply the stickers. Would be $50 at a time to resupply as needed. Would need to clear this with the future reps. 
    • Jelly talks – quite successful. Last one will be half an hour. Hopefully next year will be in person
    • In-person trivia – hasn’t happened yet, but would be fun. Logan has trivia Questions
    • Queer Prom photos – Logan can reach out to Max/forward a GD. Would be great to include a photo 
    • Communication workshop went great
    • Take photos of event tonight
    • We have a PHOTOS GD Folder! Let’s include some in the OGE funding letter request. We should add photos here!
  • Physical photoboard update (Stewart). Out of date currently, but Stewart will send out an email asking about photos. Who was previous photoboard person? Maybe Riss Kellogg? Everyone should be on mailing list
  • General Student Center cleanliness. Fridge may be in a questionable condition. Good to clean out/check on it. Who volunteers to clean out fridge. Noah is on it! Logan happy to assist. 

JP Orientation is sometime soon in September (date TBD). Orientation is hybrid? Dependent on availability of hybrid-capable classrooms. If no physical hybrid room, will do over Zoom. 

JP Rep Elections

  • Transfer meeting is in October
  • Good to request nominations before next rep meeting. Nominations can go to whole JP in one google form. Scratch that. Dept reps will deal with their own nominations. There will be a master spreadsheet. Logan/Cynthia will handle G&G
  • Collect votes and announce after next reps meeting
  • Method: Each department rep reach out to department and verify nominations and follow up with folks in their department for them to write a blurb about themselves. Try to be on top of it. For elections, each dept rep can create a google form with the different folks in their dept.
  • At-large reps will be chosen after dept rep elections
  • Same google survey for nominations/self-nominations. On google survey, write whether if okay being dept rep, at-large rep, or both. Have a selection for department. 
  • Date to be done with dept rep elections – Elections done by end of Sept. All nominations back by 9/9 (Friday). Ask about accept nomination via email (dept/at-larrge/both) by 9/14. Run dept elections following week between 9/14-9/17. Contact folks that didn’t win to verify okay with at-large. Second election 9/21. New meeting week of 9/27. Elections separate for dept and at-large.
  • Next Sept election.

OGE letter

CC Update

  • Tricia and Zac – notes for new reps. Either keep the credit card, but all emails will go to zac. Zac prefers to have it transferred over and they make a new credit card. 

Housing

  • Met with Tasha from grad student housing
  • Looking like they may have the SidPac apartment since everyone is on covidpass
  • Notes: every time someone comes into the dorm, they need to go into a system manually. Must have 2-3 days notice prior to signing in to SidPac. During pandemic, cannot have any last minute requests. Update wording: “Because of Covid, must have X days notice to use the apartment.” Explain they will need to get tested on campus, which allows you to tap into campus. Encourage people to have the MIT Atlas app. Also need to take training prior to getting tested on campus (takes ~5 mins).
  • House managers have to all vote in favor of us using SidPac. Hopefully this will happen next week. They should go for it. Kevin: Should we write a letter to the house managers?
  • Recommendation: If get sidpac, go for it. Will need a housing coordinator on the next reps, as we do now. 
  • What if someone is in SidPac and tests positive – probably would have to quarantine within SidPac.
  • If we do have SidPac, and MIT goes remote again, we would get refunded the $4K/month. If the situation got better, they would give us SidPac back again. THis is a nice safety net. 
  • The Joint Program office at MIT does purchase supplies/cleaning/paper towels, etc (not bedding) for the apartment. THis is info for Tricia in particular. JP office could go to ikea or something to purchase furniture for students. 
  • Kevin is happy to scope it out and help coordinate cleaning materials/furniture. Can send out email/write protocol keeping people informed of our SidPac situation.

Stewart went to ASA meeting on Event guidelines

  • In fall, restrictions are changing/loosening. Keep an eye out for these guidelines. 
  • When we hold events at WHOI, are these on-campus? Anything on WHOI property counts as on-campus events. 
  • Off campus events in Fall, must follow the venues restrictions, but encouraged to follow MIT guidelines.
  • Starting at Tim Ticket – important for when non-grad students attend events. Kris: may not need these. These are more for building access for vendors/caterers, or for parents. No need to worry about it for WHOI/Falmouth events. Important because TimTickets does the contact tracing. Wont make sense to use at WHOI cause we don’t have the QR code reader infrastructure.