November 5, 2021 – Welcome to the WHOI Student Organization!

JP Reps Meeting Agenda

November 5th, 2021

Attendance: LF, CD, SW, LL, CW, SB, PN, DM

Also Attended By: Lauren Dykman

Minutes: MJ

1) Organization (20 min)
1. a. Email etiquette (designate who is responding to what emails, when to hit reply all, when to take discussion to slack/next meeting)
  1. CD : How do we want to assign who is going to reply to the funding requests?
  2. CW: Maybe it makes the most sense for me to post it.
  3. LL: But anyone can just post it if we need it to.
  4. Ciara W. (treasurer) is designated to post funding requests to slack, but anyone can do it if they get to it first.
2. b. Funding requests (discuss if we all need to approve funding requests, how we can streamline the approval process, clarify covid rules through cheat-sheet to make sure planners know what they should follow, add attendance reporting requirement)
  1. CD: What type of ground rule to make to make sure everyone gets a chance to weigh in.
  2. LL: We should also talk about how fast we should provide answers. I know some people ask for feedback in a quick time-frame.
  3. CD: I know the website says 2-weeks time, but I don’t think we need that much time. Maybe three reps need to approve whatever?
  4. SW: Maybe based on funding?
  5. 4 reps means it’s approved under $300. All reps need to weigh in if it’s more.
  6. 2-days minimum discussion time before approval.
3. c. Scheduling/agendas (I intend to send out a new when2meet two weeks prior to first potential meeting date, send out a tentative agenda one week before meeting, add new agenda items as received)
  1. CD: I will send out when2meets two weeks ahead of time, and then schedule the meetings based on that.
4. d. Slack (Max suggested creating a dedicated reps slack w/ more channels, czars)
  1. MJ: I think it would be easier to have our own slack.
  2. SW: I think the point of being on mit-whoi is so everyone can see what we’re talking about.
  3. CW: I think there is a balance between transparency and organizing ourselves.
  4. LF: Do you mind if I join our new slack?
  5. CD: I think we would be fine with having you guys. We might want you to weigh in.
  6. LL: Another reason to have our own slack.
  7. LF: Maybe we can have this and you can talk somewhere else if you need to.
5. e. Google drive (how are new reps going to use this space, who has password?)
  1. CD: does anyone know how to get in there? Also, its messy.
  2. LF: I’ll look for the password.
  3. CD: Okay let’s try to keep as much info as we can in the google drive. Is there recordings of funding?
  4. CW: There are basic outlines.
  5. SW: Do we think organization is good enough?
  6. CW: I think its fine. Some of it from past reps is bad, but whatever.
6. f. COVID event status (define policies)
  1. CD: We should make a cheat sheet for people to understand the covid policies of MIT.
  2. CW: Probably worth noting the date, and mentioning it might not be up to date.
7. Whats our account status (brought up by LL)
  1. LL: Do we know how much we have? Will CW keep us updated?
  2. CW: Basically yes.
  3. PN: We have about $11,000. I will update you every month about the account status.
2) Sidpac housing (5 min)
1. CD: We kind of had info last time, but we’re not sure.
2. PN: I keep poking, but we still don’t know. I will keep checking.
3. CD: In terms of communicating this to students, will you give us text that we can update with.
4. PN: That’s what I attend. I hope they say “here’s just the text that needs updating”. Hopefully we can have it soon.
5. MJ: People have asked us.
6. PN: If you can record how many requests we have, that would be helpful to push them along.
7. DM: I will compile how many students have needed it.
3) Pending funding items (5 min)
1. a. Movie nights – did we hear back from Kate regarding our response to her funding request?
  1. CW will reach out to Kate
2. Snacks in JP lounge – who is following up on this?
  1. Shawn will
3. c. Writers block recurring event
  1. CD: COVID tracing required. But I think we’re set.
4. d. Native American Heritage Month Book Club
  1. CD: I think we’re set here, right. Oh, LD is here!
5. Making a little paragraph in every funding approval to explain the rules of the funding. (brought up by MJ)
  1. MJ: Can we do this?
  2. CD: What should be included?
  3. MJ: COVID-19 guidelines, restrictions, if you need more funds, reimbursement vs card
  4. CW: We should probably also include the fact that we can’t use tax.
  5. PN: There are several rules to think about, no gambling, alcohol, flowers I believe.
  6. CD: maybe the move is to make a paragraph about funding, and then just add some covid notes and current policy.
  7. CW: I have the formal list of what we can’t use it.
  8. LL: Should we make email templates for this?
6. RSVP / attendance lists
  1. MJ: I’ll make a attendance sheet that every event can use.
  2. CW: Maybe put a place for them to enter the date.
  3. MJ: i will work on this.
4) Student czars follow-up (5 min)
1. Updates
  1. LL: I have updates from all of them except one.
  2. LL: Does not make sense for reps to ask whether GSC rep want to continue because by the time the new reps come in they are already going.
  3. LL: How do we figure out how to choose a czar when multiple people want to volunteer.
  4. CD: I think multiple volunteers is fine. Otherwise we can figure it out when it happens.
  5. LL: However some positions are one position only, for example sustainability committee or GSC. According to MIT’s rules we would need to do an election for the GSC appointment.
  6. MJ: Some students are just picked to be on committees. There is very little transparency in how students are picked for certain committees.
  7. LF: We will communicate that you are asking for more transparency about how the process happens.
2. Any new czars need to be appointed?
5) Website updates (5 min)
1. a. Based on funding request from Jule, current guidelines are not clear – add more details/links on COVID guidelines!
2. b. Updates related to Sidpac housing?
6) Selection of Steinbach scholars (5 min)
1. a. Who’s turn is it?
  1. LF: It’s PO and at-large’s turn to make this happen.
  2. SW: What’s the protocol for organizing at-large scholar.
  3. LF: The three at-large reps are technically overseeing that.
7) Lack of BioOce integration in EAPS (MOVED TO NEXT MEETING at request of CW)
1. a. Excluded from PAOC
8) Dept reps funding (5 min)
1. a. Saw confusion in slack about how to request $200 for dept events w/ no clear answer
  1. SW: You go through Atlas to submit reimbursements.
  2. PN: That’s how you submit the receipt, but I’m not sure how it’s tracked. Do you track it yourself?
  3. MJ: How is this tracked? Does it come from our budget?
  4. LF: we have $1000 from the APO for department specific.
  5. MJ: But don’t all OGE money events have to invite all students.
  6. PN: Yes.
  7. LF: Actually, you have to submit through Unanet.
…and if we have time: ALL SUBJECTS MOVED TO NEXT MEETING
9) Physical photo board – are we bringing this back?
10) JP Reps hand-off open discussion
1. a. What could be improved for the next handoff? (While it’s fresh in our minds!)
11) Advisor/advisee relationships discussion at open house
1. a. List of interview questions for potential advisors

Action Items:

Make the slack – Lukas
Make COVID protocols cheat sheet – Ciara D.
Iron out sidpac stuff – Patricia
Count up how many students have wanted sidpac but haven’t been able to get it – David
Follow up email to Kate about movie nights – CW
Follow up about snacks – Shawn
Make a funding approval template that includes policies – CD + CW
Add responses and updates from czars into minutes – LL
Communicate to Meg and APO that the Reps would like clarity on how students are selected for committees – LF + PN
Figure out how to request department specific funding – LF
Write the info about department specific stuff in the drive when we get it – SW
Figure out where and when we are meeting next, and mention if there are absences from the reps – CD
Make attendance record – Max

Decisions and Precedent:

For funding requests:

Ciara W. will post funding requests to the slack in a timely manner, but anyone can post if they want.
Approval: No approval is granted for at least two days. Events under $300 are approved once 4 reps give approval, unless any rep asks to wait for approval until all reps weigh in. Events over $300 always require all reps to weigh in.

For future meetings:

Ciara D. will send out when2meet two weeks ahead of time, and send out an agenda before meeting, and invite the whole JP.
Ciara D. will ask who of the reps will be unable to communicate for the next month.

Account handling

PN will update the reps every month about remaining balance.