BGSA meeting agenda – September 12, 2016

  1. Call to order (Aliyah) – 1:32pm
  1. Approval of August minutes (Abby)
  2. Motion to approve last month’s minutes – motion passes
  1. Grad office report (Clare)
  2. Symposium updates – covered by Agustin below
  3. Adolfo asked if the Grad Office sent out call for Poster judges
  4. Yes, but we’ve only received one response so far – will send again
  5. Based on a recent quarterly meeting with Dr. Horn and Program Reps, faculty seem to like the idea of post-doc judges at the Symposium
  6. Alumni update – creating a database, covered by Aliyah below
  1. Symposium update (Agustin/Adolfo)
  2. BGSA Symposium
  3. Will be held Wednesday, October 26
  4. Student poster and oral presentations, awards for most well-rounded student, best paper, mentorship, etc.
  5. Distinguished Nakada Lecture: Dr. ArpitaMaiti – Pfizer – Microbiome talk
  6. Career Panel: Choosing the Right Post-doc for your Career Path, 45 min
  7. On track with prescribed timeline:
  8. All committees have been formed and are receiving nominations
  9. Mentorship award closed – 3 applicants
  10. All other awards and abstractsopen until the end of September
  11. Food has been ordered for 200 people for lunch
  12. 122 poster stands have been ordered
  13. Start posting fliers and email “Save the Date”
  14. Needs some help – Nyla, Daniel LeFever offered to help with fliers
  15. Lunch and dinner with the Speaker will be available for a few students (<10 each), sign ups next month
  16. 2017 SYMPOSIUM – tentatively November 15, 2017
  17. Dr. Eva Nogales - CRISPR/Cas9 – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  1. Volunteers for Check-in
  2. Abby and Aliyah
  3. Timers for Student Talks
  4. Greg did this last year – need volunteer
  5. Student Computer
  6. Need volunteer
  7. Send invoices to Jen
  8. Many payments will go directly from account through Grad Office, need to avoid over-drafting
  9. Career Panel (Aliyah)
  10. Choosing the Right Post-doc for your Career Path
  11. Panelists
  12. Dr. Maiti (industry post-doc, industry career)
  13. Dr. LuiseDeCruz (academic post-doc, academic career)
  14. Dr. Angela Pardee (academic post-doc, industry career)
  15. While all the speakers are from Immunology, the questions should be applicable to all disciplines
  16. Soliciting questions ahead of time
  17. Need volunteers to ask questions and run the panel during the Symposium, otherwise Aliyah will run the event
  18. Introductions for 5 mins each
  19. 30 minutes for questions
  1. Elections (Abby/Aliyah)
  2. Nominations from the floor for all EB and rep positions
  3. Statements must be submitted via Google form by Friday, 9/16 at 4 pm:
  4. Elections will be on line the week of 9/19. All students are eligible to vote!
  1. President’s Report (Aliyah)
  2. End of Year Report wrap-up
  3. Presented to Dr. Horn and Program Reps at Quarterly Meeting
  4. Included Budget, Attendance, Newsletters, Past Events, etc.
  5. Going on the website
  1. Executive Board Transitions
  2. If you are elected to a position, please attend the transition meeting the week of September 26, TBA
  3. Alumni Relations Project
  4. Communications and Data Specialist (Deepti) hired by Grad Office to compile a database of previous BGSA alumni contact information and employment history
  5. Will need to contact alumni for updates
  6. Will make an official LinkedIn page to keep up to date with alumni information
  7. Will form an alumni relations committee at the October or November meeting
  8. Interested in participating in the committee – please let Aliyah know at the end of the meeting. Do not need to attend BGSA meetings to be involved.
  1. Finance report (Jennifer)
  2. Still no contributions from Imm, MVM
  3. Received $7350 from other programs
  4. MSTP declined, CTS declined (Clinical Research traded off)
  5. Travel award announcement for September
  6. Utsav Bansal– MD/Masters CTS Program ($250)
  7. Sign up for October travel award committee going around
  8. Formalize the Travel Award Committee
  9. Motion to approve the finance standing committee for the purpose of voting for travel awards – motion passes
  10. Questions & Answers
  11. You do not need to be an active BGSA member to participate on the committee
  12. Budget of $100 for Lock Box in Grad Office
  13. Motion to approve $100 for the Grad Office lock box – motion passes
  1. Communications report (Greg)
  2. August newsletter
  3. Usually sent out in September – sent out prior to the Picnic this year
  1. VP of University Relations report (Adolfo/Abby)
  2. Hillman Library Renovation – one floor will be blocked off at a time
  3. Illegal Downloading – “you will be caught” on wireless PittNet
  4. Pitt Make a Difference Day – October 22, volunteering from 10am-2pm
  5. Pitt Day in Harrisburg – next Spring
  6. Self Defense class by Pitt Police – Sept 7
  7. Hofbrauhaus Event – Wednesday, Sept 14
  8. Fall Formal Event – coming soon!
  9. TedX Talks – Obtained License to host bigger event this year
  10. GPSG Stress Free Zone event – Wednesday, Oct 19
  11. Meditation and mindfulness techniques
  1. Past events
  2. Picnic (Aliyah/Greg)
  3. About 100 attendees and guests – fewer faculty members this year
  4. Please encourage more faculty to attend next year
  5. Stayed under budget
  6. Picnic organizers next year
  7. Lisa Clark& Brian Liu – Food shopping, cooking, and volunteer organization
  8. Fine Han & Dan Zuppo – Pavilion ordering, and alcohol
  1. Kayaking (Jennifer/Nyla)
  2. $249.77 for the event, budget for 40 people
  3. There was a wait-list for the event
  4. Planned for the Pitt vs Penn-State Game – bad timing for traffic and parking, so only 22 attendees made it
  5. Food and water from Nyla, left over Gatorade
  1. Paint Night (Lisa)
  2. Painting with a Twist – Pittsburgh Skyline
  3. Attendance was good, >20
  4. Food and drink was available
  5. Stayed under budget
  1. 5 Most Common Interview Styles (Aliyah)
  2. Professional Development Consortium – new group, non-professional medical related student organizations to share event information – check it out on Facebook
  3. If you are interested in the materials from the interview styles talk, Aliyah can send it to you personally
  1. Need Post-event Forms on the Symposium Planning Lunch and the Kayaking trip
  1. Upcoming events: nothing currently scheduled- can revisit post-elections
  2. MSL career talk – November (Abby/Aliyah)
  3. Kiln n’ Time (Greg)
  4. Suggestions from the floor:
  5. Halloween Event
  6. Pumpkin Carving, Pumpkin patch, Halloween dance?
  1. Volunteer Opportunities
  2. Pitt Make a Difference Day – October 22, volunteering from 10am-2pm
  1. New business
  2. That’s all for this Executive Board! 