Monash University International Student Service

MGM(5)

Monash University International Student Service

Official Minutes

Meeting 5 of MUISS General Meeting was held at 6:06 p.m. on the 30th of March, 2017 in MUISS Lounge, Campus Centre

1. Attendance:

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President:

General Secretary:

Treasurer:

Publications Officer:

Education Officer:

Activities Officer:

Services and Welfare Officer:

Jason An Binh Nguyen

Queenie Pui Kwan Chung

Astika Saxena

Audrey Miranda Prasetya (Absent)

Sudhir Mandarapu

Kay Peng Lau

Fan Faye Guo

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Activities Portfolio:

Cai Yun Tammy Lam

Jie Luo

Hong Ni Athene Mak

Yusra Shahid

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Education Portfolio:

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Varsha Devi Balakrishnan (Absent)

Akshita Bhatia

Chau Dang (Absent)

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General Secretary Portfolio:

Ting Yan Dion Choi

Reynard Fernaldy

Priya Naresh Kumar

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Publication Portfolio:

Timothy Fidelis

Lorraine Kong

Thanh Nguyen

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Services and Welfare Portfolio:

Wei Shan Kimberly Fung

Terri Loimata-Mau (Absent)

Nadia Nodi

Jastisia Nur Fatima

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Treasury Portfolio:

Sheik Adnaan Shakil

Wei Shi

Shweta Vinod Menon

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1. Acknowledgement of traditional owner of land

This MGM acknowledges and pays respect to the people of the Kulin nations as the original and ongoing owners and custodians of this land. The MUISS commits itself to actively fight alongside Indigenous people for reconciliation and justice for all Indigenous Australians.

Confirmation of Agenda Order:

1. Updates on MSC Meeting

The MSC meeting was held today (30/03/2017) at 2 p.m., Jason Nguyen (President)stated that meeting had consisted of several topics, such as the protesting law changes regarding education cuts and engaging with international student through MOVE (Monash Overseas and Exchange Club) in order to encourage international students to interact with domestic students.

1. Inter-Cultural Competence Communication task Meeting:

As mentioned in previous meetings MUISS is involve with the Inter-Cultural Competence Committee, and recently MUISS receives an invitation to take part of the communication planning between the department and the student body. The first meeting regarding this took place today (30/03/2017). Jason Nguyen (President), had expressed that there was a lack of interaction between the international and domestic students. Some of the reasons for this is the language barrier and also lack of interaction with one another. Thana (General Committee) had mentioned posting posters in the toilets for people to be able to know events that are ongoing, which would encourage interaction between people of all culture. Another suggestion given by Jason Nguyen (President) was that to put dedicated an area in the moodle, to show activities that were ongoing aroung the campus. There would also be a survey that conducted for ICC, which is regarding cross cultural interactions of international students and also interest in ICC events.

1. Summary of the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) – International: Summit

The UMSU-International Summit took place last Saturday (25/03/2017) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at University of Melbourne. Jason Nguyen (The President) expressed that the meeting had mostly focused networking and leadership roles, rather than student welfare. There were 4 universities in Victoria participating and many various organizations that doesn’t directly concern the international student welfare in general. There is an internship opportunity that is given out by MELD for those that are taking journalism and multimedia, more information regarding the internship is going to be posted in the FB page.

1. Around the World Festival Updates

The date for One World Festival is set on the 27th of April, 2017 (Thursday) 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and theme will be: Backpackers. Joy Lau (Activities Officer) had stated concerns regarding the response rate of the cultural clubs being slow, he encouraged the members of MUISS to encourage the other clubs through personal connections and asking them whether they are interested in the event or not. He had also said that there is going to an Art society ball which has “Around the world” as the name aswell and they are going to host the event on the same day. Therefore, he had said to change the name of MUISS’s “Around the world”, in order to create less confusion, there is going to be a poll in the FB group to pick the new name. Another concern that was stated was that there is a lack of dance performers and encouraged the general committee to give contact details about anyone that would be interested in participating. The dance would be a minimum of 15 minutes and a max of 30 minutes. Astika Axena (Treasury officer) said that they would be able to use martial arts performances instead of dancing only, as it is popular with people.

1. Queer 101 Training

The Queer 101 training is set on Week 6, Thursday from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The reason being that there is no other time available for those whom are hosting the training.

1. PLACE Workshop Updates

The PLACE workshop took place this Wednesday (29/03/2017). The turn out for the event was 11 people and it was hosted in English connect. There was around 18 people whom signed up, which was relatively a good rate. The next topic would be next week and about “work place socializing” and it would be hosted in English Connect aswell.

1. Radio Monash Update

MUISS is currently collaborating with Radio Monash, where a slot is given to MUISS every Thursday between 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. (12:50 p.m. set up time). The last session had Queenie Chung (General Secretary Officer) and Jastisia Fatima (General Committee) as guests. Although there is still a lack of guests for the upcoming weeks. The session might also be used by the other clubs and societies to promote their events and getting them to participate. Akshita Bhatia (General Committee) had suggested invited cultural studies lecturer to talk for awhile and having them giving their perspectives on the topic on that day.

1. Other Items

-Conflict resolution

• Keeping an open mind if there is conflict between members of MUISS
• Also keeping being sensitive and not expanding the conflict to others that are not involved
• If there were to be a conflict, it would be brought up to the executives first for them to discuss and help resolve the problem. If it is not still solved, then the President will handle the situation personally and help to resolve it.

-Marketing to people about MUISS

• Thanh Nguyen (General Committee) said that her personal experience of face to face marketing to people about MUISS works.
• Her experience of personally inviting people to events and most of them would have come to the events
• Giving handouts as a of reminding them regarding the events
• Raising interest through giving free food or etc

1. Next Meeting

The next meeting of MUISS will be on 6th of April, 2017

Meeting closed at 18:38p.m.