• Agenda
• Attendance
• Minutes

Agenda

1) 5:45 FOOD (thanks Anwei!)
2) 6:00 Welcome with introductions (Kristina/George)
3) 6:05 Announcements (Kristina/George)
i. Please be aware that all meetings are recorded and will be made available on the GSC website.
ii. Approve minutes from the last meeting (9/5/07)
iii. Thanks to Matt Turk’s hard work and programming skills, audio files corresponding to each part of each GSC meeting are linked directly to those parts of the written minutes posted online.
iv. We are going to invite speakers to come to our meetings (i.e. I-center, Housing etc) is there someone that people would really like to hear speak?
v. Ryan the Ed School Rep has left and so we need a new ed rep, can anyone think of someone who would be interested?
vi. GOALIE is September 21st. Who wants to be a part of it!
vii. Welcome Back Party is October 5th!
4) 6:15 Funding (Polina)
i. Stanford India Association
ii. InterVarsity Graduate Christian Fellowship
iii. Biomedical Association for the Interest for Minority Students
iv. Persian Student Association
v. Stanford Canadian Club
vi. Asian American Graduate Student Association
vii. Persian Student Association
viii. Asha for education
5) 6:30 NGSO Update (Polina)
6) 6:35 ASSU Update (Hershey)
7) 6:40 EV Graduate Student Family Welcoming Book Event (Andy Hernandez)
8) 6:45 Cupertino Shuttle Update (Song/Zakai)
9) 7:00 Retreat planning
10) 7:10 Constitution Consul Search Committee - need 2-3 volunteers
11) 7:15 Programming (Justin and Adam S).
i. Welcome Back Party
ii. Saturday Tailgate
12) 7:25 New Business

Attendance

Voting members present:
At large 1: Maxim Afanasyev
At large 2: Hanna Muenke
At large 3: Kristina Keating
At large 4: Zeng Fan
At large 5: Lan Wei (proxy Shibing Wang present)
Business: Rhyan Uy
Earth Sciences: Kyle Anderson
Engineering 2: Marja Mullings (proxy Matt Turk present)
Humanities: George Bloom
Medicine: Yana Hoy
Natural Sciences: Fen Zhao
Social Sciences: Euan Robertson (proxy Adam Beberg present)

Voting members not present:

Education:
Engineering 1: Melahn Parker
Law: Shireen Barday

Additional attendees – Polina Segalova, Chi Cao Minh (AAGSA), Justin Brown, Jeoung Sook Hue, Eva Enns (Stanford Canadian Club), Justin Brown (BioAIMS), Zekai Hong (ACSSS), Varun Mittal (Asha), Mohammad Shoeybi (PSA), Dan Strickland (IV-grad), Joehl Mehler (IV-grad), Anup Shah, Ashley Chandler (new student), Eli Goldstein (new student)

Minutes

1) 5:45 FOOD (thanks Anwei!)

2) 6:00 Welcome with introductions (Kristina/George)

Listen to this segment

3) 6:05 Announcements (Kristina/George)

Listen to this segment

i. Please be aware that all meetings are recorded and will be made available on the GSC website.

ii. Approve minutes from the last meeting (9/5/07). Approved by consensus.

iii. Thanks to Matt Turk’s hard work and programming skills, audio files corresponding to each part of each GSC meeting are linked directly to those parts of the written minutes posted online.

iv. We are going to invite speakers to come to our meetings (i.e. I-center, Housing etc) is there someone that people would really like to hear speak? Email Kristina if you have ideas.

v. Ryan the Ed School Rep has left and so we need a new ed rep, can anyone think of someone who would be interested? Have them get in touch with Kristina.

vi. GOALIE is September 21st. Who wants to be a part of it! Have some volunteers already, but more never hurts. A way for us to get our name out there, get names on our mailing lists, etc. Get in touch with Kristina.

vii. Welcome Back Party is October 5th! There was some confusion about this, because an email that Chris sent out had the incorrect date. Please advertise this correct date.

viii. GSC Retreat. Will most likely be October 13/14 or 20/21st. Get in touch with Kristina about your preferred dates if you’re an active attendee.

4) 6:08 Funding (Polina) –

Listen to this segment

Start with description of how the funding process for groups works. Have a Monday committee meeting to meet with the groups to go over their requests, and take into account factors such as how much similar events cost in previous years, as well as caps for different categories of funding and arrive at a recommended amount for the group.

i. Stanford India Association – Asking for first-year welcome party, which has been a tradition. Will be held October 6th at Bechtel international center at 6:30pm. Are doing slightly larger scale this year, including six panelists from around Bay Area, who will talk about their experience. $1,815 recommended by committee. Passes by consensus.

ii. InterVarsity Graduate Christian Fellowship –
They are holding a number of events, presented here in reverse chronological order.
a. End of year banquet bringing everyone together.
b. Francis Collins coming to talk about ‘The Language of God.” Hoping to have a large event, held in Memorial Auditorium. Has been very successful at other schools, including MIT.
c. Welcome dinner to regroup, and get their name out there. Expecting 120 graduate students to attend.
d. $2,269 recommended overall. Passes by consensus.

iii. Biomedical Association for the Interest for Minority Students
Holding the following events:
a. End of year banquet – Recognizing student achievements of all sorts, the event includes both students and faculty.
b. Series of Fall quarter workshops – meant for first year students to help with practical things like reading journal articles, applying for fellowships, etc.
c. Group outings in fall and spring quarters.
d. Dinner for Hispanic Heritage month.
e. Holiday Dinner Party including families.
f. Spring Barbeque held with three other groups (medical student groups).
g. Welcome BBQ.
Requested $3375, Committee recommends $2335. $2335 Passes by consensus.

ETA: At the 9/19 meeting, a budget of $2335 was approved for the BioAIMS group to hold a number of events during the year. After the meeting, it was brought to the attention of the funding chair that two of the planned events of the group, which were to be held off-campus, cannot be funded by the GSC because of its requirement that all funded events be held on-campus. Therefore, the budget for BioAIMS has been reduced to $2085, with the funding removed for the two planned off campus events.

iv. Persian Student Association.
Welcome dinner with 150 people. To be held October 9th in GCC. Recommendation of $800. Passes by consensus.

v. Stanford Canadian Club
Canadian Thanksgiving dinner. October 7th (Sunday) at I-center at 6pm. Traditionally has a huge turnout including many non-Canadians. Requested $3015, committee recommends $1580. This amount is based partially on history for cost of the event, which is lower than their request. Passes by consensus.

vi. Asian American Graduate Student Association
a. API Heritage Month in May, having a dinner.
b. Two speaker events in collaboration with APAMSA (Medical student group). Topics might include mental health, alternative medicine.
c. Barbeque.
d. Iron Chef – The group has diverse membership, which makes a cooking battle of different styles interesting. (They target Asian-American’s specifically, leading to a broad spectrum).
e. Karaoke Party –
f. Spring Fever Party – Had last year too. Social event.
g. Welcome dinner.
Asking $6,600, recommended $4340 overall. $4340 is approved by consensus.
Last year the group had 150 members, but only started partway through the year, so they hope to make use of orientation and this series of events to increase membership.

vii. Asha for education – Awareness event in November. Looking to go across Bay Area in terms of brining people to participate. Want to rent out Oak room, bring Indian Rock bands. It will be a ticketed event. Requested $1787, committee recommended $957. Kristina asks how we deal with funding events that require tickets and are not free, Adam B. says that’s okay, as long it’s open for everyone. Also, it is pointed out that the tickets are meant to cover some costs, not fundraise, as the focus of the event is about awareness. $957 passes by consensus.

5) 6:28 NGSO Update (Polina) –

Listen to this segment

Highlights of the week- move-in, Trivia had 11 teams at 750, successful Grad School 101 sessions with Q and A with between 50-100 people at each session. Welcome BBQ is tonight. $10 tickets didn’t sell so well, $5 tickets selling much better.
Rhyan asks about orienting students who have atypical schedules (many professional schools), who may not have benefited as much from the current schedule of events. Polina would love to address that in the future, with more volunteers.

6) 6:32 EV Graduate Student Family Welcoming Book Event (Kristina for Andy Hernandez).

Listen to this segment

Asking for $1000, which we had previously approved as a line item, so we don’t need to approve anything new. They have held this event for 5 years, which has been very successful. At the event, they will give books, t-shirts, have a book exchange, invite representatives from Palo Alto library, Work-life office, etc. The 400 books they expect to give away will cost $1000, which is what the GSC is covering. Costs for other parts of the event will come from other sources.
One of the meeting attenders mentions being part of a group that donates books. Kristina will put him in touch with Andy.

7) 6:35 Cupertino Shuttle Update (Zakai).

Listen to this segment

Many details of the costs and details of the shuttle on handed out sheet.
Cost is $72.74 per hour * 5 hours * 10 weeks in quarter = $3637, plus signs for Marguerite to update signs and schedules, so approximately $4000 total. Busses will leave the GCC at 1:17, 2:37, and 3:57, and the last bus leaves the food markets at 4:35 (these are approximate times, we may change after a test run).
They have ideas about advertising, which are very cost effective and include targeting the I-center and student group list-serves of populations that might be interested in the stores the bus goes to (Chinese food at Marina Food and Ranch 99, Indian food at India Cash & Carry, Korean food at Hankook Supermarket). They are asking for $4000 to run the shuttle for the quarter, which is how much we sponsored last year. Last year there about 60 riders per week, which weren’t as many people riding as would be hoped, but hopefully by starting it in fall and advertising heavily it will be better. Two main differences for the fall that could improve ridership are that the shuttle now goes to more stores, including different types of ethnic food, and also, there is a clearer advertising plan. There will be a more precise count of people riding the Cupertino shuttle this quarter, to aid in future evaluations of the program. George thinks 50% full on each bus would be good goal. Rhyan suggests asking for support from the targeted supermarkets themselves, under the idea that if we are bringing them substantial business they should be willing to help, but the supermarkets have not expressed interest in this collaboration. Other potential sources of funding include the I-center and Graduate Life Office. Both groups are supportive of the idea, just haven’t yet had the chance to request funds.
Adam B and Maxim recall discussions about the shuttle line in previous quarters about how funding for any future quarters should be dependent on proven levels of use of the shuttle, and this evaluation has not really occurred, despite additional money being given. Kristina would like to fund this quarter, with the additional stops and increased marketing, and have a later discussion about whether these improvements have increased ridership to a higher level. Kristina asks Zakai to report back in a couple of weeks about how things are going.
Justin recommends asking the alumni association for financial support for the route. George recommends flyering to help with further advertising, and proposed $200 additional to help with this advertising. George asks about having fewer busses, but Kristina reports that the current schedule is already bare bones, having been pared down across conversations throughout the summer.

George makes a motion to fund the Cupertino Shuttle for $4200.
There is not consensus, so moves to a vote.
8 for, 1 against, 2 abstaining. Passes by majority.

8) 6:49 ASSU Update (Hershey) – Hershey is not here.

9) 6:49 Constitutional Council Search Committee (Adam B.)

Listen to this segment

For background information, the Constitutional Council is compared to the US Government’s Legislative Branch, whereby they hear cases of wrongdoing in other branches. In our specific Stanford case, they most frequently hear cases regarding elections. Members of this group cannot be elected GSC members.
Currently, the Constitutional Council is short of members, and there is a search committee to find new members. Currently the search committee has 2 people, but 4 would be ideal. Being on the search committee is a year long commitment. Rhyan volunteers to be on this committee.

10) 6:54 Programming (Justin and Adam S).

Listen to this segment

i. Welcome Back Party. Planning for the Welcome Back party is going well. They’ve made a flyer, which Justin brings to show. Need volunteers for the event, and start to pass around a sign-up sheet, but many people are not here, or had to leave earlier in the meeting, so this will be repeated at a future meeting.

ii. Saturday Tailgate - Had thought about having a tailgate for the football game this weekend, but didn’t ask for the money in time (need to ask two weeks early), so they are changing plans. Thinking it will cost about $1000. Have talked to Alumni association about possibly funding the event, but have not heard back from them yet, so it is unlikely that the money will come through in time for this weekend. Will look into have a tailgate during homecoming weekend.

12) 7:02 New Business

Listen to this segment

i) Any new attendees should give Hanna their email address. Hanna reminds everyone to sign the attendance sheet before leaving.

ii) Retreat – One option was October 13/14th, which would be the homecoming football game (and possible tailgate), which wouldn’t be a good overlap. Recommend sending out emails again to members to vote for good weekends. If you’re an active member, please respond! They are thinking about having the event at “retreat” places, like big houses, rather than hotels. One option is Pajaro dunes.