Here are the minutes from our meeting on October 7th.
Library and Archival Studies Student Association
2013-2014 School Year Meeting #3
Date: October 7, 2013
Time:12:00-13:00
Location: SUB 212
In attendance:
Grace Romund (MLIS Co-President)
Kate Clayborne (Secretary)
Mitchell Meler (GSS Representative)
Maria Paraschos (MAS Member-at-Large)
Matthew Murray (Webmaster)
Adena Brons (Dual Member-at-Large)
Stephanie Dror (MACL Member-at-Large)
Helen Halbert (AMS Representative)
Sehdeep Kaur (MLIS First Year Representative)
Jordan Hatt (Treasurer)
Kimberly Garmoe
Kelsey Ockert
Nicole Askin
Anna Ferri
Matthew Root
Regrets (Excused):
Michael Wynne (MLIS Member-at-Large)
Inti Dewey (GSS Representative)
Absent:
Sheena Campbell
____________________________________________________________
Meeting called to order by Grace at 12:00 PM.
1. AMS Report (Helen Halbert)
A. AMS Vice Presidential By-Election
a. There will be a debate October 8th at 1:30 in the Pit. Voting will begin Wednesday, October 9th, and run through Friday, October 11th.
B. AMS, the SASC, and the Commerce Undergrad Society will be hosting a dialogue regarding the chant used during Sauder’s Frosh activities. It will be held October 24th from 7:30 – 9:30 in IKBC.
2. Approval of Minutes
A. The spelling of Adena’s name has been corrected.
Approval moved by Matthew and seconded by Adena. Motion passed.
3. GSS Report (Kathryn Rowswell)
A. Former GSS Representative Kathryn Rowswell emailed her report of the September 19th meeting.
a. GSS Records & Archives Room
i. GSS is working to establish policies for management of vital & inactive records this fall.
ii. Inactive records have been moved to the GSS Records & Archives Room.
iii. GSS may be hiring a records manager or archivist in the near future. GSS Rep Mitchell Meler will keep abreast of the situation.
b. GSS hopes to bring together its various clubs through luncheons or dinners.
c. The graduate pub remains closed, and most likely will not open for a few months pending licensing.
4. Treasurer Report (Jordan Hatt)
A. To provide the $50 given by LASSA to each subgroup each year, AMS requires verification from two exec members other than Jordan and Grace. Signatures were provided by Mitchell and Kate.
B. Reimbursement for Grace’s printing is approved. Signatures were provided by Mitchell and Kate.
5. Upcoming Events
A. Accreditation Luncheon
a. The luncheon will be held on Monday, October 21, at 12:00 PM in SUB room 209.
b. 15 people have responded to the EventBrite invitation sent out through the LASSA listserv. The goal is to have at least 40 attendees.
B. Halloween Party
a. Tabled until Sheena is available for discussion.
C. End of Term Potluck
a. The potluck will be held November 29th from 5:00 – 7:00 PM at SLAIS. Someone must volunteer to serve alcohol. Paperwork must be completed 18 calendar days prior to the event.
i. Matthew volunteers to obtain his Serving It Right certificate.
D. January Orientation
a. Orientation will take place on January 6, 2014, at 12:00 PM in Thea’s Lounge.
i. Sheena has taken care of room booking. She is looking into possible reimbursement for the room, as all GSS clubs are entitled to book space in the GSS building.
b. Further planning will occur via email, as many of the exec will be out of town following the end of term.
E. Grad Photo Coordination
a. Coordination of grad portraits is one of LASSA’s annual responsibilities. Grace will speak with Mary Grenier for further details, and the topic will be returned to at a later date.
F. NCSU Internship Information Session
a. North Carolina State University would like to hold an information session for SLAIS students regarding their two-year post-graduate internship program. They originally contacted the SLAIS administration, who forwarded the possibility on to LASSA.
b. Helen has volunteered to coordinate this with the NCSU representatives.
c. The event would be held the week of either October 28th or November 4th.
6. Meeting Space at SLAIS
A. Following several conversations regarding the difficulty of reserving meeting space at SLAIS,
Grace brought the topic to Mary Grenier.
a. Trail Room
i. The Trail Room is now booked for ten hours every Wednesday as meeting space for the InterPARES Project.
• SLAIS has guaranteed the InterPARES Project 10 consecutive hours of meeting space as their sponsorship contribution to the project.
• The project’s decision to use Wednesday for their meeting time has caused difficulty for SLAIS student groups, as Wednesday is the busiest day at the school and thus when most student groups prefer to hold their own meetings.
• Mary is attempting to renegotiate meeting days with the InterPARES Project.
b. Grieg Room
i. Use of the Grieg Room is tied up due to requirements left in the bequest that enabled its construction.
• The Facilities Committee is currently attempting to rewrite the access policy to allow more use while staying within the bounds of the bequest.
• Grace will request that students obtain access to the policy as it currently stands.
7. Facilities Committee
A. LASSA needs a representative for the Facilities Committee. The committee meets approximately three times a year. The next meeting will be Thursday, October 10th, at 1:00 PM in the Trail Room. Interested exec members should contact Grace.
8. Collaboration Between Student Groups
A. Upcoming Meeting of the Chairs
a. A Meeting of the Chairs will be held Thursday, October 10th, at 5 PM. Nearly all chairs of SLAIS student groups will be in attendance.
b. There is a possibility for similar meetings to be held at least once a semester, in a formal or informal manner, to foster more interaction between student groups.
c. Grace will update the LASSA exec on the outcome of the meeting.
9. Children’s Book Conference (Stephanie Dror)
A. The conference, put on every two years by MACL, will be held May 3rd and 4th of 2014.
B. For ease of booking and paperwork, the conference committee has in the past created a club within AMS every two years. AMS has recommended they become an ongoing LASSA subgroup.
a. Steph motioned that the conference planning committee become a LASSA club. Matthew seconded. All in favour. Motion passed.
b. Steph, Jordan, and Grace will be in contact to formalize the creation of a subgroup. Steph will continue to keep LASSA updated on the conference activities.
10. Student-Administration Relationship (Kimberly Garmoe)
A. The recent announcement from the SLAIS administration about a partial replacement of computers in the SLAIS computer labs has set off a wider conversation regarding student satisfaction with the school and the administration. B. Kimberly has done an analysis of this conversation as expressed on Facebook. She sees an overwhelmingly negative trend in attitude toward the school, and in particular has noted concern about the department’s attitude towards its students. She attempted to contact the SLAIS administration with her concerns and recommendations, and was told to bring them to LASSA.
a. She recommends a formal investigation into the school’s needs, including technology, with involvement from both students and faculty.
b. Overall, she notes a need for more student involvement in school decisions, including those related to facilities.
c. She recommends building stronger relationships between faculty and students; particularly, more faculty involvement and support in students’ professional lives is needed. As students move through the program quite quickly, the department tends to be very stratified.
d. She recommends that the quality of coursework be improved, so that students are more invested in their studies and more satisfied with the outcome of their education.
e. The issue of large class sizes was brought up as being detrimental to the student experience.
C. Due to time constraints, this conversation will be continued at a later date, possibly via email.
11. Other Business
A. Adena raised the issue of PEP surveys. She and Michael would be interested in participating in exploratory work towards the surveys. This will be further discussed at a later date.
B. Grace continues working with Mary Grenier and Melissa Nightingale to create a form for students to get in touch with SLAIS administration.
C. Matthew contacted Susie about the computer updates situation and was given a response with more detail than was included in the original announcement. He will forward this to the LASSA exec, and ask Susie’s permission to share the information with the larger SLAIS listserv.
Meeting was adjourned by Grace at 12:50 PM.