Executive Committee
Special Meeting
1:30-5:30 PM, Monday, July 7, 2003
Texas Union, UNB 4.108

Minutes

Print version

1. Calling Cards. (Don).

a. Discussion. At the May Excom meeting we decided that business cards (calling cards) would be appropriate. We did not choose a style. Don provided a sheet with ten styles to consider. Marian and Don liked the style with the UT seal at the top left, a red line below UT, and text as follows:

b. Action. Approved the format for the cards. Don agreed to contact Maggie and Becky for prices and get the Treasurer's approval before ordering. Members agreed to email their individual information to Don who agreed to email a list to all Members for approval.

(1) Marian Barber, Co-Chair

(2) Don Drumtra, Co-Chair

(3) Joyce Banks, Secretary

(4) Dan Gilman, Treasurer

(5) Ginger Gossman, Public Relations . . .

(6) Melissa Midkiff, Special Events . . .

(7) Erik Malmberg, Electronic Resources, Webmaster

c. Action. Approved generic cards for GSA representatives and design format for individual GSA members to use at their own expense. Don agreed to design.

2. GSA and Excom Regular Meeting Locations. (Joyce and Marian)

a. Action. Approved the Student Union UNB 4.108 for regular Excom meetings when available. Melissa agreed to l make arrangements.

b. Action. Approved Student Union for regular Excom meetings if a suitable room is available. Melissa agreed to make arrangements.

3. SOP for Excom meetings. (Marian).

a. Discussion. At the May meeting, we decided to keep and post minutes for Excom meetings. Sensitive items (personnel issues, etc.) will not be included. The principle is that this is an open organization and we should provide public disclosure of our activities. We did not decide if an SOP was needed.

b. Action. Decided an SOP for Excom Meetings and Minutes is not needed.

4. Transition of Officers, 2002/3 to 2003/4 (Don).

a. Co-Chairs:

(1) Eric has departed and signed off all lists. He will be available for consultation.

(2) Joyce reported she has already transitioned her duties to Marian and Don.

b. Secretary: Approved transition at completion of current Excom meeting minutes. Marian agreed to take minutes for this and the follow on special Excom meetings.

c. Treasurer: Transitioned June 15.

d. Public Relations Coordinator: Transitioned.

e. Special Events Coordinator: Transitioned.

f. Electronic Resources Coordinator/Webmaster. Approved August 1 for transition from Don to Erik. Don agreed to provide follow on assistance as necessary.

g. General: Stipends for existing officers expiring in August will not change as a result of these actions. Budgeted stipends will begin with the end of September checks. Treasurer will followup.

5. Transition of Officers, 2003/4 to 2004/5 (Don).

a. Discussion.

(1) GSA officer transition is out of sync with the officers of the Student Government and the Senate of College Councils who transition at the end of the spring semester. In the past, this has not been much of a problem as there was little activity in the summer and the relative independence of GSA from SG and SCC. With increasing activities in the summer and the greater need of cooperation between GSA, SG, and SCC, it is evident that office transition of the three organizations needs to take place in the spring. The resolution of this problem has been delayed because of two things. First a constitutional amendment is required which takes considerable effort. Second, stipends need to be adjusted so that commitments to current officers are honored requiring budgeting overlap of existing and new officer stipends.

(2) One of the benefits of the current system is a long transition period where old and new officers could share responsibilities. In some cases, the new officer has assumed duties early in the summer (particularly when an incumbent has graduated) and in some cases not until fall. This has allowed scheduling flexibility. But as summer activity at the university has increased, the confusion of who was responsible sometimes made it difficult for organizations outside GSA to know whom to contact on particular activities. Moving the date to spring resolves the confusion but eliminates much of the flexibility of transition. The best of both worlds could be obtained by having a two months overlap with a specific transition date in the middle. Various transition dates could be selected with various advantages and disadvantages: in April at the time of election, in May at the last meeting, or at commencement. Having a date on the last meeting of the year allows installation of new officers and recognition and retirement of old officers in an orderly fashion. This date allows the month of April for initial transition between election and official assumption of duties and the month of May (through commencement for graduating officers) for post installation transition. To allow for orderly transition, officer stipends should cover 13 months, May to May. New officers would include "Elect" in their titles (such as Treasurer, Elect) and retiring officers would include "Past" in their titles (Past Treasurer). Past officers would retain their membership in GSA until graduation as "members at large" with voting privileges but without counting toward a quorum.

b. Transition Date. Approved transition date: At the regular May meeting, after the adoption of minutes.

c. Titles. Approved Public Relations Coordinator and formal titles of "[officer], Elect" and "Past [officer]."

d. New Stipends. Approved new stipends for officers for 2004-2005 and beyond at 2003-2004 monthly levels for 12 months from June through the following May.

e. Transition Stipends. Approved stipends of current officers at normal annual rate. Approved nine month payout over nine months September through May. Dan agreed to coordinate payments with Maggie.

f. Revision of Constitution and Bylaws. Approved Don drafting a Constitution and Bylaw revision to:

(1) Move Officer's transition date from fall to spring and incorporate the above concepts.

(2) Revise Officers Titles.

(3) Require Officers to be available for duty at the university in Austin during their terms of office.

(4) Revise Officers duties to reflect new stipends.

a. Discussion. At the May meeting, the Excom asked for a set of objectives for 2003-2004. GSA's general objectives provide overall direction for GSA. More specific objectives are needed to provide specific focus for use of GSA time, talent, and money. Corporate strategic planning guidance suggests that there should not be more than (nor less than) three objectives. But each objective should be broken into subobjectives to allow for planning and each subobjective into implementation tasks. Over the last few weeks Marian and Don developed objectives to provide a general course for GSA to pursue for the next academic year. Based on our experience the last couple of years and working with SG and SCC they have come up with three objectives with subobjectives for planning that seem to capture the things we might be able to accomplish to help Graduate students this year and yet are compatible with the GSA general objectives and with SG and SCC initiatives. Lead officers are members of the Executive committee who will be responsible for leading the GSA effort to implement the objectives.

b. Plan. The plan is for Excom approval and assignment of lead officers at this meeting, presentation as a draft to SG and SCC at the July Student Governance Coordinating Committee (SGCC) meeting, to President Faulkner as a draft at the July PSAC meeting (July 21), and to GSA for approval at the first General Meeting in September.

c. Action. Approved GSA Objectives, and subobjectives, as revised below, for 2003-2004 and the above plan.

(1) 1b. Increase understanding and participation in organizations concerned with graduate student issues.

(2) 1d. (Moved from 2d.) Help smooth the management transition of new UT officials who influence graduate issues.

(3) 3. Finances. Improve student financial expectations and access to financial information.*

(4) 3b. b. Work to stabilize and improve student financial expectations* from entry to graduation.

(5) Footnote. *Financial information, obligations, and expectations include tuition, fees, benefits, stipends, scholarships, fellowships, assistantships, and loans.

d. Action. Deferred assignment of lead officers for objectives, and subobjectives.

a. Discussion. The Excom accepted the following priorities and spenders for 2003-2004 funds. All were to let the Excom know if they had additional items so we can reprioritize if needed.

(1) Ongoing expenses (stipends, copier, phone, network, etc.

(2) New Grad Org Funds. (Ginger).

(3) office supplies (paper, envelopes, etc.) (Marian and Joyce)

(4) Pamphlets (Ginger)

(5) Banner (Ginger)

(6) Calling cards (Don)

(7) Update software (MS Office, Dreamweaver, etc.) (Erik)

(8) Lap top computer (Erik) .

b. Action. Melissa, Ginger, Don, and Eric agreed to email Dan estimated costs of their items. Dan agreed to email a spreadsheet to the Excom members providing remaining funds for the 2002-2003 considering the input from the Excom members, provide a forecast of expenses for 2003-2004, and a proposed budget for 2004-2005.

a. Mail, correspondence, files, and archives.

b. Computer and files.

c. Telephone answering machine.

d. Fax Machine.

e. Supplies.

f. Furniture.

g. Keys

h. More space.

i. Secretarial support.

a. Single Contact Point Public Relations and Publicity.

b. Daily Texan. Ginger, Marian, and Don will visit the Daily Texan staff and Cactus Yearbook to see how we can get more publicity for graduate students in general and GSA in particular.

c. GSA Pamphlet.

d. Banner.

e. GSA Logo. Host a contest for a new one during the fall.

f. Messages to all Graduates. The current system of going through reps and graduate coordinators is not working. Do we need to figure our a better way? How does the graduate newsletter get out? How about an opt out rather than opt in?

g. Division of duties between Secretary, Public Relations Coordinator, and Webmaster. The Bylaws and SOP 2 written in October 2001 suggests a division of duties between these three positions focusing on the Website. When the Bylaws and SOP were written, the stipends of the Publicity and Electronic Resources Coordinator were reflected 2 hours a week. Now that the stipend has been increased to reflect 5 hours a week we need to consider if the duties are still appropriately distributed. The revised duties should be included generally in the Bylaws with flexibility so that the details in the SOP may be tailored to the personalities of the incumbents each year. It may be necessary to form a working group of the three officers to address this issue.

h. Action. Deferred discussion.

10. Official GSA Sponsorship

a. Discussion. In order to use the UT name and be included in some official recognition lists, organizations we need to be a UT "Officially Sponsored Registered Organization." We are registered but so far I have found no indication that we have official UT sponsorship. Perhaps it is something we have let laps. The list is at: http://www.utexas.edu/depts/dos/cci/rso_official.html

b. Action. Deferred discussion.

11. Blackboard for gsa-reps list.

a. Discussion. Keeping the GSA-reps email list current as folks go in and out of "good standing" and as they graduate is a real pain. Blackboard does that automatically. Also sharing documents with only with GSA-reps is possible using the email list, but size of the attachments is limited and there is no recall if an item is deleted. Don has built a Blackboard site with all GSA reps on it. The site will automatically keep student status current and will allow restricting sensitive documents with reps. In addition, groups of reps can be created for special purposes (like an Excom group) to share documents with a finer grade of restriction. The Gradebook also provides a way to track attendance of reps at general meetings.

b. Action. Deferred discussion.

12. Fall Barbecue and Other Special Events. (Melissa).

a. Discussion. Melissa provided an overview of the fall barbecue and asked for input on some of the details. The final arrangements were, the BBQ will be held on Thursday, August 28th from 6 - 8 PM at the LBJ Fountain area. The Sid Richardson breezeway/patio is the back-up location should it rain. Students are allowed to bring their families to the event and are encouraged to bring chairs and/or blankets to sit on. The Gulf Coast Playboys will perform their style of Cajun, Zydeco, Louisiana Blues and Tex-Mex music. Fuschak's Pit Bar-B.Q. will cater the event with a combination brisket and sausage plate with side dishes. Baked potatoes will be available for the vegetarian meal. Melissa is finalizing contracts.

b. Action. Approved arrangements.

13. Duties of GSA Representatives to Committees. (Don).

a. Discussion. With the increasing length of GSA reports, we have little time for discussion. Also, some GSA sponsored committee members don't come to their meetings and don't ask for substitutes. It is important that we develop a policy for the duties of sponsored representatives and conditions under which they can be replaced. Such a policy should include:

(1) All representatives are expected to faithfully represent graduate students on the committees to which they are appointed rather than their personal interests.

(2) Representatives must be graduate students in good standing, currently enrolled, listed in the UT directory so that other graduate students may contact them, and may not be a UT employee in the area a committee supervises.

(3) Representatives are expected to attend all meetings of their committee or request help from the Excom. Failure to attend will may result in removal of sponsorship.

(4) Representatives are expected to report significant issues to the GSA membership at monthly meetings or by email or Web postings and to seek guidance of the GSA as appropriate.

(5) Representatives are expected to provide written reports on the meetings they attend to include items that potentially impact graduate students.

b. Action. Deferred discussion.

14. GSA Sponsored Representatives to Committees (Don).

a. Criteria for Selection. Deferred discussion

b. Action. Selected representatives for committees listed on page 1 of the GSA Representative Volunteers By Committee Breakout. Deferred remaining selections. Members agreed to review the list and volunteer statements for the remaining candidates and positions. Marian agreed to provide copies for those who did not bring one from the meeting.

15. Academic Code. (Erik). Deferred discussion.


16. TSEU. (Ginger). Deferred discussion.

17. SOP-3. (Ginger). Deferred discussion.

18. Next Special Meeting. Agreed to meet 1-3 PM, Wednesday, July 16, in UNB 4.108 to address the deferred items on the agenda.

Respectfully submitted,

Marian Barber
Secretary