|
Executive
Committee
Special Meeting
1:05-3:05 PM, Wednesday, July 16, 2003
Texas Union, UNB 4.108
Minutes
Print
version
1. Excom Meetings Schedule. (Don)
a. Discussion. Some Excom members have allocated
time on their schedules for commitments after the Excom
meetings. It is not fair to them (nor good management
practice) to begin late and continue the meeting past
the scheduled time. It is important that the agenda items
be addressed directly without undue peripheral subjects
or consciously deferred to a later meeting. The Co-Chairs
will prioritize the agenda according to their perception
of the urgency of the items listed. However, the Excom
may rearrange the agenda if the need exists.
b. Action. Approved meetings starting and ending
as scheduled. Co-Chairs may call additional meetings or
may decide to work items by email if all agenda items
are not addressed.
2. GSA Sponsored Representatives to Committees
(Don). At the special Excom meeting July 7, members agreed
to review the statements of the graduate student volunteers
for UT committees for 2003-2004 and to be ready to discuss
members for the committees. At that meeting the following
agenda item to adopt criteria was passed over. Criteria should
be established before selecting representatives.
a. Action. Approved selection
criteria: available for full term, continuity
(incumbency), furthering GSA objectives, diversity (mix
of colleges, gender, minorities, experience and fresh
views on committees with two or more, etc.), consistency
(between committees), previous experience on committees,
graduate level, holistic selection.
b. Committees. There was considerable
discussion about the committees that GSA was invited to
nominate representatives, how the names should be submitted,
and what the relationship was between the graduate student
representatives selected by GSA, Senate of College Councils
(SCC), and Student Government (SG).
(1) Action: Recognized that all graduate student
representatives representing graduate students on UT
committees are members of GSA during their terms of
office regardless of their sponsoring organization;
thus, GSA should support and work closely with all
graduate student representatives to ensure graduate
student interests are met.
(2) Action: Decided that the GSA sponsored names
submitted to Becky Carreon would include only those
for the committees listed on the request for GSA nomination.
(Becky Carreon provides administrative support
to student governance organizations.)
(3) Action: Decided to work closely with
SCC and SG in the future selection of graduate students
for committees.
c. Action. Selected representatives
for Committees of the General Faculty. Deferred other
selections.
d. Action. Don agreed to email nominees
to be sure they are still willing to serve.
3. 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 except where, as is the
case with the TA/AI committee, such employment is a
requisite of appointment.
(3) Representatives are expected
to attend all meetings of their committee or request
help from the Excom. Failure to attend 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 brief written reports on the meetings they
attend to include items that potentially affect graduate
students.
b. Action. Approved the above principles
(with the addition of the word brief in item 31(5).
c. Action. Approved Don drafting a
SOP on responsibilities of GSA representatives to UT committees
with the above principles (as revised from the agenda).
d. Action. Approved Ginger contacting
Commission 125 incumbents to determine if they plan to
continue to serve.
e. Action. Don agreed to provide all
nominees information on these responsibilities in the
above email to nominees (item 2d) and to provide a draft
of the Excom before sending it out.
a. Discussion. At the July 7 Excom meeting,
members agreed to email Dan information on their expense
items. Dan agreed to email members a spread sheet with
his recommendations on what we can afford in 2002-2003,
forecasted expenses for 2003-2004, and a proposed budget
for 2004-2005. Not all Excom members have provided
their costs to Dan. Nevertheless, Dan believes that
we have sufficient funds to acquire the items needed
by the end of the fiscal year.
b. Action. Requested
all members to provide Dan their cost estimates.
c. Action. Approved members proceeding
with their expenditures before the end of the fiscal
year.
5. Public Relations / News / Publicity.
(Ginger, Joyce, Erik, Marian).
a. Single Contact Point Public Relations
and Publicity. Deferred for consideration under
item 5g.
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. Approved.
c. GSA Pamphlet. Approved. Requested Ginger to
develop a pamphlet for Excom review.
d. Banner. Approved. Requested Ginger to purchase
a banner.
e. GSA Logo. Host a contest for a new one during
the fall. Deferred for consideration under item
5g.
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? Deferred for consideration
under item 5g.
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. Requested Ginger, Joyce, Erik, and
Marian to meet to develop a proposal for Excom approval.
h. Deferred approval of public relations/news/publicity
strategy until the proposal is ready.
6. 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. Approved application for official
UT sponsorship. Marian agreed to submit the application.
Marian and Don agreed to ask Dr. Rodriguez to suggest
a sponsor.
7. 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. Approved moving GSA reps from an email
list to Blackboard and revising SOP 1 and the elist
Webpage subject to input from Erik.
8. Lead Officers for GSA Objectives for 2003-2004.
(Don).
a. Discussion. At the July 7 meeting, the Excom
approved a set of objectives for 2003-2004 subject
to approval at the September general meeting. GSA's
general objectives provide overall direction for GSA.
The 2003-2004 objectives 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. Lead officers are members of the Executive committee
who will be responsible for leading the GSA effort
to implement the objectives.
b. Action. Deferred approval of lead
officers for GSA Objectives, and subobjectives for
2003-2004.
9. Office Clean Up. (Marian). Marian
and Joyce cleaned up the office (hooray).
a. Mail, correspondence, files,
and archives. Completed.
b. Computers and files. Deferred
for Erik's review.
c. Telephone answering machine.
Message was revised.
d. Fax Machine. Deferred
for Erik's review.
e. Supplies. Deferred
for consideration under item 5g.
f. Furniture. Deferred
for consideration under item 5g.
g. Keys. All Excom members
have key letters. Some need to pick up their keys
and make sure they work.
h. More space. Don and
Marian agreed to present the issue to Dr. Rodriguez.
i. Secretarial support. Don
and Marian agreed to present the issue to Dr. Rodriguez.
j. The Excom thanked Marian and Joyce for
their good work.
10. Academic Code. (Eric). Deferred
discussion of GSA involvement with formulation with
SCC academic code proposal.
11. TSEU. (Ginger). Deferred discussion
of cooperation with Texas State Employees Union.
12. SOP-3, GSA Funds for Graduate Student
Organizatons. (Ginger).
a. Discussion. Ginger has proposed changes for
SOP 3 and is awaiting Excom member response.
b. Action. Deferred decision of the course
of action for SOP 3, GSA Funds for Graduate Student Organizatons.
Respectfully submitted,
Marian Barber
Acting Secretary
|
