Select Committee on the Future of GPSF
October 19, 2016 at 5:00pm
Bondurant 4074
1. Call to Order / Roll Call
Attendance:
Mac Gilliland (MG): present
Nick Levis (NL): present
Caroline Miller (CM): absent
Katie Stember (KS): present
Toney Thompson (TT): present
Dylan Russell (DR): present
Brian Coussens (BC): present
Anel Jaramillo (AJ): present
Anginelle Alabanza (AA): present
Marie Eszenyi (ME): absent (class)
Madelyn Percy (MP): absent (fieldwork)
Desmond Spencer (DS): absent
Autumn McClellan (AM): present
Also in Attendance:
2. Selection and Approval of Additional Committee Candidates as Voting Members (If applicable)
3. Confirm election date and timeline for voter motivation: Friday, October 28th (midnight to 8pm)
4. Content Assignments/idea generation and timelines
Important thing for tonight: making sure everyone knows when/what to be sending out to promote.
a. Declaration of Independence (Friday October 21st) - Toney
i. Toney has put up Declaration and gotten feedback. Additional grievances can be put into list and Toney will add to Declaration.
ii. Dylan’s idea: can we make it a PowToon? flipped classroom; more interactive video versus a document. Would have to be less than a minute. Written declaration AND PowToon.
iii. A few images to break up text?
iv. Toney: check on additional grievances on updated Two for Two website.
b. Money (Monday October 24th) - Autumn
i. How to present document that Autumn wrote up?
ii. Add website page to summarize all the information. Summarize in a short, concise manner via infographic. The text currently there is too much for people to read.
iii. Summary of document: Congress isn’t spending enough money on GPSF than the amount that graduate students put in from fees, mostly because money is going to organizations rather than individuals. Grad students are discouraged from participating in RSOs (registered student orgs) due to their PIs. Individuals don’t get money for conference travel.
iv. Infographic ready by tomorrow or Friday to put out on Monday
c. Representation (Tuesday October 25th) – Dylan and Anel
i. Committee thoughts on video: video should be less than a minute so that people will watch the whole thing. May sound a bit condescending to undergrads, though entertaining. Targeting everyone as audience.
ii. AM: potential scenario: grad student is at meeting and conversation is going on around him/her. Grad student is thinking about dissertation, something more relevant. Undergrads are talking about homecoming concert, flipped classrooms, have to get credits in other subjects
iii. Concern: it may come off as condescending no matter what the video is on. People may interpret it negatively. Stick with second half?
iv. DR: Point of script is to engage an audience that we’re not reaching with all the other mechanisms. Want to do something goofy, funny. Got the idea from Wilson’s campaign last year.
v. AJ: do the bottom half, and will add more if there is time.
vi. Anel and Dylan and Marie will edit the video. Contact Adam Engel - knows how make videos.
d. Different life Experiences – (Wednesday October 26th) - Nick
i. “Are you married/do you have children/etc” figure is the more effective one. How do we promote that? Facebook, email (no student gov listservs), distance from building.
ii. Other important things to include in figure:
1. Can we make it apply more to younger grad students? Subsidized tuition loans? This might be more for the money day. As a whole, graduate students can relate to it.
2. Coursework/School - some fees going to the graduate school are only paid by grad students. We only take classes in our department, not mixing with a variety of majors. We want to highlight that our idea of school is very different from that of undergrads.
iii. Give ideas to Nick so he can update tonight/tomorrow
iv. Promote at the candidate reception dinner on Wednesday, around 6-7pm. No paper flyers because we don’t know where they’ll end up.
e. Interviews with Graduate students fighting for 2 for 2 – Thursday – Katie/Anginelle
i. Katie will get written/verbal statements from grad students saying why they are fighting for 2 for 2. Committee: send our pictures and quotes to Katie for her to compile.
ii. Interviews done by weekend to have ready by Thursday.
iii. Do this with Instagram frame on Franklin street in the evening to catch people who are going out
iv. Also promote on Thursday during March to the Polls.
v. Wear crazy 2 for 2 costumes outside when flyering in the Pit, Franklin St
f. Undergrads – you might be a graduate student someday.
i. Be outside (not in) bus stops, on Franklin street on Thursday night. Pictures and tag them taking a pledge to vote. Have the frame that says “I’m voting for 2 for 2”
ii. Are there concerns with mixing up this with early voting starting on Thursday? Need to make sure the frame says UNC, is Carolina blue, etc.
iii. ALL THINGS DONE IN PERSON; SOME ON THURSDAY NIGHT to avoid flyers ending up in the wrong place
Thursday night/Friday:
· Halloween: cardboard cutouts of “2” and ribbons, handing out flyers to people (Thurs)
o To get cardboard: groceries, recycling bins – Katie will store them in her lab
· Photo frames on Franklin street (Thurs)
· Is it illegal to have laptops for people voting? Yes, but people can vote on their phones. Autumn has made a QR code (but people will need a QR scanner). Tell them go vote at studentlife.unc.edu.
· Potential sign similar to green eggs and ham: you can do it on your phone, you can do it in 2 seconds, etc… people will see it and ask what we’re doing the signs for
Goal for next 2 days: find cardboard boxes to make signs
This Friday: finish all your content and upload for committee members to view
Monday: Have video finished and signs, 2 costumes, frame ready
Wed, Thurs, Fri – use materials above and promote
DISSEMMINATING CONTENT:
· Dylan will depopulate listserv and send content; just needs content from everyone
· Thursday night: something will be sent at 10pm, takes 12 hours to send
· Subject line has to say “vote for ___ for election” (?)
· Include Google Calendar invite
· Dylan will create an alias so he doesn’t get the 10,000 inactive auto responses on his email
· Create bit.ly for url when people are pulling it up on their phones? Or tell them to go to studentlife.unc.edu, or create QR code
· Send out email every day: each date include voting date, slogan, and different content
· Confirm time of election with Bobby – October 28th, midnight – 8pm
Email Template:
Subject: Vote Yes on “Two for Two” (cannot mark as urgent)
Top lines: Friday, October 28th: Vote YES on “Two for Two” for a voice that knows you
This Friday: Vote YES on “Two for Two” for a voice that knows you
*Include link to Calendar Notification on each email and set up a reminder
Election questions
· Do you have to vote yes/no on everything?
· Vote YES on Two for Two and vote NO on “Better Together and Status Quo”
· Have to be registered for a NO campaign
· Screenshot and print out our votes: “This is what MY ballot looks like”. Make sure that we click submit!
o Not everyone will have the same ballot, based on your res hall etc.
· On the ballot: is it clear that Two for Two and Better Together are referring to the same thing? No, and they could be on different pages. Without clarification, people could click both options, and undergrads win because they only need 50% threshold. Letter to Congress will clarify this.
5. Student Congress Resolution
· R&J didn’t have committee meetings last night. Was supposed to be on their calendar but they didn’t tell anyone in Congress about it. Brian drafted a letter to send to them about (1) fairness of how the ballot is interpreted and (2) we are held to the 50%+1 versus 67%
· We need to prepare statements for public comments.
· If letter is rejected, we will need firm documentation as to why we won’t have same threshold. Also want something to show there is no voter confusion about Better Together and Two for Two.
Important things:
· How to highlight that you need to vote YES for Two for Two and NO for Better Together
o In person to get attention of undergrads
o Senate and Cabinet need to have better participation – sign them up for spots on the Wed, Thurs, Fri flyering. If they can’t make it, reach out to their team lead.
· TT: The way the voting is set up is stacked against us. Should we have a DTH article about our campaign? Need to reach out to a larger student body.
See schedule that Katie created on Google spreadsheet for signup times:
Wednesday: Flyering at Reception dinner
Thursday: Flyering in the Pit, Franklin St
Friday: Flyering in the Pit
6. Other TO-DOs and Deadlines
a. Website update
b. Facebook Page and Event Creation/Inviting people
c. Scheduling graduate students to go to congress meeting to speak?
d. Order flyers/come up with distribution plan?
e. Figuring out list-serv re-population and e-mail schedule
f. Update Sandwich Board – other signs?
7. Adjournment