ALC (Academic Life Committee) Minutes Sept 11Th 2013
ALC (Academic Life Committee) Minutes Sept 11th 2013
Present:
Rosemary Akhurst: Faculty
Long-Cheng Li: Faculty
Monique Dail; Faculty
Brett Johnson: Grad Student
Kevin Mark: Grad Student
Mary McMahon: Post-doc
Claudia Petritsch: Faculty
Megan Salt: Grad Student
Apologies:
Adele Dow: Facilities Manager
Laura Fejerman, Faculty
1. Minutes of the last ALC were approved by the committee.
2. Rosemary failed to mention that the Ping Pong Tournament was a great success thanks mainly to Julia Freimuth.
3. Rosemary would like to thank Kevin Mark for organizing the student – post-doc hosted seminar on April 5th 2013. There were enough people at the lunch session and the hosts (4 students/postdocs) enjoyed dinner with Bob Eisenman.
4. Mary McMahon is the host for our next speaker, Jeff Engelman, who will be arriving January 10. There were enough people at the lunch session and the hosts (4 students/postdocs) enjoyed dinner with Bob Eisenman.
5. Rosemary reported that since the ALC was given $20, 000 by Frank McCormick from his own Professional Fees back in Nov 2009, we had spent $13, 201 leaving a balance of just under $7, 000 i.e. finances are still healthy.
6. The date of the next Diller Retreat was discussed. March 2014 was thought to be inappropriate because of the movements of labs to the fourth floor at that time. We will therefore aim for late October/early November 2014, by which time Boris Bastian and Kate Rauen will also be members of the Building.
7. Rosemary reported pledges from Peter Carroll, Frank McCormick, Kevin Shannon, and Talmadge King for funds for the Diller Retreat. Still to hear from Mitch Berger, Bob Hiatt and Mack Roach. Discussions were held about asking Abul Abbas (Pathology : Tlsty, Oakes and Debnath), Laura Van t’Veer, Boris Bastian and Kate Rauen to make up any deficit. Also any fund raising activities to raise money for alcohol vendors? BBQ? Raffles?
8. The need to recruit more grad students and post-docs to the ALC was discussed. Individuals who like organizing, raising funds, communicating, setting up Facebook pages. Brett and Megan will be leaving by next year, and promised to try and persuade some new blood to take over. Rosemary will also ask via Karen Gehrman and Ovidio.
9. Thanksgiving: It was decided not to have a potluck, but to ask the November Friday Social hosts to start early, and give them some extra money to enhance the food for that event. It was also suggested to ask folks to bring their families, and to put on some games and food etc for kids.
10. Holiday party: We need to find out if there will be one. Again, it was suggested to have a kids corner with face painting etc. Adele should see if there are any additional safety issues in having kids in the building….
Other business:
11. Monique suggested starting a CCC parents’ organization to arrange social interactions and networking of scientists with children.
12. Mary suggested that we get talks from Bioinformatics, Biocomputational and Biostats Core Leaders on what’s out there and how they can help us. Long said that he would try to facilitate this. Rosemary would also ask the Core Directors. Links to website advertising courses in these topics should be placed on the CCC website.
13. Monique suggested that we also have coverage of courses on medical and animal ethics e.g. via links on the CCC webpage (or ALC facebook page??).
14. Brett and/or Mary suggested an ALC e mail and/or Facebook page for comments and suggestions from the Building. Maybe mention of the ALC meetings on the CCC website (Maybe have minutes posted there?).
15. Next Committee meeting as soon as we have some new and enthusiastic recruits!!