BGSA Meeting Agenda – January 9, 2017

  1. Call to order
  2. Meeting went from 4:33-5:18
  1. President’s Report (Abby)
  2. Location of future meetings
  3. The next meeting will be in 1125 Scaife in February, the rest of the meetings this semester are going to be in BST 1295
  4. BGSA Interview Weekends
  5. Dates: Jan 6&7, Jan 20&21, Feb 3&4, Feb 17&18, March 3&4
  6. The BGSA lunch talk last Friday went well
  7. We need more people to sign up for the future lunches.
  8. Shelby will be there on Jan 20th,
  9. BGSA Apparel
  10. Are people interested in sweatshirts?
  11. $20-$30 is the preferred range
  12. Abby make a poll to see if people want sweatshirts/quarter zip/ or zip
  13. A design suggested was the Pitt logo on back, BGSA logo on front
  14. Abby will look more into it and get back
  15. Grad Office Updates
  16. The grad office moved to a new space during renovations, are on the side of the elevators on the 5th floor
  17. Claire is out of the office until March. Denise, Lauren, Loranna are the people to contact while she is gone
  1. VP of Records (Paige)
  2. No alterations to the minutes. Minutes Pass
  1. VP of Finance Report (Lisa)
  2. Accounts were declared
  3. Travel award- ShinjiniKundu won it
  4. In February, Lisa is going to use the same list of people who signed up to judge for the travel awards in January
  5. Pharmacology Department volunteered to pay for three awards
  1. VP of Communications Report (Ana)
  2. The newsletter went out last month
  3. Pottery Fliers went out and the Facebook page was made for the Pottery event
  1. VP of University Relations Report (Eileen)
  2. Graduate students can attend undergrad events by Pitt Program Counsel events
  3. Legal service for graduate student housing problems is available
  4. An air supported megadome is coming to Pitt, going to open in the spring
  5. Thursday, Feb 16- there will be an event at Row House Cinema, probably a romantic comedy
  6. There is only room for 83 people
  7. It will include a movie and ~2 beers from Beerport, and probably popcorn and pretzels
  8. Keep an eye out for fliers
  9. The Spring Formal- April 8th, will be on Gateway Clipper
  1. VP of Programming Report (Adolfo)
  2. Past Events
  3. End of Foundations Happy Hour
  4. Happy hour went well.
  5. The snacks ran out too quickly.
  6. They added an additional $100 to budget,
  7. They had 55 people show up, while 40 were expected
  8. Abby is going to send the post event form to the first year rep’s
  9. Post event form can be downloaded off the website
  10. Upcoming Events
  11. Kiln n’ Time – January 12 & 26
  12. Happening this weekend
  13. 15 people have signed up, which meets the minimum requirement
  14. Participants will be given a slab of clay, and will then be shown how to make mug/plates
  15. $20 for BGSA members, cash is preferable
  16. Ski Trip – January 28
  17. If you are not taking the bus, arrive at 2 o’clock at Hidden Valley
  18. Nikki will be handing out the vouchers for the ski lifts and lessons, etc. at Hidden Valley
  19. Have to purchase tickets with cash on the 18th/ 20th at Scaife 4th floor-12:30-2:00 pm
  20. Ana can make the Facebook group for it
  21. Second years and first years have posted the IBGP group in their individual groups so everyone will know about it
  22. Future Events
  23. Designing Professional Figures Workshop – mid to late-February
  24. Two part workshop, focused on graphical abstracts
  25. Hosted by Dr. Ricardo
  26. Focused on Adobe Photoshopand Powerpoint
  27. Part 1:Informal talk on how to design best figures; he’ll present a workflow on how he takes images through the process to make them polished
  28. Part 2: People come with graphical abstracts they have made or will work on it during the time and Ricardo will do one-on-one help
  29. 6-8 pm, around Falk library, Feb. 7 & 21st
  30. There will be food , planning for Chipotle catering
  31. You can come to only one session
  32. Comprehensive Exam Panel
  33. Approve budget for cookies and coffee (next meeting)
  34. Last year there were 9 panelists and 19 attendees
  35. 3rd year panelists, should be advertised heavily to second years
  36. Last year ISB/PMB was invited
  37. Professional Business Portraits for Resumes & LinkedIn – March 15 or 22
  38. A2 hour period for 24 students would cost $120. The place is only open until 5pm, so the window would be 3-5 pm.
  39. Background will be blue
  40. Abby will send out a doodle poll and people can sign up for different times
  41. Wednesday March 15th
  42. Will be free for students
  1. Community Outreach Committee (Aliyah)
  2. STEM Saturday Academies will be happening this semester, but dates have not been picked yet
  3. BGSA has a Facebook event for MLK day of service- event that Pitt organizes every year. They do a day of service every year. 8:30-2:30, includes lunch and you get a t-shirt. All of the volunteering is inside. The event is Pitt, BGSA is just promoting it
  4. When you register, the form asks if you want to register as part of a student organization, so please type in Biomedical Graduate Student Association
  5. The organization with the highest percentage of people attending gets $500
  6. Aliyah is going to be gone at the end of the month, Mondraya is going to be the point person for the STEM Saturday Academies
  7. Someone else should be the chair of the committee, Aliyah is going to ask Mondraya if she wants to do it
  1. BGSA Symposium 2017 (Sarah and Matt)
  2. Huda Akil will be the speaker- Professor of Psychiatry at University of Michigan
  3. Co-Directer of the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute
  4. Date of the symposium is being determined
  5. WSMA Update (Gaelen)
  6. None
  1. Old Business
  2. None
  1. New Business
  2. Nothing to vote on
  1. Adjournment