EGSS General Assembly Meeting Agenda

Date: November 17, 2016

Room: EDUC 203

Attendance: Erin Reid (ER), Janet Amos (JA), Emily M, Anna Otto (AO), Carole Spake

(CS), Jess Insogna, Dorelle Hinton (DH) Elif Wonders (EW), Dylan Moran (DM), Charlie

Ohayon (CO)

Late Attendance: Aiden Halihan (AH), Shalini Sivathasan (SS), Gwanaelle Philibert (GP)

Regrets: Emma Clark (EC)

Absent with no regrets:

1. Approval of October 17th meeting minutes

Approved AO, CS

2. Approval of November 17th meeting agenda

EM, CS, JI with change, addition of door issue (19) and social (20)

3. Speaker Series (CS)

CS -> more of Dorelle’s item. DH - Was started last year, once in fall and once in winter.

Senior researcher does a talk and then competition, one masters and one phd abstract.

Hesitant due to minimal attendance last year. Spent $2000 on the vent, mostly going

towards award. On board to create a larger different event, ask for student abstracts and

do talks perhaps? Maybe not completed works, could be proposals. Could be an

opportunity for funding. More than 2 awards. Students wouldn’t need to print a poster.

Have lots of people present, a few hours for the event. Aligns well with work in progress

and practice that is ongoing. CS – idea for evaluation from the audience, would be great

way to get feedback. Maybe Feb? Conference is usually end of March. EW – dean is

willing to give us money, same amount or more than last year. DH - Wine and cheese

after. Unanimous agreement.

4. Departmental bank accounts (CS)

Cannot have sub-bank accounts. Departmental bank accounts are not possible. If

departments want to have their own bank accounts that is fine, unless they want us to

hold on to their money and keep record of how much they have. This would mean that

they would have to contact her every time they need money. DH- it is free for

departments to have their money with EGSS. CS - KPE has it’s own bank account. Seems

like there won’t be very many transactions. ECP, decide what the best course of action is,

both options are available. EGSS is willing to hold to money. There just needs to be a

track record.

5. Secretary's payment (CS) 

Never discussed payment method, JA – in the constitution, what is the date? DH –

December 1st. Last year gave payment in one lump sum. Will do one check for dec 1.

6. Request for Endorsement - Midnight Kitchen PGSS Referendum (JA)

Asked for support to post on our social media that we support them. Unanimous vote

yes to support them.

7. Website updates (JA)

Website has some pages that are out of date. JA will make a google doc, if you notice

anything that needs to be changed, report it on the document. Report changes by one

week’s time. Rep pages being taken care of rep, DH taking care of academic, JI = social

pages, conference = SS, deleting logo idea, put new council photo as the main photo. CS –

upload the minutes. Conference alerts – someone would need to update it. Seems like we

do want to keep it, maybe change it to upcoming conferences and keep it external,

change location to News and Events page, also flip order to most recent. DM – French

constitution, link there but says coming soon, need to erase it. Home page and news and

events are the same – decided to keep it. ER – in community have MATL rep, why? DM-

are a part of DISE but are different, program is work/project based is very different. ER

– why do we have FNIE when there is no graduate program? And no MA rep? DH- within

DISE, how many grad programs? ER – MATL, FNIE (undergrad), masters, doctoral,

streams… faculty is asking questions. DM- maybe could meet with faculty. DH – maybe

since DISE is so big, might need clarification of different types of reps. Maybe can have

some multiple reps for DISE, a masters rep and PhD rep. ER will put together plan. Need

MA, PhD, and MATL reps. JA - Maybe Emma can ask Dom why FNIE was included. DH –

lets leave it and add a second DISE rep. SS – will write notes for conference page in

google doc. JA – please give advance notice for her to post things to the website so she

has time to post. Send her a timeline of your media plan

8. Funds for key organization system in the study space (JA)

Desks have drawers that lock and the locks have keys and the keys are disorganized. JA

wishes to buy a key organizer, unanimous yes. CS will go buy it.

9. Recap of EGSS Writing Time Nov 14 (DH)

Writing time on Monday night, experimented with an evening time. Had 15 people,

coffee, tea, snacks. Had a DISE student! DH is happy to keep doing them. Would like reps

to send in general times that work well for depts.. ER – alternate the times so more

people can attend. 3-5 is a good time.

10. Recap of Faculty Council, Academic Policy Committee Meetings (DH)

nothing from faculty council, gave update on community garden. No conference updates.

Academic policy committee went over course descriptions and program descriptions

and approved them.

11. Discussion re: event promotion and new screens in lobby for conference (DH)

Supposed to have 70% mcgill content so we are welcome to put up things. CS – woman

named Debbie who handles all the websites and advertising, if you need advertising she

will put it everywhere – “the channels” and education messenger:

Stephen.lalla@mcgill.ca does the screens. There are a lot of advertising avenues. DH –

will get Debbie’s email

12. Recap of Dean's meeting (DH on behalf of EC)

SS- went with EW and EC, talked about conference and they were helpful and gave

resources. Funding: presented with last year’s budget, they said the money is there and

if we need more it is fine. If we have leftover money, would rather it be reused for next

year’s conference. Have committee formed, first meeting on Monday, all welcome to

come. Will confirm theme, mission statement, date and get back to council. AO – noticed

there were a lot of past emails from conference inbox that were unread. SS – don’t know

anything about conference email. AO – account info is in google drive. Will look for SS. SS

– has a new gmail account for conference. EW – still has access to last year’s email. AO,

SS, and JA agree to just use a new email.

13. Update on keys: VP socials last year shared one key, so we have all of them. Vanessa

Bridgeman (building manager) has ordered one for me and it should be arriving in the

next few weeks. (EC)

Emma ordered a new key. EW – doesn’t have one but mentioned it already.

14. EGSS lounge: we are responsible for keeping the lounge clean. Last time I was in there it

looked really nice so if someone cleaned it, thanks! Not sure if we want to implement a

system or rotation for cleaning and just make sure we are checking once a week and

doing things like cleaning out old food in the fridge. (EC)

JA- is under secretary, room 631. CO – oversee cleaning rotation. EW and DM – can use

funds for tea, instant coffee, granola bars. JI – do enough events with free food. CS –

doesn’t think there is a need for the lounge. JA – will send out reminder that there is a

lounge to use. DM, CO, and ER will report on room’s status. CS will check with porter for

cleaning products. Can put a new sign that food will be thrown out Friday unless place

post-it saying don’t throw out. CO – will make rotation schedule, google doc with dates

for every 2 weeks on Friday and people will sign up

15. Updates from the meeting with the Dean to be provided by SS (EGSS Conference,

external conference the office wants to promote, international student perks) (EC)

Was already discussed in 12.

16. Discussion from the Dean’s office had me thinking about organizing and EGSS/EDUS

mixer at some point, to provide a chance for undergraduates to connect and network

with graduate students and learn about the diverse possibilities for graduate studies in

education. Just a proposal, wanted to put it on the table for everyone to think about. (EC)

Approved. JI – January mixer with the theme of applications for grad school mixer. Do a

test one with just our faculty and then can open up to other undergrads. Can do it within

the first week of school, start advertising before the holidays. Do the week after Jan 4th.

17. Procedure for departmental reps to take money out of the "department funds" (AO)

How do reps get access to the money? Both CS and DH can sign checks. CS – make a form

for reps to fill out with date, event description, allocation of funds. Do we give them the

money upfront and let them take care of the leftovers or do we reimburse? DM – with up

front would we still ask for receipts? CS – Yes. JI – should just give them the money. CS –

need all the receipts in case of audit. DH – make events and promote EGSS. CS – will

make a google form that committee has access to.

18. Discussion re: DISE reps, DISE participation in EGSS conference, and setting up a student

mentorship initiative. (ER)

already discussed DISE reps item 7. DISE has some ideas for conference, ABCs of PhD –

maybe do within conference on publication? Does everyone have their own graduate

student associations? Yes but are still a part of EGSS. Issue with DISE there is no real

group of students that will make things happen. Wants to create events – set up a

mentoring initiative to get PhD students or MA, have senior students to act as mentors

to incoming students. Could be informal and pilot within DISE. Are doing some focus

groups and there is consensus for this. Need for connecting individuals in the

department. JI – speak to EDUS there is a mentoring program and a mentoring across

mcgill program as well. Could use budget to create event around it. DH – can apply for

solidarity fund, will just have to removed from the meeting

19. Door Issue

CS will call porter to fix lock and ask re: cleaning products or if someone cleans the

room.

20. Holiday Social

Wants to do small holiday social 4to7 at Thomson house. DO we want to buy alcohol or

gifts and do a raffle to fundraise for Centraide. CS – social budget is $4300. JI - Renting

Thomson with service staff is $160 plus tax. Maybe we could do both alcohol and gifts.

Can buy tickets that the guests can use for drinks. Unanimous consent – should provide

free alcohol. JI – Nove 24,28 Dec 1,5,6,7,13,15. AO – will be gone by 15th too late. Dec 1 is

first option 7th is second option. Will make it purely social, no raffles. SS - Can ask people

to bring in cans for donation or clothes. Will provide one drink with ticket and any

donation is a second ticket. Will have to stipulate that will only receive one ticket no

matter how many donations they bring. CS – cant write alcohol in promotional posters

but can write drink tickets (any beverage). Will make sure to have many food options.

Notes:

1) GP - email issues: Reps should all be able to send emails to students on their own

without going through the department Problem with dept heads sending out the emails.

Reps are supposed to have their own lists. AO – has been having difficulty with this as

well.

2) JI – how could we promote the conference at the social? We could use the photo

booth. EW – can use a projector.