This meeting was called to order at 12:00pm.

Updates

1. Department council
   1. Personal development program – implemented and someone has completed without hiccups
2. Renos and updates on 4^th floor
   410. Close to completion. Can book out the 410.
3. FEC
   1. Biosci performing better than average
   2. Symbiosis candidate has been chosen – not yet told to public
   3. Fish conservation candidates next month
   4. Parasitology in march
4. Biol 698/699 – grad student mentor. Now up and running. If you have an undergraduate student that you mentor, sign up and get credit!
5. Ches – year leave to another department. Shelley Scott taking over her place.
6. 14 incoming biosci grads this term!
7. Open exec meetings – allow BGSA members to sit in on council meetings and see if they’d like to volunteer next year. Beginning in feb.

Upcoming events

1. Writing and candidacy workshops – March?
2. Trivia – end Jan?
3. Curling – March?
4. Spring BBQ/Waffle-palooza – March?? Still in the works
5. RE Peter conference – Just 3 weeks away!

Meeting adjourned at 12:19

BGSA 2016 Annual Budget meeting – Nov 24

The budget was presented by the co-treasurers Colleen and Musfira.

Overall, the BGSA is expected to make money for the 2016/2017 year.

• Snack room – projected to make ~$2000 (in line with last year). Cost – $4644.52 and income projected at $6717.26.
• External funding from the GSA = +$100/year
• AGM = no costs associated for the 2016/17 year
• End of year general meeting = ~$150 cost for food provided to participants
• BBQ fundraiser – based upon previous years the cost will be ~$400 and profit is generally around $600. We expect a $200 profit.
• Halloween party – no costs associated this year. Made $200 in ticket sales.
• Workshops (candidacy, IDP, writing) – cost ~$200 each for a total cost of $600 for this year. The presidents are currently looking to negotiate receiving funds from the department as these events are run for the department.
• Winter formal – ? as of yet an undecided event. No financial projection.
• Student job fair – Profit of $20
• RE Peter conference – predicted to be self-funded via external graphs as has been in recent years.
• Curling – Rental costs ~$1200. Ticket sales last year were $1000. Looking into reducing rental costs for this year.

Questions from attendees were discussed. Michelle moves to approve the BGSA budget for 2016/17. Phil seconds the motion. Attendees unanimously approve the budget. Meeting adjourned.

The meeting was called to order at 12:03 pm

Recap of Past events

• We have snack room people!! Yay. It’s been well stocked. Good work J
• Plan for a January BBQ.
• Halloween Party – good. Made money = success!!
• PD workshop – went well. Had 25 people show up. Good reviews all around. Job fair – went well. More presenters than ever before.

Upcoming events

• RE Peter – Dates confirmed to be Jan 30-31.
• Winter social – ideas coming soon!
• Writing workshop – Coming in February.
• Curling – Event planning in the works for early spring!
• Budget meeting – Will happen Nov 24 at noon.

Meeting adjourned at 12:58 pm

The meeting was called to order at 12:04pm

Recap of Previous events

• None since last exec meeting

Upcoming Events

• Fundraising BBQ
  • Going to sell waffles along with BBQ goods
  • Katie and Kacie organizing
• Halloween Party – Working on the details.
  • Zach and Alyssa organizing
• RE Peter
  • Bruce Sutherland = FC board member. Will cut money, choosing mugs, shouldn’t need money from BGSA
• Job Fair
  • Discuss at next meeting
  • Sonya working on it
• Budget update – For beginning of Nov
  • All BGSA members welcome
  • On course to have profit this year
• Other fundraising ideas?
  • Christmas party
  • Movie event

Adjourned at 12:40

The meeting was called to order at 12:00 pm.

Recap of Summer events
Led by Michelle

• Welcome BBQ – Success! Another year in the books.
• Pokemon event – Success! Easy to plan – set up for another event before the snow flies? In conjunction with the next BBQ?
• Jess Haines has donated a new BBQ: Thanks!

­Upcoming Events
Led by Phil and Michelle

• IDP workshop – coming up soon
• Next BBQ is in Oct – volunteers already found
• Trivia Nights – going to meld with the Faculty club evens (every other month): no cost for BGSA or for attendees. Just call/email ahead to register a team; next event is Sept 22
• Present Research to the Public – Faculty Club Sept 22; stay after for trivia!

Other Items

• Michelle: Standing committee – results pending BGSA exec election
• RE PETER conference: Committee already planning
• Halloween Party: Find volunteers
• Discover who has key to cabinet outside the BGSA lounge.

Meeting adjourned at 12:28pm.

The meeting was called to order shortly after 10 am.

We invited all graduate students in Biological Sciences (via email) to our meeting and we had several guest attendees.

Welcome to guests

1. Executive members introduced themselves and gave brief descriptions of the responsibilities involved for each position.
2. Michelle C. and Phil O. gave an overview of the events that the BGSA runs, and the events that BGSA helps the department with.

Ways to make transition to new executive smoother

1. We have ‘How to’ documents to each event on the BGSA Google Drive. These can be updated as changes are made.
2. At the Annual General Meeting we will have a motion to add an ‘Executive Advisor’ position(s) into the BGSA constitution. (Current executive voted to name this position an ‘Executive Advisor’). This/these would be a voluntary (non-voting) position(s) that are filled by member(s) of the past year’s executive. 

Past events

RE Peter Conference

• There were about the same number of presentations as last year.
• The quality of the presentations was great!
• The RE Peter planning committee was very successful in getting grants this year, so we had a larger budget than in years previous.

Upcoming Events

Candidacy Exam Workshop

• Set to go for Wednesday March 30.
• Pizza will be provided, but BGSA encourages a $2 donation.

Trivia Night

• Set to go for Thursday March 31. 

Curling

• Waiting for people to submit their teams.
• Ice at Saville Centre is booked for April 9

Laser tag

• Michelle C. is still willing to plan this as a summer event.

GSA Awards Night-April 1

• BGSA will be receiving the Academic Group Award!

Annual General meeting – Agenda

• Semi-annual report on budget
• Changes to the constitution:
  • Add April-May as the time for the Annual General Meeting
  • Adding ‘Executive Advisors’ to the BGSA executive
  • Vote on executive positions.

The meeting was adjourned 10:58 am.

The meeting was called to order at 12:37 pm.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:15 pm.

Travel safety

• BGSA received an email from Faculty of Medicine regarding travel safety. Their graduate students register for international travel with 1) U-Go Off Campus Travel Registry, 2) Federal Government Registry, and 3) Sending an email to a Department contact person.
• Biological Sciences has a paper trail in place already for students doing international fieldwork. Michelle C. is going to meet with Dr. Raivio to find out what we currently have in place.

BGSA won the GSA Academic Group Award!

• The award value is $500.

Updates from Departmental Council

Professional Development Requirement for Graduate Students

• New Professional Development Requirements come into effect for students beginning in September 2016.
• Department of Biological Sciences is putting together a 1-page document to summarize the FGSR document for students
• For Department of Biological Sciences, students will have 1 year from their start date to complete their Individual Development Plan (IDP)
• BGSA will provide a workshop in the fall with an overview of the new Professional Development requirements & tips on how to complete the IDP

698/699

• In future terms, graduate students who are mentoring Biology 499 students will fill out a program form and register in 698/699. This will give graduate students formal recognition for mentoring on their transcripts.

Writing workshop feedback

• For next year, we should consider having demonstrations on how to use the Table of Contents features on both PCs and Macs.

Chili-Fest Feedback

• For next year the event should be run for 3 hours instead of 4 hours.

Upcoming Events

Laser Quest

• It is looking like this will be on hold until the summer.

Trivia night

• Planning the next one for the end of March, beginning of April (depends on when Faculty Club is available).

RE Peter Conference

• Everything is underway
• First draft of schedule is being sent out today
• Current funds for the conference include a U of A Alumni grant, a Green grant, and funds from both the Department of Biological Sciences and the Faculty of Science.
• For next year, we could consider running an outreach for kids in conjunction with the RE Peter conference.

Candidacy workshop

• Francesca is planning this.

The meeting was called to order shortly after 12:00 pm.

Agenda

Student group services Event organizer training & Pro-serve

• Michelle C., Erin C. & Trish L. have recent training. Phil O. has signed up for the training session in January. For any BGSA events where alcohol is served, we must have two people on hand with Pro-serve training.

Budget

• Budget details will not be published online. BGSA members, please email bgsa@ualberta.ca for inquiries regarding the budget.

Writing workshop

• Scheduled for Thursday January 28. Everything is ready to go except ordering the pizza. We expect about 70 participants. We will send out a reminder email to RSVP.

Laser Quest

• We will tentatively hold this event at the beginning of March.

RE Peter Conference

• The date has been set for March 10-11.

Next Trivia Night

• We are tentatively planning our next trivia night for the end of January/beginning of February.
• We plan to push the time back a bit and allow more time for people to enjoy the buffet before the trivia starts.

Curling

• The facility is booked for April 9.

Candidacy exam workshop

• This is in the planning phase and will be held sometime in March.

Chili Fest

• BGSA is helping the Department with this event.
• It will be held February 5.
• Department typically provides the sides.
• Executive brain stormed some other ideas for the event.

Election & AGM

• We would like to amend the BGSA constitution to include a past president position.
• We will send out a call for nominations and a description of the positions a few weeks in advance of this date.
• The meeting is scheduled for Monday April 11 at 12:30-1:30 pm.

The meeting was called to order at 3:05 pm.

Treasurer’s Report

Budget information is not posted in the online version of the minutes. Graduate students with questions can contact us for further information.

Past Events

Fundraising BBQ

-We made more than we expected.

-The barbecue from L’Express was not very good.

-In the future we would like to rent 2 barbecues from L’Express or convince them to let us use their big barbecue. Alternatively, we could ask people to bring their camping barbecues.

-In the future, we need to ensure that we have enough cash on hand for a float.

Halloween Party

-We generated some revenue from this event.

-BGSA executive discussed email etiquette with the event organizer (Stephen T.).

-Stephen T. was given a budget of $60 for glow sticks, prizes and decorations. He overspent on prizes. BGSA Executive unanimously decided that we couldn’t set a precedent for overspending on events so we will reimburse Stephen the $60 as per the instructions he was given.

-Dewey’s had our decorations from last year and did the decorating for us. We need to get the decorations back from Dewey’s so that we can put them in our student group inventory list.

Upcoming Events

Job Fair

-The job fair will be on November 18. All of the planning for this event is on track.

Executive Retreat

-BGSA executive is planning an informal get together to brainstorm ideas for next year. Will likely be a Friday evening in late November.

Trivia Night

-Graduate students expressed interest in a Trivia Night at the Faculty Club when a Doodle Poll was circulated.

-The first (and trial run) trivia night will be held in late November.

Winter Social

-Graduate students expressed interest in a laser tag event when a Doodle Poll was circulated.

-Michelle C. is working on getting an official quote from Laser Quest.

-We are planning to run this event in early-mid December.

-Phil O. and Michelle C. are working on an application for an SU activity grant (due date Nov. 16) to offset some costs for the event.

Writing Workshop

-We plan to have this event in January.

RE Peter

-Planning for this event is going really well (further ahead than in previous years).

-We are in the process of confirming speakers.

-The event will take place March 3-4 or March 11-12, dependent on speaker availability.

-Talks will be organized into mini-symposia

-The event will be at the Faculty Club and coffee/tea will be compliments of the Faculty Club.

-The Thursday evening social will be at the Faculty Club.

-The BGSA executive and RE Peter planning committee are on the lookout for grants to apply for

Possible sources include:

-Genetics Grant

-Office of Sustainability Green Grant

-GSA Academic Activity Grant

-Alex C. is putting together a budget

Curling

-The Saville Centre is booked for April 9 and we’ve paid the first installment of the rental fee.

News from Department Council

-We had 41 new graduate students join the department in September and ~20 have been approved to begin in January.

-Thesis approval deadlines have been moved up

Housekeeping

BGSA lounge

-Phil O. obtained the microwaves from the Bio Sci Cafeteria from the department.

-BGSA Executive will be doing some cleaning/organizing of the lounge during reading week.

Theft prevention measures

-The BGSA was the victim of a recent theft (someone took the snackroom cash box). The department has agreed to cover the costs of a lock & chain for the cashbox. The treasurers will also be emptying the cashbox more regularly. We will try to get the door code changed ~every term. After the next snackroom re-stock we will send a reminder to graduate students to be vigilant about BGSA lounge security and to report any suspicious activity.

Event Organizer Training

-BGSA executive should get event organizer training. Dates for upcoming training sessions are November 16 and December 1.

Photocopier code

-Phil O. will talk with Tracy Raivio about getting a photocopier code for the BGSA.

Adjournment

-The meeting was adjourned at 4:25 pm

The meeting was held at noon in the BGSA lounge.

Attendance– 9 Biological Science Graduate Students

Budget Overview. Michelle C. and Phil O. presented the budget and highlighted the following items:

Activity grants- The BGSA will be applying for activity grants to offset the costs of some events.

Snackroom– The snackroom lost money last year and this year we hope to break even. The door code for the BGSA lounge has been changed as a theft prevention measure, and we will be doing monthly checks to ensure that the money coming in for the snackroom is aligning with the money going out to purchase items from Costco.

Halloween Party– We will be selling glowsticks. In future years we may be able to book the Faculty Club for our Halloween Party. This year we’ve already committed to having it at Dewey’s.

Questions about the Budget

One question was received from Zeke W.

Why is a cost not listed for the rental of the poster boards for the job fair?

Answer-

The Department has traditionally covered the cost of the Job Fair since it is a service that the BGSA does for the Department and its undergraduate students.

Vote- Attendees voted on the budget and it was passed unanimously.

Adjournment– The meeting was adjourned at ~12:25 pm.