AHEC Meeting Minutes

Thursday, November 19th, 2015, 7:30pm @ Crafts lounge

Attendees: Lisa, Chris, Drew, Calvin, Orpheus, Deirdre, Cody
Presided by Lisa, Minutes by Orpheus

• Agenda
  • [Vote] - Approval of Last Week's Minutes
  • [Update] - Thanksgiving Dinner Planning
  • [Proposal] - Community Gardening Initiative
  • [Update] - Publicizing Ashdown Policies
  • [Update] - Brunch Planning & Meeting Recap
  • [Discussion] - Updating Computer/Quiet Study Room
  • Open Floor
• Approval of Last Week's Minutes
  • Minutes are approved and are to be posted.
• Thanksgiving Dinner Planning
  • Heard from floor officers
  • Everything went smoothly
  • Floor officers specially commended
  • One minor issue, resolved
  • Need help signing people in from floor officers
• Community Gardening Initiative
  • One of the residents submitted a Graduate Student Life Grant for a self-contained system that grows things inside
  • Funding from GSC, but can they be stored in Ashdown?
  • Where to put them?
    • Floor kitchens?
    • Crowded as is...
    • Computer lounge?
    • No one goes there, so no
    • Lobby?
    • Hallways?
    • Bowtie lobbies?
    • Lounges on floors
  • Who takes care of them?
    • Interested people
    • Add new officer position? Should we designate someone?
    • No, resident submitting grant should be responsible
  • Do roll call out to dorm
    • Create planters' list from existing garden list
    • If there is interest, we say yes, else no
    • Poll may take too long
    • Send to Ashdown talk
  • If they could put them somewhere, they are more likely to get the grant
  • Small space and small amount of work (1 person)
  • Status:
    • 2 people already pushing for the plants
    • Desire for total of 5
  • Could this become AHEC's problem?
    • What if people leave?
    • We could give systems back to where we got them from.
    • Implement process reviews
  • Summary:
    • AHEC is in favor, so long as it is not AHEC's problem
    • AHEC reserves the right to discard them if they become AHEC's problem
    • Location TBD
    • Will talk to Denise
    • Kitchens or Lounges
• Publicizing Ashdown Policies
  • No flier yet
  • Lisa will take over making flier
• Brunch Planning & Meeting Recap
  • Went over main issues:
    • Flat top
    • Cleanliness
  • Continue serving 200-300 people
  • How reduce line
    • Fruit table has moved to back
    • Active instruction by Coffee Hour members
    • People wanted food in the one line, so this didn't help
    • Will implement active line monitoring and give time updates to those in line
    • Possibly post a sign at about the 200 person mark?
    • Takes about 40 min for line to disappear
    • So ~30 min is 200-300 people
  • Standing tables
    • People come and sit for extended periods of time, which limits seating
    • Standing tables increases capacity and encourages people to leave
  • Is there a diagram of tables?
    • Not at the moment, in the works
  • Volunteers
    • Want to recruit more volunteers
    • Pancakes are hard for volunteers to make
    • Makes learning curve steep
    • Waffles are more friendly to volunteers
    • Tried using waffle makers for volunteers
  • Desired equipment
    • 3 Waffle Makers
    • 4 waffle makers for 200 people
    • We would need 3 more
    • Can be funded in next Will Fund (January)
    • Portable oven
    • When the flat top is in use, power to the oven decreases?
    • Check on this with Thirsty Ear
  • Make sure volunteers are logged
    • Currently paper process
  • Make brunch more fun
    • Volunteers eat together?
    • Improve culture?
    • Reference SidPac's Brunch for examples
• Update on Recycling
  • Getting rid of all the boxes in the library
  • Housing bought a bunch of boxes of things that stop power from draining somewhere
  • Will distribute the devices at coffee hour or such
    • Send mass package notification
  • Put information in Newsletter
  • General reminder about environmental friendliness
  • Plastic bags
    • Bags should go in bins in lobby
    • Put boxes in floor kitchens
    • Take space
    • House staff has to bring them down to lobby
    • No objections
• Updating Computer/Quiet Study Room
  • Humming is annoying
  • Chairs are not the most comfortable
  • Can we make the room warmer with better furniture?
  • Bigger whiteboard on a wall
    • No good wall to put it on?
  • Couch along middle of room
  • Nicer tables
  • We could get someone with experience to do some designs
  • Propose competition for Architecture Students with Will Fund money
  • Talk with Dennis to get options
    • Scope, what could be done etc...
  • There are windows to the outside that could be used
  • Paint walls something other than cream
  • Music
    • No
• Miscellaneous Matters
  • Renting out dancefloor to Mech Eng department
  • PS4
    • Should it be check-out able?
    • Or live near PS2?
    • Fines should be imposed on checkout
    • Or set checkout window
    • Will live near PS2
    • Tech will clean room
    • Summary:
    • Make Wii and PS2 check-out-able
    • Put new systems in the room
  • Who cleans Hulsizer floors?
    • Brunch is thinking of hiring someone to clean for an hour
    • Ask Denise
    • There used to be someone, but it became a problem (Person didn't show up and no one cleaned)