AHEC Meeting Minutes

Monday, July 31, 2017, 8:30pm @ Crafts Lounge

Attendees: Deirdre Logan, Yuriy Roman, Nicole Moody, Vishal Patil, Eric Alt, Aditya (proxy for Xueying Zhao), Meicen Sun (Skype)

**Presided by Nicole Moody, Minutes by Abbas Ghandi **

• Agenda
  • [Vote] - Approval of Meeting Minutes
  • [Update] - Operations Committee: Officer Communication
  • [Update] - Communities Committee: Officer Social Recap, Floor Events
  • [Discussion] - Moving Sale Event
  • [Discussion] - Admin/Grad Student Communications
  • Open Floor
• Approval of Meeting Minutes
  • Approved.
• Communities Committee Update
  • Officer Communication: When events are set, notify the communication officers. It seems that an email sent to all events officers asking to communicate when events are set. Monday night is the cut off. A reminding email to be sent to community (Ashdown-Communities email) and Ashdown Brunch chair a day before to send their announcements by Sunday before the cut off on Monday. A reminder will be sent to Ashdown-events as well. Also need to follow-up with Cherry Pie team.
• Communities Committee Update
  • Officer Social Recap: We had it on Friday. It went very well. We had 15-20 people. It might be the summer. But it was a good thing to have. A bunch of us stayed to the very end. The next one will be in late September. Suggestion on how to have more officers showing up. We could reach out more to officers. Advised to take some pictures.
  • Orientation: Question about any overlapping with Sid Pac and funding allocation. There is no overlap.
  • Orientation funding: Has all allocation been made? The only unusual thing is that it is not possible to access the funding board allocation. But GSC orientation has given us a link to all allocation. The link can be sent to the officers. The only issue is that we received $250 less for Dance Party. But it is the same amount as last year.
• [Discussion]
  • Moving Sale Event: Garage sale style event for new residents with very good deals. Still exploring about proper setup and how feasible it might be. One suggestion is to have it as an orientation event. But by that time most people are gone. The idea has come up before. We can ask Denise about this. Sid Pac has a special room like a storage area. Not sure what the policy is. The idea is not to throw things out. Not sure if Sid Pac can accept items from Ashdown. One concern about a central location to have this garage sale is the items that might be abandoned items at the end of the day. It might be a good idea to coordinate with other dorms since Ashdown has no room. Another idea is to have it as a floor event. That might work better if it is worked with floor officers. For the short term Ashdown talk could work and have it as a floor event. Undergrad dorms have a big coordinated event similar to a garage sale. There is also a reuse email list for the whole MIT community. It seems that there is a reuse sale mail list as well. We can talk to GSC sustainability committee to explore if any resources available since this looks like a waste issue as well.
• [Discussion]
  • Admin/Grad Student Communications: Invitation to a focus group on how things are communicated about student life at MIT. Will have one person attending the focus group/lunch. One issue is with the whole undergraduate situation. We still don't know how to describe the situation.
  • Letter sent out by the graduate council executive team about 70 Amherst and the administration communication. The letter was very effective. One concern is about forming a working group on graduate communities with dorms leadership. But we have not received any message about that. We have contacted them asking to clarify on the progress of forming of the working group and if any AHEC members will be invited to the working group.
  • About undergrads: when they are moving, how to communicate rules. And is there any need to communicate generally with all residents while addressing undergrads. The other question is how to exclude undergrads from Ashdown community events. We had an issue with the Dance Party once a few years ago since the announcement had been sent to all campus. Will wait what Judy has to say. Also maybe to host a coffee hour and have it as an open mic coffee hour so that let residents ask questions about the undergrads coming to Ashdown.
  • About MIT composting policies: Some of the labels are outdated Aug 21-25 MIT events about composting/recycling/trash. That should be the ultimate sources of policies. MIT does not have access to industrial composting facility. Compostable cups are cleaner to burn technically. So need to notify Kitchen officer about ordering proper utensils. This is almost a year- long policy at MIT.
• Open Floor Meeting adjourned.