March 29th, 2016 GSA Meeting Minutes
AHCS GSA
The Art History & Communication Studies Graduate Students' Association
McGill University
March 29, 2016
General Assembly
Ayanna Dozier: Five points to discuss:
- relationship with ASSE - New AGSME member
- Elections and/or officer positions for 16/17 (shelve or dissolve officer positions and start again?)
- Research forum
- Conference symposium debrief
AD: SYMPOSIUM
- Went well
- Received large turnout
- 80 attendees for second panel of day one
- 90 including committee and presenters
- solid turnout and enthusiasm
- Projector died on Saturday
- Set us back an hour
- Additional individuals showed up for the keynote
- Productive and engaging for attendees, received emails from attendees
- Wanted both sides of the department to be in dialogue with on another
- That was the goal and the conference accomplished that
- Budget spot on
- Received generous donations from the department and faculty members
- Expense came up - decided to give thank you gifts
- That put us $63 over budget
- Part of the debrief is to request a little more from the GSA so that the thank you can be from the GSA as well
Jonathan Karpetz: Motion forward to give the conference up to and including the remaining amount for conference expenses
Motion passes
GSA member:
- Congratulations on conference
- Would like to offer the presenters to submit their papers to the journal
- Would help to revive the journal
AD: The journal website is InCirculation.ca
JK: Had someone present on it last year
AD: Need to know if it is easier for them to give it over to the GSA or us to submit it to them (whoever runs/owns the website)
GSAM: Conference papers to start off with, submission process to follow
Sofia Misenheimer: Sidenote - dropped off gifts and thank you notes at IPLAI, and they said the conference did a great job and want to work with us next year
AD: Send an email out to participants from the symposium and see if any of them would be willing to submit essays for journal
JK: Randy came by and presented, was trying to encourage us to continue it - contact her re the journal
JK: The committee did a really great job, thank you Ayanna for being the GSA this year - it was really nice to see, and I hope it's a springboard forward, let's keep it going for two years in a row of great conferences.
ELECTIONS/OFFICERS
AD: For me, I had a lot of energy at the beginning of this semester
- What can we do to bring life into the GSA at the beginning of the year
- When we revised the constitution when we changed the events to communications, I wanted to have people communicate and be a springboard for that
- For me, that has been exhausting
- Despite my gusto, there is a lot of things I can't do in my department
- There are just some battles that I can't fight
- It's important to know that things don't operate in a certain way
- Apparently after the town hall a lot of faculty members were not happy, I had many run-ins with faculty members after the town hall questioning my role in the GSA, and my authority, the only reason I facilitated was that Jonathan had pneumonia and the other pres wasn't happy facilitating that - in hindsight, I shouldn't have facilitated that
- I've been the scapegoat for the town hall
- There's a certain vulnerability when you put yourself out there and you are marginalized to an extent
- With that being said, in terms of elections, I turned all my attention to the symposium and I got drained really quickly
- I'm willing to be a part of it, and I like to be a communications officer, I'm happy to do that, I'll be here for a good portion of the semester
- I'm also willing to step down if someone else wants to be the communications officer
- If I continue on, it will be much more passive
- It wasn't the symposium that made me want to step away, it was the politics
- If we do elections, I'm willing to continue with the website, organizing forums, sending emails, but beyond that I won't do anymore
- Errol has to step down from AGSEM, Shana wants to step down, she wouldn't mind volunteering for the AGSEM position
SM: Working with the finance department here has been horrendous
- every single interaction with the women in the finance office has been negative
JK: There have been a lot of admin changes, they're really grumpy, customer service has been down
SM: Interactions with the finance department have been actively antagonistic
JK: Presidents have to switch
Important positions, but also positions that do a lot of delegating
President could go more into an event planner role, less a political role
That's my view
SM: You and Shana have been present during prof meetings, what's the scope of the role?
J: Constitutional description of what we're responsible for
Chair meetings
Conduct elections
Act as liaison with the dept (one thing we do more than anything else right now)
Act as liaison for issues
Assist GS body as required
Might represent other roles as required (like if no one in secretary position)
The only time I really interact is during dept meetings
We give updates or bring up issues
Last year we were a little more engaged, like making sure to bring students for dinners, getting to choose a speaker
Both Shana's initiatives
It would be nice to see people in the role who are more interested in that aspect
The issue is we have a lot of successful profs who travel, are established, leads to a certain level of we need to all get on board
I didn't think the meeting (town hall) was hostile at first, but then I received a intense response from a professor
I've asked again and again for them to be present at our symposium, seems to be an unwillingness or lack of care for this stuff
I think the issue here is we're in a professional relationship with them as soon as we enter here, and I think there needs to be an attentiveness to that professional side of things
Also an understanding that a lot of the academic world is a community
The biggest disappointment I've had here is trying to find that community here
SM: Only saw three profs at the symposium
AD: Students are caught in the crossfire's of profs fights
JK: We need presidents who are willing to push more
SM: Need to have some part of this discussion next year with new blood and idealism
JK: This is institution and bureaucracy in a nutshell
We have a really great group of students and profs there's just something that needs some fixing
I think we can be better together
We don't have to look to PGSS to fix it
There's good things a foot, we just need to have someone on our side to carry on that momentum
AD: You're being really generous, there's a lot of hostility there and it's not pretty
That's the reality of it though, to make our presence known, we have to interact with that
If some students in our dept who occupied a more active goal, they would be met with welcome arms
I don't think the dept would be more antagonistic
This is in terms of the fallout of the town hall
There was already going to be a resistance to me being in an active role
There's a lot of internal support for some students and not a lot for some others
GSAM: Possible to have election in September?
AD: If there's anything we want to start preparing for over the summer, someone needs to organize that
I'm not going to put myself in that position
SM: Interim role?
JK: Thinking behind electing the co-pres, is that they carry out over the summer, like welcome party, talking to admin, continuing on over the summer
Someone who's been around the block once
I'm totally okay with electing someone next fall
AD: Lots of meetings and did a lot of work over the summer, we needed to set out goals
Yes, we can hold off full elections, but we're missing six months of work
I'm going to be passive, I feel like if there's someone who wants to get things going that would be better
SM: I would be willing to do interim co-pres
Zoe De Luca: In relation to welcoming party, we were hoping to get in on that and raise funds for ASSE
We're offering to host a party for welcoming party
We would want to ask for a donation and see how successful it is
AD: Are we in late payments?
ZDL: We're fine with ASSE
Moving onto ASSE discussion, and returning to elections/officer discussion
ZDL: We met with ASSE at the end of last year
Solidarity funding not yet approved from them
But our fees are currently suspended from them
Basically if we can get to Quebec City for the 16 and 17 of April, we will be attending their annual regional conference so we can put forward our motion ourselves
We need a nights accommodation, the transportation being taken care of for ASSE
It would be around 60-70
Itza Gutiérrez: It's hard to ask them for funds when we are not attending their conferences
The last meeting they had was during the symposium
JK: Survey of the room - does anyone have a very strong opinion either way of this group?
GSAM: Not present the day they voted, it was kind of suggested as the only option
Maybe I am wrong
AD: People very strongly against and very strongly for, both not at this meeting
I said instead of voting for or against, if there are people who want to take on the work, it would be contingent upon some type of event/relationship that shows ASSE's presence in the GSA within the next year, but that we would not pay fees until we see it show it's worth
A lot of this has to be presence
Our GSA hasn't done anything to show that we want to be a part of it for the past few years
Debate was over whether or not we should support something that we're basically just cutting them a check for the past few years
After the student strikes, no one has really taken up the mantle of this organization
ZDL: We're trying to build something up
IG: It's important and useful to have that, 300 is not that much
AD: We do spend in the fall semester on average 500 up front, not including 270 for the conference
SM: We have 1000 right now
JK: I'm neutral positive on ASSE
In our GSA context, ASSE is a lot of representation here
I would personally say if we have 1000 why don't we pay 300
AD: We motioned to fundraise it
SM: Fundraising calls more attention to it
JK: Just don't' want people to feel burdened to show purpose for it
AD: There's been nothing to show that we're supporters of ASSE
We're supposed to have a fundraiser/activity/symposium that has political presence
I want to see that and that commitment
I want to see that go through
I'm totally willing to motion for the hotel for you guys
GSAM: Do you guys have the feeling that it's us that are not able to respond to the requirements of ASSE or is it ASSE that is not responding to our needs?
IG: Language barrier since entire organization run in French
Different committees in which you can participate
When we were there they were asking us to tell you to send papers or drawings, they are open in how you can participate
We can give you the newspapers/papers et
GSAM: It's on our side
IG: They're organised and active
AD: Motion to pay for travel costs for ZDL and IG, hotel and food, $125
JK: Second it
Motion passes
IG: We'd like to have access to the website to post ASSE stuff
ELECTIONS
SM: I volunteer to act as Communications Co-President over the summer
AD: Art History?
We need people to start thinking about that over the summer
That way there is a focus and a framework for how we want the year to go
SE: I'm happy to take on a position, with the knowledge that I may not be here over the summer
Communications interim officer
Victoria Lessard: I volunteer for interim art history co-pres
AD: I motion Sofia, Victoria co-pres, interim position, I will redo the website and hand over communications duties to Sandra as interim communications officer these are all up for renegotiation first meeting in September
Motion passes
JK: Final department meeting in April, interim co-pres' should be there
AD: AGSEM, Shana expressed interest in taking over AGSEM position, anyone else interested in taking over?
AD: I motion that Shana takes over for Errol
Motion passes
Ana Howe Bukowski: Someone needs to take over GSA meeting for me
AD: Can you do one in April and then we can skip the meeting in the summer, and we'll re-elect in fall
AHB: Most of the stuff in the other meetings was logistical stuff
Research symposium
AD: I'll organize that
I feel like if we put another one on, it would probably be end of April/May
I feel like there are people who would want to have that
Everyone agrees that holding one would be cool
AD: Similar format
Try to get podium
Hopefully wine again if in the afternoon
Or coffee
JK: Vote on a budget for that?
JK: Motion up to 100 to 150 max for the research symposium?
Motion passes
SM: Department give funds to this one?
AD: I vote we fund this one ourselves
GSAM: The replacement for Amelia Jones has not been done and word is that it will not be done ever
Still no call out for Amelia Jones position
It's going to be a disaster for our dept if we lose Amelia Jones
AD: I feel like we have a lot of big names on the AH side, but Amelia Jones was a good link between the AH and CS side
GSAM: They are considering hiring someone more Media studies
It would be interesting to know what's officially going on
JK: Three hires going through right now
AD: Ask at the next meeting, and we can write letters
I'll write a letter
I think AH needs somebody
JK: Is there anyone angling for that position?
AD: There's a chair position missing as well
Inquire at the next meeting
JK: There should be another meeting in three weeks
AD: We should know soon about new hires
Meeting adjourned
