RESS held its second BOD meeting of the year in Oakham House Thursday night.

UPDATE: click ‘read more’ for the minutes from this meeting!

BoD Meeting – January 28, 2010

Jan 28-1: Call to order + Acceptance of Minutes

7.05 – Richard: called meeting to order.

Jan28-2: Announcements

7.06 – Amanda C: In last meeting ,asked directors to make announcements in class about the available spots for the Blue Mountain but no one did since no one knew about it. When something needs to be advertised and announcements need to be made, it is important for it to be done.

7.08 – Richard: Frosh leader tryouts – Wednesday to Thursday of reading week. Afterwards, they will be done by appointments. There were complaints last year from people who did not know about the tryouts, so a lot of advertising will be done this year (posters). There will also be a t-shirt designing contest for the new frosh t-shirts. Winner will be given a free semi ticket.

7.10- Slaven : Suggested it would be helpful to get a breakdown of the different announcements that need to be made by the directors and for them to have all the details.

7.12 – Rob: Suggested that for future ski trips, remaining food can be donated to a food bank.

Jan 28-3 Theo – Branding

7.12- Theo: Would be nice if certain things can be branded to make them more special for engineers, such as having a name for the Bug rather than ‘Bug’. Semi could also have another name in order to make it more special for the students.

Jan 28 -4 Theo – Patches for different positions

7.13 – Theo: For frosh week leaders could have different patches for different disciplines rather than just colours on the covies. The patches could be for the positions that are held just so there is more ‘RESS’ present on the covies. Can put years on the patches to avoid any confusion.

7.14-Amanda K – Suggested a specific place can be implemented on the covies for the patches to make them easier to change and so that the frosh know where to look when looking for someone specific.

7.15 –Gabe: A lot of people get involved in more RESS stuff once they are frosh leaders

7.15 – Richard: Starting a passport system in the future can be helpful for frosh leader tryouts

7.16 – Jason: It may not be a good idea to implement restrictions on who can become a frosh leader as there are not many people who show up for tryouts anyway (people are lazy).

7.17 – Imran: The passports don’t have to be mandatory to become a frosh leader, but can definitely be a positive for the candidates

Jan 28 – 6 Steph – N.E.W.

7.18 – Steph: will get help for pizza lunch. For the bug push, Sick Kids was contacted and informed about the event, (making it an official registered event) which is good because it might not have been registered in the past.

7.19 – Richard: This is the 8th annual bug push

7.20 – Steph: It would be good to have more involvement with the Rube Goldberg machine. Usually, it is always the same people who are involved in every event and it would be nice to get more people involved to eliminate some of the stress. It would be good to get highschool students involved. Will make RESS look good in the community.

7.21 – Amanda K: Now that the Bud Push is a registered event for Sick Kids, they know when the date is coming up, so they will be expecting, be prepared for it, and have it in their records. They will also supply RESS with different forms of advertising materials.

7.22 – Stephen: To get more people involved with the Rube Goldberg, the Directors can show a youtube video clip of the machine during the break of some classes on the projector.

7.23 – Theo: Suggested donating money online for the Bug Push. à Amanda K. Will need to ask about this to get more information.

Jan 28-7 – Richard – Professionalism and Our Reputation

7.24 – Richard: A certain member of RESS booked a room in Kerr Hall, and who were later being aggressive and non-cooperative. This person gave RESS a bad reputation among the room-booking administration. If they see RESS on the booking sheet, they will be reluctant to work with us. It is important that if anyone is dealing on any time on behalf of RESS, they must act professionally as to not represent RESS in a bad way. If an event coordinator wants to book a room, they must notify Richard, along with any details (ex. #of people, catering, etc.).

Jan 28-9 – Amanda C. – Semi

7.27-Amanda: Semi will be March 19 (official date) – tickets on sale next week, meaning posters will be ready by Monday. As soon as posters go up, tickets will be sold. Tickets will be given out when ALL money is paid. Tickets are $60, and after reading week will be raised to $70. Approx 220 tickets. There will be an open bar. It is an all ages event and there will be wrist banding. Need to be very careful to ensure no underage drinking. For choosing tables, people don’t have to choose right away (because of swapping). Instead, it will be more convenient if the tables are emailed.

Jan 28-10 – Jason – Golden Ram

7.31- Jason: Some issues are present with the ram: use of the word ‘c**t’. If people want to use the word, they should be allowed to (freedom of expression). The use of this word is not against the rules, and it is also not against the rules to write something someone else may not like. A word ban was suggested (by Stephen/Imran), but if this is implements, Jason will not be taking part of the Ram anymore.

7.33- Imran: The way word was used was ‘asking them to come for us’. Personally not against use of the word, but is worried about the way RESS will look. Need to explain ‘this is why we’re using it, etc”

7.34- Jason: They cannot say that what is written will not offend anyone, but if someone if offended, it is not their fault. It is RESS’s job to stand up for what they do, not to avoid being caught.

7.36-Stephen: Explained that it is important to represent their members.

7.36- Jason: Explained that it is important to represent their authors.

7.36-Rob: Need to think about how it will feel like for people who attend events when material like this is published. Perhaps there should be some discretion when explicit language is being used.

7.37-Theo: RESS needs to be kept professional. It won’t really look good on RESS after such language is used.

7.38- Jason: Need to consider how the Golden Ram has always been. It’s always been like this, everyone knows the language that is used in the Golden Ram.

7.38- Steph: a small group of people may find it funny and a small group of people may enjoy it, but if it targets only a small group of people, it will not be as successful as it can be.

7.39-Slaven: After being here for 4 years, the Ram always has same general attitude, but it has never specifically attacked one group of people and make them feel attacked. Seems the only people being offended is Discrimination and Harassment, not any students

7.40- Richard: It is a bad, unpleasant word, but it is just a word. When RESS got called in, they were in trouble about ‘excluding certain groups’. Although what’s in the paper now isn’t anything different from what the Ram’s always been doing.

7.42-Imran: No one has a problem with the use of the word c**t, but just that it is being used unnecessarily (it can be replaced with any other word). Other papers don’t go and shoot random words to make people laugh.

7.43-Amanda C: Doesn’t like the word, but agrees that it can still be used, even though it is hard to say it without targeting a group (women).

7.44-Steph: People may be intimidated to post complaints about engineers. When looking at other school’s papers, they have funny sections along with certain serious parts. RESS definitely needs to take a professional level.

7.46-Gabe: Against censorship, but an attempt should be made to ask people to write more serious articles. Maybe there can be efforts to push for that rather than censorship.

7.46- Jason: For the most part, takes what he can get to include in the paper, but doesn’t get much due to the decline of articles. There are mostly only funny articles sent to him. If he was offered a bigger paper to work with, there can perhaps be more serious sections included.

7.47-Imran: As a group, the intake of what will be put in the Ram can be decided, and a temporary ban on offensive words can be implemented.

7.49-Xerxes: The word in question is not the worst word that can be used. In this context it was a bit unnecessary, for it to be used, however. Would also like to start writing more engineering-based and informative articles for the ram.

7.51-Jason: The reason nothing serious is in ram is because no one makes the effort to write any serious articles. Also, temporary bans tend to last for a long time. Also, the word in question was not targeting women.

7.53- Imran: The Golden Ram readership is limited to the RESS office and the dungeon.

7.55-Jason: The problem is that it is not distributed well and no one sees it.

7.56-Slaven: If the article manages to isolate women it shouldn’t be published, but if it’s just generalized, then it shouldn’t be a problem. In regards to pick up, RESS doesn’t really reach the student body as much as other schools do. Better contact with the student body is required.

7.57-Jason: 4th years don’t even know that there is a student society.

7.58-Steph: The Golden Ram can be handed out in class by the directors. That way, more people will know about it.

8.02- Richard: Voting to whether print the ram as is or not à Majority in favour.

Jan 28-11 – Gabe/Theo – The Bug

8.03-Theo: Currently working on the bug. Want to know if they can buy stuff and then get reimbursed, or will get some sort of card. Need paint, primer, and other body materials.

8.04- Amanda C: Omar has already set out a budget. Can purchase items and then submit receipts to get reimbursed.

8.05-Theo: Josh has a breakdown of what they need for the bug.

8.06-Richard: Don’t want them to spend their money and then have a hard time getting their money back.

8.07-Gabe: Talked to Josh the other day who isn’t part of RESS other than the Bug Committee. Josh pointed out that there is a problem with communication and asked Gabe to suggest transferring the bug committee directly to him, and not to have it go through VP External.

8.08- Steph: Told Josh to come to meeting since he is technically part of RESS, and did inform him of the meeting. It isn’t fair if he says there is no connection, as he was informed of the meeting.

7.09-Theo: Josh was wondering if he can have a position such as ‘Bug Committee Chair”.

7.09-Steph: Was actually going to appoint him as being such and wanted him to come to the meeting to inform him.

7.11-Theo: The issue is mostly the money. They need a budget to be told to them. If they are aware of the budget that can be used, it makes things go by faster.

7.12-Amanda C: The way the committee works is that they need some sort of connection. If they want to cut away from RESS, they will not have enough money, and Josh will have to take all the responsibility.

7.14-Gabe: Will try to get Josh to come to the next meeting.

7.14- Richard: Next meeting is the AGM which will happen on a Wednesday.

7.16-Rob: Once ryeng.ca will be the main RESS site, there may be some confusion as the emails are still ‘@ress.ca’ and if a new domain is to be created, there will be a cost.

7.19-Stephen: Suggested having ress.ca redirected to ryeng.ca.

7.21-Richard: Motion to adjourn à Motion passed.