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Meeting Minutes
General Meeting Minutes: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 Time and Location: 5:00 pm, 1830 Building, Room 2-108 Present: Erin Vasudevan, Anjanli Marshra, Gelsy Torres-Oviedo, Theresa Evans-Nguyen, Florence Depontieu, Rong Huang, , Labiq Syed, Gehua Zhen, Jitka Sojkova, Kirstie Adams, Dimiter Avtanski, Rahul Jain, Minghui Xiang, Claire Nicheilleachair, Swetha Kandula, Devi Krishnamurthy, Marianne Stefanini, Juan Wei, Jianshi Yu, Aditya Goel, Crystal Watkins Proceedings:
Subcommittee Reports: Anjali stated that committee now has two chairpersons to insure that a representative can attend the general meeting. Benefits Seminar Update: The first event for the year will be the Postdoctoral Association Benefits Seminar held at the Turner Auditorium on Monday, October 27, 2008 from 12 noon to 1:30 pm in the Turner Auditorium. Erin, Anjali and Theresa have been working to organize the event seminar. A list of commonly asked questions was generated from responses from postdocs on Survey Monkey and will be presented and distributed at the beginning of the seminar. The organizers said that the speakers will include, Dr. Levi Watkins- Dean of Postodoctal Affairs, Mary Foy from the Registrar's Office, representatives from security, parking, health services (who will address access to mental health), professional development and the international office. The committee also invited the Alumni Office to distribute information after the seminar, but they would not be part of the panel. The format will consists of an overview of all of the services presented by the JHPDA followed by prepared question discussion and panel comments at the end. The organizers expect close to 200 for attendance based on last year's seminar. In addition to volunteers to help the communication committee advertise, the organizers also asked for volunteers to pass out information prior to the seminar and to direct the participants after the seminar for lunch. Flyer distribution: Kirstie and the members of the committee have been focusing on advertisements for the upcoming benefits seminar. The committee has made and printed placed posters to be placed on easels in the PCTB, CRB II, and I and Ross buildings. Since easels cannot be placed in the hospital, the committee has a series of fliers that they would like to also place in visible areas in the hospital and research building. Kirstie asked for volunteers to distribute additional flyers in key areas. The group discussed key places to place the flyers and all of the major buildings were covered. There have also been several emails generated to advertise the event. Menu for the event: Crystal presented menu options for the lunch from Zanninos Catering and recommended a chicken dish and vegetarian lasagna. The group agreed that a baked chicken and vegetarian lasagna menu with salad, desert and water included would be best. Past attendees commented that we have volunteers to serve the food in order to minimize us running out. Gelsey and Crystal volunteered to help coordinate the food service at the luncheon. There was also a recommendation that we have lunch tickets for seminar participants that we collect when they go through the buffet line. An email will be sent to all of the postdocs to RSVP so that we can get an accurate count for the caterer. Communications committee: Kirstie is chairperson and Marianne and Erin have been working on the newsletter. Newsletter: Marianne distributed color copies of the latest copy of the JHPDA newsletter. The group commented that the newsletter was very professionally presented with great detail and colorful pictures. Marianne discussed distributing the newsletter since there were a finite number of copies. Various members volunteered to but them in the lobbies of several key buildings including the Ross Building, CRB II and the Broadway research building. The committee asked for volunteers to submit articles or information for the next newsletter. The committee will discuss how often they want to publish the newsletter (monthly, quarterly) and bring recommendations back to the next general meeting on Tuesday, November 18, 2008. Scientific Seminar Committee: Co-chairs Jitka and Florence. Active organizers are Theresa and Ming Lee. Jitka, Florence and Ming discussed the plans to have the deadline for abstracts set for the end of November 2008. Posters and flyers have been distributed throughout the East Baltimore campus. Postdocs from Bayview volunteered to take flyer to distribute at that campus. JHPDA officers and committee chairs are allowed to submit an abstract. The committee recommended that the presentations be in the spring in a series of seminars. There was a discussion about awards and judges. The committee will meet to discuss these issues further and present recommendations at the November meeting. Web Page: Aditya, Theresa and Devi are heading these efforts. Aditya is looking in to Academic Web pages as well as other sites to update and potentially maintain the webpage. The committee will consult with the treasurer to determine the potential budget for the webpage. The group JHPDA is still in agreement to contract for someone to work on the website. The committee should have a potential design together and other detailed recommendations for the webpage to present at the next meeting. Professional Development Committee: Co-chairs Rong Huang and Anjali Mishra. The professional development committee has been working closely with Derrick and Diane. The committee asked the general group what type of subjects they wanted to focus on. Several recommendations included having people from industry come to talk about career opportunities as well as speakers that would focus on how to make the transition from a Postdoc to an independent investigator. The committee encouraged everyone to refer to the emails from the career development office for upcoming programs and seminars available for postdocs. Public Relations Committee: Co-chairs Gelsey and Jahn. The public relations committee met prior to the general meeting to discuss potential events for the year. The committee plans to implement a happy hour before the holidays. Gelsey will send an email to all of the committee members to arrange the next meeting. International Committee: Co-chairpersons are Rahul and Dimiter. Action Items:
Future Business:
Minutes Submitted by Crystal C. Watkins, Secretary |
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