GSO Meeting Minutes: December 1, 2010

December 1, 2010
Attendance: 14

1) Student Research Forum 2011 (SRF) update/speaker selection

• The first planning meeting was held 12/1 before the regular GSO meeting. We have an excellent group of volunteers, but could still use at least 3 more, for 1 big and 2 small jobs.

• We will confirm Harriet Hall M.D., “The SkepDoc” as the SRF keynote speaker. A bio and description of her talk will be sent out as an update and you can check out her work on http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/.

• Our next SFR planning meeting will be at the end of January. Volunteers are still welcome and encouraged.
  

2) GSO ski trip: 5-days in Sun River over President's Day (Feb 17-21, 2011).

• Signup/deposits due 12/8.

3. Vote on budget for events at West Campus

• A temporary one-time budget of $500 for 2 events (coffee break and pub night) in the next two months was approved 13-0. Money for ongoing West Campus activities next year will be added to the GSO budget for approval in the Spring.
  

• Nirzwan and Kristen will communicate on planning and paying for these events, with a goal to make them as inclusive as possible for both campuses.
  

4) Grad Council update

• A major discussion item will require input from GSO members on whether students should be allowed to have paying jobs in addition to grad school.
  

• The consensus among students at the meeting was that this issue should really be between the student and the PI, and as long as the student’s progress is acceptable to the PI and committee whatever else a student chooses to do with his/her time is their own decision.

• The student representatives to the Graduate Council will take this information back to the Grad Council and if it comes to a vote, will vote against prohibiting outside work. Please send comments to James McKanna at jmckanna@bme.ogi.edu.

5) Student Council and All-Hill ski trip updates

• The All-Hill ski trip sign-up deadline was 12/1 but it’s not too late, so hurry to get a spot! Houses will be 8 or 12 people, so if you have a group large enough you can fill up a house.

6) Spring Social event update

• Thursday, March 17th (St. Patrick’s Day) will be the date of the social. GSO has booked the Student Center for this event. Ray Hickey will head up the planning for the event. Thanks, Ray!
  

7) Jackie Wirz, OHSU Library

• Jackie reviewed many of the library's resources available that students might not know about: these include one-on-one help with your research(!); literature searches; accessing and learning software (eg. EndNote, RefWorks, and statistics packages ).

• Librarians will come to you on campus! Many of them have social skills! Jackie in particular is here to do whatever she can to help make grad students’ lives easier.

• She asked what other services, in the library or across campus, can the library provide to help graduate students with our work? Please contact Jackie at wirzj@ohsu.edu.

Our next meeting will 5:15pm, January 5, 2011 in the Student Center media room. Please let James McCormack (mccormac@ohsu.edu) know of any agenda items you would like for us to cover.

Happy and safe holidays, everyone!
Your GSO Council