Butler Committee Meeting Minutes 07-06-2009

Submitted by Nancy Jones- Communications Secretary
Committee Members present: David Jorgensen (Butler Chair), Dante Ricci (External Relations Rep), Anna Frost (dolly/Butler life coordinator), Nancy Jones, Nicole Jui (gardening co-coordinator), Tao Long (gardening co-coordinator), Ed Matteo (Treasurer), Bronwyn Smith (Community Room Coordinator)

Community members present: Olivia Martel, Laura Nielsen

Meeting called to order at 9:03pm.

David began the meeting with reports from committee members.

Nicole Jui, Tao Long (gardening co-coordinators)- nothing new.

Dante (external relations)- Thanks for the help for the kick-off and the yard sale. Events board reimbursement procedure needs to be addressed. The Events board never received some of our receipts. GSG had been making fund requests, but the way it has been handled in the past has not been the most effective. Responsibilities were getting lost along the way. Dante proposed a standardized procedure for these requests. He says social chair would make the most sense to take this on because they already have the receipts for the events. Dante recommends that social chair submits online request through the form on the web site. They have to write up the description of the event anyway and this would eliminate a middle-man. As far as the GSG meeting, the social chair could attend unless unavailable, in which case the responsibility of attending the meeting would fall to the external relations rep, treasurer and so on. Ed had a concern about submitting receipts because there is no way for him to track them or the requested funds. It was discussed that the treasurer needs to receive written information (e-mail) of numbers for fund requests. There was a concern of mis-communication about these things. Bronwyn expressed a concern that our current social chair has been out of the country for several periods of time and not present for events and meetings. Bronwyn believes that perhaps that is part of the problem of the breakdown of communication. Ed feels that we shouldn't discuss this without Rachel present. His main concern was that there was a gray area of who is responsible for handling these funding requests, submitting receipts, etc.  Dante said that Rachel being gone is the result of her studies, but that we need to decide if this is a concern we should address for eligibility of future candidates who may need to be gone for long periods of time. Nicole asked about what it says in the bylaws about eligibility: Isn't there a requirement for attending a certain number of meetings? Anna made the suggestion of planning a calendar for events at the beginning of the year to make sure that those who need to be involved can be there. But it was discussed that it wouldn't be very realistic to do that with the wayevent dates change.

Proposed procedure for events board submissions and reimbursement: Social chair will fill out the paperwork to apply for the funding for an event and will send an e-mail forward of the confirmation or denial by the GSG board to the treasurer, external relations rep, and chair. Decided that the confirmation will be sent to Butler-Com (committee members) so everyone is in the know for anyone who will need to fill in on behalf of the social chair. Social chair will also be responsible for attending the Events Board meetings. If social chair can not attend, then the external relations rep will be asked to attend instead, treasurer next, than any other committee member who can cover the meeting. Social chair will need to submit the receipts to the events board after the event.

It was mentioned that the original receipts need to be submitted, not scans or copies. There was some confusion about that for record keeping. [Ed followed up on this the next morning. He received a response from Raghuveer saying, "Since the butler committee might want to keep the receipts for records, a photocopy of the receipts is fine."]

Cash advances should always be requested from the Grad school Butler fund, but can NOT be given from the GSG events board. 

Ed (treasurer)- Presented a Budget Summary & Proposal for the Fiscal Year '08-'09. It explains the budget, expenditures, available funds, etc. Ed gave brief explanation of Sovereign accounts. All expenses go through university accounts. The Sovereign account is used mainly for the garden funds/business. The final page of the summary included a proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The yard sale budget was discussed. Is $100 enough, too much?? Anna feels we aren't using the money to its fullest. That we should really advertise for the community to come, for the residents to participate/sell. Ed suggested renting an event tent to use for rain or shine. He said we don't have to limit the budget, because we have other funds we can pull from. Nicole asked about who is responsible for laundry room amenities, housing or butler committee? We need new carts and 'out of order' signs. We voted on the proposed budget: budget passed unanimously. Ed asked what do we want to post on the Butler website: the proposed budget, minus the actual numbers.

Nancy (secretary)- no new business.

Anna (Butler Life coordinator)- She drafted & edited the new Bugle newsletter for this year. Asked if we should paper every resident after move-ins or just e-mail? Committee decided that it should be delivered to every resident and give a stack to the housing committee for those who move in through out the year.

Bronwyn (Community Room)- She took care of stocking the events closet with plenty of paper goods; also purchased the board games and Clorox wipes. What do we want to do about storing the games and making sure they don't walk out of the comm. room? Put a sign on each game that says, "Property of Butler Comm. Room. Please do not remove from the Comm. room". Proposed that a large clear plastic bin be purchased for the games.

Olivia-  Porches: unsafe porches are being taken care of. Signage: Matt Ferry said people were coming out to check out the signs. Dumpsters: filling up faster than usual. If someone who is not a resident is spotted dumping, report them (car license #, etc) to public safety. Comm. room code: Matt knows we want it to be changed... but probably won't happen this summer. Bench was moved to bus stop. Bulletin board is going to be moved there also. Blue light phone: moving up the ranks to give Olivia a name of who to contact to get this accomplished.

David (chair)-  Asked Olivia about the clarification on what is public/private spaces. She will ask. Asked Dante about getting a stapler for the computer room. Also recycle bin for the computer room.

Tao- she is graduating in September. Will we need to have a new election for her spot? Nicole suggested leaving it vacant until December, because the garden has nothing going on until then. Agreed.

Meeting adjourned at 10:35pm

Bo (webmaster)- [Currently out of town. His report was received the morning after this meeting:] Website is running normally. One resident raised a suggestion of mentioning the speed trap on Harrison by the bridge. The resident said, "Countless people, often Butler residents, are ticketed there as they drive towards Route 1. The speed limit there is 25, [...] and since there is no sign between Butler and the bridge going that direction, many residents may not even know that." He asked that there be an alert to new move-ins about the speed limit. This will be discussed at next month's meeting.