GPSG Senate Meeting October 24, 2007

Groups in attendance:

Present:	ACGS, GPHA, OSGA, ABGS, MGSA, IOPGA, SPIE, ASPE, AGITS, ED-LEAD, EGSA, GTU, GHA, GPPA, GSWA, MPASG, MASS, SPO, GASP, HPGSA, GPHA, CIGSPA
Absent:	MGSO

Allie announced that this week’s meeting would be an open forum discussion about the current role of GPSG, and what could be improved about our organization to better serve graduate students.

New Committees:

• The meeting opened up with some discussion on the problem of filling the new committees (Research Fair, Special Projects, and Outreach). The senate responded by saying that it is difficult to find people willing to sign up for a committee without a solid idea of the time commitment that would be involved, prompting discussion on the need to better define the responsibilities of committee members.

GPSG Mission Statement/Purpose:

• There were also mentions from the senate indicating some general confusion on the purpose of GPSG. Allie and the officers talked about how one of the goals of the officers this year is to come up with a clear mission statement based on our ongoing discussions with GPSG senators.
• Allie also reminded senators that the GPSG Group page is one of the ways to generate some meaningful discussion on what graduate students want the GPSG to ultimately represent. The officers talked about posting a rough draft of what the GPSG mission statement might look like for feedback and comments.
• There were suggestions from the senate for tackling quick, tangible issues to get more graduate students engaged and interested in the GPSG. In addition to developing long-term goals for graduate students, taking on issues that might produce results in a short time span, such as parking issues for graduate students, would make the GPSG come across as something that is accomplishing tangible gains for graduate students, and would therefore attract more attention from grad students.

Graduate Council—Wes:

• Wes talked about his experience as a member on the Graduate Council, and the importance for graduate students to continue to be able to have the flexibility and power to make decisions regarding funding.
• Currently, one of the issues Graduate Council is deliberating on has to do with the way graduate students can be funded for travel and conferences. According to Wes, while some of the bigger state universities, such as NC State and Chapel Hill, have decided that a state law may be interpreted in a way favoring graduate students’ abilities to be taken to conferences with professors (funded through the departments), UNC-Charlotte is considering interpreting the law in a way that would not allow this to happen on our campus. Clearly, this would negatively impact graduate student travel.

Finance Committee:

• Finance Committee had two issues to vote on: the first was a vote to transfer money from the GPSG salary account into reserve funds; and the second was to approve a range for the FC to make a decision on funding for GHA’s conference (between $1500 and $1930).
• Because GPSG is taking on a graduate assistant position in place of the GPSG accountant position, which was based on salary, there is still some money in the GPSG salary account.
• The senate unanimously voted to move the difference between the GA position and the accountant position into the GPSG reserves.
• GHA has asked for some additional funding for their annual conference. This year, all organizations hosting annual conferences funded through GPSG experienced significant cuts in their conference budgets, and GHA has not yet received additional funding through the reserves. Josh proposed that the senate approve a budget range ($1500 to $1930), allowing the Finance Committee to make the final decision on the amount awarded from the reserve account.
• The senate passed the motion, with HPGSA and MASS abstaining.

Recorded by Liz Smith, secretary

Voting Record:

Org:	Waive reading of the minutes	Accept minutes as written	Approve line-item transfer: GPSG salary to reserves	Approve range for GHA honorarium ($1500-$1930)—final decision to be made by FC
ABGS	Y	Y	Y	Y
ACGS	Y	Y	Y	Y
AGITS	Y	Y	Y	Y
ASPE	Y	Y	Y	Y
CIGSPA	Y	Y	Y	Y
ED-LEAD	Y	Y	Y	Y
EGSA			Y	Y
GASP	Y	Y	Y	Y
GHA	Y	Y	Y	Y
GPHA	Y	Y	Y	Y
GPPA	Y	Y	Y	Y
GSA	Y	Y	Y	Y
GSWA	Y	Y	Y	Y
GTU	Y	Y	Y	Y
HPGSA	Y	Y	Y	A
IOPGA	Y	Y	Y	Y
MASS	Y	Y	Y	A
MGSA	Y	Y	Y	Y
MGSO	absent
MPASG	Y	Y	Y	Y
OSGA	Y	Y	Y	Y
SPIE	Y	Y	Y	Y
SPO	Y	Y	Y	Y