GCO Minutes/2006-01-24

From CSGSA Wiki

[edit] Action assignments

• Reid will locate and reserve a classroom.
• Jeff will research drinks and food options.
• Tim will be in charge of recruiting and scheduling.
• Kyong will create a list of research groups (there is one on this wiki, perhaps polishing that is good enough).
• Reid will create a mailing list for the organizers and this wiki. (Done 1/26.)
• Reid and Coleman will worry about money.

[edit] Minutes

Attendees: Reid, Tim, Jeff, Kyong, Coleman.

1. Goals
   • There was general consensus that the goals Reid emailed around were pretty good.
   • A "formalized" feedback system of some kind, perhaps a paper form passed out to attendees, would be useful for speakers.
   • It would be useful for speakers to invite one or a few specific "external" research groups that would be interested in their work.
   • The first colloquium will be February 8.
2. Pitfalls to avoid, and how.
   • "Faculty takeover" -- professors might require students to present or attend. Avoidance: this is not an immediate problem; we should monitor things to make sure it doesn't become one.
   • Homogenous content. Avoidance: we know who is presenting and what, so this shouldn't be too hard.
   • Faculty secrecy -- professors might want to keep the lid on some research. Avoidance: hope it doesn't happen too much, point out that results don't have to be ongoing current research.
   • Lack of (money, attendees, presenters). Avoidance: money isn't much of an issue if we don't serve food. Attendees will come if it's interesting. We have enough friends to fill a semester or so, and hopefully it will take off by then.
3. How do we define success:
   • POV of presenters: did they feel good about their presentation: good questions, etc.
   • POV of organizers/CSGSA: mere existence is success. Long-term, success is gaining enough momentum that the program continues without the founding organizers around.
4. Venue?
   • Classroom in CS/EE building.
5. Format
   • Event is one hour total.
   • One speaker per event.
   • Speaker chooses length of his/her presentation.
   • Organizing committee will take responsibility for making sure presenter has needed technology -- e.g., reserving laptop from Systems, making sure it is set up, etc.
6. Timing
   • Wednesdays 11:15 - 12:15. This is the same time slot as faculty colloquia on Mondays.
7. Food
   • Money is a big problem; we can expect to spend $60+/week on something like donut hour.
   • We don't want food to be bribery for attendance.
   • "Surprise" food occasionally would be fun.
   • We'll start without food.
   • We'll try to arrange drinks (coffee, etc.) ASAP. This will probably be cheap enough to swing out of our existing reserves for a while.
8. Budget
   • We like money.
   • It is probably best to wait for the main CSGSA budget process to finish.
9. Recruiting speakers
   • Announce to grads@cs
   • Informal recruiting by organizing committee.
   • We should take care that no research group is excluded if they don't want to be.
   • We should keep records (perhaps on this wiki) of who speaks when.
10. Advertising.
    • We will invite all grads.
    • We will invite selected undergrads: ACM and perhaps those in advanced classes.
    • We won't tell anything to the professors. They are welcome to attend, but their presence can't be permitted to overshadow the fact that this event is by students for students.