All BESA officers, in addition to some undergraduate representatives from BMES, Dr. Kent Leach, Christal Wintersmith (and baby!) were present for the meeting. 

Details of the upcoming Student/Faculty Lunch were discussed as well as a detailed annual schedule for all Fall, Winter, and Spring events.   Be sure to check out the Upcoming Events section for full details!

Incoming first years will soon be arriving and there are plans for orientation as well as the Fall Welcome BBQ.  Other big BESA plans include increasing our community service by enhancing the relatively new outreach program and proving to local students that engineering is actually fun!

For full meeting minutes please click below:

BESA MEETING AGENDA                                           August 21, 2009

MONEY: Christal $__736____                        Iwan $__248.31____ 

Assistence:

Adrian, (Treasurer, BMES)

Laura (Engineering joint council)

Louis (VP, BMES)

Matt (undergrad)

Diana Morales-Hernandez

STUDENT/FACULTY LUNCH – August 26th

-          RSVPs (How many people are we expecting? How many faculty?)

• Expecting 44 at present à hopefully 50-60
• Dr Leach’s suggestion: email faculty directly, not mass email : ask if there’s existing conflict to encourage faculty attendance
  • Website rsvp does not distinguish between students and faculty
• Send out email to staff, postdocs as well

-          What’s on the menu? Budget?

• Order food on Tuesdayà Togo’s sandwiches
• Budget ~$300
• Check with Rosalind for utensils and supplies under cupboard

ANNUAL SCHEDULE

Fall: Sept-Dec

-          Jen and Justin are doing the Fall BBQ

-          Make sure you apply for Dean Witter Funding,

• Last year was 100 dollars per allotment, but this year the amount may change for students applying (Christal)

-          November

• Maybe a student faculty lunch, or have it first week of December
• Do not want a conflict with the holiday party on dec 5

Winter: Jan-March

-          2 outdoor events-Iwan, and Kristin (Can be trampoline event or snowboarding etc.)

-          2 student-faculty lunches: Matt will look into organizing one possibly in Sac

-          Currently, no retreat planned

-          Recruitment weekend in march

Spring: April-June

-          Spring bbq (Wenting)

-          Camping (Matt, Sunny will help out)

WELCOMING THE FIRST YEARS

-          Have something informal setup where first years can come hang out with upper classmen. Some might not know what to do if they move here early September.

• Maybe an informal social gathering, bring fruit/ice cream, Thursday or Friday evening à help smooth transition  
• Maybe around 2^nd week of sept

-          Can we put pics/description of incoming graduate students on our website?

ORIENTATION – September 21

-          2-4pm; BESA should present around 3pm in GBSF 2202

• Meet up at 2:50 outside GBSF 2202
• May take ~45 minutes

-          Will hand out packet with important dates and flyers

• Officers and info, positions, name, email, track
• BESA events: bbq, Halloween contest
• Dates for safety training
• Flyer for welcome back bbq

-          Present small intro to BESA and officers

• Share contact info
• Jen: intro to Outreach and get sign-ups
• Kristin: in charge of sign in for sports
• Iwa: needs to get 2 GSA reps,
  • talk about what GSA does
  • may need to obtain forms for sign up
• Thuc and Erica: intro to BESA organized events

-          Sunny will send powerpoint ahead of time, and allow officers to fill in some slides

WELCOME BBQ – September 30, wednesday

-          At Putah Creek reserved for 5-9pm; set up at 4pm, event starts at 5pm, food around 6pm

• Math class: 4-6 pm, so some first years won’t arrive til 6pm

-          Jen will be assisted by Justin and Caroline à Costco trip

-          Expect around 80 people

• According to last year
• No RSVPs are sent

-          Need about 4 grill-masters; 1 runner to put food in lounge so no line at grill

-          Dessert contest, bring Volleyball/Frisbee/football/or other activities

-          Volunteers? Jen and Justin can email people

• For set-up, clean-up etc.

-          Will discuss more next meeting

COMMUNITY SERVICE UPDATES

Outreach:

-          Already had one outreach visit to a school in June

-          Goal is once a month on Fridays, either full or half-day

• Outreach visits consist of a short presentation, then 3 groups experience different activities at each station

-          Undergrads can volunteer as well

• Can bring design projects from previous years to show students
• Jen will email BMES reps

-          Outreach volunteers will meet again in 2 weeks

Other community service activity plans for quarter:

-          Soup Kitchen in thanksgiving

-          Clothing drive when school starts

-          Penny wars: between the tracks or maybe grads vs. undergrads

• Pennys:+1, anything else is –value
• Use half of collections for community service events/donations, half for BESA events

-          Now on Google documents and google calendar

TRACK SPECIFIC DISCUSSION – Student only lunch

-          Meet for 2 hours: 12-12:30 lunch, 12:30-2 split up into tracks,

• try to get one upperclass student from each lab
• Open-ended discussion
• Talk about PI’s, classes, prelims, lab environment
• Suggestion: If a professor is looking for a student, invite him to send a current student from the lab to present the area of research

-          Matt will prepare packets of faculty members interested in hiring students

• email profs looking for students
• about 1 month in advance

-          Sometime in mid-october, Maybe Friday 16^th?

• Less class conflicts on fridays
• This date is evenly spaced between bbq and Halloween contest

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

-          Jake Setterbo and Laura Shih were previous grad student reps on executive committee

-          Meet about 7-8 times a year, all track advisors, and chair, and student reps per track

-          Address issues with grad group, etc.

-          Reps can update at BESA meetings

-          Want to put committee rep info on BESA website so students with concerns know who to contact

-          Sunny should talk to chair about which committees need reps because chair may reorganize the committees. For exp: publicity/news letter, space committee

-          Important for students to become involved, so they can better understand and better promote the department at meetings such as BMES

-          Anyone interested?

MISCELLANEOUS

-          3^rd floor Snacks

• Jen will talk to Mike Gower to figure it out

-          Matt: sell t-shirts, and money goes to Iwan

-          UC bioengineering symposium:

• Suggestion: instead of mass emails, can have a poll set up at BESA website, or polls at student-faculty lunches

-          Please cash reimbursement checks right away

-          Would like to have more BESA and BMES collaborative events such as trivia, BBQs, and outreach

• Contacts: Thuc and Jen

-           

NEXT MEETING

-          Before orientation; Sept 14 – Sept 18

ASSISTANCE

New officers were introduced and assigned the responsibilities of their position.

The budget for social events as well as planning of the events was discussed.  A general outline of the events for the upcomming year was discussed, and dates were picked for a few events which will take place early in the school year. 

2008-2009 officers:

• Kavya Katipally (VP)

• Jonathan Lam (Treasurer)

2009-2010 officers and responsibilities:

• Sunny Shah (President)

  • Will pick events for each quarter

  • Dates for outdoor activites/student lunches are flexible

  • The activities for some events (esp. during winter and spring quarter) are also flexible and open for suggestions

  • Will pick time for next meeting

• Iwan Schie (Treasurer)

  • Change the name on student bank account from J. Lam to Iwan

  • Keep track of checks written from bank account even before they are cashed

  • Keep track of account balances for BESA account (currently ~$700) and student account (currently ~$296)

  • The student account is for reimbursements of smaller amounts (<$40)

• Thuc Nguyen (Social Chair) – see below

• Justin Shaffer. (Community Service Chair) – see below

• Jennifer Phipps. (Community Service Chair) – see below

• Kristin Elli. (IM Sports Chair)

  • Will pick 1-2 sports per quarter

• Wenting Shih (Secretary)

  • BESA meeting minutes will be posted on website within a week

• Matt Soicher (VP, absent)

  • Sell t-shirts from last year

  • Add more information to website such as:

    • Upcoming events

    • Additional pictures from events

BUDGET

• BESA account: ~$700

• Student account: ~$296

EVENTS

 General

• Budget ~$150-200 per social event

• Will aim to set a budget for all events in a quarter before start of the quarter

• Will plan to have 2 student/faculty lunches during winter and spring quarter

• To boost faculty attendance, future lunches could be coordinated with faculty meetings

• Social chairs will decide how strict to be about students who do not rsvp to events, and show up. Should we let those who did rsvp get food first?

• Could invite undergraduate students to some lunches, especially during graduate school application season

• Could potentially do fundraising to fund additional events

Student/Faculty Lunch, August 2009

• Lunch will be held between August 20^th and August 27^th

• Approx. 40-50 students expected to attend

• Thuc will apply for Dean Witter Funds ($100), and talk to Becky for funds ($100) from department, in addition to funds ($100) from BESA account (total: $300)

• Note for Dean Witter Funds: Each officer can receive $100 per event, and can receive it twice

• Thuc will order sandwiches for this event, either from TOGO’s or Subway

New Student Orientation, September 20^th, 2009 at 4pm

• Officers will introduce themselves and talk about their positions to welcome new graduate students

COMMUNITY SERVICE

General

• BESA contact info will be added to the DEB website to allow teachers to contact us about outreach opportunities

• Smartsite set up for BESA outreach and community service to allow all members to view the calendar for upcoming events, and leave comments

• Can also encourage undergraduate BMES to become involved

Outreach Event, July 24^th, 2009 at 11:00am-12:30pm

• Need 4 people to speak to ~20 students visiting UC Davis campus

Future

• Soup kitchen, Adopt-A-Family, other outdoor events during the spring

MISCELLANEOUS

Snacks on 3^rd floor

• Jen will contact Mike Gower about the whereabouts of the money jar, and buy more snacks

T-shirt Sales

• Will keep track of t-shirt sales to prevent excess unsold t-shirts

NEXT MEETING

• Will meet after August 16^th, 2009

• Will take BESA officers group picture

• Each officer will write an update before the meeting which will be included in meeting agenda

• Each officer will choose an event during the year to be in charge of

Assistance:

1. Sunny Shah

2. Jake Setterbo

3. Laura Shih

4. Kristen Elli

5. Hillary Davis

6. Kavya Katipally

7. Jonathan Lam

8. Crystal Coolbaugh

9. Jennifer Phipps

10. Matt Soicher

11. Tonya Khul

12. Emily Pfeiffer

*Special Guest: Justin

Budget

• Jon: $878 and change
• Christal: $700.00

Please click here to continue reading.

BME Recruitment Weekend- March 6^th-7^th

Suggestions to improve the recruitment include:

1. Make Farmer’s Market trip a regular scheduled event.
2. We will stress the importance of being on schedule for Sac recruiters.
3. Promote outings with new students to get more student body involved.
4. Make an option for incoming students to stay with graduate students for the weekend instead of going to a hotel.

Student/Faculty Lunch, April 9^th

• We will be arranging a student/faculty lunch this month and we will try to arrange a dinner for next month.
• Matt will provide pizza from either Village Bakery or Symposium Pizza. We will also stress on people that are not vegetarians to eat the meat pizzas first and let veggie lovers take first dibs on a slice.

Trampoline Event

• Crystal suggested doing the event at Rockland Skyzone in between the hrs. of 3-8pm. They charge $9.00 per person for an hour, and they can do discounts for a group if we schedule ahead. This does not include shoe rental.
• Tonya suggested checking the rates at Skyhigh because they might have cheap tickets. They charge $9 per hr on weekends and you don’t have to rent special shoes to jump.
• The event should be scheduled fro 1 to 2 hrs.
• BESA will set $200 for the first 20 people that RSVP for trampoline jumping for an hr. However, people who do RSVP should bring $5 for parking.
• The event should be scheduled fro later than April 14^th, preferably a Friday evening.

Community Service

• Justin suggested an outreach program for students elementary, middle, and high school were we can give biomedical engineering related demonstrations to persuade students into being BME students after graduation.
• Jen has already started communicating with schools. She set April 24^th (elementary) and May 1^st (high school) as possible dates.
• For next year, we will set possible days to schedule for this outreach program to take place. Emails will be sent to schools prior visitations. It was recommended that we organize the event every 2^nd Friday of the month or even in summer programs.
• Ideas for demonstrations: cardiomyocytes, ice scream with liquid nitrogen, PDMS molds, etc.

Camping Trip (Erica and Matt)

• Erica recommended that we schedule the event for May 2^nd-3^rd or 15^th-16^th either at Bodega Bay or Point Reyes.
• Tonya suggested looking up a campsite at Santa Cruz by the beach. It might be a longer drive, but it could be worth it.
• Dinner and reservations will be covered by BESA.

Paintball

§ Jon will be in charge of organizing this event. He discussed that it would be $30 per person to rent everything, including 100 paintballs. If there were groups of people signed up for the event we could get more discounts: if 10 people are going, they discount the paintballs, and if 15 people show up, we can have our own private game.

§ Tonya will contact her resources and check if we can get other bargains.

Spring BBQ

• Kavya will be in charge of organizing the event.
• Usually, our spring BBQ is held at Manor Park in West Davis. She will find out if there are other park locations available for this event that have reasonable alcohol permit requirements, BBQ, etc.

PRELIM Student Lunch

• Prelim lunch will be held in Mid May or 3^rd week of May.
• A first year student will be assigned to talk to professors giving the 4 classes that will be evaluated in the test to see if they can spare a specific date and time to review with students. This person has to also contact Christal or Rosalind to reserve 2202 classroom for this review.

Elections

• I will send emails to graduate group for nominations for BESA committee members’ positions for next year at the end of May.
• Ballots will be made for the Student/Faculty lunch or dinner scheduled in June. Student body will vote for their favorite candidate at the event.
• We will discuss more on next meeting.

ANNOUNCEMENT

• Tonya received an email looking for two student volunteers to be involved in learning safety strategies against violence. These two students will serve as representatives of the graduate group and will provide help to students in need. If interested, contact Tonya for more information.

Next Meeting

• Next meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 29^th at noon in GBSF student lounge.

Ski/Snowboarding trip

• The trip will be scheduled for Friday March 6^th to Boreal.
• There is not a big turn out, but their lift tickets will be paid by BESA.

BME Recruitment Weekend-March 6^th-7^th

§ People are going to be assigned time slots for driving. We need more volunteers for driving the new recruits to activities/airport. If people are picking up more than one student using a van, pick-up the van from lot “E” parking. We will probably need two drivers.

§ Early Friday morning drivers will drop off recruits at Hallmark Inn located at 1^st and G. Late morning drivers will stop by Hallmark and drive recruits to Kemper. Noon drivers will drive straight to Kemper.

§ Officers will meet in front of Kemper 1003 at 2:30pm on March 6^th and will drive students from Kemper to GBSF.

§ We will NEED drivers from GBSF to Putah Creek at 5:45pm and DD’s from Putah Creek to Downtown. We send emails for poster presentation confirmations.

§ We will NEED UCDMC drivers as well.

§ The students might like to visit Downtown on Friday and Saturday night.

§ Sunny will direct the campus tour but additional help will be welcomed.

§ We need to find options for the Saturday night dinner. Maybe Café Méditerranée?

§ We will need to get the students affiliated with funding situations in certain labs.

Please click here to continue reading.

Tentative Schedule of events for next year 2009

• We will need to arrange for Student/Faculty meeting at the end of March to not coincide with finals or spring break.
• We will need to plan dates for the Trampoline event in April and make reservations for said dates. We will consider a weekday during the night to be an option.
• May Camping trips are going to be planned by Matt and Erica. Any suggestions please email them. These will be much appreciated.
• Other events for the month of May: paintball (Jake/Tonya for cheap tickets), bike-ride to Sac

Next Meeting:

• Mid-March

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Assistance:

1. Sunny Shah

2. Michael Hardisty

3. Iwan Schie

4. Kristen Elli

5. Hillary Davis

6. Kavya Katipally

7. Erica Andreozzi

8. Jonathan Lam

9. Crystal Coolbaugh

10. Jennifer Phipps

11. Matt Soicher

12. Tonya Khul

13. Christal Wintersmith

Budget

• Jon: $843.96
• Christal: $576.10

Please click here to continue reading about the January BESA meeting

T-shirts

• We are currently collecting orders for T-shirts and IM shirts.

IM Update

• Last quarter, we did well at flag football were we played in the playoffs. In soccer, the team improved their tactics.
• This quarter, we will have a co-ed indoor soccer and men’s basketball team. Matt and Crystal will collect checks for $30 to participate.

Student/Faculty Lunch, Thursday 29^th at noon

• Matt and Erica will provide Chinese food this time to change the menu.
• Erica will apply for Dean Witter and will send emails for RSVP’s.

Ski/Snowboarding trip

• Jon will organize a one day trip to Boreal. BESA will provide $200 for lift ticket cover for the first 20 students who RSVP.
• This event will take place after Friday, February 20^th.

Other Events

§ Bike ride to Sacramento: we can meet there, eat lunch and ride our bikes back.

§ Indoor trampoline: There is an indoor trampoline event on Thursday night at Rockland with a $10.50 cover where we could observe if its rental is worth the money. We will send emails to RSVP for the event. Schedule the event in mid-April.

§ Softball league: contact Kristen Elli

§ Camping and Paintball: April/May

§ Outdoor BBQ: May/June

BME Recruitment Weekend- March 6^th-7th.

• We will send emails to volunteers who will drive the students from the airport to the hotel. We will get the schedule of the arriving students by mid February.
• Suggestions to improve the recruitment include reducing the introduction time, and maybe adding another tour. We also need to be strict about time constraints for each faculty/student interview.
• On Saturday, we can host a student dinner. Jake and Erica will check if we can meet at their houses. Matt can provide the clubhouse at his apartment complex as an alternative. We can also take people out to town, plan a student/faculty dinner, or take them to farmers market so that they experience Davis culture.

Community Service

• Adopt-a-Family was a success.
• Other community service opportunities will be emailed when needed.

Next Meeting

• Mid-February: devoted to the discussion of the recruitment weekend events