Biotechnology Club Minutes

BIOTECHNOLOGY CLUB MINUTES

Date: 11/18/11, noon-1:30pm Place: EVC9107

Attendance: Shelley O’Grady, Linnea Fletcher, Sulatha Dwarakanath, Keqin Gregg, Allyson LeBas, Charles Rodgers, Dustin Seymour, Jacob Bisbal, Linda Black, Orlando Adrian Lara, Jeremy Dufner, Evelyn Goss, Brian Jackson, Laura Govea, Jennifer Erdman, Madhavi Vemuganti

Minutes: 1. Shelley started the discussion by reviewing the results of the survey monkey: meeting dates and times were split on both campuses: Fridays 10am-noon, RRC and Tuesdays 3- 6pm, EVC. There was a discussion about where and when to hold meeting and how often.  It was agreed that the meetings will be split on both campuses. Once a month for a meeting and at least one event per month. The first meeting will be on the second week of the month (either Tue or Fri). We may need to have more than one meeting a month, but committed to one meeting per month for right now.

2. We collected names for officer positions, and the students voted on officer positions. The following positions were assigned: President: Jacob, Secretary: Orlando, Treasurer: Dustin. They will fill out the required paper work in the next week and submit it on-line with the home campus for the club to be at RRC.

3. During the voting Linnea Fletcher discussed with the students different options for research projects. She will collect the information and send it to the Biotech Club server. The club will decide on a research project in the first meeting in the spring.

4. Shelley discussed the Bioo Scientific tour on Dec 6th, 4-5pmish and collected names of people that would like to attend. So far there are 11 people signed up for the tour. There will be more tours in the spring with different companies. This company has offered additional tours as well.

5. Social Media & Communication for the Club:  Biotech Club Web-page – events and updates will be posted in addition to meeting minutes – get with Steven if you want something posted.  Shelley and Steven have set up a Biotech Club google group. Students signed-in today will be automatically signed up for the google group by Monday.  Shelley and Steven will set up a Facebook page in the next week – ‘like’ us.  Will set up a linkedin group next week – like us and like Bio-Link national group  The group discussed different avenues of video conferencing. Steven will look into using SKYPE for our meetings. Shelley will look into using Blackboard, and Dustin will look into using Google.

6. Linnea Fletcher talked about a video contest sponsored by BioLink: http://www.biolink.org/home/video-contest-2011. This video contest is to get students to generate a short video about a biotechnology intern or program graduate.

7. Ideas for projects for the spring:  Everyone agreed that tours of companies were a great idea. Shelley discussed Molecular Templates tour for the spring. Everyone agreed that would be a great idea.  Speaker series: Everyone agreed that the Molecular Templates CEO would be a great end of semester speaker. It was suggested that he speak at our Christmas party. Shelley will look into his availability for Dec 9th. o Evelyn suggested BioRad as a speaker for the spring, everyone agreed. Evelyn will talk with them and arrange this and get back to us.  Research Projects: Linnea will compile a list for the group to choose from in the spring. She will email the google group the list.  There was a discussion about sponsoring a ‘biotech olympics’ competition.  Evelyn suggested we have a ‘movie night’ where we show movies that have topics in Biotechnology.  Someone suggested ‘play-dates’ with the Biology Dept student club. Organizing events with them.  Fundraisers were discussed. Potential places for funds – scholarships, club seed money, prize money for Olympics, other community organizations….

8. Christmas Party  It was decided that the biotech club will sponsor/organize the Christmas Party. The date and time agreed on was Friday December 9th in the afternoon after the department meeting (1pm?).  It was also decided to have Julia give a short talk on her job at Molecular Templates and introduce the CEO for his talk. After the talk we will have a potluck.  Shelley will arrange the times/rooms and speakers for the event. If possible, it will be held at RRC.  The following students have agreed to make up the Christmas Party committee: Evelyn, Linda, Brian, Jeremy.

9. Outstanding issues not resolved from last meeting:  Can non-ACC student/faculty/staff (Alumni, friends and family of the ACC club member, industry people) participate in club events on campus? Off campus? The officers of the biotech club will find this out.  Work on the Mission Statement/vision statement/name of the club. The officers will start this process off and send to the google group for feedback.  Professor O’Grady is officially handing off minutes and agenda tasks to the new Biotech Club Secretary.