Entomology Faculty Meeting Minutes

EGSA Meeting Minutes August 5th, 2008 4:00 p.m., 504 ASI Conference Room

Highlights:

 Announcements  Great Insect Fair Updates  EGSA  GSA Affiliation?  Treasurer Report

In attendance:

Wilma V. Aponte Christy Harris Rob Anderson Beth Irwin Amanda Bachmann Raul Ruiz Liz Bosak Dan Schmehl Tracy Conklin Ezra Schwartzberg Sean Halloran Lori Shapiro

Announcements:

There is a current need for volunteers to feed the museum critters currently located on 5th floor ASI. This includes putting crickets and vegetables in with the insects ~1-2 times/week. Please let Dan or Amanda know if you can help out in this regard.

EGSA currently needs one or two people that are willing to assist once a month in purchasing items for the snack cabinet from either Sam’s Club or Walmart. Please alert Amanda or Sean if you are interested in helping out.

The new graduate students are arriving in short order and the planning of a fall semester kick-off cookout/party, possibly using Raul’s grill at the CEL, is currently underway. The tentative date will be near the end of August. Any comments/suggestions for this event will be greatly appreciated.

Jon has ~400 newly hatched mantispids and is looking for spider eggs (~400 total, one for each mandispid) Please alert Jon if you can help him out in any way!

Committee Reports:

Great Insect Fair. The majority of the discussion was centered around GIF material. The meetings with Steve Jacobs have continued to go well and the official GIF t-shirt/t-shirt color has been chosen. The EGSA t-shirt committee (Beth, Kerry, Amanda, Trish) gave an update on the current status of t-shirt plans and designs. The plans for the ~120 white GIF children’s t-shirts will likely include using a screenprinter of Trish’s in-laws to place images on the shirts. The decision for the images used and whether kids will have the opportunity to color on their shirts with fabric markers is still being discussed. Kerry has drawn up two spectacular insect designs, one of a monarch caterpillar and one of a stag beetle, for use on the EGSA t-shirts. Kerry is currently looking for photographs that any of the entomology students to use as a model picture for drawing up the insects. Please bring any picture questions to Kerry. The idea for a fun, kid- friendly bee t-shirt was raised by Tracy. In addition, Wild Cotton shirts sold relatively well last year and are again being considered for the GIF. The t-shirt committee is continuing to discuss t- shirt designs and should be ordered shortly after everything is finalized.

The EGSA merchandize for sale at the GIF was discussed. Dan raised the possibility of using one of Kerry’s drawings as a screenprint for an EGSA mug that we will sell, but prices are still the big question regarding the mugs. Dan is planning on looking into “Spotted Lizard” out of Bellfonte to check whether they can screenprint designs onto a mug and possibly cut our costs. In previous years, honeysticks were not sold at the GIF, however with the bee theme, Dan raised the idea of having flavored honeysticks sold. Maryann stated these are quick sellers and should bring EGSA a decent amount of profit for little upfront risk. 9 boxes (100/box) of 8 different flavors were just ordered and will be sold for $ .25 each and 5/$1.00. The colors of beeswax for the candlemaking were discussed before ordering. EGSA decided to order roughly the same colors as last year, except two boxes of ivory, blue, and blush pink. 10 boxes were ordered today and should be here within 1-2 weeks. Maya sent out an email recently about bringing insect keychains back from China. We did not come to a decision regarding what to do with the keychains and will look to find out more information from Maya regarding this merchandise. The possibility of ordering seed packets for wildflowers was discussed, however details regarding whether this will be feasible or not still needs to be discussed.

The insect zoo is always a highlight of the insect fair, however it takes an extensive amount of work to collect the insects beforehand. Kerry is requesting assistance with collecting insects approximately 1 week prior to the insect fair. Please let Kerry or Dan know if you are willing to commit to helping collect and prepare the insect zoo. Another hit of the GIF, the butterfly tent, is also a very time-consuming endeavor. There are going to be 2 butterfly tents this year. Emily is currently ok with rearing her butterflies, however she will need help in approximately 3-4 weeks. Please let her know if you can be of assistance. The current status of the plants for the butterfly tents is a bit in the air, however the master gardeners are growing several butterfly-friendly plants. Liz has previously borrowed plants from Tait farm, but because of the seasonal time frame and other uncertainties, we do not have an update of whether this will happen this year or not. We also need to continue to address the topic of lines when waiting to get into the butterfly tent. If the tents are placed inside the Ag. Arena this year, lines could be a problem and should be raised to Steve Jacobs.

EGSA  GSA Affiliation? During the EGSA meeting in June, we discussed the possibility of joining GSA, however there were many details unknown and Beth volunteered to gather information on becoming a club in GSA. The benefits of becoming an official GSA club includes: the use of PSU name, space reserved at the HUB for events, use of the center for student engagement, more exposure in community, webpage space and email address, and financial support. Responsibilities include EGSA abiding to rules and regulations, send an updated list of officers each year, renew recognition status each year, spend money in an appropriate manner, answer club emails, and more paperwork for treasurer. The steps to become an organization includes having a minimum of 12 students, create a membership list, create a constitution, and secure a faculty/staff advisor.

We discussed the pros and cons for becoming an organization. The pros primarily centered around having additional funds for library outreaches, etc. The cons included the fact we already have department support already, writing up a constitution, and we need more details on the finances (Do we need to have a minimum balance in GSA account? Do we need all our money in this account? Will this reduce the flexibility of purchasing things for EGSA?)

There was a vote taken initially, however there were too many questions surrounding the finances aspect in order for us to make a decision. We agreed to research the details further before making a decision. Beth, Dan, and Christy are going to research these details and will report at the next meeting. The GSA office is no longer located in the Kern Building, but on the 3rd floor of the HUB.

Currently, we only have a short missions statement that needs some future revision

The Entomology Graduate Student Association (EGSA) exists to foster a friendly and interactive community among graduate students. Additionally, the organization strives to promote professional connections and give back to the community through facilitation of public outreach and teaching. EGSA also provides a forum for feedback regarding the Entomology Graduate Program and acts as an important liaison between faculty and students.

Treasurer’s Report. Sean reported that the EGSA account has ~ $3,000 and will be untouched until the GIF in order to cover these event costs including t-shirts, beeswax candlemaking, and other merchandise. Our “fluid money” in the safe totals $850.50. This money will be used small EGSA purchases, such as for the kick-off cookout.

Meeting adjourned at 5:00