Rodman Council Minutes
Rodman
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1/31/2013 4:23:00 AM
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Time for one!
John will share with first-year class
Opportunity for involvement!
Jeff and Amir have a place for it on the site
E-week
 Week after spring break (March 18-22)
 We typically do a 2-hour Bodos breakfast on Wednesday – just
handing out bagels
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John will solicit first-year interest
Annual Report
 Yay, good job Liz!
 Need someone to take over next year
 Would be nice to get out earlier (end of year, over summer)
 Dasha & Matt, on point
Echols tailgate
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Alex & LeAnn on point
Basketball? Very close (1 month)
Probably a different sport
Also will be CTF
Looking for a new secretary
 Charles can’t do it this semester… (or really, last semester)
 Responsibilities: attend meetings, take notes, send them out
afterwards
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Great way to be involved, talk to Charles if you’re interested
Have powerpoints
Greg Lewis volunteers! Yay!
Alumni feedback
 Sent out form over the holiday
 Got feedback 1983-2012
 ~90 responses (not bad!)
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Have additional data from Networking from last 5 years
Lots of alumni willing to talk about experiences, helping Rodmans
with opportunities
Will add people to networking groups (Facebook, Twitter)
Best way to reach is e-mail, not phone
o Did phone-a-thon because we didn’t have e-mails two years
ago
o Got information from other sources when doing push
o
Committee Updates
1/31/2013 4:23:00 AM
Networking
 Will be sending e-mail to Rodmans:
 What do you want us to do this semester? (What’s worth planning?)
 Workshops:
o Resume
o Linkedin
o Internship
o Networking
o Entrepreneurship
o Resesarch
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Professional / career panel
Alumni panel
Suggestions:
o Professional pictures / headshots
 Do that at career fairs
o Professional communication
 How do you communicate with HR?
o Have Elzey come & talk at workshops to increase attendance
o Cosponsor events – what?
 Workshops be not Rodman-only
Would need people (upperclassmen) doing research, internship
workshops
o Short presentations, mostly Q&A
 Comment: Can take a while
 Short summaries, then breakout sessions
o Personal perspectives
o Suggestion: Bring in alumni who expressed interest in what
they’ve done now
Alumni have been open to it – providing some medium
to contact with them
o Survey regarding which professors have been amenable to
research, which internships have worked well
Let networking know about cool opportunities (internships,
competitions) that aren’t necessarily sent out
Experiences with contests, conferences? Come show how awesome
we are!
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o Site, annual report
o Rodman of the Month has been suggested in the past, never
really solidified
Question: Why do publicity / outlook?
o Service rather than publicity
o Increase awareness so that if we could be a resource for
someone else’s service, they’re aware of us
o Come up with events that are intellectually engaging, put it
on for everyone
Current 2nd years, when in dorms – all Rodman guys on one floor,
all Rodman girls on one
o Good idea rather than being split up? Should we ask Housing
to make that happen?
o Put in a single building (maybe)
o About ½ of hall is Rodman
o Also nice to have a Rodman RA, if available
o Hard to arrange –
 Talk to area coordinator, have them relay to SRs
 Had been on radar of Doug and Ellen?
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 Particularly with everyone on the same hall
1st years’ feedback:
o Nice to have high concentration,
o But also bonding through projects rather than residence
o Will solicit feedback
E-school activity: Portfolio workshop
o Alumni of university say submitting instead of / in addition
resume has opened opportunities
o Esp. for research, publishing
3rd year:
 Ice-skating event - possibility
Comedy Rodsem
 Going well
Bonding
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Going to do some bonding
Booked a room for “Rotunda” dinner
o Special Collections Library
o March something (21st) – a Thursday
Another Rodman retreat
Will have short-turn events too
o Suggestions: Mellow trivia, Humpback, skiing
o Hiking, paintball
o Open to suggestions
Treasurer
 Small grant from travels & activities fund - ~$500 for beer brewing
 Don’t have a budget crisis
 We do have pizza tonight
 Elzey asked for budget proposal
o Presidents & Tristan will talk
 Rodsems are big expense
o David got funding for steel-drum workshop
o Beer brewing funded
o Others are basically free for us
o In future, will continue
First-years
 Going to send out a flyer to those who just found out they’re
Rodmans
 E-mailed Admissions person –
o If it’s a legit brochure, will use instead
 “Did send out the thing, finally” (Days on the Lawn survey)
o Ohey, there’s a Rodmans ‘16 listserv!
Research
 Contact with networking, see above
 Possible research event?
Advising
 Do need feedback – Days on the Lawn
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One specific Rodman day – will try to get all Rodmans there at
same time
o Friday, April 19
Info session, student panel
Lunch right after
Research fair
o What are people working on?
o Capstones
o Would like to have projects be Rodman-specific
Possible hosting as well (in Watson-Webb)
o We have different responsibilities from Monroe Society (we’re
special-status, they’re a CIO)
o Talk to Elzey to figure out liability stuff
Suggestion:
o If someone can’t be at the Rodman DotL, try to make sure
that they’ll have a lunch contact (at least)
2nd Year (by proxy)
 “Things are being planned”
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had a pizza night, fun times
Communications
 Working on a new Rodman site
 Need a new Rodman logo
 Announcements, pages, pictures, menus
 Some empty pages (no content)
o Will be filling
 Has a backend interface
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o So you don’t have to be a 1337 h4x0r to get it to work
Nexus (newsletter) will be fed from site content
Hope to have it ready to go by next meeting
o Will have an online test before sending live
o Link will go to Rod council
o Try to break it
Easier to find things
Want to send out Nexus tomorrow; send to Jeff
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o Get it in ASAP
Suggestion:
o Make sure it’s live before people find out they’re Rodmans
Listservs clarification:
o Rodmans@virginia.edu
 All current Rodmans – official things
o rodchat@virginia.edu
 All current and former
 Everyone can use, informal
o Each class has rodman<nn> (where <nn> is graduating year)
 Everyone in year can send to that listserv
o Rodman_council@virginia.edu
 Included on all of the above
o rodmanscholars@virginia.edu
 Alex & LeAnn’s alias
Networking, redux:
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1/31/2013 4:23:00 AM