Rodman Council Meeting
September 5, 2012
First meeting of the school year!
Overview:
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Pizza
Exec updates
Brainstorm session for planning
Committee updates / goals
Finis
Exec updates:
Pillow Grants
Pillow Grants for first-year research have been awarded!
 Rubik’s cube team
 Sara Hanson – Gene therapy
 Incoming first-year – Alzheimer’s
Capital One Trivia night
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meeting w/ Echols tomorrow to continue planning
Mix of Echols and Rodman groups…
But Rodmans involved will stick together
SAIC
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Had sponsored research grants a couple years ago;
Elzey and SAIC about bringing them back
As of April , we (Elzey) had submitted proposal to SAIC for research grant
sponsorship
Similar to Lockheed sustainability grants from a couple years ago, but with
SAIC
Elzey has been continuing contact with SAIC
They have their own focus areas; waiting to hear on possible topics for grants
o Just a matter of time / logistics
o Elzey will get back to us within a week
Formerly Rotunda dinner
[will not be in Rotunda this year]
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Jefferson Scholars Foundation building as possible venue
o Elzey has some sway with them, suggested it
o Social will work on it
Germany trip
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Positive feedback
Elzey is working on a summary review to submit to VW
VW seems to like it too
If they don’t like it, may want to find another company
But keep up a program in Germany
University in Germany really likes it; would like to expand connections to
UVA (Beyond E-school!)
Rodfest
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End of this month – Fri, Sept 28
Elzey’s house
Committee Updates:
Social: (Alex & Chuhern)
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Rotunda Dinner
o Isn’t happening in Rotunda because of renovations
o Alumni Hall is an option; will call tomorrow
o Urn Commons – don’t want to do it there; takes a long time
o Hotel E, Special Collections suggested as possible alternate locations
Ropes Course
o Coming up (for first-years)
o 4 hours in afternoon, Saturday the 15th
o Want to print a lot of waivers for first-years, deliver to ENGR 1610;
question as to where to print them
o A suggestion was made: have an upperclassman go along to show
where it is (LeAnn said she could)
Garden Party
o Possibility for later in year
o Last one was successful;
o Worked well to have it right after ENGR 1610
Camping trip for fall had been discussed, but cancelled due to proximity to
Rodfest
Treasurer (Tristan)
o Working on a budget this week, will clear with Paul
o Let him know about expenses; save receipts
o Word from Jessica is that there isn’t really a running balance;
o Need to create budget anyway as to what our income and spending
Exec addendum (LeAnn):
o Rodman Homecoming, esp. for alumni
o Save Oct 13, 10AM-1PM
o Rodman Homecoming (incl. alumni)
o Have emails for ~500/800 of alumni
o Wilsdorf Atrium
o Elzey will give speech as introduction
o Networking chairs involved
o Hoping to reserve parking, though lots of demand; game day!
Academics (Yiqi)
o Put out Rodsems for fall semester
o Tried to have them out earlier than previous years, but still later than would
have liked
o Have many already lined up for next semester
o Will try to put together better documentation as to how to set up
o Collection of forms, names, etc.
o Good move to have experienced academics chair + new person
o Question to the council: Worth doing photography Rodsem with only 5 ppl?
o Suggestions: Talk about RodCouncil stuff (and Rodsems) in 1610,
o make sure 1st years are involved
o “Engineering course fees” apply; no word yet from Elzey on getting
them waived
o May do a lecture series in spring
o Suggestion: Talk to Emma, Julia as to how they work
o Should be able to get gas fees for off-grounds Rodsems
New Programs (Doug & Ellen)
o Have some ideas that require footwork
o Sign up for College courses at same time as other courses- pretty difficult
o Will talk to Dean Aylor about it, whether he has any authority
o Rodman study room / space – had been looked into previously
o Other initiatives/new programs/new privileges; willing to take suggestions
o Suggestion: Rodman RAs for first-year Rodman halls
2Y reps
o Interest in dinner as a class; will be soliciting input from class
o Also looking for other activities
Networking (Dasha)
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Alumni Homecoming mostly LeAnn and Adwait,
Pretty invitations
Want RodCouncil there; whether current Rodmans (4th years) come will
depend on RSVPs
Career Fair coming up; on 12th
o Resume review that Wednesday (not a Rod Council date)
o In evening, to avoid conflicts with classes
o have 3rd and 4th years there to help review underclassman
DeLoitte having big event on 11th – Olympic athletes
o Over at JPJ
o Organizing a carpool
APT night
o will send out info
Collaborating with communications on biweekly e-mail:
o Cool conferences, competitions, other things that we might not
normally hear about
o Posting on site, biweekly e-mail about opportunities
o Discussion on newsletter
 LeAnn: use as general Rod Council newsletter into this
 Jeff: Example e-mail sent out, look at template
Upcoming events about other schools:
o Will have event (info session) about MPP program
o Talking to Comm school about presentation as well
Possibile alumni panel
o One alumni consults on resumes (consultant at McKinney); hoping to
have him come in for resume review
Possible new program: scholarship (tuition – small, textbook) for Rodman
program
o Have talked to some folks, but legal constraints/management
information isn’t quite there yet
 Suggestion: May need to go through UVA Investment Group
that manages AccessUVA, other programs; that may be more
for endowments, etc.
o Probably will start as being just gifts, may grow to endowment over
time
Advising (Alisha)
o First-years matched up with advisors
o Had first advising event; ~60 showed up
o Need more cookies next time
o Will have another advising event before spring course selections
o Encourage meetups on pairwise basis
o Also larger advising event
o Suggestion: Tailgate?
o Major advising night?
o Suggestion: advising events may be more valuable than individual meetups
o Some advisors didn’t show up, so other advisors have more than 2 advisees
Communications (Jeff and Amir)
o Renewed domain names for site for another 2 years
o rodmanscholars.com, rodmanscholars.org
o Right now, redirects to a SEAS site
o Discussion: Better to have the Rodman Scholars site not hosted/part of the
SEAS site?
o There are good reasons for it to be on the SEAS site; more easily found
by prospectives / new Rodmans
o Lots that can be done that would add value to site, within SEAS
framework
o First years are using it
o Have brought much of the site up to date; information from chairs is still
outdated
o Rodsems pages has been updated, has important information
o Photo gallery
o Discussion: What should we add?
o Analytics
o Site gets information at the same time (or before) e-mails
o Have updated listservs
o RodCouncil is on all class listservs, and has its own listserv
o Annual Report will happen eventually
o Liz is still working on it
o LeAnn and Alex meeting with Liz soon
o Alumni, over the summer, expressed interest in getting up to date
o Proposed newsletter deadline: Thursday immediately after RodCouncil
meeting
o Discussion: For what should we use Rodman Scholars FB page?
o Send events, etc, to current Rodmans
3Y Rep (Alyssa)
o Soliciting event suggestions
o Apples picking
o Grad school panel
Exec addendum:
o Next meeting: will develop written goals for RodCouncil, program, committee
Social addendum:
o Discussion: Is there interest in Rodman Date Function?
o “Would this be like a joke, or like a real thing?”