One-hundred and Thirty-Fifth Meeting Minutes
October 3rd, 2011 5:00 P.M. (Stellar-Chance 104)
Attendance: Angela Brown, Rohinton Tarapore, Beth Feeser, Nicole Sunnen, Tim
Connelly, Sarah Collington, Arindam Basu, Todd Waldron, Adam Walker, Lauren
Graham
Minutes of September meeting were approved.
Updates from Co-Chairs:
 New Fundraising Chair = Todd Waldron. Welcome to the BPC! WeiWei and the cochairs will help him get his feet wet.
Updates from Subcommittees:
a. Diversity – Lauren
- Folami and Caleph are working hard for their mentoring program kickoff, which
will take place Oct 27th or 28th
- Science Now seminar series is starting up Oct. 19th. First speaker is Paulette
McRae from CHOP.
- nothing planned for November.
b. Social Events – Beth
- Post-doc appreciation happy hour was a success.
- happy hours are still the first Friday of every month at City Tap. They’ve changed
the menu from $6 pizzas to $5 “snacks.”
- Silka is organizing a second event for November, probably the aquarium or the art
museum.
- going to try to have a second social event every other month in addition to the
monthly happy hours.
c. Symposium – Beth
- Wednesday, Oct. 12
- 6 tables/vendors; need to visit 4 to be entered into the raffle (prizes = $25
American Express cards)
- Abcam will offer an iPOD as another raffle prize, but must have a sticker from
their table in order to claim it (will not advertise this)
- “audience favorite” poster prize will be another $25 Amex card – designed to get
more people to the symposium to “vote.”
d. Environmental – Caroline/Guray (not present)
- no update
e. Fundraising – Weiwei (not present)
- see update from co-chairs
f. Foreign National Committee (FNC) – Monica (not present)
- working on the material for the buddy program, including an online registration
for interested buddy hosts and an explanation of the purposes and expectations of
the program; suggests a meeting with BPP to see if she can get the emails for newly
appointed post-docs in advance.
g. Seminar Series – Jason (not present)
h. Newsletter – Tim
- working on the new issue, but need more contributors; might have recruited 2
new people
- expect to have it out before Thanksgiving, if have enough contributors; if not,
perhaps early December.
- will try to include more info about individual BPC committees in future issues
- plan to post a link to the newsletter on the BPC website, and create a synopsis of
the tax issues/clarifications on the site, too
- maybe Angela and Monica can set up a meeting with Victor to answer FAQs re:
taxes, to put up on the website
i. Postdoc Editor’s Association (PEA) – Katy (not present)
j. Career Enhancement and Training (CET) – Caleph (not present)
- website information has been sent to Alex; as soon as it’s up, the CET will be
formally announced.
- Angela and Caleph are planning the CET’s first event, scheduled for late October –
early November; perhaps Nicole (medical writing) or Patrick (public policy) will
speak
k. Website – Alex (not present)
- keep checking your respective pages/information and send updates to Alex Smith,
alex.rb.smith@gmail.com
l. Treasurer – Arindam
- will meet with Beth to discuss funds gained/used/available from social events
m. Community Service – Sarah
- participating in PhillyCares on Oct. 22; approximately 10-15 volunteers expected
- also emailed Michele on the Engineering council to see if more volunteers could
be recuited
Update from BPP Office:
 Kathleen is trying to set up digested emails so that post-docs only receive one email per
week.
 Starting to survey post-docs using focus groups, starting with the vet school. These would
be 10-20 post-docs per “focus group,” food provided, and discussions/answers to
questions would be anonymous. The purpose is just to get info about the post-doc
experience in the different schools/disciplines, and info will only be used in aggregate.
Next Meeting October 3rd, 2011