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