March 29, 2014
2:00pm
GB202
March 2014 Board of
Directors Meeting
1. Adoption of the Agenda (14:10)
Moved by Mauricio
Seconded by Thomas and Praneet
Agenda Adopted
2. Approval of Minutes
a. February Board of Directors Meeting: March 2, 2014
b. Finance Committee Meeting: March 24, 2014
Moved by Thomas
Seconded by Mauricio
Alex: We just approved the NBTC funding. Cory and Mehran talked about it.
Mauricio: So you just subsidised it?
Alex: We just released a form, to give out 35 dollars to the participants. It wasn’t subsidised.
Mauricio: Would they have attended the conference if you gave them 35 dollars?
Alex: I don’t know. Some of them mentioned we just gave them experience etc.
Minutes Approved
3. Officer Reports
a. President – Mauricio Curbelo
Mauricio: UTP needs to be moved out. We met with the Directors. They are offering the
space at 256 McCaul. We are moving all space at the UTP except for Skule Nite. We’re
trying to sort out Concrete Canoe. Because 256 McCaul is not going to be demolished in
the near future, we’re trying to invest in it. Right now Cory is sorting out whether to
move it. At 256 McCaul, we need to build Lockers or cages instead of individual rooms.
Secondly, Pierre was elected to be UA. There was some controversy regarding extending
the voting period. A letter to the Vice-Provost was sent. The Summit is over, the
recommendations they’re going to make look promising. Watch out for EngSocs
involvement in making changes.
University of Toronto Engineering Society
March 2014 Board of Directors Meeting Agenda
Mar 29, 2014
2:00pm
GB202
Lastly, I talked about the Dean about Deferred Exams. The problem is some people are
getting faked notes so they miss out on Deferred Exams. Now, they want to charge 70
dollars to every person taking a deferred exams. 70 dollars don’t come close to recover
the cost. The Fee should be refundable but the Office said it would be too hard. If they
think it’s too unreasonable to charge a fee, we need to do something more equitable.
Teresa and Ryan will be coming to the meeting. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Gabe: Any updates on Directorship interviews?
Mauricio: Last day to submit Recommendations is two days before the JCM. The
Officers have their meeting this weekend.
Praneet: I’ve seen the circumstances come up again and again. I think it should be
refundable for people who have genuine issues. One thing we have to take account is
that they don’t like to change things. To get them to move any procedures, its going to
take more than one meeting.
Mauricio: We have no leverage over them. If you could get the Alumni involved, it
would be better. We’ll see what other leverage tools we need to use.
Tabish: I was just wondering if the Dean replied?
Mauricio: Dean said he’d look into this.
Evan: Status on the Building?
Mauricio: They’re doing architecture stuff.
Praneet: Professors should already have the deferred exams written down.
Tabish: I checked the Alumni Newsletter. In Previous Board meetings they said 2016.
Mauricio: They pushed it back.
b. VP Finance – Gordon Tattle
Gordon: The first thing that we have are student refunds. The refunds should not impact
our ability to pay into the new building.
The second thing is, we had our last Finance meeting. We did transition with Cory and
Mehran. Almost finished transitions with Mehran. Regarding the BOD handbook, I’ve
almost done it. I’ve almost finished the section on rules for next year.
Mauricio: The Endowment fund now generates 50 thousand dollars. All of Club Funding
is 35 thousand. If you were to set up the Governance Process, immediately you should
University of Toronto Engineering Society
March 2014 Board of Directors Meeting Agenda
Mar 29, 2014
2:00pm
GB202
double club funding. One thing you should consider is drafting a constitution for using
that money for good.
Gordon hands out Sales Reports of the Engineering Stores
Gordon: I passed around the income of the stores, made by Mehran. Trend is similar for
other months. The Sale of Textbook are subsidising the other months.
c. VP Communications – Thomas Santerre
Tom: The biggest issue was the skule servers being down, with the WISE domain. But we
suffered a lot. The Cannon wasn’t able to publish anything because of the servers. We
moved it to the remote server. Its all fixed now. All the site should be back up. People
have been recommended to update Wordpress accounts.
Aside from that, I’ve been setting up the interviews for the JCM
Gabe: I’ve noticed the website was slow
Tom: That’s because of an outdated Wordpress account.
Gordon: I was also going to ask about the speed of the website.
d. VP Academic – Fady Soliman
Fady: Same as Tom, not so busy. Changing structure for Faculty Awards. Dealing with
UTEK and Hi-Skule interviews. Transitioning. Now I’m just tutoring Ryan next week.
That’s it.
e. VP Student Life – Gabriel Stavros
Gabe: Gradball, nothing broke. Transitioned with Cory. Kinda a headsup to what went
wrong. UTP was sold for 208. It was about time we left. I also have floor plans for the
news space. We went up to see the space. It’s a substantial space. The Faculty does
want to reserve the big room for them. Cory emailed the groups and asked them what
space requirements they needed. The plan was to meet on Tuesday one on one with
groups to see. The biggest issue is the freight elevator. Steve is working on getting space
in the lab.
Floor plan was handed out
University of Toronto Engineering Society
March 2014 Board of Directors Meeting Agenda
Mar 29, 2014
2:00pm
GB202
Otherwise, the awards committee met last Wednesday. You’re all invited April 1 st. We
had our EngSoc Transitional Meeting. We had a talk about Club Association. That’s it in
the Nutshell.
Mauricio: They’re looking for a name for the new space.
4. MOTION by Laura Shen to ratify the results of the 2014 Officer Elections
WHEREAS the Chief Returning Officer has submitted the results of the elections for the 20142015 Engineering Society Officers;
BE IT RESOLVED that the results of the 2014 Engineering Society Officer Elections are received
and ratified.
Seconded by Mauricio
Laura: The only warning I issued was Teresa for putting a poster in the glass wall. I also took
some of Pierre’s and Teresa’s deposit money, because I couldn’t find some of there posters.
Mauricio: I feel like there was a moderate turnout. I feel that these elections are legitimate due
to no appeals.
Motion Carries
5. OTHER BUSINESS
Gabe: During the EngSoc Awards, the Ex Officio was nominated. The Description said Project
Director. I wanted to hear your thoughts about Ex Officios winning Director of Year.
Mauricio: It was added that 1 to 3 Project Directors were nominated per year. The only way to
give an Ex-Officio award was if they were in an affliated club. Ex-Officios are more like project
directors than clubs, I think the Award’s terms should include the ex officios. I don’t think its
largely consequential.
Praneet: Can we set a new award for Ex-Officios?
Yerusha: I don’t think we should.
Praneet: Or we could put a clause in the award to include Ex Officios.
Matt: Awards ceremony is Tuesday in this room.
Gordon: What’s your opinion on Officer Reports? Most of the New Officers are here.
Tabish: I like Gordon’s Officer Reports. I prefer consistency.
Stephanie: I’d prefer it to be more consistent as well.
University of Toronto Engineering Society
March 2014 Board of Directors Meeting Agenda
Mar 29, 2014
2:00pm
GB202
Mauricio: Gordon’s items are more regular, and repeating throughout the year. The format suits
the content. I don’t think its fair to say one is better than the other.
Gabe: In terms of contents, I filled the propane tanks, I didn’t bother to tell anyone. How much
detail did you want Officer Reports to have?
Yerusha: Its up the officer’s perspective
Matt: I think the best possible solution would be a 2 pages tops Officer Reports. The entire
board can read them. The board can ask questions. I think using the time as a discussion period
is better than doing a presentation. Sometimes it’s important to get all of the information in
there.
Motion to adjourn carries
6. ADJOURNMENT – 14:43
University of Toronto Engineering Society
March 2014 Board of Directors Meeting Agenda
Attendance
Officers
President
VP Finance
VP Communication
VP Academic
VP Student Life
Mauricio Curbelo
Gordon Tattle
Thomas Santerre
Fady Soliman
Gabriel Stavros
Directors of the Board
At-Large
At-Large
At-Large
At-Large
Chemical Representative
Civil Representative
Computer Representative
Electrical Representative
Engineering Science Representative
Industrial Representative
Materials Science Representative
Mechanical Representative
Mineral Representative
First Year
First Year
First Year
A – Absent
Yerusha Nuh
Tabish Gilani
Praneet Bagga
Stephanie Gaglione
Sean Hunt
Evan Ma
Kimberly Shen
Allan Wang
Pierre Harfouche
Alexandra Szatan
Vinson Truong
Evan Boyce
Vacant
Reza Boushehri
Dareen Kutob
Marissa Zhang
AwR – Absent with Regrets
P – Proxy
Mar 29, 2014
2:00pm
GB202