HKN Officer Meeting 3/3/05

***DIRECTIVES***
1. If you nominated someone for a GSI award, please write a recommendation
2. Read the email Isaac will send about the HKN Induction Ritual
3. Send suggestions for the student survey questions to Robert
4. Email compserv if you have a project you want their candidates to help with

***EVENTS***
1. Anheuser-Busch Factory Tour: Saturday, March 5, 11:00AM - 4:00PM (Meet at HMC)
2. Soccer vs TBP: Sunday, March 6, 2:00PM - 4:00PM (Willard Park)
3. 61C Study Session: TBD


***ATTENDANCE***
angelc, andyc, casey, chrislai, don, lid, isaac, jele, joe, kli, lenwei, lili, nammai, 
narenr, noaa, liaor, ssl, tgordv, ttd, tth, tracyx

Guests: shihua

Late: chris, george, hobarts, hxu, ihaque, mangesh, sameer

Absent: sahandn


***AGENDA***
0. Props
1. GSI Nominations
2. Individual Meetings
3. Induction Ritual
4. Student Feedback
5. Scavenger Hunt Clues
6. Alumni Event
7. TBP Guide to Engineering
8. Compserv Candidate Stuff

***MEETING DETAILS***
0. Props
-Leonard for putting on the study session that went really well
-Tracy for finishing the budget for EJC

1. GSI Nominations
-Each year we take nominations for outstanding GSI's (both EE and CS)
-Nominations (GSIName Course NominatedBy)
  -Brandon 152 nam
  -Andrew 61C andy
  -Amin 105 joe, angelc, ssl, ihaque
  -Pierre 126 don
  -Pushkar 184 noaa
  -Artin 145l don
  -Andy 61c lenwei
  -Chung 61a liaor joe narenr sameer
  -Joe 105 chrislai joe
  -Chinwuba 105 ihaque
-If you nominated someone, tell us why you think they’re great
  -Brandon: 
    -He brought in pizza to the lab and helps out with the project
    -Also helped a few hours right before deadline in the lab 
    -Helps out after hours
  -Andrew
    -Good job teaching
    -Pretty thorough discussion notes
    -Any TA that puts up notes online and has sample problems has put in a lot of effort as a GSI
  -Amin
    -Goes to all lectures and takes notes 
    -Puts PDF notes online
    -Stayed overnight in the labs to help students with projects
    -Responded very quickly to emails
    -Rewrote all the bad labs
  -Pierre
    -Able to elucidate concepts
    -He would have lots of ppl come to his office hours
    -Always prepared for discussion 
    -He brought a fan to class at Prof. Zakhor’s request
  -Pushkar
    -He would always email people back
    -Would always set up office hours when needed
    -Very organized and helped decode
    -Discussion sections were really good because lectures were often hard to understand
  -Artin
    -He would never just give the answer (good at guiding people along)
    -Still helpful after many hours in lab so people got more out of the class
  -Andy
    -Review sessions were good
    -Willing to stay afterward and answer questions
  -Chung
    -Offered review sessions
    -Takes the authoritative class notes 
    -But he’s won; can he win in multiple years?
  -Joe
    -Always prepared for discussion
    -Explains things clearly
    -Stays in lab to answer questions
    -Always asks for students’ opinions
  -Chinwuba
    -Did the project (basically)
    -Good at explaining concept
-Voting: everyone gets 6 votes
  -After the vote, it was determined that we would nominate Amin, Chung, Chinwuba, Pierre, Pushkar
-Now, a runoff between the rest of the people
-Everyone gets 1 vote
  -Please try to vote based off what other people said, not just if you've taken the class
-After the runoff, we decided to nominate Andrew as well
--> We will nominate Amin, Chung, Chinwuba, Pierre, Pushkar, and Andrew
-People who nominated the people will need to write recommendations to explain why they are
such good GSIs
-Tina notes that it’s advised to write a good description if you want the person to win

2. Individual Meetings
-Tina wants to meet with everyone, just to see how things are going
-Look out for an email from her with details about how to set up meetings

3. Induction Ritual
-HKN Nationals is trying to revise the Induction Ritual
-It's been used a long time and a lot of chapters have complained because of that
-It's in phase 2 of revisions; we didn’t reply to phase 1 
-There have also been a lot of complaints on the alumni side
-Isaac will post the revision online and send an email out
  -Please take a look at it!
  -Think about the spirit of HKN and how this induction ritual represents this spirit
  -Think of syntax problems, ideas, etc; anything that you feel should change
-Imran wants a rough idea of what they’ve changed, but Isaac says this is not available
-Try to remember that candidates will remember this ritual
  -Especially if they don’t stay around in HKN, they should get the right impression of what HKN is about

4. Student Feedback
-Presentation with faculty is next week 
  -This is negotiable, but let’s try for next week
-Need to put out a survey with questions about what students are interested in
-Suggestions for questions to ask:
  -Can be a "rate on a scale of 1-7" type of question
  -Do you feel your profs are accessible during office hours?
  -How worthwhile was 20 if you’ve taken 120 (e.g. how applicable were the concepts)? 
  -How do you feel about your textbooks (how useful are they; which classes do you use them for, etc)?
  -How honest do you feel you are on the course surveys at the end of the semester?
  -Do you feel the format of the course surveys is representative of what you’d like to give input about
  -How useful is faculty advising?
    -How much time do you get with your adviser?
  -How often do you go to office hours? 
    -How useful are they?
  -Possible new classes; what new topics would you like to see taught at Berkeley?
  -Do you think that grading has been fair? 
    -Also, have classes been taught consistently?
  -How do you feel about the flexibilitiy of degree requirements?
  -Have you been turned off by a topic by the professor?
-Leonard notes that these questions will be on a 1-7 scale, so many will need rephrasing
-If you think of anything else, email Robert

5. Scavenger Hunt Clues
-Spring break is coming up, and Scavenger Hunt is right after that
--> We need to make the clues now
-Who wants to help Tina make the clues?
  -joe, hxu, andyc (maybe), tth, isaac, lili, don, tgordv
-Perhaps have "older" people help so newer officers can participate
-If you’ve done the clues before, you should do it agian because sometimes we reuse the clues (otherwise your
team will have an unfair advantage!)

6. Alumni Event
-Joe's trying to plan another alumni activity outside broomball to get in contact with the alumni more
-Perhaps a picnic in the South Bay? 
  -Alumni may not want to play sports
  -And they may not want to come up here
-It will be in April most likely
-Donny says that Act has a picnic scheduled at the Berkeley Marina
  -Maybe have this combined?
  -But the point is alumni may not want to drive 45+ minutes to come up here 
-Perhaps schedule it for a weekend to fit with people's schedules
-Try to get an idea of how many people are interetsed: around 6-10 people raised their hands
-Tina says it should be fun! 
  -There’s usually some alumni entertainment (e.g. alexf falling out of a tree)

7. TBP Guide to Engineering
-TBP is putting together an unofficial guide to engineering and would like other groups to participate
-Are you guys interested? 
  -don, isaac, ttd
-It would be useful for helping freshman become adjusted to engineering

8. Compserv Candidate Stuff
-Compserv if hunting for candidate projects!
-Email them if you want their candidates to do something for you