Important: Graduate Student Housing Survey

Hello Everyone,

As  graduate students many of you know that searching for a place to live in a new and unfamiliar city can be an overwhelming experience. 

In order to help new incoming graduate students that are going through this process, the Biology grad student caucus has put together a short survey for current graduate students to share their thoughts about the neighborhoods that they currently live in. 

We hope that the results from this survey will benefit new grad students by providing them with useful information about how the needs of graduates are met in different neighborhoods. 

Please help out by completing the survey at http://websurvey.sfu.ca/survey/36970751, which is available starting today until June 21st.

The survey is very short and will take 5-10 minutes to complete. 

Please answer all questions.  All answers are confidential -- no personally identifying information will be used to display results.

Thank you for your participation,

Isabelle Raymond and Janey Lam
BISC Caucus Chair & Associate Chair

Notice of Caucus Elections

Hello Everyone,

We will be holding a special caucus meeting on Friday June 12th 3:30-4:30pm to conduct elections for the treasurer position.

In accordance with our new election guidelines (as voted on at the last caucus meeting), before we can have elections, we must allow for a one week nomination period followed by one week of campaigning (should the nominee(s) chose to do so). 

We already have one nomination for the treasurer position: Dhani Kalidasan.

The nomination period will be open for one week, starting today and ending on Wednesday of next week (June 3rd). If anyone wishes to add a nomination, they must do so before then. This will be followed by the one week campaigning period and then the caucus meeting/election on June 12th.

Thank you,

Isabelle Raymond

BISC Caucus Chair

Grad Caucus Elections

Hello Everyone,

We think that we may have found a treasurer for grad caucus. Her name is Dhani Kalidasan (Kermode lab).

We are thinking of holding a caucus meeting/elections on the 12th of June. Not the usual end of the month Friday meeting, so we wanted to quickly check with everyone in case someone has a major problem with holding the meeting on the 12th. If so we can wait until the end of June.

If no one has any objections, I will send out the Nomination email this Wednesday.

Cheers,
Isabelle

Fwd: Caucus Election Results

Correction:

GSS Rep -- Thomas Unsoeld (tunsoeld@sfu.ca)

Cheers,

- Erica

Caucus Election Results

Hello everyone,

Congratulations to the following newly (re-)elected caucus officers and representatives!

Chair -- Isabelle Raymond (iraymond@sfu.ca)

Associate Chair -- Janey Lam (jlami@sfu.ca)

Secretary -- Juliana Yeung (jyeungd@sfu.ca)

Events Committee Officers:

         -- Anna Drake (aedrake@sfu.ca)

         -- Justin Suraci (jps12@sfu.ca)

-- Brendan Connors (bconnors@sfu.ca)

Member at Large -- Erica Jeffery (ejeffery@sfu.ca)

Webmaster -- Alex Chubaty (achubaty@sfu.ca)

GSS Rep -- Thomas Unsold (tunsold@sfu.ca)

TSSU Steward -- Mike Wogin (mjw10@sfu.ca)

Faculty Mole -- Simon Goring (sgoring@sfu.ca)

Department Scholarships Committee Rep -- Rian Dickson (rdd@sfu.ca)

International Students Rep -- Muhammad Arshad (maa44@sfu.ca)

As well, all of our constitutional amendments were approved -- once it is ratified by the GSS, the amended document will be posted on our caucus website.

Have a great summer!

- Erica

Friday, 3:30-4:30pm -- Caucus elections, constitutional amendments

Hello everyone,

Reminder that, in addition to amending our constitution, we will be holding elections at the caucus meeting this Friday, 3:30-4:30pm, in the grad lounge. 

*We are still looking for nominations for the following*:

    - 1 Treasurer

    - 2 Events Committee Officers (in particular, someone to help out with organizing the beverage side of things in the fall)

A. Elections will be held for the following positions (nominees in brackets):

    1. Events Committee Officers (3) (Anna Drake, Brendan Connors, _________ )

    2. Chair (Isabelle Raymond)

    3. Associate Chair (Janey Lam)

    4. Secretary (Juliana Yeung)

    5. Treasurer ( __________ )

    6. Member at Large (Erica Jeffery)

    7. Webmaster (Alex Chubaty)

    8. GSS Rep (Thomas Unsoeld)

    9. TSSU Steward (Mike Wogin)

    10. Faculty Mole (Simon Goring)

    11. DSC Rep (Rian Dickson)

    12. International Students Rep (Muhammad Arashad)

B. Amending the Constitution (attached).

    Summary of proposed amendments:

1. Out-of-date statements regarding the Caucus' relationship with the SFSS have been replaced with appropriate references to the GSS.
2. Three new Events Committee positions will be created. The Events Committee is defined as "consisting of three officers who will share duties in a fair and equitable manner. The powers and duties of the Events Committee are limited to the following:
   

1.     To assist one another in organizing and co-coordinating caucus events under the guidance and assistance of the Chair and the Associate Chair;

2.     To recruit and direct caucus volunteers who will assist with running these events."

3. The Chair and Associate Chair's duties will now include "To oversee and co-coordinate the events organized by the Events Committee."
4. The Webmaster will be recognized as an official officer of the caucus, and elections will be held for this position accordingly. The duties of the Webmaster will be to "update and maintain the Caucus website."
5. Elections of caucus officers and representatives will now follow the elections procedures outlined by the GSS for caucus representatives. Notably:
1. "The term for the elected officer or representative shall be one year starting on May 1^st and ending on April 30^th of the following year."
2. "If only one person is nominated for the position of Council Representative, that position must still be ratified by a majority at a quorated caucus meeting."

Thank you,

Erica Jeffery

BISC Caucus Chair

Important! Grad caucus Events Committee information

Hi everybody,

As the nominated Chair and Assistant Chair we want to clarify the idea behind creating the Events committee. The reason for these positions is to ensure that the events are successful, entertaining and run smoothly. The responsibilities would be shared over a number of people, not just one or two, as has been the case in previous years.

It can be overwhelming to be solely responsible for putting on caucus events; therefore, we want to lighten the workload for everyone involved so that the time commitment necessary is minimized. We are really hoping that with five people the amount of time that each individual has to put in is quite manageable.

As the Chair, Assistant Chair and Events officers we would also hope to be able to work cooperatively with other volunteers to organize and run the events.

We want to make sure that caucus events are as successful and exciting as they have been in the past and we can only do this with your help!

So, if you think that you would have a little bit of time to set aside for this, or think of someone who would want to, please don't hesitate to nominate them or yourself (please email Erica Jeffery with your nominations: ejeffery@sfu.ca).

Cheers,

Isabelle Raymond and Janey Lam

Caucus Nominations Please!

Hello everyone,

Just in case it was missed in the last long email, we are looking for nominations for the following caucus positions:

1. 3 Events Coordinators:

   Under the assistance of the Chair and Associate Chair, these 3 people will share duties and help one another to organize:

        - the fall Welcome Party

        - the Christmas Party skits

        - the Symposium and the Grad-hosted Speaker visit

2. Treasurer

    Unfortunately, our previous candidate will be unable to run for this position

Elections are Friday, May 1st, so send me your nominations soon!

- Erica