SLUG Meeting: April 22nd

Meeting Minutes

A huge welcome to Jonathan Fortney's students who will be working down the hall.

1. Equipment Purchase
• We've discussed both the existing inventory and the items on the Google Doc that will be submitted to Patti Schell for ordering. Enrico has stressed that we should submit one giant order to minimize paperwork for Patti, so please add items to the Doc right away if you think we are missing something. Also, everyone should be checking over the list to ensure that we haven't forgotten anything either already in inventory or that is needed for purchase. 
• Andrea and Monique previously volunteered to get an inventory count and fill in the spreadsheet so we have a snapshot of what is still needed. 
2. Summer Schedule
• Please update your summer schedule (where everyone plans to be from June-September) at the link here. We can then share this with Jonathan and Enrico. Please fill this out as soon as possible. If you're not around, it's fun to hear what awesome workshops/summer schools/conferences you might be attending. 
3. Summer Weekly Meetings:
1. Journal Club
• Weekly meetings to review scientific papers in the field of astrophysics. We need someone to manage this group. Any takers? Meetings will commence at the end of the quarter.
2. Text Discussion Group
• Weekly meetings to review an astrophysics text (Rybicki and Lightman?) and discuss problem sets therein. We need someone to manage this group. Any takers? Meetings will commence at the end of the quarter. 
3. Science Lunch Hour
• Weekly lunch meetings to discuss science research progress over some lunch (bring your own brown bag). We need someone to manage this group. Any takers? Meetings will commence at the end of the quarter.
4. Lab Management Meetings
• Bi-weekly meetings to discuss basic lab management (like the one we had today). We need someone to manage this group and the next meeting should take place within the next two weeks.
4. Delegating Responsibilities
• Office Manager: Melinda Soares and Ian Weaver
• Mentors new recruits -- new recruits set to join in late June
• Provides keys to new recruits --keys have already been ordered, but there is a delay due to a shortage of keys. We should check back in on this in a few weeks.
• Discussion Coordinator: Still needed
• Organizes group discussion sections for SLUG members to discuss scientific topics. It would be useful to meet weekly for these discussion groups. Enrico has suggested several books that we could use for our discussion groups this summer. I prefer Rybicki and Lightman if no one objects. We need someone to volunteer to run this group. Anyone?
• Resident Technician: Monique Windju
• Helps diagnose the cause of broken equipment
• Leads the upgrading and installation of new computers in the lab.  
• Monique is currently working on getting the Mac Mini's available for use when idle. 
• Visualization Group Meetings
• We need to find out who is creating 3-D sims this summer and those individuals should begin meeting weekly to work on visualization techniques.
• Web Guru: Aaron Lopez and Melinda Soares
• Support staff for website design and management (personal and group)
• Updates and maintains the group blog
• Updates and maintains the group website (SLUG)
• Outreach Coordinator: Melinda Soares 
• We have an outreach event scheduled for early May. I'll send out an informative email later this week so that everyone is on the same page with this.
• Entertainment Coordinator: Still needed
• Organizes entertainment activities for SLUG members as "team building" exercises. Yes, it's a bit silly, but this may be a nice thing to try. I believe we should aim for 1 activity each quarter. Who is up for this one?
5. Party
• Enrico is kindly hosting a party in honor of the students heading off to graduate school in the Fall (Jacqueline, Andrea, and Melinda). The party will take place on the weekend of May 24-25. More details to follow. :)
6. Website Management
• Ian needs to update the bio portion on the SLUG group website. 
• Every member should publish at least one image to the Visualization Gallery page. If you have not yet done so, please log in and do this at your earliest convenience. We should all know how to edit the site and contribute content. Uploading content should not be a task responsible to a single individual. 
• We should each individually review the website once per quarter to search for any editing needs and ensure that all content is up to date.
7. SLUG Snack Supply
• A HUGE thanks to Monique for supplying us with delicious snacks. Make sure to add to the karma envelope if you take an item. Melinda is planning to make a Costco run this weekend to fill up on more goodies. If you'd like to get a thing or two, feel free to grab some cash from the karma envelope to reimburse yourself.
8. SLUG Maintenance
• We need to make a new chore schedule for trash pick up.
• Melinda has sent out a "whenisgood" for a mass clean of our room. 
• Fortney's group is meeting this weekend to clean up their spot down the hall. I have arranged for my stepfather to paint the new room as soon as the cleaning is complete.