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Meeting Notes 2023-03-02

Agenda​

  1. Exec Updates
  2. Treasurer Requests
    1. CPW ($500 or $1000)
    2. DTYD
    3. ESF
    4. McCormick Food
  3. House life survey feedback
  4. President updates

Exec Updates​

Housing chairs​

Arthur: having a meeting with HRS admin tomorrow, talk about next year’s housing intent form. Let me know if you

Lusi: The housing intent form is due at 11:59am this year! (before noon)

Cameron: Can we get information about who has sent the form

Arthur: working on getting GRAs this information

(people agree on that ADs, HOH have this information)

Arthur: Could we get it sent to House execs?

Jordan: It was sent to RACs

Alan: Presidents, contact your Racs and figure out how to get people to fill it out

(general agreement on how important this is !!!!)

Dining chairs​

Rebecca: Federal financial aid guidelines have changed, so the minimum meal plan will be Any 21 instead of Any 19. There will no additional price for the student, this will be covered by MIT. Any price increase is because of inflation, not because the student is paying for more

Mitali: If you are a dining dorm, you should have a dining chair in your exec team, or someone who is doing those jobs: i.e. sending a rep to the monthly house dining committee. Only 2/6 showed up last time. This is a great place for feedback, but if people don’t think it’s useful then it could be monthly, if more helpful to do with student exec and house team and Mark and Heather, he is willing to set up these meetings to provide feedback on specific issues to your dorm. From dining dorms, is there a preference between those formats?

Jordan: Maybe not have the meetings at 8am in Maseeh, this could be why people aren’t attending

Mitali: Apparently this is the only time that works, they have also made it free breakfast. But dinner could be possible\

Alan: Those house meetings should be happening regardless, so it may be better to have an additional meeting instead

Mitali: Aside, do dorms have dining chairs?

(dorms presidents will email to find out)

Rebecca: Reach out to me and Mitali if you have questions, this is a great resource and they are very receptive to feedback right now

Mitali: There should be a mailing list for dining chair dorms

Rebecaa: Last update: Food trucks will come to the stud, 3x a day, 11-4:30pm, there will be a schedule released. Until the end of the school year

Arthur: Have they given thoughts on where to sit and eat the food?

Rebecca: No

Zawad: Maybe set up tents?

Underclassman rep​

Jordan: Waiting to hear back about implementation of murals in Next House from Dennis.

Cameron: Email Will?

Arthur: Will, the Temporary Dennis replacement?

Geoffrey: My UA update: the theme for the semester will be student activism in 3 different tracks, including student activism in student life with focus in residential communities. Topics brought up: murals, toptionality, mutual selection. This could be relevant to DormCon. Any suggestions taht could be of use to us?

Zawad: How many of your dorms have historians?

(about half of dorms prez raise hands)

Zawad: Yes, so you could reach out to dorms-prez about this.

I3 chair​

Tyra: meeting with Zach Tsetsos from HRS tomorrow, to set the deadlines; earlier today we bumped dorms-prez to update their mailing lists (please and thank you <3)

JudComm​

No updates

Jordan: Committee updates: finalize recommendations to Suzy Nelson

Treasurer (w/o funding requests)​

Bookbinder: Dormcon usually gets around $17000 per year through house tax, dispersed through event funding, food for GBMs, CPW funding. Historically, DormCon has given $500 each dorm per REX and CPW. As of now, main account has $20,000 in it, so we can give $1000 to these two this semester, but this cna likely not be done in subsequent semesters

Tech chair​

Cameron: Updating the website *right now*

Zawad: The website can be updated on your phone! Such powerful website!

P, VP​

Alan: had exec retreat, also talked to Suzy

Zawad: MIT corporation sends a visiting committee every 2 or 3 years to the departments/divisions (e.g. DSL). Big changes in the past few years have been because of these committees (e.g. stud renovations).
Big impact

Alan: report from last visiting committee has not been released, but we know that the dining satisfaction rate is 45%, they’ve been working on surveys for in-house and retail dining in the area (you may have noticed this is getting more expensive). We reminded them that having locations in main campus is important, not just expanding in e.g. Kendall Square. More changes and report will come

Zawad: Stud closure: we told them that people should get good warning when the stud closes again, because we did not get good warning this time. We also talked a lot about toptionality. The HoH had meetings about toptionality, one where EC and Random had a presentation about how the process works. Another meeting was about how EC students can be welcome (. Suzy says HoH were receptive to the student interest in toptionality, but there were concerns about dorm culture, staff, hallway logistics. Some house teams were chatting about what to do in the future.
\
Alan: If your dorm/a suite is interested in implementing toptionality, this can come if you talk to your house temas. Also talk to us if you have questions

Zawad: Did not seem like Suzy will change her mind on this, there could not be a blanket policy about dorms being able to implement toptionality. This is up to the house teams at this point to implement.

Zawad: Final piece of update: we have a process for shadowing different exec members in Dormcon. Some exec members meet regularly with admin (e.g. housing chairs, dining chairs). If you’re interested, talk to us and you can sit in on one of those meetings. This is open to exec members but also to any dorm resident. If you know someone who could do well in these roles, connect them to dormcon

Treasurer funding requests​

CPW request​

Neither chairs are president.

Bookbinder: (numbers note taker did not catch)

Bookbinder: For the past 1.5 years, DormCon has not been receiving house tax in the spring. We should talk to someone about this. Missing about $30,000 from this

(we agree that we are missing some money)

Zawad: Ok, this money should be with the dorms.

Zawad: Should we fund $500 per dorm or $1000 per dorm is the question. You can also use your won dorm funds for this. Also Admissions is willing to have large event grants. The trade off is that $500 means that more money for other events to happen, but more per dorm may alos be beter. Thoughts?

Alan: If we fund $1500 per dorm spread over CPW and REX, we are out of money?

Bookbinder: Correct

Fatima: Money is probably better spent on REX

(general agreement with this point)

Zawad: if we get the house tax, we will do $1000 CPW, $500 each. If we don’t, $500 each.

Q: How much is the house tax?

Zawad: $5 per resident

Bookbinder: every time the dorm tax gets charged to residents, $5 is paid to DormCon per semester. Clarification, this tax is collected no matter what

Zawad: It will probably be $500 starting next year.

-------- vote on $500 vs $1000 for CPW ------

Yes: |||||| (6)

No:|||| (4)

Abstain: (0)

Not present: | (1)

---------------------------------------------

Conclusion: $1000 for CPW

Funding requests: GBM food​

McCormick: $100 more for sushi today?

Bookbinder: yes

Zawad: Would dorm presidents want to raise the food budget for GBMs from $300 to $400?

Baker: Staying under $300 was difficult

Jordan: Also inflation?

Bookbinder: This corresponds to a $500-600 budget increase for the semester, so this is fine

Zawad

--- Vote on increasing food budget from $300 for GBMs from $400---

*passes white ballot*

----------------------------

Funding requests DTYD​

Joey: DTYD is a campus-wide party thrown by Burton 3rd. This is the 56th year that it’s taking place. Live band, bar with cheap drink tickets (33c). Requesting $4500 for this year, which is $500 less than requested last year. Uncertain about the price range coming out of COVID, since it is now in BC physically.

Bookbinder: Question: you list $50 for posters but then list conflicting $500?

Joey: This should be $500 like it says on the right in the psreadshete

Bookbinder: Do you have a budget breakdown of the advertising and posters? This is not in the spreadsheet.

[the spreadsheet in question: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jbLMcWPaNJzU8kYLw0O9meA2oBijDQEV0V4RKuUDu4E/edit#gid=1914793881]

Joey: Not sure where the breakdown is, I did not make this spreadsheet. This may have been based off last year’s funding request.

Zawad: If we assume $500, what is the total funding request?

Joey: Should still be $4500
Bookbinder agrees

Zawad: The spreadsheet is on the minutes (see above). Any other thoughts before we start the vote?

Jordan: Do you have documentation from previous years about last year’s budget?

Zawad: $500 REX could make us go over budget with our commitment to this meeting

Sarah: If there is a small barrier to getting the house tax (someone pressing a button), this should be fine

(remember to put DormCon on your promotional material)

----- Vote on DTYD funding -------

Passes white ballot

---------------------------

House life survey feedback​

Alan: you should’ve received your house life survey results. Providing feedback to us now would be great, but also feel free to reach out to us outside of this meeting. Thoughts?

Cameron: Response size was pretty small for this

[Maseeh]: We got flamed by one person

(Discussion of dissatisfaction with Burton-Conner building quality on the survey)

Sarah: Dorm-individualized questions were good

President updates​

East campus: approved our budget as of last night. Currently figuring out our access to the stud space over the summer. Looking into avenues for alumni donations when we don’t have a dorm tax.
Sarah: Are you getting money from HRS?
Jordan: Yes, but not as much as dorm tax

New House: No updates, trying to figure out exec

Random: Appointed new committees, getting a new RAC to join our current RAC. Our basement is being renovated. Does anyone know how to fix dryers, please contact information for that

Simmons: washer issues, is this for any other dorms? [nodidng from other dorms] Since Simmons is physically removed and the lights are very dark, how could we approach fixing this?
Answer: Yes, talk to HRS. Housing chairs will bring this up at their meeting with admin tomorrow

Maseeh: No updates

Baker: May not have piano drop this year ): Need someone to build a ramp
Arthur and Jordan are interested in doing this. Will talk to you

McCormick: We have a bad piano in the kitchen. We are having a mouse issue. Who should we talk to?
Zawad: email Milo Alto, he will connect you to Rich. miloalto@mit.edu

MacGregor: We have extreme interest in HouseComm participation. We will be doing Pi Day. Also we will be doing merch now because of extra hands. Also next Wednesday we are electing the president

Next: Had our first house meeting, have CPW comm, ran the budget
Zawad: If your dorm has new CPW chairs, talk to Zawad to get added to group chat

BC: Involved with toptionality conversation, talked to House Manager, but we now don’t have a house manager anymore, so we are waiting for this (in a week)
Lusi: you will get a house manager soon and you will probably like them :)
BC: We have an inclusivity chair, we could have this person work with dormcon, e.g. Tyra, and anyone interested in this. Trying to move forward on toptionality, but also would like to collaborate across dorms.
Burton 3rd is having a COD-prescribed meeting with upper admin in HRS, invited floor chairs, but they may not be available. They may be interested in communicating with residents about what is allowed and what is not. We are not sure what the format of this meeting will be: outlining of what is allowed, or maybe a collaborative discussion
(discussion about who will be there). We will let you know how this smaller meeting goes