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DormCon GBM 03/13

Date: 13 March 2025
Location: MacGregor dining room
Attendees:

note

If you find any issues with the meeting minutes, please email dormcon-secretary@mit.edu

tl;dr​

  • Exec updates
    • i3 guidelines will be passed on to dorms Soon
    • CPW coming up, dorms can submit funding requests, and should pub for hosts
    • Concord Market is open now!!
  • Funding request for ESF
    • standard $2000 request, passed by vote
  • DormCon Field Day planning
  • Concord Market is open!
    • Some concern over prices, but general happiness with product selection
    • Products will shift with time as they learn what does and doesn’t sell
  • Presidents’ updates

Full minutes​

Exec updates​

  • UC rep (Eugenie)
    • was going to send out dormspam, but quite hosed :(( relatable
    • will think about it over Spring Break and figure out wording
      • to let people know what’s been happening, why it’s hard to get new solutions, hard to take on something like Stata meal swipes :(
      • dining is just complicated >.<
  • Treasurer (Leo)
    • funding proposal is on agenda :D
  • i3 (Jackson)
    • having a meeting with HRS people at 2:30 tomorrow - happy pie day meeting :D - will get guidelines and timeline then, and pass along to dorm presidents/i3 chairs
    • someone (dorm prez or i3) asked about copyrighted music, will ask tomorrow and pass along
    • Hanu - question about i3: was a dorm i3, very involved with music situation, what’s the policy?
      • Jackson doesn’t have one yet, will ask in meeting tomorrow afternoon
  • Secretary (Lauren)
    • No updates
  • UC rep (Jamie)
    • might want more publicity things happening (from Jordan and Ananda)
    • redoing Infinite poster? let them know any other publicity ideas
  • CPW (Anthony)
    • has been dying, Gabriel has been doing most work
    • DormCon is splitting $10,000 extra CPW dollars, dorms will request, don’t do it late!
    • also need more hosts, pub to dorm residents!!
  • Dining (Daniel)
    • Concord Market is open (!!!)
      • will be an agenda item
      • they’ve delayed taking EBT because “smth smth government bad” O.O
      • people struggling with food insecurity should reach out for swipes
    • Two days - meeting WasteWatchers
    • meeting Peter Cummings
    • meeting FSAT (food security action team)
      • also house dining committees should go
      • scheduled for last Thursday but postponed
    • Office of Sustainability?
      • Maseeh sustainability officer wants food waste bins, struggling to get approval
        • residential bins comparable to Random or MacGregor’s
    • talking about running out of food at the end of meals - Mark is working on it
      • tricky trade-off between running out of food/food waste
  • Housing (Temkin)
    • Fire Day (!!)
      • contact in EHS is on leave, pushed to fall 🙁
      • City of Cambridge also being annoying
        • no one wants to let us have the fire
    • Meeting about upcoming REX changes?
    • Helen sent a NOMS email? (solitude) - very concerned about supporting students
    • URL is getting restructured, might hear info from Tasha and maybe more people
    • GRA and HoH hiring is something they want to work on - very difficult logistics for candidates - something like 16-20 hours of interviews o.o
    • meeting w HRS and RCL tomorrow, mention anything they should bring up in prez updates
  • President (Jordan)
    • has been out of town for two weeks!
    • Helen Wang is doing “the Norms Of MIT Solitude”
      • lunch every Friday at 1pm, where they talk about the norms of MIT solitude
        • why don’t people talk to their friends anymore 😭
      • “please send me your thoughtful, reflective, and imaginative students”
    • thinking about CPW events (DormCon wants to run them)
    • also planning an inter-dorm field day (more to come!)

Funding Request for ESF (from Hanu)​

  • Budget link: Total Budget Final Version
  • esf is celebration of east side campus at MIT
  • mostly organized by EC, but also Xi, Pika, Random
  • held in DAPER field A - where EC build was this past REX
  • including new additions
    • bouncy castle
    • hair dying
    • good stuff
  • Asking for money!
    • for things that are necessary or useful
    • for DormCon - specifically security and some set-up costs (e.g., table and chairs)
    • budget was sent out at some point, is also in the minutes ^^
    • asking DormCon for $2000
  • If they don’t end up needing a police detail, they’ll give the money back
  • need someone from Bon Appetit to “come check the temperature of our meat”
  • also need a police detail
    • apparently sometimes the police detail doesn’t show up, or they don’t charge you… just hit or miss?
  • unknown whether the police detail was charged last year - Hanu will check
  • how is the event being advertised
    • posters
    • sending emails on dormspam (and to eastside mailing lists)
    • word of mouth
    • This is the same answer as last year, plus the word of mouth part
    • It’s not like there are other ways to advertise
  • This is a person vote - each dorm gets 1 vote, we know the drill
    • Geoffrey has a wheel-spinner
  • Vote
    • Maseeh - yes
    • BC - yes
    • McCormick - not present
    • Simmons - yes
    • Baker - yes
    • New Vassar - yes
    • EC - yes
    • Random - yes
    • Next House - not present
    • MacGregor - yes
  • APPROVED :D

DormCon Field Day​

  • Or Field Day Brought to You by DormConTM
  • competitions of some description, vaguely outside, maybe some stuff inside, late April/early May, touch grass
    • “tug of war, tug of war”
    • *less enthusiastic* “other field day type games”
  • would need at least one contact per dorm, and want to know if this is actually a thing people want
  • times to not do (e.g., not during ESF)
  • thoughtsTM?
    • timing things
      • David - UA is planning hosting Cultural Festival weekend after CPW (on Friday)
      • SpringFest is happening weekend after that
      • springing off of SpringFest (which is the 3rd)?
      • don’t do it that weekend (ring delivery is the 4th)
      • Marathon Monday (day after CPW)
        • upperclassmen would be hosed and maybe doing Marathon Monday things…
    • notes on competition style
      • Eugenie - some form of competition, people compete in teams but earn points for their own dorms, inter-dorm competition?
      • what sort of competitions?
        • athletic vs. non-athletic things?
        • thoughts on less athletic events? ring toss, bouncy house
        • “for any Midwesterners in the crowd, corn hole”
          • “you can take my arch from my cold dead hands”
        • “isn’t Baker going to win everything?”
          • “Baker is going to have very low participation” - baker prez
        • aim for whimsical carnival but with tug-of-war?
        • need to balance the team
          • the other side is also MIT students
          • “you don’t have to be athletic to beat other MIT students”
        • EC likes whimsical carnival but gets a little competitive when it comes to other dorms
        • question of how to tabulate scores if we’re making it inter-dorm?
        • interest in having a trophy.
        • second prize is a Blahaj.
      • Last day of classes is May 13th, thoughts on doing May 10th or May 11th? people might be hosed, but could work?
      • fire hose, but it’s a garden hose 😌
      • could also be fun with no scoring
      • trophy is based on dorm with highest attendance 😭
      • vibes towards scoring?
      • Could get big roll of tickets, and people drop them into buckets for their dorms
      • we could put each dorm in charge of an event
      • 12-4pm kind of timeframe
      • location? Killian would be dope but will be getting set up for commencement
      • It takes them all of May :( kills All Of The Grass :(
      • people like running events that represent their dorms, could be fun to run events that represent the dorm to the Rest of the dorms
      • MacGregor did something similar with entries, worked well!
      • anyone think it’s not feasible for dorm to be in charge of one event?
      • we get kresge and have a smash tournament inside the auditorium
        • unfortunately, kresge costs a lot to rent
      • they put tents EVERYWHERE >:(
      • scoring would be fun, but if there’s not a good way to do it without lots of people
        • boxes. tickets. events. people.
      • each person gets a ticket for winning an event and can put it in their dorm’s box. The people running the events (from each dorm) distribute the tickets.
  • message Jordan with further thoughts!!

Concord Market!!​

  • “there goes my wallet” - Leo
  • some of it is twice the price of Target - because organic, not as mass-produced…
  • very expensive butter, yogurt
  • Geoffrey - sus how people have emphasized affordability, and when Concord Market was advertised as new vendor, we emphasized prices, but it’s instead like Brother’s Marketplace level, disappointing
  • not true for every item
  • there are some really expensive things, some really cheap things
    • candy and snacks are cheap
    • feeling like there’s no middle ground
    • prices not yet set in stone
      • they’ve also been changing
      • “reverse inflation?”
      • “Can you barter?”
  • feedback form
    • very mixed feedback in terms of price (some people thought it was cheap, others thought it was expensive)
  • in terms of the things they have?
    • people are happy
    • Ella - the ratio should be reversed (grocery staples cheap, snacks more expensive?)
    • government definition of food desert is lack of affordable, healthy food options
  • Gabriel got blackberries for $1.99, blueberries for $2.99
    • reasonable price
  • Ella - $5.50 for carton of strawberries
    • not a large variety of fruit
  • Gabriel - there’s cheap tomatoes and expensive tomatoes, but should have more of the cheap ones than the expensive ones
  • Jackson - they mostly have fancy brands, which makes it more expensive
  • they’ll see what is/isn’t getting bought, will phase out the things that don’t get bought
  • seem to only have the organic version - they have two fancy brands instead of a fancy brand and a less fancy brand
    • true for some items and not other items
  • potatoes were very expensive, only free-range eggs, “not Idaho potatoes”
  • Geoffrey - notably, Concord Market doesn’t accept EBT (government benefits) - sad experience for person who tried to use EBT and couldn’t use it
  • “the government is bad right now”
    • couldn’t get SNAP authorization yet :(
    • they’re still waiting on it
  • not tax-free
    • talked to Peter Cummings, who said they’d talk to them about it
    • since they’re an external vendor (?)
  • product selection
    • how do people feel about brands people haven’t heard of, vs. would want to buy?
    • they have lots of things?
      • sparkly maple syrup???
        sparkly maple syrup- from Zakiya
    • people want more produce
    • someone bought a coconut
      • “my friend also bought a coconut”
    • nice they have flowers, but not sure if they’ll get bought
    • Ella - thought selection was good, was impressed by the amount of stuff (like a standard grocery store), also pro-more-produce
  • produce is hard to find maybe?
    • seemed visible
  • three people in form wanted produce
  • Jackson - reiterating that product selection and prices are maybe linked, product selection is prioritizing organic brands, etc., hard to decouple product selection from price
  • large brand selection, but none are recognizable
    • 5 olive brands and 5 caper brands
      • Jordan - “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have really strong caper preferences”
  • Prepared Food
    • Leo - we don’t have time to buy blocks of cheese, cut them up, and put them on crackers
      • Ella disagrees - has time to cut a block of cheese. preprepared meals are fine and good, but angling towards healthy/less waste
      • three pieces of cheese in two layers of plastic is sad
      • frozen meal selection was expensive and limited, wouldn’t spend $9 on a frozen meal
    • Zakiya - had lots of fancy cheeses and teas, different grains of rice, different types of nuts, likes having all the options, nothing looking for in particular, but would buy things.
    • annoyed they didn’t have non-gummy vitamin supplements
      • Jackson - wants to add - also annoyed they only have gummy-like vitamins
    • coffee from coffee bar?
      • still getting worked out?
    • sandwiches came in excessive amount of packaging - wrapped and then also in a box
    • not sure why they sell tea for $3.50, Wellbeing Lab is 2 floors above with free tea
    • $8 sushi ran out fast - concern expressed that this could lead to price increase (but no current evidence to suggest this is likely)
  • Geoffrey - Enoch suggested Consumer Price Index of prices in Concord Market
    • what is he tracking? inflation?
    • Gabriel - another suggestion is big spreadsheet to track Concord Market vs. other stores
      • lots of work, but could do for a few products, list of staple foods
  • Talk to dining chairs or Jordan with more thoughts on Concord Market

President Updates​

  • Paola
    • working on merch designs, AD got canvases for murals
    • planning CPW events
    • looking for a snowcone machine
  • Helena (Maseeh)
    • working on CPW
    • working on improving basement (redoing gym with house budget)
    • game room, dance room becoming craft space
  • Henry and Ella (Random)
    • getting committee chairs to document their positions
      • in case they get hit by buses
    • getting foosball table for basement
    • our roofdeck is becoming tap access :(((((( from 12-6am? it’s quite sad.
    • nothing happened. “they just don’t like us.” - ella
    • other dorms are not allowed on the roof
    • Random has no other outdoor space (you’re not allowed in the shaft lmao)
    • Temkin will bring up with HRS
    • Ella has a telescope and wants to use it
    • Simmons terraces? apparently a campus-wide thing, not just Random, but it’s the first one being implemented, Random’s roofdeck mostly gets used from 12-6am :(
    • good intentions, dumb implementation
    • good to have outdoor space for mental health - this is maybe best bet argument
  • Hanu (EC)
    • associate HoH interviews (2.5 hours)
    • still trying to collect feedback and present to rest of search committee, should be done soon, will have new associate HoH
  • Jackson and Eugenie (Simmons)
    • scootahockey is going to happen
    • some problems with laundry - free laundry is making people use the laundry machines a lot
      • things are now malfunctioning, have to run machine 6 times to get clothes dry
    • 6/10 New House dryers are nonfunctioning
    • “I guess there’s no such thing as free laundry” - Jackson
    • McCormick last week had a washer start pouring water out
    • in fairness this is also just the constant state of the Random laundry machines… maybe the cost of free laundry…
    • GRA interviews are happening, got people to help run them, on April 5th and 6th, realized they don’t have an i3 chair! that’s not good! need to figure that out.
      • no one ran for i3 chair
    • might reach out to the ones from last year
  • Haylea
    • lots of rooming discussions, finalizing rooming discussions/processes
    • working on internal stuff
  • Zakiya
    • 2nd elevator just broke, both elevators out of commission :( trying to fix that…
    • Next House just also has an infestation problem in country kitchen
      • roaches?? oh no
    • 2 raw sewage leaks in a month (in TFL (?))
      • next to where last GBM was… there’s a dark spot now
    • there’s also mice but everyone has mice
    • talked with dining chairs, trying to get better vegan/vegetarian options, trying to model a bit after Vassar, they have dedicated vegan shelf, have more options
    • running out of food? happens pretty often in Next (every other time, arrives late)
    • got i3 chair, will send to Jackson, getting him onboarded
    • figuring out student groups within dorm, getting website up and running, want to have things set by CPW
    • planning formal
  • Michaela
    • don’t really have any updates (working on CPW and social events)
    • planning for Top Golf event
  • Brendon
    • planning Pie Day for tomorrow
    • CPW planning going well (yay Jamie!)
    • need details from a few entries, doing a MacGregor-wide event, MacDonald
    • GRA interviews happening, just waiting on C entry
    • AD is leaving at the end of the month :(, will transition to new one
    • in talks of getting makerspace/crafts space, approve from HoH on items, finalizing training processes, etc., whether or not to get a sewing machine, in talks with McCormick
  • Farin
    • something vague about sewing machines, happening
    • also have laundry concern (already brought up)
  • Camila
    • piano drop still in the works
    • having an eclipse watch party
    • officially renamed Country Kitchen to Baker Space
      • that’s pretty good
    • got a few people from Baker who forgot to fill out housing form 😭
    • Temkin - housing being pretty strict on waitlist, most people should get off it if they fill it out now (space next year) - prioritizing rising seniors