9 December 2008

Minutes of PSANA EXCO Meeting
10h00, Tuesday 9 December 2008

Disclaimer: Please note: the matters discussed herein are the personal views and opinions of the members present at the meeting. They are therefore not the views or policies of PSANA or the University of Pretoria and PSANA and the University of Pretoria therefore do not accept liability for any damages or implications arising from the correctness of the facts stated in these minutes, unless specifically stated.

Present

• James Mehl (Chairperson)
• Inger Fabris-Rotelli
• Osmond Mlonyeni

Apologies

• Ernest Rambau
• Werner Barnard

1.Marketing Plan for 2009
1.1. Introduction of PSANA to the Honours students:
- first meetings are at the end of January
- Inger to get the dates of the meetings for each department in January from the secretaries in each department.
- Plan to hand out a pamphlet and do a 5 min presentation of PSANA and what we do and plan to do in the year (Osmond to do this and we’ll give feedback). Pamphlet will be similar to the presentation.
- Will organize the printing and costs for the pamphlets in January.
- Will update the postgraduate email list by the end of January so we can email all other postgraduates in the Faculty the pamphlet too.

1.2 Seminars
- First one planned for Tuesday 31 March 10 am. Osmond will try to get a CSIR manager to come speak about the possibilities at the CSIR for jobs as researchers and to give an overview of research done there.
- These seminars are to bring in people working in industry to show our postgraduate students what jobs are available other than research at an academic institution. Plan is for two a year (more if possible).
- There will be a tea afterwards to encourage interaction amongst students.

1.3 Open Day for the Third Years:
- Meeting with the Dean scheduled for 12 January at 12:00 to understand what his ideas are.
- Proposed date for open day: 20 July, 11am – 2pm.
- Proposed Venue: IT 2-27
- Advertise by handing out pamphlets during the June exams and in the last week of lectures via the lecturers. We also have the first week in the second semester to market this to students.
- Also have posters of research outside the venue during the talks – postgraduate students and other researchers.
- Each department to do a very short talk on the research being done in their department and some time for questions. PSANA gets a short talk as well.

2.EXCO Meeting Feedback
Osmond asked what the Dean’s expectations of PSANA are and it was suggested we write up a mission statement. Osmond will do a draft of this concurrently with the presentation in 1.1.

3.Constitution and Website
- For now our names will appear on the website without portfolios but state that we are interim committee members.
- Get student input as to what should appear on the website. Encourage this in the presentation in 1.1.
- Will organize a future meeting to revisit the constitution as well as the website.

4.Filing System
Osmond suggested we keep a file with proper documentation of all our activities so we have records of all our plans and can see what was achieved and what was not. This will also aid us in writing a report of our activities for when the next committee takes over. There should be minutes and an agenda for each meeting of the PSANA committee, along with an overview of matters relevant to students in Faculty meetings that PSANA members attend - Inger to organize this.

5.PSANA on the SRC
The Dean suggested we have a seat on the SRC. To be clarified with him in the meeting in 1.3.

6.Next Meeting
Thursday 15 January 10 am.