Lawrence Committee – September 17 Meeting Minutes

The minutes from the September 17, 2008 committee have been posted. The next meeting is scheduled for October 15, 2008 at 8:30pm.

Minutes for Sept 17, 2008 Meeting:

1. Attendance:
   • Keren Leiby
   • Kim Tu
   • Ye Chen
   • Philip Wood
   • Melanie Wood
   • Tamas Papp
   • Charles Lu
   • Olivia Martel
   • Maja Kolinskia
   • Kathryn Stoltzfus-Dueck
2. This is the first Lawrence Meeting for the new academic year. The first item to be discussed was the budget. At the time of the meeting, Kim revealed that we have only $968.73. This is far short of what we were expecting to get every year. Olivia promised that she would check with the housing office.
3. On September 9/18 Olivia will host a welcoming party for the Lawrence residents. The Lawrence committe was asked to assist with setting up the event. This includes purchasing deserts, setting up a table with helpful information for the residents who may have any questions about the Lawrence committee.
4. Katie mentioned that Door King, which previously connects doorbell to the landline in the low rise old lawrence apartments now can be configured to work with cell phones. Detailed information regarding this will be posted on the website.
5. The committee also discussed ways to spend the extra funding from our account. Kim suggested that we purchase 3 more Adrondeck chairs either this fall or next spring. Previous idea to purchase boards games was scrapped. It was also suggested that 3hole puncher and staplers be purchased for the computer lab in the Lawrence Apartments.
6. Katie suggested that a garbage can should be placed next to the recycling bin in the lobby of the high rise. This is to prevent people from dumping garbage in the recycling bin. However one concern is that in the presence of the trash cans, residents might dump all kind of garbage in there. Olivia will check with the housing office to see whether we can get extra trash cans.
7. The committee also discussed the status of the new constition currently being drafted by the constitution committee. Currently the draft is not finished. However in the interest of preventing the controversies surrounding the election. It was decided that the consitution needs to be finished this fall, well before the next election. Therefore, Kim will check with the constition committee and urge them to finish the draft. In the rare event that the draft is not done by next month’s meeting, the Lawrence committee will write up a draft using the constition developed by the Butler committee as a guideline. Once the draft is finished, it will be put to a vote by the Lawrence residents.
8. The shopping carts and vacumns have been disappearing at an rather alarming rate. Although the housig office has purchased additional carts and vaumns, their disappearance has made the office reluctant to purchase more. It was suggested that one way to combat this is to put up more signs informing the residents to return the borrowed items.
9. The next social event has been discussed. Tenatively it will be Indian food and will be held on 10/06/08 from 6-8PM.
10. GSG meeting update: One of the new proposal to the shuttle route/schedule is that the final shuttle to GC will end @ 9PM. If any residents oppose this, they are urged to contact the university. Also, Harvard has raised the stipend level. Students are urged to talk to the departments and see if they will follow suit.
11. The housing office is deciding to either add new grill locations or improve existing ones around the Lawrence Apartments. The group voted to improve just the existing ones.