December 2021 Lawrence Committee Minutes

On Thursday, December 16th, 2021 the Lawrence Committee held its regularly scheduled committee meeting. The following are the minutes of that meeting. We would also like to invite residents to the Lawrence slack channel, which is a channel on the GSG slack. A link to join the GSG slack can be found here.

• The committee announced the winners of the 2021 Lawrence Committee Election. Congratulations to everyone who ran, and best of luck to the new committee!
  • President: Deepen Garg
  • Vice President: Saumyashree Ghosh
  • Secretary: Hassan Sayed
  • External Relations Delegate: Jessica Wilson
  • Social Chair: Kristin Isaacs
  • Garden Coordinator: Liz Helfenberger
  • Facilities Manager: Josh Lederman
• We urge the residents to report the out-of-order machines in a proper fashion detailed below 
  • When residents find a machine to be out of order, they should contact Facilities either by calling 609-258-8000 or submitting a work order.
  • Writing on the boards is NOT a substitute for reporting the machines to Facilities.
  • The committee will plan on putting little signs next to the whiteboards reminding residents of proper use. Facilities manager Josh Lederman will look into this issue.
• Please use civil language on the laundry boards (no expletives or foul language).
  • White boards are supposed to be used for communicating the laundry issues to fellow residents along with the details of the issue and whether it has been reported or not. It is not a place for general grievances, much less the ones laden with profanity.
  • Again, reporting broken machines on the white board is also NOT a substitute for reporting the machines to Facilities.
  • Our Slack channel (#lawrence) on the GSG Global workspace can be used for general comments and grievances.
• The committee has received word via members of the graduate housing advisory board that university facilities are working out a new contract to install new laundry machines by Summer 2022 or January 2023. These laundry machines will operate via a bluetooth/coinless pay system.
• The committee discussed adding signage to indicate building addresses, in the hopes that this can help alleviate some problems with package and food delivery. ER Delegate Jessica Wilson will be the point person on this. This could include buildings signs that light up in the dark and/or reflective signs. 
  • Jessica would bring this up to Michelle Ruggia to see if she can help coordinate something like this first before submitting a work order to Facilities.
• The committee discussed some planned changes to the website. The secretary will work to update the FAQs and create a “welcome kit” post so that new residents can adjust to Lawrence.
  • The secretary will also speak to OIT to see if the Lawrence Committee accounts can move to a Google workspace.
• The committee looked into various ways to improve coordination amongst the committee members
  • There will be a Whatsapp group for just the committee members for quick communication.
  • The current monthly meeting will be named a “Town Hall” meeting to emphasize the fact that it is open to all residents. 
  • The committee decided to  have more one-on-one meetings between the president and the rest of the committee members, as well as more internal meetings to coordinate tasks.
    • Secondary internal meetings will occur 13 days after the town hall meetings on Wednesdays at 4 PM.
  • Deepen will share a spreadsheet with the committee members to tabulate their tasks and report on the progress made there. This will help bring transparency to keep a tab on various tasks and make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
• The committee lengthily debated changing the constitution to create accountability for elected committee members
  • We discussed changing the timing of elections to earlier in the year (e.g. October) and adding an external review prior to the housing priority date to ensure committee members are doing their jobs
    • This allows more time in office to assess the efficacy of committee members
  • The committee agreed that “gross negligence” would constitute potentially impeachment, but acknowledges the constitution as written does not define this
  • The committee brought up creating an internal Excel sheet where members can write down their planned goals for the year, and using this to help assess whether members are doing their job
  • The committee discussed the tradeoffs in changing election time in terms of practical eligibility for new third years residents, students dealing with the academic year, and students who are on the job market
• The committee discussed using the common room closets to store event supplies, e.g. extra utensils.
• The committee is looking into buying shovels for common use in anticipation of the coming snow winter months. Shree will forward all shovel-related emails to Josh.
• Deepen will email the committee about the Lawrence budget from the past few years.
• We’d like to share a couple important surveys via the Princeton Mobility Survey. These surveys will inform the structure and expansion of Princeton public transit in the next few years.
  • Dinky Replacement/Transitway survey — Take this survey to tell NJ Transit which of the alternatives for the Dinky best meets your needs!
  • Princeton Mobility Survey — Tell the municipal government about your transportation needs and safety concerns! 
• We’d like to encourage residents to please report any story golf balls seen on Lawrence property here. 

In attendance:

• Deepen G
• Saumyashree G
• Hassan S
• Jessica W
• Kristin I
• Liz H
• Josh L
• Noam R
• Nastya K